Howard Hughes and Aunt Beast Walk Into a Bar...
Talk to me, kittens. Today, we have salmagundi:
1) A new review of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir at the Strange Horizons website has made me momentarily very happy (don't worry, it never lingers). It's the most cogent review of the book I've read since Brit Mandelo's at Tor.com (which you can read here). Anyway, you'll find the Strange Horizon's review by following this rabbit hole, and thank you, Niall Alexander. I hope it's not poor form to thank your reviewers by name.
2) Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Volume 1 has been nominated for Best Collection by the 2012 Locus Awards. Which does me proud. A shame the book is sold out, and there's currently no plans for another printing or a second edition.
3) A reminder that May 5th, which is to say Saturday (Satyrday, also Cinco de Mayo) is Free Comic Book Day. Dark Horse is giving you a free Alabaster story (!!!), "Shelter," divided over two books. The first half will be found in the Stars Wars/Serenity comic and the second half in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Guild comic. So, find your way to a comic shop! By Sunday, these are bound to show up on eBay for moronic prices, I'm sure.
4) Last night, I remembered that St. Vincent had a Providence show planned. Then I thought, fuck, we've already missed it, because I forget shit and don't like crowds. Then I discovered, no, the show's tonight - but tickets would cost me and Spooky $40+, and I just can't see the expense right now. See, this is how shut-ins and agoraphobics talk themselves out of seeing shows they truly want to see. Whoa, see used four times in two sentences. Bad Aunt Beast.
5. Day before yesterday, a wonderful package from the wonderful Steven Lubold. I'll say more about its contents when I can once more take time to breathe.
6. Alabaster: Wolves #2 will be on shelves on the 11th, a mere eight days from now. Yesterday, the post brought me an advance copy, and it's even more handsome than #1. Trust me, and don't miss it.
7. For those backers awaiting the highest three tier rewards on our The Tale of the Ravens Kickstarter, I should say what you're really waiting on is me to find time, and get off my fat ass, and write the story to accompany the illustrations. Your patience has been amazing and much appreciated, and I'll get to this in May, I swear, with dog as my witness.
8. As part of our ongoing "Make This Damn House More Functional" project, we added an eleventh bookshelf to my office on Monday, after my doctor's appointment. And still, I fear it's only gonna make a dent in the stacks of books to be found all about our abode.
9. Fuck, I'm sleeping a lot lately. Though, on the other hand, it has been determined that stress has made me ill the last few months, stress and exhaustion. So, I'm making a concerted effort to go a little easier on myself, and not angst over every fucking development. I do my best, and then these things are out of my hands. I can't make people buy books, I can only write books. I can only do so much to persuade a publisher to do this or that. I may have already said that my current motto has become "It is what it is."
10. Yesterday, I began - just barely - a new story for Sirenia Digest #77, "Hauptplatte/Gegenplatte." This story will be accompanied by a Vince Locke illustration. This issue will also include a sort of addendum to last month's story "Cages I," as written by David T. Kirkpatrick. I am beginning to see "Cages" as an ongoing collaboration that will one day congeal into something much larger than its constituent parts (pun unintentional, but apt).
11. I have found kindly people to help me get a page online for Aunt Beast's Salt Marsh Home Companion, the weekly weird fiction podcast, so that's actually going to happen. And should be along fairly soon.
And I have time to say nothing more for now. Gotta see a man about a platypus.
It Is What It Is,
Aunt Beast
1) A new review of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir at the Strange Horizons website has made me momentarily very happy (don't worry, it never lingers). It's the most cogent review of the book I've read since Brit Mandelo's at Tor.com (which you can read here). Anyway, you'll find the Strange Horizon's review by following this rabbit hole, and thank you, Niall Alexander. I hope it's not poor form to thank your reviewers by name.
2) Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Volume 1 has been nominated for Best Collection by the 2012 Locus Awards. Which does me proud. A shame the book is sold out, and there's currently no plans for another printing or a second edition.
3) A reminder that May 5th, which is to say Saturday (Satyrday, also Cinco de Mayo) is Free Comic Book Day. Dark Horse is giving you a free Alabaster story (!!!), "Shelter," divided over two books. The first half will be found in the Stars Wars/Serenity comic and the second half in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Guild comic. So, find your way to a comic shop! By Sunday, these are bound to show up on eBay for moronic prices, I'm sure.
4) Last night, I remembered that St. Vincent had a Providence show planned. Then I thought, fuck, we've already missed it, because I forget shit and don't like crowds. Then I discovered, no, the show's tonight - but tickets would cost me and Spooky $40+, and I just can't see the expense right now. See, this is how shut-ins and agoraphobics talk themselves out of seeing shows they truly want to see. Whoa, see used four times in two sentences. Bad Aunt Beast.
5. Day before yesterday, a wonderful package from the wonderful Steven Lubold. I'll say more about its contents when I can once more take time to breathe.
6. Alabaster: Wolves #2 will be on shelves on the 11th, a mere eight days from now. Yesterday, the post brought me an advance copy, and it's even more handsome than #1. Trust me, and don't miss it.
7. For those backers awaiting the highest three tier rewards on our The Tale of the Ravens Kickstarter, I should say what you're really waiting on is me to find time, and get off my fat ass, and write the story to accompany the illustrations. Your patience has been amazing and much appreciated, and I'll get to this in May, I swear, with dog as my witness.
8. As part of our ongoing "Make This Damn House More Functional" project, we added an eleventh bookshelf to my office on Monday, after my doctor's appointment. And still, I fear it's only gonna make a dent in the stacks of books to be found all about our abode.
9. Fuck, I'm sleeping a lot lately. Though, on the other hand, it has been determined that stress has made me ill the last few months, stress and exhaustion. So, I'm making a concerted effort to go a little easier on myself, and not angst over every fucking development. I do my best, and then these things are out of my hands. I can't make people buy books, I can only write books. I can only do so much to persuade a publisher to do this or that. I may have already said that my current motto has become "It is what it is."
10. Yesterday, I began - just barely - a new story for Sirenia Digest #77, "Hauptplatte/Gegenplatte." This story will be accompanied by a Vince Locke illustration. This issue will also include a sort of addendum to last month's story "Cages I," as written by David T. Kirkpatrick. I am beginning to see "Cages" as an ongoing collaboration that will one day congeal into something much larger than its constituent parts (pun unintentional, but apt).
11. I have found kindly people to help me get a page online for Aunt Beast's Salt Marsh Home Companion, the weekly weird fiction podcast, so that's actually going to happen. And should be along fairly soon.
And I have time to say nothing more for now. Gotta see a man about a platypus.
It Is What It Is,
Aunt Beast