Technical Difficulties

1. I swear to god I was going to stop, but then I looked at the window this morning.







2. The bidding for Unnatural Creatures has reached $75, and the bidding for The Goblin Emperor has reached $100 (!). Y'all are awesome.

3. Apparently, I will be at C2E2 this April.(I say "apparently" because I can't quite believe I agreed to anything that terrifies me as much as a convention with 50,000 (FIFTY THOUSAND) attendees.) I will provide more details as I am able.

4. In case you missed it yesterday, the first two chapters of The Goblin Emperor are available for free download at katherineaddison.com. And, no, I am unlikely to put up more. That's why they call it a teaser.

5. This really is the best picture of a wildlife photographer ever taken. EVER.

1. The annual auction for Con or Bust starts February 10. I have donated two items:

(a.) the absolute last copy of Unnatural Creatures
(b.) a signed copy of The Goblin Emperor (yes, this is ANOTHER way you can win! aside from naming my sock elephant, that is)

There are many other fabulous items, also. Please check it out!

2. Katherine Addison has a webpage! There isn't much on it yet, and I welcome suggestions for material you all would like to see.

3. And while I'm on the subject, the release date for The Goblin Emperor is April 1st, should you desire to know. Katherine's currently minimalist website has links to pre-order options.

4. The Kelpies by Andy Scott is JAW-DROPPINGLY AMAZING. Also? Ponies! By which, of course, I mean draft horses.

5. The Locus Recommended Reading List for 2013 is up. Go read something!

+1. Peter Mulvey's Kickstarter for his new album Silver Ladder is going just swimmingly, but he's reaching for his stretch goal of $50k or 1,000 backers. If you know Mr. Mulvey's music, you know why I'm signal-boosting this. If you don't know Mr. Mulvey's music, I heartily encourage you to give him a try.

Reminder the first: You can still help me NAME MY SOCK ELEPHANT. I have had many fabulous suggestions, and I would love to get many more!

Reminder the second: The only thing I published in 2013 is "To Die for Moonlight."

It has become weirdly traditional for writers to post their lists of Things Eligible for Awards in January, and I was debating with myself how I felt about that this year when a couple people on Twitter remarked that the January lists were how they found stories they'd missed the previous year. And regardless of how I'm feeling about self-promotion and awards on any given day, pointing people towards stories they might want to read is a good reason to make the post. So. "To Die for Moonlight." Kyle Murchison Booth, "The Fall of the House of Usher," and werewolves.

1. I have work again. Yay!

2. Clarkesworld: Year Three is now available (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.). "White Charles" is in it if you're trying to find print versions of the uncollected Booth stories, and in general Clarkesworld is made of awesome.

3. This month's Apex Magazine is Shakespeare-centric; I contributed an essay about Hamlet and the Reformation, "Welcome to the Reformation, Bitches," which explains why pepole saying Hamlet's fatal flaw is indecision gives me a homicidal nervous tic.

1. I'm seeing a sleep therapist now, because I would like to get off the potentially addictive hypnotic that is currently holding my insomnia down. She told me what I really already knew, that I need to get on a fixed schedule of going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. Which means getting up at 6:30 on weekends. I HATE THIS. I have always been a night owl, and mornings are my favorite time to sleep. But I am determined to give this fixed schedule a fair shot, so here I am, awake and fed and medicated and dressed at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. (Nobody says I have to move fast on weekends, just that I have to get up.)

The fixed schedule idea also means that I have to go to bed--as in, in bed, lights out, eyes shut, at 10:15. And ideally I need to try to decrease my computer usage in the late evenings, because of light issues (photosensitivity plus glow of monitor equals confused circadian rhythms). Which means I have even less time to get computer things done, and I am still trying to finish this goddamn book. Ergo, as little as I have been an online presence in recent months, I'm going to be even less of one, at least for a while. Which is Teh Suck, but I have to find a way to keep the insomnia chained in the basement, and long-term drug usage is just not the way I want to go.

2. So, when I was making my whirlwind trip to Boston, I discovered that O'Hare has a Field Museum store. This is a brilliantly terrible idea on the Field Museum's part, but it did mean I could take matociquala meerkat socks as a hostess gift (because seriously--meerkat socks). And I bought for myself a pair of tiny Sue earrings. They have become my favorite earrings--for the one set of holes I don't just leave rings in all the time--for days I don't have to dress like an adult.

3. Two really nice capsule reviews of The Bone Key: (1) and (2). And Somewhere Beneath Those Waves got a starred review from Library Journal (here if you're interested) and a very kind mention from Lesley Hall over at Aqueduct Press's blog.

4. These fossa pups, Ingrid, Heidi, and Gretchen, show that Madagascar really knows how to work the charismatic predator* angle.

5. Have a picture of Milo and me:

(Stepping Stones Studio 2011)
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*ursulav came up with that useful designation.

1. The Jellicle Ninja is doing much better. Thank you for all your kind wishes!
2. Brit Mandelo has reviewed Somewhere Beneath Those Waves for Tor.com
3. Apex Magazine will be reprinting "The Yellow Dressing Gown" in their 31st issue.
4. I still like my job as a database thrall.
5. The horse continues to be a good horse. A goofy, exasperating horse, but a good horse nonetheless.

ME
1. washed (1) gray and (2) white bras.
2. outlined plot for the rest of Thirdhop Scarp.
3. got a page further in The Goblin Emperor revisions (I know, doesn't look like much, but trust me: it's huge).
4. picked up Emma's ashes (NOT "cremains") from the vet. She would be offended by the paw-print patterned tin; I will obviously have to find something more suitable.
5. bought a BRIGHT YELLOW Lamy fountain pen to replace the one that vanished over the weekend.
5.5 signed stock at the University Book Store
6. discovered that Shakespeare's Books has been reborn as Browzers Books. Feel that this is a sad come-down, namewise, but glad to see the bibliophoenix rise from the ashes.
7. bought The Horrors of the Half-Known Life: Male Attitudes toward Women and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century America by G. J. Barker-Benfield (research); Women, Family, and Utopia: Communal Experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons by Lawrence Foster (research); and Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook by Donald Rumbelow (research). I love my job.
8. wondered where the cut-off is between a respectable interest in historical criminology and a ghoulishly trashy taste for true crime.* One's own birth-date? Hardback vs. paperback? Use of the word "true" in the subtitle? Serial killer vs. non-serial killer?
9. picked up more cat food, more cat litter, more cat treats . . . and a three-day pass for the Midwest Horse Fair.
10. put more gasoline in the truck.

CATZILLA
1. hampered
2. purred
3. napped
4. talked to robins
5. purred

THE TERMINATOR (a.k.a. THE LITTLEST NINJA)
1. hampered
2. purred
3. napped
4. was mortified by Catzilla
5. purred
6. vanished into thin air and mysteriously reappeared
7. purred


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*Having just marathoned the first season of The First 48, I'm not casting aspidistras at anyone. Just saying: there's clearly a cut-off somewhere, and I don't know where it is.

So of the 169 copies of Unnatural Creatures, seven (that I know of, and I devoutly hope there aren't any more) are defective in one way or another. None of the defects makes the slightest difference to the readability of the book. I know some people (like me) will be driven nuts by imperfections, while other people (possibly more sane) won't care. So I'm asking, if you're one of those people who will not be bothered, please comment here and volunteer to take one of the following copies:

#1, 2, 3, 4: the text is improperly centered (I apologize for not knowing the correct technical term), so that the margin at the top of each page is enormous and the margin at the bottom is cramped. No text is cut off--it's purely an aesthetic issue.

#133: the front cover is very slightly bent. This can probably be corrected by the cunning use of a very heavy book and some patience.

#147: the title page is torn at the bottom left. It's a small tear, and I have personally mended it with Scotch tape so it doesn't get worse.

#169: the front cover is dog-eared. Unlike with #133, there is a visible crease.


ETA: all the defective copies have found homes. Thank you to everyone who volunteered!


I am also willing to offer a bribe to those who volunteer. Suggestions as to a suitable inducement are welcome.

Thank you!

This is a list of all the words MS Word has mishyphenated in Unnatural Creatures. (And, yes, I double-checked all of them with the American Heritage Dictionary. Well, except "although," because really.)

• alt-hough
  
• anim-al
  
• catech-ism
  
• circ-ling
  
• Co-leridge
  
• des-cended
  
• domin-ies
  
• edit-or
  
• Esth-er
  
• extra-vagant
  
• ima-gined
  
• irrit-ation
  
• juni-or
  
• lib-rary
  
• natur-al
  
• philanthrop-ist
  
• posit-ively
  
• reas-onably
  
• re-cognized
  
• squeam-ishly
  

Booth would be appalled.

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Also, for reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, the sale is extended another day.