Ok, so I'm off to San Francisco for Writers with Drinks! this Saturday. Here's the press relase:

When: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, 7:30 to 9:30 PM, doors open at 6:30, we
swear!
Who: Javier Grillo-Marxuach, S. Bear Bergman, Mary Robinette Kowal, Naomi
Quiñonez and Kat Richardson!
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. between Mission and Valencia, San
Francisco
How Much: $3 to $5 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit the EL/LA Program
Para Trans-Latinas

About the readers/performers:

Javier Grillo-Marxuach created The Middleman, a comic series that became a
much-loved TV show on ABC Family. He also worked as a producer on the first
two seasons of Lost, and has also written for Charmed, Seaquest: DSV,
Medium, Jake 2.0, Boomtown and Dark Skies. He also wrote the Marvel Comics
series Annihilation: Super Skrull.

S. Bear Bergman's latest book is The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You. Bergman
also wrote Butch Is A Noun, and is co-editing the forthcoming anthology
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, with Kate Bornstein. Bergman also wrote
the "Day Of Remembrance" spoken-word piece which is frequently read at the
Transgender Day Of Remembrance nationwide.

Mary Robinette Kowal's first novel, Shades Of Milk And Honey, comes out in
2010 from Tor, and a sequel called Glamour In Glass is also forthcoming. Her
story "Evil Robot Monkey" was a Hugo finalist, and she won the Campbell
Award for best new writer. Her story collection, Scenting The Dark And Other
Stories, comes out soon.

Naomi Quiñonez's books of poetry include The Smoking Mirror and Sueno De
Colibri: Hummingbird Dream. She also co-edited the anthology Invocation
L.A.: Urban Multicultural Poetry.

Kat Richardson's novels include the Greywalker series, and her work appears
in the anthologies Wolfsbane And Mistletoe and Mean Streets.

About Writers With Drinks:
Writers With Drinks has won "Best Literary Night" from the SF Bay Guardian
readers' poll five years in a row and was named "Best Literary Drinking" by
the SF Weekly. The spoken word "variety show" mixes genres to raise money
for local worthy causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up
comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction,
erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.

Hostess Charlie Jane Anders blogs about science fiction and futurism at
io9.com. She's the author of the Lambda Award-winning Choir Boy (2005 Soft
Skull Press) and the co-editor, with Annalee Newitz, of She's Such A Geek
(Seal Press 2007). She also publishes other magazine. Follow her on Twitter
as charliejane.

After that I expect to to wrestle revisions and Thanksgiving.

Once again Thanksgiving is in the air due to the amazing AWOL Mother problem. At the moment, her cell phone is out of service to the degree the carrier can't find any record of her. I'm both worried and annoyed. Guess I'll be taking a drive to Port Orchard--which I don't want to do--to see what's up. *sigh* Mom... where are you this time?

I'm just so happy I have to post: My internet buddy Kaz Mahoney is now...

Under contract to be published!

Flux is taking her book, The Iron Witch, and the as-yet unwritten sequel and I'm so happy for her! She's a sweetie and a class act who's had a very rough year and I can't say enough good things about her and she certainly deserves this.

Hurray for Karen!

So... John Pitts sent me a note to let me know that Vanished has an ad on the front page of Locus Magazine's site! W00t! My publisher has made me very, very happy and so has John! *smoochies* (note that there is a big, fat ad for my book on the publisher's site, too.)

Sorry for the long wait...

So Comic Con Saturday dawned and I had only a few things on my agenda: catch up with friends, sign books at Mysterious Galaxy's booth, have lunch with my editor, and do a panel at Borders. Mostly I wandered around like a drooling idiot in between having drinks with various people and trying not to let my eyeballs roll out of my skull from staring at all the cool.

( Read more and see pics! )

So, after a half-day of whispering at people at the PNWA kickoff and administrative stuff, I still have only half as much voice as usual (possibly less). But I think all things strange and undone have been taken care of, now. At least I hope so. Except for the voice thing...

Seems I caught a cold at Comic Con and what with the drinking and yelling and running about... I came home with inflamed tonsils and vocal cords. My doctor ordered me to rest my voice for three days so I could talk at PNWA this weekend, but, alas, I still don't have my full room-commanding bark back. So... I'll be using the microphones a lot and probably rolling my eyes at the annoyance of not being able to stop traffic by simply yelling.

My throat still hurts. I blame the drinking. And for that I thank Rob Thurman. And the pasty-white Samoan Nazi. And the Pineapple Scot. And the waiter.

But damn it was fun!

Maybe I'll lose my voice completely before my book launch on Tuesday.... What are the bets?

So... I flew off on Wednesday morning to San Diego for Comic Con International. It was my first time and I had a lot of fun. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was on the same plane with Caitlin Kittredge. But she had upgraded to First Class, so we only got to hang out until the flight was boarding. Probably a good thing, since the back of the plane was packed as tight as a corset on a fat lady and even slender Caitlin would have had a hard time finding a place to stand and chat with me, despite my aisle seat.

In spite of my mother's psychic-prompted warnings, the flight was uneventful. I worked and got 1,000 words done during the flight and no one spilled anything on me, nor did any parts of the plane or stewardesses come off. There was nothing that would have made an episode of Fringe. Quite dull all the way to the hotel and up the stairs to my incredibly comfortable room. Kimpton Hotel Solamar rocks! (except for the strange lamp that liked to turn itself on and an alarming lack of of ventilation fan in the bathroom that made the whole room rather humid after a shower.) But otherwise, it was a delightful room which allowed us to spy on the folks from SyFy and their party on Saturday (more about that later.)

So, after a quick bag-drop and freshen, I strolled the 3+ blocks to the Convention Center and stood in line for my Pro badge. Texted with Jackie Kessler and friends about progress and they beat me through the line, even though Jackie was actually behind me somewhere. The computer at my station decided it didn't like me and wasn't going to cooperate with coughing up my badge. It talked the printer into joining the strike and it took about 20 minutes after I arrived at the table to get the badge into my hot little hand. Boo, evil computer devices!

But eventually I had my stuff--including a guest badge for my sister's boyfriend--and found Jackie and her friends outside. The friends proved to be Diana Rowland and Sean Speakman with whom I became ridiculously fast friends at once--they are both delightful people and I was tickled to get to know them. (Caitlin was opting for a quick nap and picked up her badge a little later--probably smart of her as we were standing in the heat while she was napping through it.) You can also take a peek at Jackie's photos on FaceBook for more Comic Con goodness.

We four went off to discover some food and drink while planning our campaign. I discovered I didn't have a proper schedule for some reason and couldn't plan my schedule until Sean gave me his copy. *beam* Needless to say, my best laid plan actually came to naught in the end and I didn't make it to a single panel, but I was trying...

After foodery, I thought I might go stand in another line to get my sister's badge. Which I did and it took about half the time getting my own had, even though there were about eight times as many people in line. It was really full, but we got our stuff, our bags and we're out on the floor in about fifteen minutes. Great work, registration staff!

So, with swag bag and badges in hand, I began to reconnoiter. Even early on, standing at the head of the stairs, things were pretty strange already. A mere taste of what was to come...

Look below the cut for photos from Kat's First Day at Comic Con.( Read more and see photos... )

Just packing to run off to Comic Con in San Diego tomorrow. If any of you are in the SD area this weekend, I hope you'll be able to drop in and say hi. Even if you can't do the convention (they are sold out--I know), I'm going to be doing something at Borders in the Gaslamp district Saturday at 8 p.m.

Originally they said it was just a signing, but it seems that it's become a live installment of Babel Clash, so a whole bunch of us crazy writer types will be yammering up a storm, including Patrick Rothfuss, Rob Thurman, Thomas Sniegoski, Amber Benson, Seanan McGuire, Jeanne Stein, and me. I think there's going to be some coverage at the Borders SF/Babel Clash blog after/during the event so even if you can't come, you can check out the crazy.

Aside from that, I'm also on a panel about Crime: Usual and Unusual on Thursday, 12:30-1:30, then signing in the Autograph Area afterward. Friday is par-tay day with dinner with the Penguin publicists and a couple of the coolest writers afoot: Marjorie Liu, Seanan McGuire, and me (yes, I am cool, when you don't notice the pudge and the gray hair). Then off to party the night away, then signing, signing, signing on Saturday, first at the Penguin booth (#11-17) from 11 to noon and then the Babel Clash Live gig.

In between, I hope to hang out a bit with my sister and the fabulous Caitlin Kittredge, Jackie Kessler, Pat Rothfuss, Victor Gischler, and maybe I can finally meet some of my favorite comics writers (I hear Ed Brubaker will be there and so will Warren Ellis! W00t!)

I'll try to be a good little hermit and take photos, but... you know how bad I am about that...

A quick photo array of Things That Got Seen/Done recently.( Read and see more... )

This is a busy week, which shall be followed by another busy week, and then another busy week, and then... I go on Tour! A few things are hanging fire, so I'll just post what's coming up right away.

Today I'm off to be interviewed by the cool folks at Seattle Geekly, podcast to run on Thursday, I do believe.

Wednesday I'm going to the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library and Evergreen Radio Reading Service in the morning to record another interview, this time with my old comic-reading partner Jeff Cavanaugh for the Science Fiction Hour. In the evening I'll be off to watch my bud, Caitlin Kittredge, read and sign her latest book, Street Magic (which is uberfabulous), at the University Bookstore in Seattle alongside Kevin Radthorne at 7 p.m.

A little farther down on that University Bookstore list, you'll see that Lisa Mantchev will be signing her new YA novel, Eyes Like Stars, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 16, and of course I will go to that, too (because the fairies will come for me if I don't.)

Friday Team Seattle is off to Salem OR by way of Portland to join Devon Monk for mass signing at Escape Fiction in Salem [3240 Triangle Dr SE, Salem, OR 97302 (503) 588-5865] from Noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 18th (which is also my sister's birthday: Happy Birthday, my dear--I promise to send something... but I lost the card I bought you.)

When we return, I'll be getting ready for the next stage of the promo: San Diego Comic Con!

There will be a ton of cool folks in attendence both as pros and just hanging out, which of course includes yours truly, Caitlin, Jackie Kessler, and a host of others, including some of my fabulous Penguin crew. Here's where I'll be when I'm not out getting into trouble:

Thursday July 23rd 12:30- 1:30 pm; CRIME: Usual and Unusual, Room 3
Panelists: Max Allan Collins (The Goliath Bone); Jeffrey J. Mariotte (Cold Black Hearts) Alexander Irvine (Buyout); Gregg Hurwitz (Trust No One); Thomas Greanias (The Atlantis Revelation); Kat Richardson (Vanished)

Signing to follow with all panelists


Saturday July 25th 11 am; Signing at Penguin Booth # 11-17


Saturday July 25th 8pm; Penguin offsite signing at Borders Books and Music, Gaslamp district store, 668 6th Avenue San Diego, CA 92101 619-702-4200
Authors attending: Patrick Rothfuss, Rob Thurman, Thomas Sniegoski, Amber Benson, Seanan McGuire, Jeanne Stein, Kat Richardson

And the weekend after that, I'll be at PNWA's Summer Conference. Then Vanished will be released on August 4th and I'm officially "on tour" after that.

For now: back to writing! (and laundry.)

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 just love this... the question was "What is it about writing you enjoy so much?" (over at the Ravenous Romance magic bus tour.)

Inara LaVey: It’s the ultimate power trip. “I created you, I can destroy you! BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!” Plus it’s just plain fun.

A woman after my own evil heart.

My darling buddy Dana Fredsti is kicking off the blog tour for the Ravenous Romance Ornery Eleven today at her blog, Zhadi's Den. If you like your romance hot, hot, hot, it's the place to be this weekend.

The blog tour schedule is near the bottom, so be sure to look all the way down... you know where.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my new issue of Crimespree magazine today and found a story I'd sent them about... four or five years ago. I'd assumed the file had gone feral and escaped into the wilds of Milwaukee long ago to wreak havoc on unsuspecting tourists visiting the Harley Davidson Museum nearby but... no... there it is on page 24 of issue #29: "Pigeons" by Kat Richardson.

I have to admit it's not my best, but it's not totally stinking bad. Just a short story about a homeless woman (who might be a college researcher or might just be crazy) and the murder of pigeons, friends, and overripe tomatoes. It's not a Harper Blaine story, just a short mystery, but if you are in need of a quick Kat-fix, it'll do. (And you might spot some characters who got updated and polished and turned up in Underground.)

What? You don't have your own subscription to Crimespree? And you can't find it on the newstand (because it's a subscription-only publication unless you happen to know the right Mystery bookstores to pop into)? But you can remedy that! Sean Chercover is giving away subscriptions to this fine publication! It says so right here at the Central Crime Zone! (and no, in spite of the date of posting, that's not an April Fool's joke.) OK, yes... you have to take a photo of yourself reading Sean's wonderful thriller Trigger City while you're at work, but... aren't you already reading that...? (You should be: it's fantastic!)

Pat Wrede, whose YA fantasy fiction I'm deeply in love with, has a new website--first website actually. Not only is she a crackerjack writer I put on my YA personal favorites list near the inimitable and amazing Patricia McKillip, but she's a savvy and smart adviser on writing in several writers groups I've wandered through. Really good stuff!

I figure that with a couple of humdinger Irish-Catholic first names like mine, I'm safe from all harm (even if my family were mostly Protestants). My family saddled me with Mary-Patricia Kathleen if y'please (and you wondered why I'm perfectly happy to be called "Kat"). I think I'm covered on the Irishness front.... But I may go out for a drop o' the crateur this evening with my (largely Irish-background) buddies from Team Seattle (Mario is a Chicano; he can drink like the Irish. Cherie is Swedish; we may have to help her with hers.) The Paranormal Bender tour ends tonight at University Books in Seattle, so... be there or be... umm... sober. And isn't that after bein' a shaggin' pity?

It seems that Ms. Thurman's new book, DEATHWISH, has cracked the NYT mass market paperback list at #26! Now, do I not tell you guys to go read her books? Huh? Don't I? See what badgering people does? It gets you on the NYT! Go, Rob!

My fellow SFNovelist, Simon Haynes has a very interesting interview with himself up on his site about DRM and free ebooks. See... Simon has a thriving series of comic SF books in Australia, Hal Spacejock, whose success outside Oz has been largely due to his publisher giving his first book away for free in ebook format. (It's still available too, so if you want to read something dryly funny that takes a lot of good solid jabs at Space Opera conventions, go get it and get hooked.) Sounds kind of screwy in this age of financial depression and copyright malfunction, but it's working very well for Simon and Freemantle Press. By making his books into inexpensive, DRM-free ebooks (only the first one is free; sorry but you'll have to help Simon pay his bills if you want the rest), Simon and Freemantle have been able to penetrate the worldwide English language market with minimal cost and promotion. This is not only good for Simon, it's good for his publisher and readers and it's a very nice model I'd like to see expanded.

I am very much in favor of DRM-free ebooks, even though they are easier for commercial pirates to copy and distribute (I have waived DRM on my audio books with Recorded Books for the sake of library access, but the option is not available to me on the ebooks). The basic idea of DRM-free ebooks (and audio books) pleases me, not because I don't care if I make money on my work--I do care a lot!--but because it cleaves to the standard of trust and reason I prefer. I like to think that most people are reasonable and ethical, or will be if you make it easier for them to do things in reasonable and ethical ways than in unreasonable, illegal, unethical ways. And I think that giving a few things away, keeping prices reasonable, treating your readers and customers well, and behaving in a generous manner will earn you more readers and customers in the long run.

I don't rail against used book stores or libraries for letting people get their hands on my books without my getting a cut. So it makes no sense to me to tie up the electronic versions so that the majority of customers are hamstrung and treated like criminals to restrict the activities of the few who are criminals. I'm very disappointed in the tigerish stance of some organizations in the name of protecting copyright. I'm reasonably sure that the current copyright system is broken and needs a total replacement, or at least a major overhaul, and taking draconian steps that only alienate and restrict customers and readers is not going to help preserve the earnings of writers as much as it keeps control in the hands of corporations. We don't need to treat customers and readers like cows to be milked.

Readers are rare enough beasts that we should encourage them. Selling or giving them something (an ebook or audio book in this case) without strings attached, that they can keep and share with others is much better than squeezing them for every penny and restricting what they can do with the book they just paid for. If they like your books, they will tell others, or pass their copy along to someone else who may be equally pleased and buy some for themselves and pass the word along, and so on.... That's part of how the review process works. It's the reason publishers give away thousands of copies of books every year to conventions and publications. Word of mouth is the single strongest promotional tool writers can have on their side. Locking up the electronic forms of books so readers are captive to a proprietary format hurts that potential word of mouth by restricting readership conditions. It also insults the buyer of your book with the supposition that they can't be trusted. While it's not the writer who makes that decision, it's the writer who will suffer most when the books don't sell.

DRM is largely a tool for maintaining industry control; it doesn't help writers. It would be nice if writers were guaranteed to get money every time anyone read our books in any format and from any source. But that has never and will never happen. I'm not sure what changes we need to make to the way we manage intellectual propery in this electronic age, and how we give writers and other intellectual creators a reasonable chance to profit from their work, but I am sure that draconian DRMs aren't them.

Now, go read Simon's book. It's much funnier than I am.

Tonight at Third Place in Lake Forest Park! (Where the cool Steve works.)

Back when I was a newbie author I went to a convention--my first convention as a "pro", though I didn't actually have a book coming out for 3 months. In the Green Room I was introduced to a crowd of fabulous people who were all very friendly and nice to terrified me. Some of them I still manage to stay in touch with. Of those was a tall, ginger-haired guy...

And he was telling a story about himself that went sort of along these lines (this is the best I can remember it, not actually word-for-word):



This very funny and self-deprecating man was Ken Scholes (kenscholes ). And later I heard him read a short story of his own that was amazing and sad and surprising--about a colony of monkeys on the moon and what happens as they approach sentience.... It was creepy and wonderful and Ken delivered it well.

I read some more Ken Scholes stories and they were all strange and wonderful and had odd little endings that quirked off in unexpected ways and made me go "wow." One day while chatting to Ken at a con about various writerly things I said "you really ought to write a novel. You have such wonderful strange ideas, but you have to make them so short and they have so much potential to be big strange stories. People don't know about you. Write a novel..."

Little did I know i was far from the first to say that or what was happening in the darkness of publishing as I did. But at the time, Ken said he wasn't sure he could sustain a good story for a whole novel.

He was wrong. This came out today:



It's the first of five and though I haven't started it yet, the part Ken read tonight at his first-ever signing event was wonderful and creepy and strange. It's not quite fantasy and not quite science fiction and altogether odd, but it's pure Ken. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, to be sure, but it's certainly going to be worth tasting.

I'm copying this from my Recent Reading page because I just can't let it hide in a corner. I love this book that much.

Trigger City, by Sean Chercover (Ray Dudgeon PI mystery #2): First I have to own up that I know Sean and consider him a friend so, yes I'm biased, but... Goddamn is this a good book! I liked the first one, Big City, Bad Blood, a lot and I like this one even more. Sean's already-sharp and noir-lyric writing has gotten even better and his plot is tighter than ever. PI-hero Ray Dudgeon is still messed up and hardheaded, but you have to pull for him, love him, and admire his sense of honor. He's a twenty-first century Sam Spade. This time around Ray gets sucked into dark doings that revolve around the murder of the daughter of a retired Army Intelligence officer, the suicide of her killer, private military contractors, Chinese dissidents, and political corruption. I had the feeling there was some tiny flaw somewhere, but I never could put my finger on it, so hypnotic is Chercover's storytelling. It's a corker of a story, violent and gritty and mesmerizing. Chercover is still the best new PI novelist of the decade.

The downside: it's so good it makes me cry and think I'll never equal it.