No, really, we do, and I’ve seen the evidence today!

That’s right, time for an inane post, because I’ve just come back from the Library of Congress National Book Festival, which was lovely in spite of the Mall being sodden and squishy and the weather being grey and sticky. We wandered a bit, and made it just in time to catch Neil Gaiman reading from The Graveyard Book, a very funny bit about revenge. (Imagine that, the guy who wrote half of Good Omens and the whole of Anansi Boys is funny!) Then he answered questions and admitted to stealing book ideas from his children and waking up 3/4 of the way through every book he’s ever written and going, “Maybe I should really go and get a proper job.”

I’m not sure if it makes me feel better or worse, knowing that even when you’re that good, and been doing it for that long, you still have those moments. But since I’m so happy today, I’ll go with much, much better! (If you didn’t have those moments, you’d be taking it for granted, you jerk!)

Sadly I was about five minutes late to get one of the advance copies of The Graveyard Book that Harper allowed to be sold there. So upsetting, seeing a bunch of people clutching it in the checkout line. My husband offered to tackle someone and get me one, but I thought it best to avoid an incident. Though that might make for a good story, some day.

(Yes, he was kidding. Anyhow, I’m scrappier than him.)

Three days and it’s out though! How exciting! So I thought I’d link here to this month’s interview with him on that very subject from GoodReads. Also thought, just in case people don’t stalk Gaiman’s blog like some others I know (starts with the letter “K”…), I might mention that Harper Collins has Neverwhere online for free– you can read it there or download the whole thing. It explodes after 30 days though. Or you’re supposed to burn it. Something like that, it’s all very Inspector Gadget.

While I’m fangirling, also wanted to point out the GoodReads interview from this month with the horribly awesome Neal Stephenson. I really need to get my hands on Anathem, but I’m not quite as twitchy about it because I’ve got to finish the Baroque Cycle first.

Yay, October is for Reading! (This is me, trying not to start writing anything else huge until November. Oh please, please, please don’t let me start anything else huge until November…)

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Now playing: The Charlatans – Acid In the Tea
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Some news!

In a really cool move from the editorial staff at Graveside Tales, Harvest Hill has been moved to an October 2009 release date. Talk about something taking on a life of its own, huh? I feel pretty lucky to have placed Poor Andrew Boyd, my first historical horror (a genre in which I hope to produce much more) story, in a collection that gives this much thought to the importance of timing and quality. Fantastic!

In the meantime, we’ll have more than enough to sate ourselves with the delicious-sounding offerings from The Beast Within. Its own special brand of amazing, no? Mmm, werebeasts!

Less exciting and immediate, I’ve just finished the second draft of a novel, The Audio File. Oh dear, what ever will I do with October, until NaNoWriMo comes to sort me out?

(The answer: Read. Like mad. Mmm, National Book Festival this weekend!)

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Now playing: Felix Mendelssohn – The Italian Symphony: II. Andante con moto
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So yesterday I finished up a very, very painful, yet very, very fun edit of the first novel I ever finished. This will be draft nine. I’ve been working on this [expletive deleted] for about eight years. (No, that is not normal for me. But you always know sweet FA on the first one.) This time, after advice from a really, really nice agent who had the partial, liked my writing very much, but wasn’t into my pacing, I slashed it harder than ever. I slashed an entire novella worth of words out of it.

I’m happy as hell, but let me tell you, my brain is pretty much fried right now; I’m lucky I remember my own name. So when Cate and Natalie gave me tags again today, this time for a great excuse to procrastinate, I got excited.

I’m supposed to tag other people, so if I gave you the blog love award, consider yourself tagged. Er, except the two who tagged me. So I guess I tag… Jen and Reenie! Yeah! You two!

So here we go, more personal information than you probably wanted. Right on.

1. What are your nicknames?

My husband’s family are the only people who call me by my full name, Kathryn, because apparently “Katey” sounds a lot like the word for a thief in Tamil. Everyone else just gives me Kate or Katey. (I dunno why it’s spelled like that, my mom is a little strange. I think that’s part of the whole Mom Thing though.)

2. What game show and/or reality show would you like to be on?

The only one I ever watch is Jeopardy!, and my husband tells me every day I should go on it since all that’s in my head is useless trivia. I think it’d be less fun to play than to watch, though.

Does Ghost Hunters count? I’d totally ghost hunt with them, Jay and Grant are awesome.

3. What was the first movie you bought in VHS or DVD?

The first VHS I remember buying with my own money is The Crow. I must’ve been 14 or so, and I was visiting my cousins in Richmond and got it used at Blockbuster or something. When I got a DVD player after college, I immediately bought This Is Spinal Tap.

4. What is your favorite scent?

Sandalwood.

5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it?

Travel. I’m supposed to go to Brussels and possibly even Amsterdam next year, and it’ll be the first time I’ve been to Europe, so I have a lot of work to do over there. Never been to Africa either. Asia I have pretty well covered, but I’ve only ever been in the Osaka airport in Japan, so I need to hit that bit too.

6. What one place have you visited that you can’t forget and want to go back to?

I’ll always love Kathmandu, but today I ate South Indian food for the first time since our last trip to the husband’s Old Country (two years ago). I’m a little desperate for my mother-in-law’s sambar right now, so I have to go with Madras.

I’m going there and to Delhi in January though, so yay!

7. Do you trust easily?

No. But I’m often loyal to the point of stupidity once I do.

8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think?

I overcompensate for my ridiculous temper by thinking these days. Nothing is funnier than a 5′2″ bundle of rage. (Or, according to some, scarier.)

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy lately?

Two words: sleep paralysis. But it’s fleeting and rare, so surely I won’t be blessed with another bout in the next year or so! I’m a pretty happy person, nothing sticks to me for long. (It’s a fine line between happy and stupid, isn’t it?)

10. Do you have a good body image?

I don’t think about it that much, I’m always thinking about things I deem more interesting. I work out a few times a week and stop eating when I’m not hungry anymore, if that counts.

11. What is your favorite fruit?

Man this is hard. My favorite fruit flavor is probably pomegranate, but eating them is a pain in the ass.

I really like limes. Limes are good for the old G&T. Let’s go with limes.

12. What websites do you visit daily?

Graveside Tales forums, InsaneJournal (personal/project journal and awesome writer’s group are there), Last.fm, epic fantasy type RP run by my friend John, Washington Post.

13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately?

I can’t stop listening to the last Kooks album, Konk! The first album was okay, but I really like this one. (Crap lyrics and loud music? Yes please!) Plus I saw them at V Fest and they were really good live, that always brings the love.

Also, Dexter.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

Both of them are freakishly talented. Cate is genuine and clever, a neverending stream of Good Ideas. Natalie is funny and weird in the best possible way.

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?

I woke up singing Fluorescent Adolescent by the Arctic Monkeys, which is a serious ear worm (because Alex Turner is an evil boy genius).

you used to get it in your fishnets
now you only get it in your night dress
discarded all the naughty nights for niceness
landed in a very common crisis

I’ve been listening to them all day since.

16. What’s your favorite item of clothing?

Jackets or sweatshirts. I’m wearing the one from V Fest today.

17. Do you think Rice Krispies are yummy?

I like Cocoa Krispies. Milk is gross, but at least it tastes like chocolate after that.

18. What would you do if you saw $100 lying on the ground?

Probably try to find who lost it, if possible. If not, I suppose I’d consider it lucky and buy something random for someone I knew was having a crap day. And… I don’t know. A bottle of some decent Supertuscan.

19. What items could you not go without during the day?

There should always be a notebook and pen somewhere nearby, if the computer isn’t. Or my phone, so I can email myself ideas. That’d be okay too.

Also, toothpaste. And those little moist towelette things. My purse is stuffed full of them, like I’m already someone’s grandma, I swear.

20. What should you be doing right now?

Figuring out what to do for this second draft of another project (It’s from the Audio File, which I really want to have sorted out by the end of the holidays so I can start queries). I need to write a new scene, and I know what I want out of it– I just don’t know what kind of action would be best to get it. I managed to put it off to edit vampires, but now that excuse is gone and my uselessness exposed.

And that’s me!

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Now playing: Arctic Monkeys – What If You Were Right The First Time?
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A Plague of goodwill is sweeping the blogosphere! Imagine how I blushed when I saw that

Natalie L. Sin loves my blog

and

Catherine J. Gardner loves my blog

Unexpected, and totally rad, if I may go 1980s on you for just a moment. (Yeah I had a lot of slap bracelets. It’s true.)

So now it’s my turn to spread the love, and nominate my favorite blogs. Seeing as I do a blog roundup at least once a week, usually every day, I am so ready for this. Blog party.

So, if I nominate you and you feel like spreading some love too:

1) Add the logo of your award to your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.

3) Nominate at least seven other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on your blogs.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Mine go to:

1. Megan Price. The subject matter couldn’t be futher removed from this blog, I realize. But Meg is many things– avid reader (there is little as fun as browsing a book shop in Decatur with her), PhD candidate (statistics, public health. Tell me she’s not getting into heaven, I dare you), and unbearably smart woman. She blogs about things I love: social equality, books, touring whiskey distilleries in Ireland, and how awesome vaccines are. Get this woman an award.

2. Michael Stone. I’m reading his book– a collection of four novellas titled Fourtold right now. I don’t need any other reason to give him an award, because the man has talent like you would not believe. But I’m sure I’ll devote an entire post to that later, so I won’t get ahead of myself. Mike is a genuine class act nice guy, he writes like a demon, and he likes the Verve. I feel really lucky to be alongside him in Harvest Hill next month.

3. Meghan Brunner. Okay, I’ve never been on the inside of a Renn Fest. The closest I’ve ever come is that episode of King of the Hill with Alan Rickman as the misogynistic king. Meghan makes me wish I was on the inside, like her, and then she makes me feel like I am. She writes flat out charming (Haha, get it? Charm? Like the magic… right, forget I said that.) books about rennies and Magick, and her posts are full of much of the same goodness. Plus cats, social issues, and yard sale adventures.

4. N. K. Kingston. A blog I can relate to. Here we have another speculative fiction geek breaking into the market– except that she makes it look graceful. I love blogs that catalogue a writer’s trials and happinesses while slogging along this muddy freaking path we’re all crazy enough to attempt. This is a good, thought-provoking take on the slog, and the good and bad you find on the way. Writing, subbing, learning, all of it. (Plus, she puts up stories that run in her University magazine on her site. Free entertainment. Seriously. Award!)

5. Jodi Lee. With this one, I get the perspective of both editor and author (and she’ll dye her hair strange colors on a bet!) It’s remarkable and helpful to learn from someone with this kind of experience, but it’s even better when they make it look like this much fun. Plus, for someone whose site is called “Jodi Lee Bleeds”, and who writes such awesome twisted stuff, she’s so optimistic. Hard not to appreciate the contrast. She sounds like the most fun mom ever.

6. Catherine J Gardner. Look, I know what you’re thinking. “You can’t just nominate the same person who nominated you! That’s cheating!” Well, you know what? Too bad. I check this blog every day, both to see what kind of new devilry Cate’s up to, and to see what everyone else is up to. Aaron Polson, another cheater (I’ll get to him in this month’s spec fic post), called her the “social glue of the blogosphere”. Truer words, man. She’s kind, she’s candid, she has some of the best first lines I’ve ever read, and her Burying Sam made me want to start making rec posts in the first place. Lots of goodness coming from her in 2008, y’all.

7. Natalie L. Sin. Oh no, I’m doing it again! Okay, look, I already said I’m a cheater. If you read this blog you’ll understand why I have to. She manages to make every post at once entertaining, thoughtful, and oftentimes flat out hilarious. You just need to scroll down the page and witness the pictures that accompany each one to get a taste of her wicked sense of humor. I think the picture of the plastic pig full of candy almost broke me. Almost. (Or wait, maybe that was the story about the garden and the baby and… hmm…)

So hey. I love your blogs!

While I’m giving shout-outs, happy birthday to Neuroscientist Reenie– probably the only Ivy League student to spend any amount of time inventing vampire science and urban fantasies involving devil flies.

-Katey

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Now playing: The Kinks – Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
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I know, I go two weeks without a word in this thing, then I’m suddenly all over it. But I have news!

1. Lime Green Closet will be in the inaugural October print of Candlelight. From what I gather it will publish three times a year, and I wasn’t quite sure where it stood in terms of fitting in. As it turns out, this is going to be a hell of a fall for me. (I knew it was my favorite time of year for a reason. And here I thought it was the leaves and the weather.)

So the Publications page has been updated, and since I have a love of lists that borders on the neurotic, I’m very pleased.

2. This has been up for a week or so, but Graveside Tales has released the ToC for Harvest Hill. Look at some of those titles– and one for every day of the month of October. How can I not be super excited to see this thing? Of course, it’s constructed in chronological order, which makes me wonder why I didn’t think twice about writing something Revolutionary War era.

I will be honest. Going first always makes me nervous. But I guess I always swam first in my relay back in the day, so whatever right? It’s just like that!

… right.

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Now playing: Gruff Rhys – Ambell Waith / Remembering
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