Writerly musings and a celebratory give away

[fireun]

One week until the anthology with my story is on sale.

With the 2011 I had- parental heart attack, grad school, sister taking her own life, losing my home to a flood- in the middle of all of that, who would have thought I would have my shit together enough to get a story out there, much less accepted for publication? If I ever needed a kick in the shin to point out writing was a thing I can do, that was it.

Yes, yes, it is only a short story. But for someone who spends as much time writing as I do, who has been writing for as long as I have, it is that little bit of validation that this has not been time wasted, and it is huge encouragement towards completing the books patiently waiting in the background while life has its way with me.

For someone who spent years arranging book signings and doing everything in my power to get books on shelves for authors, it is fascinating to now be on the other side of things.

Next Tuesday A Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity goes on sale. I get to smile hugely and suggest you go buy something I wrote this time around, as opposed to putting a shout out for a friend in this space. That is Very Cool.

As I used to do when running signings at the store, I will have a copy of the book to give away. I will scribble in it for you. Leave me a comment with your favorite Fae creature, from any corner of the globe. I will have Molly the Ferret randomly liberate a name from a box next Tuesday.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

My author copy arrived this morning, and I am planning an evening reading it. I am so happy to be in an anthology with you.

[ariella dalfen (from livejournal.com)]

I come back to Lj from facebook just so I could enter this giveaway. I so want an April book with scribblings!

Favorite Fae Creature: Brownie, because I'd love to think I have one that takes my shiny laundry money.

[questofdreams.livejournal.com]

I have already preordered, but I would not object to a scribbled-in copy! My favorite Fae creature.. hmm... pixies are fun, but I am rather fond of the selkie stories.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I wanna play, if I can?

My favorite fae are the puca. :D

[fieryredqueen.livejournal.com]

I know it's just Discworld nonsense, but I've always been partial to the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men. :D

[fireun.livejournal.com]

I have a deep and desperate love for Feegles :D

...we even had a foster ferret named Rob Anybody. The name was...fitting.

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

augh! i did not know that this existed until now! augh!

um. my favourite fae creature? lunantishee.

AUGH!

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

also i did not know that so much shit had happened! i'm so sorry i haven't been here! i'm so sorry for everything! i'm so proud of you! i'm so sorry i wasn't here to be proud of you! augh!

[fireun.livejournal.com]

It's totally ok! Life happens :)

*HUG!*

[fireun.livejournal.com]

Also, have not done the drawing yet, so you commented in time

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

yeah only i won't win, because i won one thing once in my entire life, and it got me a vanilla tootsie-pop. one of the little ones.

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

(i hate vanilla tootsie-pop candies. actually i hate candy. but i did buy your book.)

[fireun.livejournal.com]

I don't enjoy candy either. Chocolate is an entirely different monster and I will devour good chocolate like nothing else in this world. But candy is...meh.

Also, thank you!

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

considering that amazon just told me that my copy had shipped, i'm assuming i didn't win this one either?

yeah, this month has been made of SUCK. besides my mother ranting about 'WHY HAVEN'T YOU GONE TO A NEUROLOGIST--oh. you HAVE been on all the anti-spasmodics? but what about--oh, THAT was the one that made you forget everything for three years and you kept waking up on the floor 20 minutes after you were somewhere else doing something like bathing or laundry or cleaning the bird cage? the one that made you forget who i was?' 'yes mum, THAT one'. '...now, you're being stupid not seeing a neurologist, i KNOW something's wrong with you, there has to be *some* medication--' 'moma. i've taken them all. remember?' 'no, there's got to be more--' 'moma. remember the one that made me forget who i was?' 'oh...THAT one. you mean...' 'yes, moma, they're all in the same family.' 'well, you certainly can't take THAT again. but there has to be...' it goes on like this for hours. then she finishes up with 'well YOU may have given up but *i* certainly haven't, and it's going to be someplace right under our noses, you just aren't giving homeopathy a chance' and there goes another fight.

she had ECT. she wants me to try it. i watched her go through it. i refuse. i have my out very carefully scheduled...when i decide it's gotten bad enough to not know who i am when i wake up the next day, or more importantly, when i know that when i wake up the next day, i won't remember how to complete the plan, or that there IS a plan. i want to be me right up until the moment that i know that if i don't do this NOW, there will no longer be a 'me' and i will finish it right then.

to everyone who ever takes a psychiatric drug, i say: hold onto yourself, and ask one question: are the people giving you this stuff taking it themselves? when you don't know whether you'll know who you are in the morning--stop the meds--and if you still don't know--then it's time. go out with dignity. i will. i hope. unless i miscalculate. in which case, please visit me in the nursing home and accidentally drop a fatal pill next to me. i will, i hope, remember to take it, then claim that i found it on the floor.

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

yeah, but instead of having seizures and feeling sorry for myself i'd have liked to have been there for you. i mean, we only have so much time, right? i'd like to spend mine on the right things. so i'll say it now, i am SO SORRY, i am more proud of you than caps can manage to convey, and *flings armloads of hugs.

so there.

dammit, i didn't even get your xmas card out. if it makes you feel any better, NOBODY got xmas cards except for two waitresses we regularly see at the local diner and my great-uncle, who has disowned/been disowned by that entire side of the family, along with me. i promised to make him a dog sweater, but warned him that it likely wouldn't show up until july. sadly that part seems to be true.

but i still adore you. and i'm still so sorry and SO proud.

[fireun.livejournal.com]

Having seizures is totally a reason to be away/less attentive to the internet.

I do enjoy hugs, and will happily accept the armload offered :D And I adore you as well. It is truly excellent to hear from you! *HUG*

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

*shrug* i wander. everyone who knows me knows this. i always come back, though, even if it's been years. i just...wander. this time, i'd gotten to go OUT, and i was working on a pair of lace fingerless gloves i'd drunkenly promised to make at a party, and i'm on my third start-over because i've never made gloves before and the pattern doesn't make SENSE and if you drop a stitch you are SO FUCKED...i was only on the second start-over because i thought 'no...cuff is too long and not loose enough' and i'm doing this special twist that nobody but a knitter would ever notice, and just, gods. at this point it's a pride thing, d'you know? it's not just that i made a PROMISE to someone drunk who, as justin pointed out, has never once called me to check on the progress or even just be my friend, she said 'so i told my other friend $30, is that okay?' ...i spent $20 on the yarn...but i said yeah, okay. justin told me to just STOP, i hurt too much (i do) and she hadn't ever called me as a friend, could i name one time? ...no...the only time i talked to her after was when i was trying to decipher something she'd written on the party napkin that neither of us could figure had any relation to the gloves. but...i made a PROMISE. and...a challenge to myself...and i swore to myself that when i got far enough that i was on the edge, i'd end it. i have a piece of tapestry about 1/2 done that i figure will be my last, if i don't start getting my brain back soon. only...then i had another seizure. and i have this DAMNED ganglion cyst, and my fibro gets worse by the day, my mother can't remember what she said yesterday and i can't blame her because i can't remember what i said ten minutes ago but i can live what i had to ten years ago, and i *can't make these fucking gloves* because my hands hurt too much.

i can't decide whether it's time to take too much aspirin (only thing that helps) or OD and fling myself off a bridge onto the freeway or WHAT. but i am so very sorry that i wasn't there to cheer when you finished your degree. i'm cheering now. have more hugs. *offers another armload* they don't hurt to give unless you forget and touch my right hand.