Wherein I share a ToC with Neil Gaiman
I LIVE.
I survived World Fantasy Con and had an absolute blast. I managed to complete a Poem-A-Day and make slow progress on my Clockwork Crown copyedits even during the con, which made me feel like a real writer. Fun fact: real writers are also sleep-deprived.
[Me working on copyedits on the flight to DC.]
One of the nifty things about being at a convention is that you get told about good news. I knew I had a reprint story that had been requested for inclusion in Twelfth Planet Press’s Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2013, but the full Table of Contents was announced the day I was mostly offline as I flew cross-country.
So I was pretty gobsmacked to find out I’m sharing the book with Neil Gaiman. And my story follows his. Gulp.
The full ToC:
Selkie Stories Are For Losers – Sofia Samatar
By Bone-Light – Juliet Marillier
The Myriad Dangers – Lavie Tidhar
Carpet – Nnedi Okorafor
I Gave You My Love by the Light of the Moon – Sarah Rees Brennan
57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides – Sam J. Miller
The Minotaur Girls – Tansy Rayner Roberts
Not With You, But With You – Miri Kim
Ghost Town – Malinda Lo
December – Neil Gaiman
An Echo in the Shell – Beth Cato
Dan’s Dreams – Eliza Victoria
As Large As Alone – Alena McNamara
Random Play All and the League of Awesome – Shane Halbach
Mah Song – Joanne Anderton
What We Ourselves Are Not – Leah Cypess
The City of Chrysanthemum – Ken Liu
Megumi’s Quest – Joyce Chng
Persimmon, Teeth, and Boys – Steve Berman
Flight – Angela Slatter
We Have Always Lived on Mars – Cecil Castellucci
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The book should be out in just a few weeks! Pretty darn good note to end the year on, I think.
Read MoreTreats, Not Tricks
First of all, Happy Halloween! And Happy Clearance Candy Day tomorrow!
Expect the blog to be quieter in November. I’ll be extremely busy, so posts, comments, social media, and emails will be a lower priority. So, what do I have planned exactly? For starters…
– World Fantasy Con in D.C.
– Poem-A-Day Challenge
– Novella Challenge on Codex. I’m aiming for 25-30,000 words, so it’s like a mini NaNoWriMo. I have never written to this word length before, so this will indeed be a challenge.
– Thanksgiving
… and other stuff, too, that I can’t talk about yet but will need to complete on a tight deadline. Somewhere in there I need to eat and sleep and tend to the family, too. *twitch twitch*
Finishing Off September
Over at Tor.com, I answer The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe.
Looking a few months ahead, I am happy to announce that I’ll have a booksigning on December 6th from 1-3pm at the Metro Center Barnes & Noble in Phoenix. This is a more casual thing–no reading–but I’ll sit at a table and lure in people with cookies. If you’re in the area, please pencil in the date and drop by to say hi!
Links of the Week
First of all, the ZOMG link of the week: an amazing review of The Clockwork Dagger over on NPR.org. Yes, THE NPR.
This means I’ve now had features in Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, NPR.org, and the Arizona Republic in the past week and a half, and I wasn’t even arrested!
I am still blog touring and popping up here and there and everywhere.
– My story “Post-Apocalyptic Conversations with a Sidewalk” was just published in Nature! This is one of my favorite works for the whole year.
– I’m interviewed at The Nameless Zine.
– At Write 1 Sub 1 I tell all about “The Horror of Revision Letters.”
– Rhonda Parrish interviewed me at her blog.
– The second half of my podcast is up at Kingdoms of Evil!
The blog tour for the book and parasol ENDS TODAY. Check it out and spread the word, please!
- The Schedule
- 9/8 – YA Bibliophile, post
- 9/9 – Irish Banana, promo post
- 9/10 – Mundie Moms, excerpt
- 9/11- Reads All The Books, review
- 9/12 – YA Sisterhood, guest post
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- 9/15 – My, My Shelf & I, excerpt
- 9/16 – Curling Up With A Good Book, guest post
- 9/17 – Fictitious Delicious, Q&A
- 9/18 – Page Turners Blog
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- 9/22 – Novel Novice, promo post
- 9/23 – Reading Teen, promo post
- 9/24 – Chapter by Chapter
- 9/25 – Jenuine Cupcakes
- 9/26 – Good Choice Reading, excerpt
![[9/16: Me signing my first books in public at the Goodyear, Arizona, Barnes & Noble]](https://www.bethcato.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FirstBooksigning-e1410904723822.jpg)
[9/16: Me signing my first books in public at the Goodyear, Arizona, Barnes & Noble]
Booksignings and Other Mind-Boggling Things
This has been one weird, crazy week. Things have started to calm down, which is good. I’ve been working on a lot of promo guest blogs and interviews over the past while, and it’s nice to return to some short stories.
I did have one big surprise this weekend. Last week I had a guest post over on Bookish. Well, through some shares on Twitter, I found this post was also published on USA Today. Like, whoa.
Another piece of good news: I survived my first booksigning! Mind you, I’ve signed lots of books before, but always at home and most of them for family and friends back in California. Never in front of a crowd, for strangers, in a store.
Changing Hands had a whole table set up with stacks of my books. I had to do the Vanna White thing.
I ended up with a fabulous number of people there–fifteen or so. Pretty awesome for a debut author like me! In speaking with people afterward, some found me through the Arizona Republic article, my guest blog at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds, by simply stopping to hear me speak in the store, plus several are good friends and friends of friends.
I spoke about the dream of becoming an author, then took questions, and capped things off with an excerpt.
It was so strange to see a full line of people waiting to have their book signed. I’ve stood in lines like that sooooooo many times; this time it was for me!
When everything was done, we cleaned up and I was heading out of the store. A man stopped me to compliment me on my steampunk outfit, and a minute later he returned with his wife. I ended up walking with them back to my table, where I signed a book for them! BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE CORSET.
Changing Hands had a big poster of my book cover up at the front of the store. I asked what they were going to do with it, and they happily handed it over to me. This is destined for a wall somewhere in my house.
I want to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone at Changing Hands Tempe for being so kind and welcoming. There’s no getting away from the cliche, because it’s the truth: this was a dream come true.
Read MoreSigning tonight!
My first ever booksigning will take place tonight at 7pm at the Tempe location of Changing Hands. I’ll talk! Read! Likely with a stupid grin the whole time!
Oh yeah, and FOOD. Have you drooled over my Bready or Not recipes? Tonight you can stuff your face. The offerings (subject to substitution if quality control issues arise):
– MAPLE FUDGE BITES. Because I had to serve something maple.
– A whole new recipe for Candy-Stuffed Cookie Cups. Imagine chocolate chip cookie dough, with a Rolo or mini Milky Way stuffed inside, baked in a mini muffin pan. I’ll do a special feature with the recipe soon. I want to see how people like them tonight.
– Also, for the gluten-free folks, I’m doing a batch of brownies using Cup 4 Cup Brownie Mix, which looks like it has great taste reviews from Amazon, though I bought mine at Sprouts.
If you’re in the Phoenix area, do come by. Say hi. Just remember I’m at the TEMPE location. If you go to the Changing Hands in Phoenix, they are doing a signing with a dude who makes all kinds of food in a waffle maker. It looks downright awesome. So yeah, if you to the wrong store I’ll be sad, but you get to find out how to make dinner in a waffle press so you don’t really lose.
Read More
