PUGGY'S HILL

Thank you, Harvard Book Store, for the signing Saturday, and thank you everyone who showed up!  (We did leave some signed books there, if you want  one.)  Thank you, Vericon, for the very nice time!  Got home to find copies of TEETH waiting for me.  Holy smokes - it really is as good as the reviewers say.  By not-quite-concidence, I read aloud my story therein, "History" (working title:  "Another Irritating Vampire"), at Vericon.  Was delighted to find it clocks in at <:25, so look for it in another half-hour reading slot near you!  Just read it in the book, now, as well.  It's amazing how much different - and better - a story looks when it's in print. Or maybe - and I'm not being facetious here - it is ennobled by the surrounding company.  Like fine wines complimenting a meal:  Is this the best duck I've ever had, or is the accompanying Morgon Beaujolais bringing it out some?

I have new glasses.  I think they're shocking & radical, but no one else seems to notice.

Oh, and if you haven't dipped your toes in the waters of the Interstitial Arts Foundation's MARCH MADNESS posts, please do.  You won't believe the goodies you'll find in there!  Not just reviews & interview of not just writers & books but designers & performance artists, but videos & whatnot.... Trust me.  There will be something you hate, and something you love.  Or we're not doing our job.

In my previous post I said that the new anthology, Welcome to Bordertown, was going to cost $22.99.  I also put that on the postcards we gave out at Arisia.  

That is a mistake (unless you're a library: it's the cost of Library Binding).  The price to the public will be $19.99.  For a 544-page hardcover, it's a steal!  And what remains even more of a steal is the special Amazon pre-order price of $13.99!  I imagine when the book nears its publication date of May 24, that will change.  (Oh, my, yes; so it will.)  Not to be outdone, B&N online is offering pre-order of $13.49 . . . but since they failed to print my author bio, we don't like them, do we?

Also interesting to see that since that Previous Post, which suggested that folks buy both Teeth and Welcome to Bordertown at Amazon's pre-order prices, the "buy these 2 books together" thingy on both pages is for the two of them; last week, Welcome to Bordertown was being offered in conjunction with Bordertown co-editor Holly Black's White Cat (which you absolutely positively hands down should buy anyway!) . . . So I guess, Gentle Readers, that we alone with our buying power moved the algorithm over a notch!  Very cool to see it in action.

And why do I suddenly feel like Harriet M. Welsch?

 I've been sitting on this til the ToC was full and the anthology formally announced, which it now is & has been, by co-editor ellen_datlow :  I sold a story to TEETH.

It is a most excellent story, quite short, but full of subtlety.  That seems to be what I'm writing these days:  If you blink, you'll miss something important.  Very annoying to read, I'm sure.  I hope you like it anyway.

I began it several years ago, when all I had were the first 3 lines hastily scribbled in a moment of inspiration.  Fortunately, I did not lose them, and when I heard that Datlow & Windling were doing a YA vampire anthology, I fished them out and wrote what happened next.  But here's the original beginning:

        “You so totally just ran that red light,” she says, not without admiration.
         “I know,” he says with satisfaction. He downshifts, and passes a van that has been in front of them for blocks. “I love driving.”
         He is much too old for her, but that doesn’t bother her. She has never been fussy about age. She is a historian. What bothers her is that he won’t tell her about history. “I forget,” he says when pressed. “It was all a long time ago.”
         He knows. She knows he knows. He just won’t say.

The working title back then was "Another Irritating Vampire," but for some reason the editors preferred my alternate title, "History."

The lineup of authors for this antho is so amazing that I feel downright humble, and pathetically grateful to be in that roll call with them.  (The only other story I've read is deliasherman 's, and yeah, it's pretty awesome.  Looking forward to the rest as much as you are, and then some!)