Ah, frabjus day: the lovely Lisa Mantchev's debut YA novel, EYES LIKE STARS, is on the loose today, officially! Do you like fairies, orphans living in magical theaters, Shakespeare, and cake? Then you must have this book! Yes, you really must. Or you may find frosting in your pillow tomorrow. (I hear Peasblossom and Moth really get around.) Go get a copy. Right now!

Congratulations and Hurray for Lisa! (have some cake, my dear.)

And Poltergeist mass market is out today. Time for more prizes for photos of the wicked thing caught in the wild--the weirder the better!

Fleur Bradley's interview with me has been included in the Pikes Peak Writers NewsMagazine. You can download a pdf of the whole issue (it's pretty nice) if you want to read the article. Thanks to Fleur and the editors and publishers at Pikes Peak!

I'm not blogging today: off to muck about, write, and not be a responsible adult. But there is a nifty interview with me at Amberkatz's Book Blog. (more free books!)

OMG! (yes really!) After last year's lack of a review at all and the lukewarm one the year before, Publisher's Weekly says some really nice things about Vanished, like...:

"...fierce" and "Richardson continues to develop strong, intriguing plots".

Oh how I squee!

You can read the whole review, if you want to (scroll down about 3/4 of the page) on the Publishers Weekly site.

I can't stop hopping about like a one of Kiplings peas in a saucepan.

I'm not up to the daily goal of 3K a day, but I'm accelerating and Greywalker #5 is starting to feel like a real Harper novel, at last. It's the hardest one so far, no bones about it: a lot to remember, balance, integrate, and tie off. And it should still be fun, stand on its own merit, and have a good mix of action, exposition, and humor along with the mystery and horror. I think I might have yelled at my editor recently and that makes me angry with myself--even in late-night email, being a jerk isn't acceptable or fair. Did 2000 words 2 days in a row and 900 so far today. Alas, I seem to work best late at night, which is inconvenient, but may be the only thing I can do.

Meanwhile, however, I see that the mass market of Poltergeist will be out next Tuesday and I'm only 5 weeks away from the release of the Underground mass market and the new book, Vanished, in hardcover. I'm so excited about that book I have a hard time concentrating on what I need to do now.

Oh yes: my mum-in-law will be visiting soon and that also makes me very pleased--she's nifty!

And tomorrow I think the schwag will arrive... Oooooo.... (yeah... limited edition schwag you can only get by coming to say "hi" to me in person--I'm so cruel.) But there is a chance to get some if you're going to be in Salem Oregon on July 18th. Why? Because Team Seattle will be at the book fair at Escape Fiction in Salem from noon to 2 p.m. Tres cool, yes?

Today was mold day. Ugh. While much of the SF world was at the Locus Awards, I was doing battle with mold and boats. (Ok, not the most physically strenuous battle, but kind of a sneaky guerrilla, slap-it-around-and-run-like-hell kind of battle.)

We've been saying for weeks, "We'll clean up the mildew in the bunk area" but we kept not doing it (we still have hanging lockers to manage as well) so today we finally got to it. It took hours and a break to let the chemicals settle down and I think it's still kind of a half-assed job and we still haven't done the hanging lockers (what normal people would call "closets") yet. Although I did get about half the head done ("washroom" to you non-boatniks--not a bathroom because we don't have room to take a bath in there.)

During the break, we went to look at some boats and see if there was anything we really liked enough to go into debt--or even consider going into debt--for. We did find one and it's nice, and set up an appointment to see another, but after the second round of mold-slaying and chemical overdoses and dinner and stupid movies while we recuperated, Mr. Kat talked me out of it. So I've had to send email to the broker to say "sorry, changed our minds" and feel like a jerk about it.

I'm sure the other boat would be nice and it's not a bad price, but realistically, we have to wait until after VANISHED launches and my schedule settles before we can start considering something like this.

Too bad: a new boat doesn't have mold....

One more application or mold-be-dead tomorrow and maybe we can get to the hanging lockers too and then I think we might be able to live here without my having a headache that lasts 2 days every time we move the mattress or rearrange the closets.

bleh.

And the book is dragging rather badly in spite of my throwing myself at it night and day. It's rather depressing. Other things are depressing, distressing or kind of in limbo and I'm waiting them out. I'm tired of waiting things out, but there's nothing else I can do.

The boat was nice, though. (Dear Santa, may I please have an Island Packet 485 for Christmas...? I'll settle for a Bavaria or a Morgan 44,... a Catalina 42...? OK, a gracefully aging Endeavor will do.)

The mold, on the other hand, was not but I think I kept ahead of it today by taking extra anti-histamines and killing much of it dead before it could kill me.

Hm... zombie mold monsters....

We're having an extreme low tide today at Shilshole Bay/Meadow Point. We are 6 minutes to the lowest tide of the month at -4.1 feet. That means we're a bit more than 4 feet lower than the mean low tide for the area. Considering this is an artificial marina with dredged fairways and channels, that makes the areas nearest the seawall pretty dry and a few boats on the landward end are actually standing on their keels right now. Our boat is out at the seaward end, so we're fine, but some of the small boats and catamarans and tris at the dock heads are looking a bit sad.

Extreme tides also cause a lot of disturbance in the water as they come and go since a larger volume is being moved per minute than usual. The result is much stronger rips and currents around the constrictions of channel mouths and narrow passages. You really have to keep an eye on the tides around here, or you can find your boat on the rocks, even if you're still tied to the dock and more so if you're out in the current and get caught up before you can pull away. I expect by now someone has discovered the hard way why you need to stay inside the channel markers at all times.

I've just discovered that limited supplies of Underground in hardcover are on clearance sale at B&N.com for the shocking price of $3.59. Yeah that's right--about half the price of the soon-to-be released paperback edition. So if you've been holding out to get the book at a price you can't refuse, this is it. Grab it while you can.

Disclaimer: I don't make much off discount books and I don't have a B&N associates account, so I don't get a kickback on this link. This is strictly a service for you guys who want the hardcover but can't afford it at full price. Discount books of this sort are often "hurt" books with some cosmetic defects, but they are still first edition hardcovers and if the defect is mild enough it won't affect the readability of the book.

And I really did, too. Today, while walking through the supermarket (Fred Meyer in Ballard) I came around the Book aisle and down past the Science Fiction rack and there

right on the top shelf

at eye level

( See the pic! )

I scared the poor woman who was surveying the shelves in search of some reading material, but she did walk off with my book and Caitlin's in her hands. (I'm really very naughty.)

It's so nifty to see the book on the supermarket shelf, like a big-time author's!

SQUEEEEE! o squeee... squeee....

My tiny teddy bear, Binky the Dinky, has discovered Adult Beverages. Mostly he is attracted by the shiny bottles and anything sweet.
( See what Binky does with the drinks... )

It appears that some silliness is developing in the WordPress version of the Medieval Friends post.... Not only do I have medieval friends, I have delightfully goofy ones, too!

I just noticed that I have two friends who are both into things medieval. Well, OK they aren't my only friends who are and I had known this before, but they are certainly the ones who stand out from my eclectic crowd of fiends--umm... I mean friends--since they are both writers and researchers in the same field... and yet they do no know each other. I can't help wondering how they'd get along... I suspect they would debate quite vociferously, but beyond that, I don't know. Would they love each other? Hate each other? Go after each other with Gutenberg bibles (and main gauche) at 5 paces?

What do you think? Cage fight time? (and do bear in mind both are my friends, no fun-poking intended here, just wondering...):
Jeri Westerson (Getting Medieval, The Crispin Guest Historical noir novels)
vs
Anna Richenda (History Fish, The Saint and the Fasting Girl)

Two very different results from the same historical sources.

I finally have the outline mostly complete (points exist, but order is still a little scrambled) and I'm quite, quite chuffed with it. Hehehehehe... I gets to kill stuff and blow shit up and stuff like that! Wooohooo!

Now to get the writing itself moving, but not until after I go see Andrew Grant at Seattle Mystery Bookshop at Noon! (He is sooooooo nice it ought to be sickening, but isn't.)

Hohohohohoho.... Happy Katmass to me!

And don't forget to stalk Greywalker in the wild: still three prizes to be given away (unless McBeaner forgets to get in touch and give me her email address! You hear me McB? Get in touch!)

Thanks to the fabulous Zita H and the ever-busy Harriet K, there are now reviews of Vanished in the world:

Read Zita's review

Read Harriet's review

For those who've been asking, Greywalker is now available as an ebook for Kindle and Sony (the Sony version is at the mass market price, too!) Other platforms may also be available, but of these I am sure. All other Greywalker books in print are already available and others will come available as the print versions come out.

At last! Hurray!

Besides my own mass market release, this is a busy day for SF books: Caitlin Kittredge's STREET MAGIC is out today--at last; and the superhero collaboration BLACK AND WHITE by Caitlin and Jackie Kessler; and Dakota Cassidy's Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel KISS AND HELL; and Richelle Mead's SUCCUBUS HEAT came out last week and is selling like hotcakes; also THE STRAIN by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan,releases today in hardcover and is already flying off shelves. Cool stuff, readers!

And don't forget to stalk the Greywalker mass market in the wild and possibly win a prize!

Hey, fiends! Greywalker mass market (the standard small paperback) will be officially released on Tuesday (June 2). It's already out in a few places, but to make this fair for those who don't have access to places that shelve books early, we shall start on Tuesday.

So here's the deal: take a photo of the new Greywalker edition "in the wild"; post it someplace and then post the link to the Greywalker forum. This contest will repeat for Poltergeist and Underground as they become available. Keep checking in!

OK, I give in: I have a Twitter account. http://twitter.com/katrchrdsn. Happy now? :p

Things are just a bit nutty over at Bitten By Books, where the silliness will continue until midnight with--oo!--prizes and more strange replies to questions from lil' ol' me.

Also, I'm updating the main website, so there should be a complete Appearances schedule there (at least as far as I have one) soon.

Good advice, in general, even if you aren't using the diaper changing station:


(spotted in a Fred Meyer washroom just before Mother's Day)