Mumble Herder

1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.

2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay. First of Charlie's three books about witchcraft (I think it's safe to say that it's magic, but in context it's witchcraft) and the American Revolutionary War. Proctor Brown has big ambitions, but they have to do with farming and marrying just slightly above his station, not with revolution and a shadow war between witches, so of course it's the latter that he ends up with. Brown knows little of his own powers, so when he stumbles into the middle of a struggle between British and Colonial magic, he's in completely over his head--this is the sort of story where power without knowledge can get you killed. It's fast-moving, smart, and well-researched; the period details feel genuine, and the historical events are presented with accuracy, as far as I can tell--at least, I was able to answer a question on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?"* based entirely on what I learned from this book, so I'd say I was learning as I was entertained. Charlie manages to get his characters involved with historical events without making it feel forced, which is saying something.

I liked the Ohio joke, too, Charlie.

*No, I wasn't on the show, I was watching it.

As mentioned in the previous post, Tim Akers' book Heart of Veridon comes out today. Two other books I've been looking forward to, also by friends, are out today as well, making this a trifecta of Tuesday goodness. Be on the lookout for:

Justine Larbalestier's Liar



Cherie Priest's Boneshaker



and the aforementioned Heart of Veridon



Yay books!

Is that gregvaneekhout's book is out today:



And so is the second book in ccfinlay's three-books-no-waiting trilogy "Traitor to the Crown":



Go get them!

Too often I fail to post about books what my friends have wrote. Writed. WRITERIZED. (Grammar and I is on the outs today.) Today, at least, I will try to rectify that. Two good people have books coming out today: Cat Valente's Palimpsest and T.A. "Tim" Pratt's Spell Games. Cat even has a trailer for hers:



I haven't read the books in question, but these are both kickin' writers, so you should check them out.

Also just recently out is Mr. Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection, which is getting raves and is very pretty and also green.

On Friday, I asked you all to plug yourselves. You can read the results there, but here's a summation:

Craig Gidney (ethereal_lad) has a story coming out in the Magic In the Mirrorstone anthology, which is out RIGHT NOW. I had the privilege of reading Craig's story, "Mauve's Quilt," a while back; I can tell you that it's excellent.

wheatland_press has three new titles coming out in late May: Space Magic, David D. Levine's first short fiction collection; Can't Buy Me Faded Love, Josh Rountree's first short fiction collection, and Laughin' Boy, a novel by Bradley Denton. Watch the WP website for ordering information.

tim_pratt AKA T.A. Pratt has the second book in his/her/their (pen names are so confusing) Marla Mason series, Poison Sleep, coming out on March 28. As Tim says: "It has nightmare kings and chess theory and an asylum for criminally insane sorcerers and chaos magic and floating castles." Hard to go wrong with THAT.

burger_eater, whose real name is Harry Connolly, just accepted a three-book deal from Del Rey! He also has a story coming up in Black Gate magazine.

Jeremy Tolbert AKA the_flea_king has his story "Babe, I'm Going to Leave You" available for your perusal right now, right here, and his story from the kickass anthology All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, "Instead of a Loving Heart," will be broadcast at Escape Pod very soon.

Caitlin Kittredge (blackaire) has a novel coming out as well; Night Life drops on March 4th. According to Caitlin, "It's got werewolves, serial killing, black magic and shagging. What's not to love?" She's got a sample chapter up at her website, just to tease us. Buy early and often!

Pete Anderson's story "Mercy Day" is up at Ragad Magazine #5. Sez Pete: "Editor Nick Ostdick called the story 'great' and said my public reading of it at Book Cellar in Chicago 'had the crowd had the crowd riveted, from opening line to last.' If enough people hound Mr. Ostdick with requests for issue #5 (yours for the bargain price of $2) and mention me by name, perhaps he'll be shamed into paying me for publication." Dude. Writers need to get paid, 's all I'm saying. Help Pete out.

Finally, Jason Erik Lundberg (jlundberg) reports that The Field Guide to Surreal Botany's release is impending from Two Cranes Press. (There's also a Facebook group for the book here.) Jason and his lovely wife Janet Chui AKA marrael edited the book and run the press. Jason's got a big year ahead for his own writing too, with fiction or non-fiction forthcoming from Papaveria Press, Subterranean Magazine, Sybil's Garage, Farrago's Wainscot, Tiny Stories, and Strange Horizons. Whew.

So now you know what to look for! Thanks for playing, gang. And if anyone has stuff they want to plug but missed their chance, feel free to chime in with a comment below.

Meghan has posted videos from our trip. Since I slept in the living room between the kitchen and the bathroom, I became a source of morning entertainment by default. Check out the YouTube links below for silliness from me and other household denizens:

What's shakin'?

The tale of the sixth traveller

Eggs and Bacon!!

Windmills! (Betcha can't identify the song that's playing . . .)