Technical Difficulties

The lovely people at Open Road Media are publishing the entire quartet in e-book. They're available for pre-order now, and will be published July 11.

I am so very happy about this. Words cannot even.

My intrepid translator, 214314, sent me pictures today of the Chinese editions of the Doctrine of Labyrinths.

( covers! )

( map! )

MERE CAPSLOCK CANNOT CONVEY THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF MY EXCITEMENT.

REMEMBER: to buy an item, comment on this post. I will reply, letting you know the item is yours. AT THAT TIME AND NOT BEFORE, hit the PayPal button.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 1 copy of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 42.1 (Winter 2002), which contains my sole academic article, "Speaking and Silent Women in Upon Appleton House": $5
  
• 1 copy of Concussed, from Concussion (Eastercon 2006), which includes stuff from a whole bunch of cool people--M. John Harrison, Hal Duncan, Elizabeth Hand, Jay Lake, Jo Walton, Elizabeth Wein, etc.--and "Toward a Praxis of World-Building," which is a reprint of a couple blog posts of mine: $5


• 1 copy of Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction 10 (Winter 2006-2007), containing my novelette "Amante Dorée," about a transsexual prostitute/spy in an AU New Orleans: $5
  
• 1 copy of The Queen in Winter (New York: Berkley Books, 2006)--fantasy/romance anthology with stories from Claire Delacroix, Lynn Kurland, Sharon Shinn, and me (my story, A Gift of Wings, is set in Meduse, although it has no other connection with the Doctrine of Labyrinths): $20
  

KYLE MURCHISON BOOTH

• 1 copy of Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries #7 (first publication of "The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox"): $5
  
• 1 copy of All Hallows 35 (February 2004) (first publication of "Bringing Helena Back"): $10
  
• 1 copy of All Hallows 41 (February 2006) (first publication of "Drowning Palmer"): $10
  
• 10 copies of the first edition of The Bone Key (you should know, if you're thinking of buying it, that The Bone Key is going to be rereleased later this year, with story notes, a new introduction, and a new cover): $15 per copy
  

A COMPANION TO WOLVES

• 5 copies of A Companion to Wolves (hardback): $25 per copy
  
• 5 1 copy of A Companion to Wolves (paperback): $7 per copy
  

THE DOCTRINE OF LABYRINTHS

• 10 sets of the Doctrine of Labyrinths in paperback: $35 per set
  
• 2 copies of Mélusine (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 3 copies of The Virtu (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 2 copies of The Mirador (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 3 2 copies of Corambis (hardback): $30 per copy

If you want to donate to the Companion Animal Fund, here is your button. This is also the button to use for payments, after I have confirmed that the item is yours.

[sale over; button removed]

THIS IS NOT THE SALE POST. YOU CANNOT BUY THINGS FROM HERE.

---

The Ben Jonson Memorial Fundraiser will take place on February 2, 2011 (Ben's birthday). All proceeds will go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's Companion Animal Fund.

Please spread the word!

I will be selling:

MISCELLANEOUS

• 1 copy of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 42.1 (Winter 2002), which contains my sole academic article, "Speaking and Silent Women in Upon Appleton House": $5
  
• 1 copy of Concussed, from Concussion (Eastercon 2006), which includes stuff from a whole bunch of cool people--M. John Harrison, Hal Duncan, Elizabeth Hand, Jay Lake, Jo Walton, Elizabeth Wein, etc.--and "Toward a Praxis of World-Building," which is a reprint of a couple blog posts of mine: $5
  
• 1 copy of Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction 10 (Winter 2006-2007), containing my novelette "Amante Dorée," about a transsexual prostitute/spy in an AU New Orleans: $5
  
• 1 copy of The Queen in Winter (New York: Berkley Books, 2006)--fantasy/romance anthology with stories from Claire Delacroix, Lynn Kurland, Sharon Shinn, and me (my story, A Gift of Wings, is set in Meduse*, although it has no other connection with the Doctrine of Labyrinths): $20
  

KYLE MURCHISON BOOTH

• 1 copy of Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries #7 (first publication of "The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox"): $5
  
• 1 copy of All Hallows 35 (February 2004) (first publication of "Bringing Helena Back"): $10
  
• 1 copy of All Hallows 41 (February 2006) (first publication of "Drowning Palmer"): $10
  
• 10 copies of the first edition of The Bone Key (you should know, if you're thinking of buying it, that The Bone Key is going to be rereleased later this year, with story notes, a new introduction, and a new cover): $15 per copy
  

I also want to do a limited edition chapbook of the four uncollected Booth stories: "The Replacement," "The World Without Sleep," "White Charles," "The Yellow Dressing Gown." Working title is Unnatural Creatures. Price will be $20, although in this one instance, not ALL proceeds will go to the Companion Animal Fund, as some will have to go to production costs. But I will not take a cut.

By "limited edition," I mean a print run of 50. If you would be interested, please comment here, so that I can make a guess as to whether it's worth doing. And if more than 50 people indicate interest, I will consider making it a print run of 100 instead. Unnatural Creatures will be on sale from 02/02 2:00 P.M. CST to 02/03 2:00 P.M. CST. This will be a "speak now or forever hold your peace" kind of deal.

A COMPANION TO WOLVES

• 5 copies of A Companion to Wolves (hardback): $25 per copy
  
• 5 copies of A Companion to Wolves (paperback): $7 per copy
  

THE DOCTRINE OF LABYRINTHS

• 10 sets of the Doctrine of Labyrinths in paperback: $35 per set
  
• 2 copies of Mélusine (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 3 copies of The Virtu (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 2 copies of The Mirador (hardback): $30 per copy
  
• 3 copies of Corambis (hardback): $30 per copy
  

And I will auction off my last set of the Doctrine of Labyrinths in hardback. Starting bid will be $100.

All items will be signed. They will be personalized at the discretion of the buyer. I will ship anywhere in the world.

The sale and auction will start on February 2, 2011, at two o'clock P.M. Central Standard Time. The auction will run until two o'clock P.M. CST, February 3, 2011. The sale will run until either everything's gone or it's obvious people are done buying. All payments will be made via PayPal, and there will also be a button for those who don't want or can't afford to buy anything, but who would still like to make a donation.

Have I forgotten anything? Have a question? Please leave a comment!

---
*Meduse is my name for the world of the Doctrine of Labyrinths.

roisindubh211 is moving, and for the logical reasons is looking to sell some books. Specifically in this case, Mélusine and The Virtu in paperback (Good condition) and The Mirador and Corambis in hardcover (Very Good condition). If you're interested, please contact roisindubh211--NOT ME, since all I know is what I've just written.

1. Happy birthday (yesterday) to coffeeem and to matociquala's Giant Ridiculous Dog!

2. My second Ellery Queen post is up at tor-dot-com, here.

3. Yesterday, heresluck and I braved the winterness of Wisconsin to go bookstore trolling. I picked up cmpriest's Boneshaker and Dreadnought to give as xmas gifts (having given h.l. our extra copy of Boneshaker--I am flinging the steampunk zombies far and wide this holiday season), and had excellent book-fu on my own account:

• Cohen, Patricia Cline. The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York (I'm hoping this will be more the book I wanted The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers to be).
  
• Godbeer, Richard. The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England.
  
• Kater, Michael H. Hitler Youth.
  
• Sigmund, Anna Maria. Women of the Third Reich (not quite as exciting as if I'd found Jill Stephenson's Women in Nazi Germany, but still).

4. There's even more winter over in Minnesota.

5. When I was buying Boneshaker and Dreadnought, the owner of A Room of One's Own did a double-take at my check and said, "Are you Sarah Monette the science fiction writer?" And when I agreed that I was, she said, "Are they going to put your books out again? Because I get a lot of people asking about them." And I told her about the rights and my plan to find a small press, and she mentioned the TOTALLY INSANE prices The Virtu is going for on eBay, and so on.

I've had conversations like that with booksellers before, but they've always been in-genre (Dreamhaven, Larry Smith, etc.). So having the conversation again with someone who sells all kinds of books feels like, in the middle of a lot of discouragement about my career, a kind of encouraging milestone.

I'm keeping a mental list of things about this broken ankle that don't match up with broken bones in fiction. I already wrote about the sound of my ankle breaking, but here are a couple others:

1. if your crutches are adjusted properly and you're using them properly, they will not make your armpits hurt. They won't even touch your armpits. On the other hand, they will give you calluses on the heels of your palms.

2. maybe this is because of the surgery, or maybe it's because I'm a wuss, but it's been a month, and I still have no fucking stamina. Taking a bath exhausts me. I can hobble the length of the block, but then I have to lie down and pant. I'm still sleeping ridiculous amounts, and I have neither any ambition, nor the concentration to do anything about it if I did. I actually accomplished some work today (a second draft on an essay owed to a lovely person who knows who s/he is), and I'm hoping to be able to tackle The Tempering of Men (a.k.a. the sequel to A Companion to Wolves) this week, even if I can only manage it two pages at a time.

3. On the other hand, the itching? That part's true.

I am wildly grateful that I started this quilting project just before I broke my ankle, and equally wildly grateful to the kind and awesome ladies at the local quilt shop, who ironed and pin-basted it for me, because quilting around Kliban cats is pretty much the ideal activity for me right now, interspersed with playing Diablo II (again) and rereading Golden Age mysteries. I started with John Dickson Carr and have moved onto Ellery Queen.

(As a side note, I'm currently rereading The Siamese Twin Mystery, which inspired me to find wikipedia's entry on conjoined twins. I was particularly fascinated by Lakshmi Tatma, who was born in 2005 with four arms and four legs--conjoined to a parasitic headless twin (x-ray, if you're having trouble visualizing)--and was worshipped in her native village as an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi. The surgery to separate her from her parasitic twin when she was two was successful and quite complicated (follow the links from the wikipedia article if you're interested), and she survived. I hope she's still doing well.)

And somebody commented with some questions about the Doctrine of Labyrinths, which I am happy to answer:

Q: I'd like to know more about the obligation de sang - is it a baby step toward the obligation d'ame, or something distinct?

A: The obligation de sang is cast on wizards; the obligation d'âme is cast on annemer. They have similar effects, but, no, they're not the same thing.

Q: And I'd like to know more about Cardenio - how he and Mildmay became friends, particularly, and whether my reading of him as (1) clearly in love with Mildmay and (b) asexual is correct.

A: I don't know how Mildmay met Cardenio. The friendship emerged in my head full-grown, as it were, with no backstory.

Cardenio definitely has a crush on Mildmay--"love" is a tricky word, and I hesitate to use it--and I don't know about his sexuality. He is very shy and very reserved, and he hasn't told me.

Q: My sense is that Mildmay mostly disappeared for the bulk of Corambis - that the last book, more than any of the others, was weighted heavily toward Felix, and his growth as a character - specifically, for himself and for his brother. Were you trying to get Felix to the place Mildmay already was (or at least seemed to be), where he could see his brother as a person? Or am I misreading?

A: I wouldn't say that Mildmay disappeared--he is, after all, still a narrator, and his character arc in Corambis is important--but I will say that I conceived of The Mirador as Mildmay's katabasis and Corambis as Felix's. Katabasis is the descent to the underworld and return which Joseph Campbell describes as part of the Hero's Journey--I'm not entirely sold on Campbell, but with the particular psychology of my two particular narrators, they both had to go through their own personal metaphorical hells in order to come to terms with their pasts and their damage and emerge on the other side as functional, compassionate adults. (Which is also not to say that I think either of them is "fixed" or "healed"--they still have to live with their scars, both physical and emotional, and there are going to be bad days and backsliding--but I think by the end of the series they are better, both in the sense of psychologically healthier and in the sense of being able and willing to care about each other (and by extension, other people like Kay and Corbie) than they were at the beginning.)

At least, that's what I was trying for.

So, yes, to use a semi-accurate shorthand, Mildmay "grew up" in The Mirador and therefore there was less that needed to happen to him in Corambis, in terms of his psychomachia, than there was for Felix.

The debsliverlovers auctions end tomorrow (May 23rd) at noon EDT. I've donated a signed paperback set of the Doctrine of Labyrinths, and there are many other fabulous items as well. I'm drooling over the Thomas Canty art, myself.

I should probably mention that Corambis is out in paperback. Official release date, according to Amazon (which knows these things) was March 30, and an alert reader has testified that in this instance free market capitalism is working.

---

While I'm on the subject of the Doctrine of Labyrinths and publication, an update for everyone who is wondering: I am still trying to get The Virtu back in print. My agent has made the formal request to Ace Books either to reprint it or return the rights to me, and we are (still) waiting for Ace's response. Publishing works by Newtonian physics: an object at rest tends to remain at rest.

Yes (in case you were wondering about this, too), the waiting is DRIVING ME UP THE WALL. I badly want this book to be available again before Ace decides to take The Mirador and Corambis out of print (not to mention Mélusine), and I hate the inexorably vicious circle I can feel lurking somewhere over the horizon, wherein people don't buy books 3 and 4 because they can't get book 2 (because book 2 was out of print before book 4 was published), and therefore Ace not only feels justified in having taken book 2 out of print (because the numbers on books 3 and 4 are terrible--obviously we made the right decision about book 2), but also uses that as justification to take books 3 and 4 out of print as well. And there I am, with a series I love and am deeply proud of, which becomes unavailable, and therefore unread. And therefore forgotten. The thought makes me want to sit down in the middle of the floor and howl.

And there's nothing I can do about any of it except what I am doing. Which is sit and wait and gnaw my fingernails back to the elbow.

And, I think, go outside and take out some of this frustrated aggression on the weeds. [ETA: "Rain," said Eeyore. "I expected as much."]

Megan Arkenberg and cheloya, things for you are In The Mail.

---

The con_or_bust auctions close Saturday, March 13, 2010 (11:59 p.m. Eastern). This includes (among a lot of other cool stuff) the auction for a signed hardback of The Virtu, in which the bidding has reached $65.

---

Corambis will be out in paperback (according to Amazon) at the end of this month.

---

Tomorrow, I'm doing a Friends of the NIU Libraries/Friends of DeKalb Public Library event. Info here. Also, yes, I will sign things after the discussion, and yes, I will sign things other than The Bone Key.

---

Sunday, I'm leaving for a week in Arizona with matociquala, cristalia, stillsostrange, coffeeem, and willshetterly, which culminates in a Shadow Unit panel at the Tucson Festival of Books. I believe we're also doing a signing at the Mysterious Galaxy booth.

---

Other planned appearances for 2010 include:

• Odyssey Con X, April 16-18
  
• Penguicon (unnumbered), April 30-May 2
  
• WisCon 34, May 27-31
  
• Fourth Street Fantasy Convention (also unnumbered), June 25-27
  
• World Fantasy Convention 36, October 28-31

---

There's probably something else, but I forget what it is.