A Meerkat's Bolthole

For those interested, my new essay is up at The Paranormal Romance Blog, telling "The Terrible Truth About Secondary Characters."

Meanwhile, I am told that the audiobooks for BRING IT ON and CURSE THE DARK will be available in April, with BURNING BRIDGES and FREE FALL in May, and then BLOOD FROM STONE in June. yayyy!



In updates of the Better Homes and Deadlines sort, the CEM is done and will go back to tomorrow morning. Writing will recommence at that point, thank god. Today was spent painting, and being on the phone with the asswipes at Home Depot, who not only can't be trusted to deliver three boxes of tiles within a two week period, but told me a different lie every time I spoke to someone there, from the salesperson who wrote up the order to the person who checked on the order for me on Thursday, to the manager who told me I was SOL today (and took almost three hours to "call me back in five minutes with the information.") And I still don't have a firm delivery date -- "maybe Thursday. Worst case, Saturday." Twenty days to deliver three boxes of very basic ceramic tiles that were supposed to arrive within 7-10 days. So everything's on hold until then, despite the fact that the cabinets are ready, and the appliances are ready, and the granite is ready to be cut, and.... *sighs*

(and yes, I know Home Depot is terrible -- had I another option I would have taken it. They had the tiles I wanted, so it was either them or look at the tiles every morning and think "that's not what I wanted.")

After a long pause, the snow returned overnight, and I was woken early this morning by O. the Super Super firing up the snowblower so people could get their cars out of the garage. It's coming down thick and heavy, and looks pretty windy, too. Not quite Snowpocalypse, but impressive. They're predicting up to 10" for the area. Here's hoping everyone who wanted a snow day gets one... Me? No snow day. Work goes on as scheduled. I know, you're all sooooo sorry for me. I do have to go out into the snow later. I'll report back on how deep it actually got.

EtA: when I went out to the post office just now (9:30) there was about 5" on the ground where it hadn't been shoveled or plowed, and it was coming down fast.

Meanwhile, some Fun & Good news!

I am informed that FREE FALL has been nominated for Best Novel in the Chronic Rift's 2008 Roundtable Awards. I'm delighted to be nominated, absolutely and have no expectation of winning, since I share the slate with a guy named Gaiman, and a guy named Doctorow, and a guy named Steele and a Kat named Richardson, all of whom can wipe the floor with me, fans-wise. But that's okay. I can haz nominayshun! Thanks to everyone who gave me the nod, and everyone should feel free to vote for FREE FALL as the underdog. ;-)

http://www.chronicrift.com/node/442


In other good news, I draw a deep breath and gird my introverted self up, and announce that yes, I will be at Dragon*Con. I'm actually looking forward to it -- my memory of the last time I went (back in the early 90's!) was that the costuming was breathtaking. I'm told it's even gotten more intense? I'll bring an extra memory card for my camera.

my free short story "Blow Job Red" is live today at BookView Cafe. Plus, y'know, lots of other cool stuff. And there's a blog with some neat stuff happening, too....


feedback welcome there, or here, or in e-mail, or just spread the word....

Over on her LJ, Second-Best-Evah Agent (after our own Madame Agent/arcaedia, of course) Lucienne Diver/varkat is running Urban Fantasy Week, and asked me to play along. Today I'm holding forth on the challenges of trying to convince people that something Real is also Fantastical....

and we're giving away a copy of FREE FALL, too!

Woke up Saturday morning at 2am. I deserve a medal of some sort for that. Got down to the studio without incident (the shift-switch, with the club kids coming home and the early morning crew going to work, made for interesting company). Was handed a MASSIVE container of coffee. ( Pic of me and coffee. )
Did the show, discussed genre distinctions, publishing as a career, and why I write short fiction and novels, read two stories ("Fire Rising in the Moon" and "Harvey and Fifth.") and took some phone calls. I'm told the On-Demand stream is here: http://archive.wbai.org/pls.php?mp3fil=18948.

Got out, blinking at the sudden (to me) sunshine, went uptown and had breakfast and chat at Carnegie Deli with nycdeb. I then ran a few errands, caught the bus out to NJ to do some more errand-shopping at the mall (ugh, malls, were you always this horrid and loud?) and then went to LJ-less P and quarkwiz's place for ribs that couldn't be beat. ( Really. )
Severe thunderstorms waving through the area changed plans, and I ended up staying the night. Wine was consumed, the forthcoming Research Trip discussed, and tentative plots laid for a Reseach Trip next year as well.

This morning, after ten(!) hours of much-needed sleep, more plotting and planning over breakfast (and quarkwiz? I think I've finally got that pronunciation locked down, thanks!). Took the bus back home (helping out a pair of "where do we go now?" tourists from western NJ), and picked up my mail, which included more Research-related materials (yay!) and a regretful reject from Polyphony 7. (boo.) However, the reject was tempered by some possible good-news-happening, so we'll have to wait and see on that.

Now I have to figure out what to do with this story that is racking up an impressive list of "I like it but can't use it" rejects from some notable editors.....

I have been reminded that this Saturday I will be appearing on the Hour of the Wolf radio program, broadcast live over WBAI (99.5 FM) in New York City [and on-line] from 5 thru 7 AM.

Yes, AM. Set the coffee machine to 'brew,' and listen in to how coherent I'm not, at that hour.

Hrm. I also remembered that June 14th has a particularly special place in my heart -- if you listen to the show, you just might find out why...
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Last night a thunderstorm of delightful proportions rolled in, blasting rain and throwing down wind. In its wake, I swear the temperatures dropped ten degrees. Of course, that meant it was still a sticky, icky 85, but we'll take what we're given and be thankkful.

This morning the felines woke me up at 6, as per usual, to discover that the temperature was 75 degrees. At 7am, it was down to 70. Yes, down. In the meanwhile, I had opened all the windows in the apartment to catch the cool morning breeze, made a pot of coffee for the first time in almost a week (I've been existing on iced tea), and just Enjoyed the Moment.

Now, back to work.

And apropos of nothing except that I want it noted: wheatland_press is an evil woman who enjoys taunting writers. No, that's not part of the editoral job description. Okay, it is, but she seems to take it extra-personal-like. Srsly.

http://www.lauraannegilman.net

Still some updates and tweaks to be done in the next few days, but we're live...


And now I have come to the "collapse" part of the day's plan.

and I don't care.

The Locus poll & survey is closing in a few days. You don't have to be a subscriber to vote.

Here's how it works:

Here is the online version of the 38th annual Locus Awards ballot, covering works that appeared in 2007. You may vote for up to five works in each category. In each position, you may either make a selection from the drop-down list OR enter a write-in candidate in the blank box at the right. Do not vote for the same work more than once, except Best First Novels may also be listed in Best Novel categories. [If you violate this rule, we will disregard your ballot.] Feel free to leave some categories blank or partially blank.

The drop-down selections for books and short fiction are based on Locus's 2007 Recommended Reading List [this link will open a new window], which gives full titles and publication credits. Drop-down selections in magazine, editor, artist, and publisher categories are based on the last two year's results. However, you are welcome to vote for anything. Note that the Hugo and Nebula awards have somewhat different eligibility requirements; Locus Awards are open to publications or work that first appeared, anywhere in the world, during calendar year 2007. If you are voting for items not on our Recommended Reading List, please give both author and title as well as place of appearance (and please enter in the same format, [lastname, title] with no quotations marks or other punctuation, as the drop-down selections).

Needless to say, BURNING BRIDGES isn't in the drop-down options. But if you feel so inclined, you could certainly write it in. Or, yaknow, any other books you've enjoyed in 2007....

EtA: while I absolutely am promoting my own work, I am also encouraging you to write in other books as well. The Locus poll is self-limited by what THEY thought was the best/most enjoyable, and that often does not seem to line up with what the larger readership thinks... so tell them what you liked!

for combining shameless self-promotion with being Nice.


If anyone just happens to be giving one of my books as a gift this season, and would like a signed/personalized bookplate to go with it, just drop me a line at wren_sergei [at] comcast.net, and I'll send it out the very next day.

(I should also point out that all of my books and a lot of my short fiction is available via download from Fictionwise for your tech-minded yet fiction-loving gift recipients. I can't sign those, unfortunately...)