Hey y’all. Here’s wishing awesomeness on all your Halloween plans! We’re going, of all places, to Mt. Vernon– which is George Washington’s house/mass of farms, about ten minutes away. We’re a whole family of nerds, that’s right.

So the contest was amazing. If you haven’t looked at all the answers yet (and you like morally ambiguous/awful characters as much as I), please do, because there are some great ones there. Actually they’re all great ones. You guys are pretty twisted.

Right, sorry, without further ado, here are the names Mom picked out of the box this morning! If you’re here, drop me a line at kate@kvtaylor.com with the necessary info.

Aaron Polson wins a copy of Grants Pass. Let me know if you want me to, er, deface it, and where I should send it!
Samantha Sterner wins a notebook from Colette Paperie. Let me know which design you’d like and where I should send it.
Jodi Lee wins a notebook from Colette Paperie. Let me know which design you’d like and where I should send it.

This is not a judgment of your pick, because that would’ve been impossible– totally random draw, like I say. What a table full of lovely, despicable characters we’ll have. (And I definitely filled out my wish list thanks to them.) Thanks so much for playing!

For the curious, the character likely responsible for this quirk of mine is Dorian Gray, who I love for being so god awful– and it’s my favorite book. I didn’t give him as an example because I thought him a likely suspect, but there were just so many excellent ones from which to pick. Still, I doubt he’d like to be left out, so there it is!

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Now playing: The Horrors – Do You Remember
via FoxyTunes

Less than 24 hours before the invitations stop going out. Oh no! The most awful guest list of the year– how could you live with the mortification of not being on it?

Okay, so very easily, I know. But come on, it’ll be fun!

What I mean to say is that the contest closes at 11pm EST tomorrow, October 30. I have my parents in for the weekend, and I’m gonna get my mom to draw the names. Mom Magic. That’s right. It just got that much cooler up in this party.

And two more days for those of you forging bravely into NaNoWriMo, which is very exciting. Even though I’m not going with you, I’ll be here cheering on the sidelines, waving my arms. I’d do a cheer or two, but at my age it’s undignified. (Seriously, does anyone else think it’s really, really weird that professional football teams have cheerleaders? I mean, I get it; they’re hot and all. I appreciate the hotness fully, believe me. But be honest: it’s creepy. And that’s saying a lot, coming from me. Hey, I think I just got a story idea…)

Here’s to inspiration in your brain and cramp-free fingers all month long!

Harvest Hill, if I’m interpreting things correctly, should be here on schedule for Halloween. Woo hoo! In that spirit, you can read John Palisano’s excellent The Outlaws of Hill County.

Also, please enjoy his horror-comic trailer for this lovely little collection:

How’s that for fun times? More news when the book becomes available for order, but all I can say right now is, yay!

And in other news, if you’ve not hit it up yet, please do go to the next post down on this here interweb page and enter the contest. Pretty (and/or Manly) Notebooks! Grants Pass! A couple of days before it’s over, but man that guest list is awesome beyond my wildest hopes already. You guys rock (in a sort of disturbing way, which as we all know is the best).

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Now playing: Manic Street Preachers – Virginia State Epileptic Colony
via FoxyTunes

ETA 30 OCT, 11PM: This contest is now closed. Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

I said I was going to have a contest, which I’ve never done before. Originally I was just going to ask for book recs, because I need one or two more to round out my in-progress holiday haul list. But that’s too easy, isn’t it? No, no, it needs to be something more entertaining than that, and something that’ll tell me why I need this book so badly.

Here’s the idea*: I’m having a Halloween party. You’re all invited, but you have to bring a guest– a fictional character from one of your favorite books. There’s no limitation on genre, place of origin (yours or theirs), or whether or not I’ve read the book before, but there is one catch. They have to be awful. Not necessarily a villain, but just awful human beings in some way: evil, smarmy, cruel, spiteful, careless, miserable, self-centered, vicious, murderous, emo beyond belief, or just flat out jerk-faced. You really ought to hate them, and you know it, but you love them. Not in spite of being awful, but for being awful.**

Any writer who can create those types of characters, I’ll surely love; any book that features them, I’ll adore. So who are you bringing, and why? Anyone who helps to fill the guest list (and my book haul) with a beautifully awful character gets entered into a totally random drawing for prizes!

1. The first name drawn gets a copy of Grants Pass from Morrigan Books. It’s a first print run, so it has a bookplate inside with lots of awesome signatures–collectors item! Hell, I’ll even deface it for you too, if you really want.

2. The next two names drawn — I’ll buy you your choice of mini journal from Colette Paperie. They’re hand-printed Moleskine journals, so you too can be a privileged little artiste! (Thanks for that link, Nat. Ha!)

And of course, if the person drawn first already has GP (leave me a note to let me know if you do when you enter, sil vous plait), they get a journal, and the book goes to the next name drawn. And don’t worry if I’ve already read the book from which your character of awful choice comes– I still want to know who you love in spite of yourself.

What can I say– moral ambiguity does it for me. So who are you bringing to this unpleasant little soiree of mine? Post an answer on this thread before 11pm on October 30, and I’ll announce the winners on Halloween night!

Not enough contest for you? Try Barry’s!

*The idea comes from this post– of all things, a Border’s True Romance blog post, which I found thanks to the badass Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
**As a well-known example, I love Jaime Lannister from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The first time we meet Jaime, he throws a little boy off a tower because the kid saw him screwing his own twin sister– and he just gets more awful from there. But there’s something weird about his f@%ked up sense of loyalty that, once I got his PoV, made him into my favorite character in the series.

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Now playing: Louis XIV – There’s a Traitor In This Room
via FoxyTunes

Actually I feel like that was the name of a club back when I lived in Cleveland. Trilogy. Or was that Columbus?

Anyhow, yesterday in my mailbox I had lots of goodies. The first was the long awaited third in Meghan Brunner’s Pendragon Trilogy. Yay! That’s not Pendragon as in Uther– well it kind of is, actually, but Pendragon Renaissance Faire in Minnesota. I think I discussed before how these books show a kind of mastery of the whole indie, do-it-yourself ideal and how The Gods of Writing intended it to be used– knowing your niche, finding it, and then spreading the appeal well outside of it. Totally not qualified to give any kind of review of this last one, since I was kind of involved in editing it up, but– well, crazy fae, not-so-imaginary friends, road rennies, past lives, girl love, and many other things that sparkle (but not in a vampire in the sunlight way. Oh dear god, no). Shiny books by people I know! Yay!

See– looks so pretty on my shelf:

So does Travelin’ Cthulhu. Lookin’ good, buddy.

But man, nothing like a complete set to satisfy my weird ass categorizing urges, really. (At least until she starts the next ones, set at Desert Sun Faire. Then I’m screwed again.) And as a kind of side note, if you’re into SCA or Fest stuff, Megh’s site is also a great resource for crafters, pictures, performers, faire/events listings and the like. Maybe you could find something in your area. I mean, I know my year feels incomplete without at least one joust.

I also got copies of Grants Pass for my family– plus one mysterious extra. I smell a Halloween contest cooking… (If you already bought GP, no worries. There are other tricks– or treats, yeah treats!– to be had.)

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Now playing: Beethoven, Ludwig van – Sonata No 8 in C minor op 13 ‘Pathetique’; 2. Adagio cantabile
via FoxyTunes