Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

Well, I'm about to get going; I've got a few last non-computer things to do around the house, and then I'll be off to catch the bus to get to the train station to take the train to get to the airport to board the big metal sky-bird and fly to Michigan. I'll be in Ann Arbor for the next two days for business reasons, getting back to California late Wednesday night.

(If I'm very, very lucky, I'll make it to my hotel in time for Fringe tonight. But I'm not counting on it.)

Entries will be taken for the random draw Rosemary and Rue giveaway through Friday morning, when I'll be selecting the winner. Remember, if your number comes up, you'll have seventy-two hours to claim your prize before I give it to somebody else, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on what's going on over here. There will absolutely be other giveaways over the next several months, since it's a great way to get copies out there into the world. Also, if you're attending the San Diego Comic Convention, word is we'll have a stack of the lovely things for handing out. A stack. How cool is that?

There have been a few alterations to the Appearances Page over at my website. The lovely folks from DucKon will be getting me my panel schedule in the next week or so, so you'll have plenty of time to plan our awesome adventures in discussing _________. I'm hoping for a nice plague, and maybe something that's dead, but still moving around.

I'm going to miss my cats, but I get to meet jimhines in the flesh for the first time. In all things there are balance.

See you when I land.

I have spent my week being very, very productive, especially when you consider the fact that a) I just got a new kitten, b) Lilly didn't allow me to sleep for over a month during her "kitty go crazy" period, and c) the lack of sleep, followed by sleep's sudden return, has left me slightly sick and very definitely jet-lagged in my own body. It's exciting! But this week, I have...

...turned in an essay for one of those exciting "smart people try to sound smart while talking about television" essay books. I'm excited! This is the first time I've been asked to participate in something like this, but I've always been a little envious of authors who get to go and sound smart while they talk about, say, Supernatural or Buffy. Hopefully I've managed to sound super-smart, because I'd love to do this again. I have a list of shows I'm just dying to sound totally smart about. Like Fringe and Cupid. Oh, and if there's ever a "smart people try to sound smart while talking about shows that were canceled before their time" book, I can corner the market on Freakylinks.

...revised nine chapters of Late Eclipses, only to discover that one of those chapters needed to be combined with another to form a sort of, I don't know, "super-chapter," while another chapter needed to be cut entirely. On the positive side, I made these discoveries entirely on my own, without any outside assistance. Also on the positive side, this will help with my goal of getting the book down between 105,000 and 110,000 words. On the negative side, dammit, I already revised this part of the book. Damn plot. It's getting complications and fingerprints all over my stuff.

...set up the landing page for the Velveteen vs. series, including a brief description of what the series is about, a listing for the stories in order-as-written, and a listing for the stories in chronological order (which will matter more as the JSP-era stuff starts getting posted). All the Vel stories are being cleaned up and revised before they're posted, which slows it down a bit, but also lets me take care of all those pesky typos and logic problems that people have been so very kindly pointing out to me. Behold! For now I wear the continuity pants!

...submitted all my receipts, agreed to an estimate on my taxes, and confirmed that I'm ready to receive my extension forms, hence to turn my taxes in. Self-employment tax blows. The next time someone asks why I haven't quit my day job yet, I may pull out my tax receipts and a conveniently labeled graph. SCREWING A WRITER IN FIVE EASY STEPS. Step one: self-employment tax.

...introduced Lilly and Alice to one another without bloodshed (either feline or human), and without any major emergencies, unless you want to count Lilly forcing her way into the bedroom during what was technically the isolation period. I rarely, if ever, close my bedroom door all the way -- the cats like to be able to come and go, and the litter box in my room is a relatively recent development -- so I had totally forgotten that Lilly knows how to work the latch, and will work the latch if given sufficient motivation. Like, say, being locked out of the room. But all's well that ends well, and this has ended well.

What's everybody else's productive looking like?

10. Betsy -- aka "the breeder from whom I am purchasing my new Maine Coon" -- emailed me last night to get the last of the information she needs to fill out Alice's health certificate. (The airlines require you to have a health certificate for any animal you wish to carry onto a plane; something about not really wanting to deal with a rabies outbreak at thirty thousand feet. This just shows that they don't want me to have any fun.) So it's officially official, and I'll be bringing home my new baby girl this weekend. Perhaps then Lilly will allow me to sleep through the night. Unlikely, but a girl can dream, right?

9. The word counts have been missing lately because I've been continuing to hammer on the reboot to Late Eclipses, trying to yank the book into alignment with the awesome I know it truly has the potential to be. I'm about a quarter of the way through the text at this point, and things really are becoming visibly more and more awesome. We haven't reached the point in the revisions process where I can no longer make fair and measured assessments of quality, and that's good.

8. People everywhere are getting their copies of Ravens In the Library, and while I haven't seen any full-length critical reviews, I'm generally seeing positive reactions to the book itself. (I am, of course, primarily interested in seeing the book do well, because it's for an excellent cause, and in being my usual neurotic little blonde self about reactions to my story. But at least I'm up-front about it, which makes it a little less crazy-making.) Remember, the book will only be available until Sooj's medical bills are fully covered.

7. I have registered for World Fantasy, booked my hotel room for San Diego, applied for professional membership to San Diego, and arranged for hotel space in Montreal. I am, in short, basically done with my convention arrangements between now and August. (BayCon is local enough to require little pre-planning on my part, while Duckon is taking care of all the arrangements for me, on account of I'm one of their guests. It's nice.) I'm always happier when I know that things have been set up as far in advance as humanly possible.

6. Zombies are still love.

5. In the last several weeks, my website has gone from "idle" to "awesome," with almost all our functionality now up and online. The only things still pending are the forums and the mailing list, and both these are being held up by issues on the server side, which we're working to resolve. (Getting the forums up and functional now gives my mods time to try to break them before I'm banned from that part of the site nigh-completely. Planning ahead. It's what's for dinner.)

4. While I'm still not sleeping nearly enough, thank you Lilly, I feel somewhat less like a corpse today than I did yesterday, probably at least in part because I forced myself to go to bed immediately after Big Bang Theory last night. Nothing says "a good night's sleep" like adorable physics geeks and inking before turning in. Although losing my pencil for half the episode really didn't help.

3. I have seriously not read a book that was anything short of awesome in the past week. They were YA and adult, mainstream, fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and all made of pure, unadulterated awesome. If all books were as good as the ones I've been reading, the bar would be set so high we'd need a telescope to see it. I couldn't be happier with my recent reading choices. I really couldn't.

2. In two days, I go to Seattle. In three days, I see my Vixy. In four days, I see Kitten Sundae live and in concert. And in five days, I get to take Alice home with me, thus ruining everything, in the nicest way. (Obligatory Jonathan Coulton reference for the quarter!)

...and the number one good thing about today...

1. My life is so wonderful right now. I'm tired, I'm grumpy, and I'm inclined to smack anyone who pokes me with a stick, but at the end of the day, even I can't pretend that my life isn't amazing. Rosemary and Rue is well on its way to publication, and according to Amazon, 90% of the people who visit the page are buying the book. Lilly and Alice are both healthy. My back is behaving itself remarkably well, and spring is springing up all around me, making my normal walking habits much less crazy. I have the best friends in the world -- everyone should have the best friends in the world, because it makes everything better -- and I own more bad horror movies than I could watch in a lifetime. The world is wonderful.

I think we're gonna be all right. So what's new and awesome in the world of you?

So we're once again hard at work on the website -- aren't we always hard at work on the website? -- and I thought it might be a good idea to let people know what there was to experience, see, and enjoy. This is what we call 'making all that work not have been in vain.' I'm really big on work not being in vain. So...

* The Toby Daye landing page is fully functional. This is where you can go to link to any of the existing books, get a series overview, and take a quick peek at any new developments. More specific news relating to any particular book will naturally be on that book's own unique landing page. Speaking of which...

* The Rosemary and Rue landing page is fully up-to-date and shiny, with the book's back cover text, some really exciting blurbs from names you may well recognize, a basic plot summary, and more. And, of course, the pretty, pretty cover art. Nothing makes me happier than the pretty, pretty cover art. Well, except for maybe...

* The art card gallery! (You would normally access this through the 'Extras' drop-down menu.) We've got sixty cards uploaded and annotated so far. Because I have no hobbies. Also proving I have no hobbies...

* The 'With Friends Like These' archive is starting up. 'With Friends Like These' is my comic strip, which I draw because I bore easily. There are only ten strips up so far, but more are coming. (Again, under the 'Extras' menu.)

Big, big thanks to porpentine, who did truly yeoman labors over the weekend to get the gallery code up and working. There are other surprises to find and see, but these are the big ones. I'm thrilled.

We've done music. We've done (and are still doing) horror. Writing is pretty solid. Now here's the amorphous one:

Who has questions for my GENERAL FAQ?

Be creative, but also ask what you'd like to know that isn't directly tied to music, horror movies, or writing. Thank you all so much for your help!

Hey, take a look at my website!

Just to detail the changes...

Landing Page.

The new back-end interface for the front page updates is in place; I can now make changes to the news, welcome box, and appearances box without anybody helping me out. This means the news will stay up-to-date, the welcome box will stay topical, and new appearances will be appearing as they, well, appear. I didn't really think that sentence through, did I? (As a side note, clicking 'more information' in the appearances box will do exactly what it claims, and provide you with more information about the appearances themselves. Footnotes and surprises will often be buried there. You have been warned.) We've also increased the font size, and reduced the number of news items visible at any one time to three. Recently posted news items can still be viewed by clicking 'read more,' and that will also take you to the news archive.

Bio Page.

Check it out -- we have one! Currently, it contains a self-written bio, and a bio that was written for me in 2007 by Zander Nyrond, when my vocal group, Lady Mondegreen, attended the UK filk convention as Guests of Honor. (Plurals and Lady Mondegreen are always confusing.) We're going to be adding a bio by Michelle Dockrey, and a link to a deeply goofy little survey-style bio that I started writing during last night's episode of NCIS.

We're also going to be adding photo credits; their current absence is my fault, as I went to bed before telling Chris where they should appear on the page. For right now, the black and white headshot is by Beckett Gladney, and the color picture in the pumpkin patch is by Carolyn Billingsley.

Coming Soon!

All links that don't actually lead to their anticipated content now lead to a 'COMING SOON' page, which proves that, y'know, we're planning on getting them updated ASAP.

Feedback is welcome, and the current plan is the have the entire website functional and live by March 10th. Some things have already moved to new places on the page, and other things will be moving in the near future. Big, big thanks to porpentine and taraoshea for all their hard, secret work.

Woo-hoo!

10. I appear to have started doing art cards. (Because, as Brooke said, I need something to do with all that spare time that I had just lying around.) For those of you who are unfamiliar with the art card 'concept,' they're little pieces of original artwork, done on 2.5"x3.5" cards. Mine are Micron and Prismacolor on bristol paper. I've done three so far, one to go with Grants Pass, one to go with Ravens in the Library, and one of Velveteen and Sparkle Bright during their first year with the JSP. I figure I'll use them as book giveaways. Right now, they're just being colorful and soothing; two things that I need more of in my life.

9. My reboot on Late Eclipses of the Sun appears to have done exactly what I was hoping it would do; the new first chapter is about ten times stronger, faster, better, and generally bionic in all possible regards. Now I'm working on the revisions to chapter two, just to really lock down the changes to the continuity, and once that's done, I can start processing my editor's notes on An Artificial Night. I'm spending so much time with Toby these days that we should really start charging her rent, I swear.

8. I write more poetry than is strictly healthy, sometimes in batches of two to five hundred poems at a time. (These batches are called 'Iron Poet' rounds, and are a variation on a standard writer's workshop exercise. They make me happy. I may be crazy.) I managed to write five poems yesterday, including a counted devan (although I skipped the internal rhymes on the zipper, because I didn't feel like giving myself a migraine) and a counted technical terza rima. Take that, everyone who said there was no use for structured poetry in the modern world!

7. My story in Ravens In the Library is getting an accompanying illustration. This is...this is amazing. Not just because the illustration itself is amazing -- I saw the sketch, and it is -- but because I didn't expect an illustration at all. It made me cry. More and more, I begin to believe that 2009 is the universe giving me one big incredible birthday present.

6. It's not entirely visible to the naked eye, but my website continues to creep closer and closer to being entirely done. We should be getting the first few essays up there soon, and Chris is working on the functionality that will allow me to update and edit the front page all on my lonesome. Meanwhile, Tara works secretly behind the scenes on Wonderful Surprises that only a golden graphics girl could possibly provide. Prepare to be amazed.

5. I get to spend the weekend working on Discount Armageddon! (Quoth Dan: "I don't know anybody who gets as excited about being told what to work on as you do.") I love deadlines, I love directions, and I love Verity. She's so happy to see you. And so happy to kick you in the head. Pleasantly, I just put together my Verity playlist last night, consisting almost entirely of dance music and things with a BPM of over 120. Because Verity just looooooves the beat, yo.

4. It's new comic book day! Always the most wonderful day of the week. At least in theory -- other days are sometimes surprisingly awesome.

3. All my television is coming back on the air. I'm a huge TV freak. It's what lets me decompress after a hard day of working and writing and worrying about working and writing; it's also what I do with the other half of my concentration when I'm inking. (Most of the shows I watch are more verbal than visual, and have clear cues when I actually need to be paying attention to the screen.) I really appreciate the fact that the things I watch are staggered enough to make sure I almost always have something new.

2. This time next week, I will be heading for the airport, heading for the sky, and heading for Seattle, baby.

...and the number one good thing about today...

1. Oasis just called me, and THE CDS ARE DONE!!!!! They're mailing them out from the Oasis warehouse today, and they should supposedly hit my doorstep on Friday. This gives me time to actually arrange for CDs to reach Seattle, prep the first batch of pre-orders to mail out (probably the first twenty or so, more if I can possibly swing it), and generally get my hysteria out of the way. It also gives me time to use the CD boxes to build myself a little fort and crawl inside it to hide from the universe.

What's new and awesome in the world of you?

Well, what happened around here in 2008? Let's see...

1) I signed with the eternally delightful dianafox, who has shown a remarkable capacity for taking the things I say (some of which make very little sense, filtered as they are through my sunshine-and-zombies Pollyanna worldview) and doing something functionally useful with them. Everybody needs a personal superhero.

2) I started this journal. Because everybody needs their sunshine-and-zombies updates as regularly as possible. No, seriously. How can you know what's happening in their magical playland if somebody isn't making a point of telling you on a regular basis?

3) I arranged to have my website fully revamped, thanks to the design talents of taraoshea and the technical can-do of porpentine. Now it's glorious, it's gorgeous, and it's changing pretty much daily as we hammer the text into place and start getting the various sections hammered into their desired configurations. Which matters because...

4) I sold the first three Toby Daye books to DAW! Yes! Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night have all been sold, after so many years in my head that it's really not even all that funny. Soon, the world will understand why I love these people so much. I hope.

5) I finished writing or revising six books in 2008. The three mentioned above, along with Late Eclipses of the Sun (Toby, book four), Newsflesh (The Masons, book one), and Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues (Coyote Girls, book one). So that's, y'know. Pretty productive of me.

6) I started work on three more books -- The Mourning Edition (sequel to Newsflesh), The Brightest Fell (Toby, book five), and Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, book one).

7) I recorded an album. Scaaaaaary. You can still place pre-orders for Red Roses and Dead Things at my website. I promise that it will be awesome. And filled with corpses.

So it's been a huge, exciting, amazing year, and next year is just going to be a bigger, more exciting, more amazing year. Thanks for being here, and I really can't wait to see what happens next.

After a great deal of pointing and clicking, I have managed to reduce my LJ inbox to fifteen items, my Gmail inbox to nothing pending, and my shell mail inbox to sixty-three (which is crazy-good for this particular inbox, you have no idea). This is fantastic, as it means that I can spend tomorrow actually getting things done, rather than doing housekeeping preparatory to getting things done.

I've also cleaning up my 'Fifty Thoughts On Writing' and presented it to my webmaster for eventual posting in the site's Extras section. The idea is to get lots of neat things on the site for people to click on and stare at in a fixed manner, thus leading to repeat visits, thus justifying the amount of effort that goes into the thing. I love my website. I just wish I could wave a hand and make it exist.

In other news, I turned in the edits for my Grants Pass story tonight, and let me tell you, if the editors gave this level of care and kindliness to every story in the anthology -- and I believe they did, they're very good -- this is going to be one kick-ass book. For serious, you so want a copy. It may be difficult to acquire one in the Bay Area, as my mother plans to corner the market, but you should try.

(My mother is adorable sometimes. She says that people should get this book because it's coming out before Rosemary and Rue, and this way when they get me to sign it for them, they'll be able to legitimately say they met me before I was famous. My mother also thinks that Stephen King is going to call me to say 'congratulations,' so I don't credit her much.)

I will now go eat ice cream and watch Sanctuary.

So there’s more news from the arena of my website. First off, if you drop by the front page, here...

http://seananmcguire.com/index.php

Well, you’re going to see that the appearances have been updated to include the January 3rd house concert in which I will be performing with Vixy and Tony and oh, right, rocking some socks clean off the stage. It’s extremely rare for me to give concerts outside of a convention setting, so if you’re anywhere near Seattle, you may want to consider dropping by. Especially since, dude, this is a bit too much awesome for one stage.

Further browsing will show that the songbook is live again -- now with updated browsing and display action, to make it easier to get through the YOU WROTE HOW MANY SONGS?! vastness of it all -- as is the main albums page. (You access it by clicking ‘Music’ at the top of the drop-down. We’re going to fix that later, since it’s sort of less intuitive than we’d thought, but it’s there.) Now you can view the details of both my extant albums, as well as the forthcoming one. Yippee!

The disclaimer and contact links are also live; we’ll be making some small adjustments to the disclaimer page (and I know about the typo in the ‘adult content’ warning section, promise), but for the most part, they’re good to go.

Hooray!