This photo was my entry for the September Tale in Neil Gaiman’s A Calendar of Tales. I found out a few months ago that I was one of the runners up, but they asked me to keep it a secret until the whole site went live.
This is one of the most incredible things to ever happen to me. I’ve been a big fan of Neil’s since I was 16 and discovered Sandman. I first met him when I was 17 and got to hear him read part of Coraline before it was published. Like most artists, I sometimes have horrible feelings of self doubt and inferiority, but getting the email that I was shortlisted kicked those feelings in the FACE. It’s just so amazing that one of my heroes thought the art I made was pretty good.
ALSO, it should be noted that my friend Grace also entered and she is the November winner! We both went to an amazing tiny school in Bryan, Texas and had my wonderful mother as our art teacher. So cheers to Cathy Rylander, art teacher of winners!
Book Fundraiser for Oklahoma
* Literati Literature Lovers Blog is doing a fundraiser for the Red Cross to benefit communities affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. Donate and enter to win signed books by a bunch of different authors. I’ve contributed signed copies of Emilie and the Hollow World, The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, The Siren Depths, and Wheel of the Infinite.
They’re hoping to raise $2500 by June 7. Please pass the info on.
* It’s not part of the drawing above, but if you want to help displaced and injured animals too, you can donate to the Animal Resource Center of Oklahoma City and Pet Food Pantry.
The storms that were coming down through Dallas got here last night. We had huge thunder and lightning and pounding rain, but no hail, at least at our house.
It’s doing great things for our garden. On Monday I realized I didn’t have a vegetable for a side dish for dinner (oven-fried chicken) and went out in the garden and found a squash ready to go. We’ve already had tons of lettuce and some green tomatoes (which are great fried, sauteed, or baked in pies), and it looks like the okra will be ready soon.
I updated my web site a bit, added the link to the interview with me by Liz Bourke on Tor.com, plus added a separate page listing the the reprint ebooks I have out for $2.99 so they’re easier to find.
Also reposted some of the fan art I’ve gotten for the Books of the Raksura on tumblr.
(Source: sarraounia)
BOOK REVIEW: Queers Dig Time Lords Edited by Sigrid Ellis and Michael Damian Thomas
My review at SF Signal!
Re-blogging some of my favorite fan art for the Books of the Raksura today. These three are by Jessica Peffer, of Neon Dragon Art, and her tumblr is neondragonart.
The one of Moon at the top is the first piece of fan art I saw for these books, and it was awesome. One of the absolutely coolest things about being a writer for me is when people do fan works based on my books. It’s just a wonderful thing. :)
It’s been horrible watching the news in Oklahoma. I know a lot of people there from the SF/F community, and felt very lucky when they all checked in on Facebook to say they were all right.
To help, you can donate to the Red Cross web site or text REDCROSS to 90999. The Animal Resource Center of Oklahoma City has a link to a donation page for animal relief. If anyone knows any other places to donate, please post in the comments.
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Here’s a couple of tumblr posts I did in the past couple of days:
* What Jack did while we were gone
* Eartha Kitt as Catwoman drawn by ileliberte
* A hand-embroidered Poseidon’s Beard by Krakatoakatie
More donation sites for Oklahoma:
Kite surfing on the East Beach at Galveston Island.
