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.

I didn't notice any extra hyphens. I'm a hyphenating kind of girl, though.

Some discussion:

I really enjoyed it, and she's mastered that skill of making you turn the page. I still don't entirely buy the cloning thing. If we go with the mechanism being related to the way the virus reboots, it opens a huge can of worms, because wouldn't wealthy people keep spare clones and have some 24/7 service ready to suck their brain if they zombify? Also, if the immunity can transfer from a person with a reservoir condition, why isn't a vaccine possible?

The biggest problem was it wrapped up too fast, without giving us any sense of why so many CDC people would go along with this. I can't see a lust for power motivating that many of them. I would have liked to have heard more from CDC people who were convinced that the only way for the human race to survive was to convince everyone that the virus was always lethal. Couldn't they do that by lying, rather than making it universally lethal? Instead, we get a one-dimensional villain giving a "because we can" speech.

As an aside, the reason plutonium was dubbed the most lethal substance on earth was because they couldn't get the Navy guys in the first nuclear vessels to take invisible danger seriously. In fact, many, many things are more lethal.

eta: It really came at a time when the only thing that could have distracted me was a book of that turn-the-page caliber. Also, P-C, can you send me her address? I've been remiss in thanking her, but things have been kind of fuzzy in my brain.

Film RIGHTS!!!!

Oh, god, god, let them cast the right actors and director.

I have Blackout in my hot little hands, but can't read it till tonight, because I'm visiting a friend and my parents and will be DRIVING.

I CANNOT WAIT.

And that was a really nice thing you did for Ginger, guys!