It feels very aggressive and unkind to go around being October. I’m not ready for it. It’s time to reread that famous McSweeney’s article, It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.
It has been a really long, rough week around here. We had to say goodbye to our older dog yesterday. Although I don’t think anyone can own a dog that is approaching her fifteenth birthday and not feel the relentless march of time, her decline at the last was very precipitous and distressing. So I’m going to keep this email short. Here is a portrait I painted of Maya almost ten years ago. She liked cheese and peanut butter, loved her people and no one else, and tolerated cats. In addition to various tricks she consented to do, she was constantly in the kitchen when the cheese drawer opened or a bag of popcorn crinkled, even well past the point when she seemed fairly deaf otherwise.
Some bad news: I am turning off the TeeSpring shop where formerly you could buy T-shirts with the book covers on them. TeeSpring (now just “Spring” after a merger) seems to have stopped fulfilling orders—I ordered some shirts in August that had not been printed more than a month later, and an online search turned up people who had been waiting for much longer than six weeks. I don’t imagine this will affect anyone too much, but if you decide you want one, contact me directly.
Upcoming Appearances
I will be sitting on a panel at Rainbow Space Magic Con! This year, we’re talking about Writing About the Past to Talk About the Present, because once upon a time I read the in-book introduction to The Name of the Rose and thought, oh, this isn’t really about the 1100s. Or not entirely. I’ll also be doing a reading! What will I be reading? I don’t know yet. Maybe something from Lazarus, Home from the War. Maybe something new!
The panel will be Sunday at 11am CT, and the reading will be three hours later, at 2pm CT. Rainbow Space Magic Con is a queer-friendly scifi/fantasy convention that is online and free to attend. It’s a one-stream con, so you never have to make decisions about which panels to attend and which to skip. You can see the whole schedule and register here.
Finally, I will be giving a talk on finding joy and fellowship in revision at Wholehearted Writers Week in January (the 12-16)! It is tentatively entitled, “Oh no, you accidentally finished your manuscript! Now what?” Because I think we can all agree that just having a manuscript you endlessly tinker with and add to is, if not the best possible way to live, certainly the most relaxing. No publishing deadlines, no problem. If you are interested in a week-long chance to talk to other writers about your projects and problems, you should definitely check it out. Details here.
Books I’ve Read Lately
I picked up Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher (M/F, cis) knowing that Kingfisher writes a lot of fantasy/horror. I was prepared for that—ready to watch some poor sucker walk down the wrong alley and get eaten by a monster. Instead, it was a very sweet romance set in an interesting world, and it was also very funny. It lacked some of the pointed political commentary of Terry Pratchett, but I think it would appeal to people who liked Discworld and don’t mind a little romance. It was also a very comforting read, despite the fact that there are a couple of decapitations and a poisoning or two (including, actually, a poor sucker who walks down an alley and gets eaten by a monster).
That’s it for this month. See you in November.