Fangborn army!

Some of the werewolves and I will be heading for Malice Domestic on Friday. Say hey, and as long as I have one left, you can bring one home with you. See you soon!

(p.s. And don't forget: if you're thinking of bidding on breakfast with the Fangborn Fanclub (that is, ace literary agent Janet Reid) as part of the Malice Live Auction, don't forget to bring ten pages of manuscript. In addition to breakfast with Janet (and yours truly), she'll read pages for the winning bidder. Check out the details below or at Janet's blog.)

Going to Malice Domestic? Want to have breakfast with an agent?

Malice Domestic is just around the corner--in fact, it's in just a week!

As part of the effort to raise money to support literacy programs for the John L. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville, Maryland, Malice will be holding a live auction. The auctioneers will be Hank Phillippi Ryan and Pari Noskin Taichert, so you know things will be lively!

My wonderful agent, Janet Reid, offered the following as an auction item:

~v v~ Breakfast with the Fangborn Fan Club! ~v v~

Have you been fang-bitten by the urban fantasy bug?
Got questions for an ace agent?
Then how about “Breakfast with the Fangborn Fan Club?”

This item includes breakfast for two (the winning bidder and a friend) with Agatha-nominated writer Dana Cameron ("The Night Things Changed") and the president of the Fangborn Fan Club, her fabulous literary agent Janet Reid (FinePrint Literary Management).

In addition to breakfast 8 a.m. Sunday, May 3 at the Malice hotel restaurant, Janet will also read up to ten pages from each of the two breakfast guests before the 10:30 panels Sunday, if they would like the opportunity. Dana and Janet will answer questions, or talk about whatever topic the winners care to discuss, including writing, reading, getting published, and the world of Dana’s Fangborn characters.

So if you're interested in meeting Janet, if you want to hang out and talk werewolves and vampires over waffles, make a bid on the item--and don't forget to bring pages! You'll be supporting a great cause!

Kate

I had to say goodbye to my "benevolent feline overlord" Kate last week. I'm just gutted; she was my constant companion in writing for almost nineteen years. A stroppy little beastie with a crook in her tail, she had all the swagger and attitude of tortoiseshell cats. If she wasn't as outgoing and friendly as some, she was loyal to those she included in her pride. She'd been failing for a while, getting increasingly creaky, blind, a little deaf, a little mental, but she was still playing with her catnip mousie, demanding her evening treat, and nudging me when it was time to go to work, stop work, turn on the fireplace, scratch her chin. Until last Tuesday, and when we got her tests back on Wednesday, we knew it was time. So we spent the day by the fire, I gave her her pain medicine and bits of Cheetos (she loved them and, even at 18+, would bowl me over trying to get at them). The next morning, we took her to the vet, (with whom she had a rocky relationship, to put it politely), who was great.

Some of you met Kate as she added to my typing in IM chats; Toni Kelner's daughters created a series of action-packed manga-style adventures about "Col. Kate." I love that she made it into "Mystery Scene" before I did: Elaine Viets wrote a great article about writers and their cats in 2005 (see below). Kate was there through all my research, books, stories, lectures, and articles, so I guess in a sense she's perched on the bookshelf still.

Thanks to you all who sent notes of condolence. We really appreciate it.

Things that aren't real, but should be

I've had a couple of good laughs recently, as I've labored under a mountain of work. I can share a couple of them with you.

The first is this. It's not real, but it should be. It makes more sense if you're familiar with old-school Star Wars (and anyone else catch Jon Stewart speaking Huttese a couple of weeks ago?).

The second is this. It makes more sense if you're familiar with The Watchmen, but it's pretty funny, in any case.

The other laughs, well, I haven't got links for them. If I could explain why I find the Pillsbury Doughboy hysterically funny, I would. But I think you just have to be there and pause it when he scrunches his face and he's bouncing around on his little not-feet.

Thanks to Mr. G for the first and Toni for the second.

And so back to the word mines.