Answered in 4 hours in the middle of the night, too, and on the first comment!

Seriously - that was amazing.

So, Conseula, I loved Set This House in Order, by Matt Ruff!

He's really ridiculously talented. Everything he does is completely unlike everything else he does. I want to read Mirage, but I've got a real backlog of reading.

Still, I have great fondness for Fool on the Hill, which was his senior thesis at Cornell, because it's really romantic, it's a college novel, and it even has a very fannish woobie. (Not that I knew what a woobie was when I read it originally.)

I wish I knew who to thank for introducing me to him. Years ago, I was scrolling through my friendsfriends on LJ, and I came across a review of Bad Monkeys, and that was the inspiration for my List. That was the first book I wrote down somewhere to remind myself to read it because it sounded too awesome not to read. Thank you, random LJ person, for that review.

Amy, I consulted the most omnivorous reader of mysteries and fantasy I know, and she says:

Madelyn Alt. the first in her series is The Trouble with Magic, and there are 6 so far out in paperback. set in small town indiana, young witch works in gift/tea shop owned by older more experienced witch who becomes her mentor.

Juliet Blackwell. the first in her series is Secondhand Spirits, and there are 4 so far in the series. the witch was raised by her grandmother in texas, but then left and has knocked around the world some, to end up in san francisco running a used clothing store.

Shirley Damsgaard. first in her series is Witchway to Murder, and there are at least 6 in the series. the witch is a small town librarian in iowa, and consults with her witchy grandmother who raises and sells flowers and vegetables outside town.

It's Blackout day! And Seanan just announced that they optioned the film rights! I've been waiting for the official announcement for MONTHS. Hurrah!

So when can I start talking about it?

(JZ, Polter-Cow and Seanan McGuire got me an early copy, which did indeed distract me from my current troubles. Thanks again!)

Now! I mean, with whitefont, obvs. I'm going to pick up a copy today; let's see if she took out all those damn hyphens.

Heh. P-C and I were secretly squeeing about that pretty much the entire time between when Seanan said yes and the moment it arrived at your doorstep. I still wish it came with a magic Fix-Ginger's-Everything spell, but distraction was the best we could do.

Polter-Cow and Seanan McGuire got me an early copy, which did indeed distract me from my current troubles.

Aww, yay! You deserve some good things.