It's not really a secret to anyone who looks at my bibliography that I write a LOT. I mean, my first book came out in September of 2009: I am still not even ten years into this game. But what sometimes seems to come as a surprise is the part where not every book can be written the second I think of it. Some books require me to do other things first. They need me to get BETTER.

Have totally lost my party during the rush for rope drop. I know I will find them again. Professional line jumpers are literally climbing over me. It's cool! I'm furniture! (I am not furniture.)

Sitting at the airport, waiting for wheelchair assistance. Guess who borked her foot again?

Hint: it is always me because I have insufficient chill. To the lady in the neon pink Mouse ears: I know where you're going, and we're gonna be on the same plane.

I grew up in Northern California, where we don't have weather so much as we have "climate." My friend Wes used to joke that I lived in a mall.

In the past week, I've seen various iterations of two different but connected conversations. Specifically, "women, people of color, and people who are not cis/straight are discouraged in STEM fields" and "women, POC, and queer people don't REALLY like geeky things." I think it's important--not world-shaking, but still important--to acknowledge that these are different pieces of the same conversation, and that many aspects of one can, will, and does apply to the other.

You know what's fun?
Interviews.
You know what's the worst?
Interviews.

How are both these things true? Come with me for a magical adventure in questions, answers, and "let me Google that for you." So: if you are a creative professional of any kind, interviews sort of come with the territory. They're an important part of getting the word out, and selling the idea of "you" to people who may be considering picking up your work.

It's early days yet--obviously, dear sweet gods above and below, it isn't even HALLOWEEN--but people are starting to talk about which series will be eligible for next year's Hugo ballot. I...I need a nap. Anyway, I saw a small argument about whether the October Daye books would be eligible for 2019, mostly due to the question, "Has she added sufficient words to the series?" Which made me ask myself the same question.

Twitter is a fire hose! This means I will never, ever ever, under any circumstances, see everything. Neither will many of you, which is why I periodically offer these reminders: 1. All my currently announced appearances are listed on my website, at seananmcguire.com . If something does not appear there, I cannot comment on it, or confirm that it's happening.

Hello, darlings.
Would you like to see something very few people have seen before?
Something a little...villainous? When people make lists of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel universe, they usually swing for the fences, go for the heavy hitters, the Magnetos and the Thanoses and the Carnages. The bad boys with the big body counts.

Doobie doo, doobie day, setting up my Worldcon, yay. Apparently, I am moderating one of my Friday panels. Isn't this going to be fun. (Spoiler: No, it is not going to be fun.)

I am firmly of the belief that everyone has a functionally useless super power. Always finding parking, or never picking fruit that isn't perfectly ready to eat; good thrift store shopping, or abandoned kitten radar. These are not good super powers for saving a world, becoming a supervillain, or fighting crime, but they make everyone's life a little different, a little more surreal, and a little easier. (And if you're a kitten-finder, you save those kittens' worlds on the regular.)

Sweetheart and Valentine are in the backyard again, which means Thomas and Elsie are in the window, chirping and chittering at the coyotes, who are VERY eager to have the cats come down and say hello. Not gonna happen. THEY HAVE BROUGHT THE BABIES
SIX GANGLEPUPS IN MY BACKYARD
THEY ARE MADE ENTIRELY OF LEG

It's Monday. Which means tomorrow is Tuesday, and then the next day is Wednesday, and you can go to your local comic book store and pick up your copy of X-MEN GOLD ANNUAL #2, aka, "they let Seanan write her first Marvel comic ever." I'm so excited for you to see this, y'all. Excited and scared, because this is an annual, a single-issue stand-alone: while this is a beginning, it's not like SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST SPIDER, where I have the room to tell a bigger story.

Depending on how you measure time, either today is the last day of the last week during which I am not An Officially Published X-Author, or the first day of the first week during which I AM An Officially Published X-Author. And this is so weird, it's SO WEIRD, y'all, because I grew up with these characters: I have any fan's feeling of ownership toward them. At the same time, I know that I own nothing but bragging rights.

So @EditrixW has been Doing A Busy, and I have been Doing A Travel, and she hasn't been around as much as usual. We're grown adults! We don't live in each other's pockets! It's FINE!

But. She had a less-than-awesome week, and I was like, come over, HOT DOGS AND ICE CREAM, so she came over for dinner.

Elsie met her at the door. Elsie demanded scoops. Then, when she came back to my room and sat on the bed, Elsie sprawled next to her, cramponed her leg...

All right, lovelies: voting for the 2018 Hugo Awards closes on July 31st. You can find an overview of the process here:

worldcon76.org/wsfs/hugos/hug…

Can I talk to you for a second? Every year, without fail, someone comes up to me and says "this year's Hugo winners wouldn't have been my first choice." (Lest this sound like a humblebrag, this has still happened on the occasions where I won.)

While I'm vaguely on the topic of Patreon, I want to say thank you, again, to anyone who was my Patron during 2017-early 2018, even if you have since needed to reduce or delete your pledge. I am grateful beyond words to all my Patrons, past and present and even future, but the ones who were with me during 2017 and early 2018 got me through the hardest period in recent memory.

My Patreon, which has now been extended twice from its original one-year goal--moving is expensive, and chemotherapy is doubly so--offers a new piece of fiction every month, at all pledge levels. For a dollar--one single dollar--you can receive short stories and novellas of all types, from stand-alones like "From A to Z in the Book of Changes" and "The Levee Was Dry" to exciting installments in my existing franchises.

All right: let's take a moment to talk about reading the room, and how not to promote yourself at conventions. A few disclaimers before we begin: 1. This was sparked by a specific incident. I will not be naming the person involved, because they weren't malicious, just a little purposefully clueless. PUA techniques don't get you a girlfriend and they don't get you a project collaborator.

A couple people have asked who Spider-Gwen is, so here is our initial episode of Seanan Explains The Marvel Universe (Because Comics Are Really Confusing): Marvel comics take place in a multi-verse. If something is possible--and often when something isn't possible--it has happened or is happening somewhere. The world where the majority of the Marvel comics are set is called Earth-616.

I am about to have a virtual orgy of blind boxes in my bed. PINS SHALL FLY, NATIONS SHALL FALL. That was. So satisfying.