Happy A Local Habitation Day!

A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire is officially out in stores today! All of you folks interested in urban fantasy and fairy tales should go out and buy it. Now. Don't worry, I'll wait. If you're in a Barnes & Noble, look for the standee! If you haven't yet gotten your hands on Rosemary and Rue, the first book of the series, go ahead and buy them both.

Oh, yes, my friends. They are that good.

Let's steal a peek at the book blurb from Seanan's website, shall we?

After spending fourteen years lost to both the fae and mortal worlds, only to be dragged back into Faerie by the murder of someone close to her, October "Toby" Daye really just wants to spend a little time getting her footing. She's putting her life back together. Unfortunately, this means going back to work for Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills, doing her duty as a knight errant. That isn't the sort of thing that exactly lends itself to a quiet existence, and before she knows it, Toby's back on the road, heading for the County of Tamed Lightning in Fremont, California to check on Sylvester's niece, January.

Things in Tamed Lightning turn out to be a lot stranger than they seemed at first glance, and Toby's talent for finding trouble isn't doing her any favors. With Quentin—a young foster from Sylvester's Court—in tow, and the stakes getting higher all the time, it's up to Toby to solve the mystery of Tamed Lightning, or face a failure whose cost will be too high for anyone to pay.

Mystery! Suspense! Danger! Also: dryads! Bannicks! Cait sidhe! And probably more coffee than you can shake a stick at.

And, now, an endorsement from my cats:

Tiger Jack fights off a nap in order to make sure you're not thinking of stealing his book.

( +4 more Cat Endorsements behind the cut... )

* Just to reassure you all that I wasn't torturing my cats by taking these pictures: Kaylee is opening her mouth in this picture in preparation to begin washing herself. She's not actually pissed. ;) Also, while I gave Kaylee the book in the latter pictures, Tiger Jack actually snuggled up to it by himself later in the day when I took the top pictures. Seriously, he likes to dream of Tybalt.

This entry was originally posted over at Livejournal on March 2nd, 2010. You can comment here or there.

Short fiction sale! + Blogging for Cabinet des Fées.

Happy news! The March issue of EMG-Zine, all about dance, is now live: within its pages, you will find my very short story "When Death Dances." Please, do give the magazine a read-through! And, if you've a mind, tell me what you think of my sort-of fairy tale about dance and La Muerta.







I've recently begun blogging for Cabinet des Fées, although both of my early blogs have been reviews of one kind or another. I'm incredibly grateful to Erzebet for the opportunity to do so, and hope all of you will check Cabinet des Fées often (or join cabinetdesfees , where the notifications come to you) to see what new content has gone up between official issues. I'm not the only contributor: besides my two reviews linked below, Donna Quattrone has reviewed Impossible by Nancy Werlin.

My first blog went up on February 17th, and contains a rather personal look at the fairy tale "Brother and Sister" through the lens of Terri Windling's poetry and Lisa Stock's short film:

I remember, perhaps ten years ago, first reading Terri Windling’s "Brother and Sister." I was in college, on my own for the first time and, in several private ways, learning what it was to survive. It was the afternoon, golden light sliding through autumn trees and filtering through an unclothed window. I was thumbing through one of my favorite sites, The Endicott Studio, and there it was.

"do you remember, brother / those days in the wood…"

I read, rapt. I read again. And then I abandoned that cold dorm room of linoleum and concrete for the college green with its fringe of wood. I ached to leap and run, but I settled for hugging my goosebumped-arms and walking down to the white gazebo near the pond with its overgrown banks. Perhaps I wrote some; perhaps I only dreamed. Windling’s words rattled inside me, sowing fierce joy and nettling discontent.

[Read the rest of the article at this link.]

My second blog post, which went up just yesterday, covers Syfy's announcement that their new brand of Saturday Night Original Movies will be re-imagined fairy tales and the rather awful Beauty and the Beast that served as their launch piece:

Most of you are probably already aware of Syfy’s new Saturday night original movie plans: seeking fertile ground after endless iterations of disaster movies and mega-monsters, Syfy has turned their sights on fairy tales, legendary figures, and classic children’s literature.

It’s not completely surprising: Syfy’s airing of Tin Man in 2007 and Alice last year suggested a quiet testing of the waters, feeling for viewer response to dark re-imaginings of familiar childhood tales. I haven’t seen Tin Man, the bleak and fantastical riff on The Wizard of Oz starring Zooey Daschanel, but I’ve heard it wasn’t a waste. Its ratings were phenomenal (for Syfy) and it was nominated for several Emmys, one of which it won. This past December, I was fully immersed in the fan response to the grungy and noirish Alice starring Caterina Scorsone and Andrew Lee Potts — Alice in Wonderland post-legendary age, basically — and there is a relatively small, yet dedicated and thriving fanbase. Critical reception, on the other hand, has been much more tepid. (For my part, I thought Alice had great potential, but that’s a topic for a future review.)

[Read the rest of the article at this link.]

Discussion is keen! Share any thoughts you might have over in the comments sections at Cabinet des Fées!

This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on March 3rd, 2010. You can comment here or there.