Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

I am dealing with some shit right now. Some of you probably already know about the shit; others may be hearing that shit has happened for the first time. I will talk about the shit more, here, soon. It's just that LJ is an innately long-form medium, which means I've been putting off bringing the shit here until I can think about it reasonably. Know that I am coping, I am not alone, and I will explain myself better before much longer. But that is not what this post is about.

Because I have been very busy recently, and because I am known to be dealing with shit, I'm getting more and more "do not reply to this" messages, and "no answer needed" emails. And this is...this is not good. This is incredibly stressful and upsetting and has started sending me into panic spirals when I go to answer my email.

Look: no one can say "reply amnesty" except for me. If I say it, I am telling my brain "okay, you can rest." If you say it, to me, what you're telling my brain is a lovely combination of "I do not want you" and "I do not think you can handle your own responsibilities." This is because my brain is a jerk sometimes, and does not want me to be happy. This is an outgrowth of my OCD. I generally handle it pretty well, but right now, I'm getting a lot of "please do not reply" messages from people expressing sympathy or solidarity, and it's doing horrible things to my mental health.

I am not a fast correspondent. I do not answer everything instantly. I am not capable of keeping up with everything, all the time. But I do my best. I try to endure. Please don't tell me to stop talking to you.

My heart can't take it.

So shirt orders are closed, and this is an update! Specifically, the update is this:

Kate, who is handling the administrative side of this shirt order, just got a new job, and is thus somewhat behind at contacting people to clear up things about their payments, shipping info, etc. She is still doing it. People are being contacted, and payments, once received, are being entered on the spreadsheet. Remember that "we're not making any money" disclaimer? Unfortunately, that means I'm not paying her, which is why she needed the new job, and why she's slow right now.

Everyone's order will be dealt with. Queries should go to the merch address; if you send them through the contact form, they have to go through Kate, and this is what happens:

1. You email.
2. Kate bounces the email to me.
3. I bounce the email to Kate, because I literally know nothing about where she is in the process.

It is not efficient, and it takes time away from her processing the pending orders. I promise, it's happening; we just need to be patient while we work the latest batch of kinks out.

Shirts soon!

This is not an anti-piracy post. I want to get that out there right up front. I am anti-piracy, but I don't really want to argue the situation right now, and I understand that it's complicated and all that. So this is not an anti-piracy post.

So here's the thing.

As is always the case when a new book is released, the illegal downloads for Sparrow Hill Road are popping up like mushrooms after the rain. They seem to be quite healthy, too. Swell; hopefully that means sales will be good. It definitely means that people are reporting them to me, because that's part of the circle of piracy. Which also means that some...other...links are getting reported to me.

Including the downloads for the original Edge of Propinquity stories.

I am aware that some people, on seeing me type that, will go "oh yay I can read them." And I am begging you: please don't. Please do not download these stories. Please do not save these stories. If you have them as historical artifacts, well, I can't stop you from doing that, but I would be much happier if you deleted them.

"Silly author, not understanding that the internet is forever!" No, I understand completely that the internet is forever. There's nothing in those stories that I'm ashamed of. The bulk of them have been preserved in the new volume, cleaned up and edited and improved by additional material. I'm not trying to hide anything. But those stories are out of canon, and I've been fielding emails and comments for the last two weeks about "but this contradicts..." or "but this story that isn't collected here says...". They've picked up in volume in the last two days.

So this isn't an anti-piracy post: it's a "please stop downloading what is essentially an early draft, and is out of canon, and is making me tear my hair out" post. You're not missing anything good by leaving it alone. You're just missing a lot of confusion about what year Rose actually died. And you're missing out on Mary and Amy entirely.

Really.

So there is some awesome stuff going on in the Kickstarter realm, some of which is relevant to my interests in the sense that, well, I'm involved.

First off, we keep hearing about "women destroying science fiction", but what does that really mean? Well, the crew at Lightspeed Magazine really want to find out. We've long since blown our original goal out of the water, but if we can shake up a little bit more, women can also destroy horror. I really, really want to destroy horror. It would be awesome. So check it out!

If you want a little more information, check out this fantastic interview with Christie Yant, who will be editing this special issue. And to get you a little more interested, here's a quote from the interview:

"I have a story in hand from Seanan McGuire (and she seemed only slightly disappointed that I was merely asking her to write a story, and not actually acquire demolition materials)."

So yes, I will be destroying science fiction. Check it out.

Less destructively but still awesomely, the Kickstarter for Streets of Shadows is open now. This urban fantasy noir anthology should be a lot of fun, and I've already finished my story, so I'm naturally eager for it to fund. Check it out!

And that's today's Kickstarter news.

10. For some reason, people have been sending me Livejournal messages a lot recently. You are totally welcome to do this, but please be aware that I may take months to answer, even years, as they are a lower priority than messages which come in through my website contact form. If you want to contact me for any reason, your best channel is my website, which has a lovely and easy-to-use contact form. These emails go to my PA, who answers some questions herself and forwards the rest on to me. Where they appear in my inbox, impossible to ignore. Where they get answered.

9. Seriously, just use the contact form. I don't really answer messages received through any other channel in any sort of a reasonable time (and I don't answer Facebook messages at all).

8. I am making cioppino tomorrow night! I am so excited about that! Except...

7. ...I'm making it for me and Olivia to eat while we watch "The Quarterback" and cry. I know Glee is a frequently terrible show, but I am genuinely saddened by Cory's death, and this is going to be emotionally devastating.

6. The tip jar is remaining open until tomorrow morning, largely because I forgot to post this reminder yesterday. Thanks to everyone who's chipped in so far, and to everyone who hasn't, too, because sometimes life says "not this time." Y'all are awesome.

5. So awesome, in fact, that I am compelled to make sure you've seen the incredible videos on SymboGen.net. Seriously, this is some of the best marketing ever, and it's for my book. I am overcome with squee.

4. The field of Alice's fucks lies fallow, and I support this.

3. Carrie: The Musical is really fantastic. If you're in the Bay Area, I recommend the Ray of Light production, now playing in San Francisco. If you're not, look around; there are a lot of productions going right now, due to the rights opening up.

2. Zombies are love.

1. HAPPY OCTOBER HALLOWEEN IS COMING.

All right: here's the skinny.

The Hugo Awards are given annually at the World Science Fiction Convention, which moves around the world (although statistically, it mostly moves around North America, and it's always exciting when it actually goes somewhere else) according to the votes of the membership. These awards represent the best of the science fiction and fantasy world, or at least the best things that a) attract the right kind of attention ("Hugo bait"), b) get enough votes to be nominated, and c) get enough votes to win. (Sometimes I wish we called the award "So You Think You Can SF/F," said "most popular," and let Cat Deeley host the award show.) Items b) and c) are not always the same thing, because of the migratory nature of Worldcon; a book that is vastly popular with the residents of San Francisco, California, may not win when it's voted on in Volgograd, Russia, even though it made the ballot.

The Hugos are both nominated for and voted on by the members of the World Science Fiction Convention, attending or supporting (this is an important distinction, and we'll be coming back to it). This means that if, say, you can't fly to Russia, but you really want to have a say in the Hugos, you can buy a Supporting Membership for a reduced rate, and still cast your ballot into the uncaring wind. Historically over the last ten years, Supporting Memberships have generally been between $40 and $60, and this revenue is important to the operation of the Worldcon. But it's still a lot of money. I know there were years when I did not pay for voting rights, because I couldn't afford it. There have been some suggestions in recent years that we institute a "Voting Membership" tier, where you pay less, don't get any of the physical perks (like the program book), but do get voting rights.

There are some people who really don't like that idea. Follow the link to see Cheryl Morgan's beautiful deconstruction of the proposal to forbid Voting Memberships from ever becoming a thing, but here is the bit that spoke most honestly to me:

"Without cheaper supporting memberships, it might seem that Hugo voting cannot get any cheaper, but that’s not the case. There is nothing in the WSFS Constitution that would prevent a Worldcon from adopting a new class of membership: a Voting Membership. It would carry with it no rights other than voting in the Hugos, and would therefore be pure profit for the Worldcon. If it was priced suitably, it could result in a significant additional source of income, as well as increasing participation in Hugo voting.

The purpose of this new motion is to prevent Worldcons from ever creating this sort of membership.

"That is, its purpose is to prevent the 'Wrong Sort of Fan' from participating in the Hugos: young people, poor people, people from countries where $60 is a huge amount of money, and so on.

"The commentary on the motion is a piece of ridiculous sophistry. A membership is a membership. There is no reason why creating a new type of membership would be a 'distortion,' unless you have the sort of mindset that holds that allowing people who are poorer than you to vote is a 'distortion.'

This motion is an attempt by people who already have voting privileges to prevent those privileges from being extended to others."

But that's not all the fun that's happening right now. There is also a motion to do away with the Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, and Best Fan Artist categories. John Scalzi has beaten this suggestion with a stick to see what would fall out; what fell out was a bunch of wasps. Because look.

I started organizing conventions when I was fourteen. I have worked every level, from grunt to chairperson. I have stayed awake for three days solid to help people have a good time. I have elevated masochism to an art form, and I enjoyed it, because I am a fan. Fans are the lifeblood of this community, and one of the things I have always loved and respected about the Hugos is the way that they recognize people for their fannish accomplishments. Yes, they're all creative fannish accomplishments, because the Hugos are a creative award, but they are still being held up with the greats of our genre, as greats of our genre, for being fans. If that is not one of the most devastatingly inspiring notions ever, I don't know what is.

Jim Hines winning Best Fan Writer last year did not in any way reduce the honor of Betsy Wolheim winning for Best Editor (Long Form). If anything, it elevated them both, because here is our industry saying "we need you both to survive." Mark Oshiro's nomination for Best Fan Writer this year did not in any way reduce the honor of my being nominated in several professional writing categories—and whether we win or lose, we will always have shared a ballot, we will always have this in common. We are of the same community. We elevate each other.

Please, if you are attending this year's Worldcon in San Antonio, Texas, join me and others at the WSFS Business Meeting to help us vote these measures down. The first will be Friday morning at 10am.

We have the power to keep this from happening. It's not the power of Grayskull, but I still think it's pretty damn neat.

Let's keep these awards for everybody.

ETA: Here's a great historical perspective on the "Fan Hugo" argument, from Chuq Von Rospach.

Guys guys guys guys!

The Kickstarter for Skin Horse, volume 4, is now live! What's more, the fools who run this comic book—you know, the ones who let me write the introduction for volume 3—have grown extra foolish, and allowed me to write an original Skin Horse story for the book! YES! I AM BECOME BONUS STORY!

The story, titled "For Always," is about Black Ops Foster Care, and it's short and sweet and awesome, and I am super excited. You should check out the Kickstarter and totally back it, because maybe there will be super secret stretch goals...

(Also yes, I will be at the tiki party. In case that matters.)

I am now taking "tip jar" donations to fund the next InCryptid story or stories. To tip, please PayPal to...

delirium@xocolatl.com

I will leave the tip jar open until Friday, when I will close it and post a total for what was collected.

If I get $200, I will prioritize finishing and posting "Sweet Poison Wine," aka, "the honeymoon story."
If I get $300 or more, I will add "The First Fall" to the inchworm list, which means it gets scheduled and everything.

"Sweet Poison Wine" will be posted this year even if no one tips me a penny; I'm not holding anything finished hostage, just trying to justify shuffling things around.

Thank you!

This has been coming up a lot lately, and in the interests of my not snapping inappropriately at anyone, I figured it was time to make this post again. So...

Please. Please, I am begging you, please don't ask "when can we read X" or "does this mean you'll be writing more about Y." If I haven't told you, I can't tell you.

My schedule for the next six months is tight enough that I've been cancelling dinner dates and social outings left and right, and I didn't have that many of them to start with. And that doesn't include more Velveteen, more Rose, or more anything else that I haven't already announced publicly, on this blog.

I love having an involved, active community here that I can talk to, learn from, and listen to. And I do appreciate knowing what you want to see more of. But if something is happening, confirmed, and at a point where I can say "this is happening," then I will say it without prompting. Asking about it over and over again in comments and email just makes me tired and sad and grumpy, and unfortunately, I'm only human: the 200th time I'm asked something, I will snap, which especially sucks if this was your first entry into the conversation.

So please. Don't ask me these questions. I can't answer them, so you won't get any satisfaction, but you will make me sad.

And that sucks.

So it's the holidays; I have multiple books due, and I'm blocking out my time for 2013 in regards to conventions, short story commitments, and taking time to breathe; my cats still need to be snuggled occasionally so that they'll keep letting me get out of bed. So I am offering this fervent plea to the universe:

Please, please, before you ask me questions, either here or via my website contact form, go to my website (www.seananmcguire.com) and check the Bibliography and/or FAQ pages.

Need to know when something is being published, if something is being published in the next few months, or whether something has already been published? There's a Bibliography for that (http://seananmcguire.com/other.php). It's updated with works up for four months out.

Have a question about a possible typo or error, or where I'm going to be, or who Jane is in "Wicked Girls"? There are multiple FAQs, specializing in different types of question. Please check to see whether I have already provided an answer before asking.

I love talking to people, I love answering comments, but when I've already answered the same question thirty times, I just get frustrated and tired.

Please.