I would dearly love to have tea with her. She seems very fun.

She was more normal and down-to-earth than I expected. I thought she would be all quirky and twee, like she was putting on a persona, but she wasn't, which was nice.

She says she'll be in Seattle in November for a steampunk conference, so you can set up a tea date then.

She says she'll be in Seattle in November for a steampunk conference, so you can set up a tea date then.

Good heavens, she's going to be at SteamCon? I guess I have to go then (I'd been waffling).

Also, she had a really funny story about your friend Donna, the cover model.

Orbit was at a loss as to what to use for the cover, so they told her to keep an eye out for any images that spoke to her. She came across the photo of Donna that eventually became the cover of Soulless and sent it to Orbit. And for months, she didn't hear anything back, so she figured, whatever, they didn't like it.

Then one day Donna friended her on Facebook, saying, "Hey, I just signed a contract to be the cover model for your books!" And then Gail called Orbit and was like "SO..."

She got to meet her in L.A. when she went down there for a friend's reading, and they met at a gay bar, and she was surprised at how tiny she was, but they hit it off. She noticed that they had very similar mannerisms.

I've read Robert B. Parker's Appaloosa, Resolution, and I'm in the middle of Brimstone.

I've been making lists of the Joe Mantega/Robert B. Parker Spenser books-on-CD/tape, which is how I know that Titus Welliver reads the RBP Westerns. !!!! Once I get the Spenser books moved from obsession to "like," I'll try some of those.

Re buying books etc., I do buy books from local spots at least a couple times a year, but I rely on the library and it rarely fails me. Course, I have the excellent Oakland Lib near work, with its vast network, I have a Berkeley Library card, even though I don't use it much, and the Marin Library system is also excellent. Among them, I save SO MUCH MONEY. When H and I split, an early, easy decision was, "books or a house." Sorry book industry, but housing wins. Being able to order what you want on reserve, and have them send you an email with a week or more to go pick it up? GOLD.

Now and Then, and The Professional are more recent Joe Mantegna/RB Parker Spenser books on CD and they are fabulous.

I've dug into Oakland Lib's back racks for books on tape (yay car with both). "Back Story" - the producer must've been bugging Joe M to speed up. It's remarkable what a different experience it is hearing him truck through the book instead of speak. it. out. At least he slows down for the dialog, which RBP writes so, so well. They should re-record the taped books and slow it down a little.

"The Bodies Left Behind" by ? is very good on b-on-CD. Kept me guessing the entire way through, all characters were nicely developed, reader was very, very good.

A book trailer - for Voyager books on their 15th anniversary.

Book trailer - who'd a thunk it?

They've been doing those for a while. Some are pretty cool, but they don't seem to get spread around a lot.

OK, I didn't want to post about this before in case it didn't work out, but I just interviewed Neil Gaiman for my magazine! He's the Honorary Chair of this year's National Library Week, so mostly we talked about how awesome libraries are. He was totally charming. I'd actually never interviewed anyone before, so I was super nervous beforehand, but of course he was very professional and as soon as we started talking, I felt at ease.

I'll be posting about it on our blog tomorrow, and I'll link to it here, but I just had to come in here and be all fannish and excited for a minute! Neil Gaiman!

That's so cool, Kate!