Lilith Saintcrow

Today marks the start of seven-day work weeks until I get the third Strange Angels book finished. That means I’ve got round-one revisions on book 2, a couple of short stories, the first draft of book 3, and other assorted stuff to get done in a short period of time (like, seven-eight months for everything). Of COURSE I have spent a lot of time today procrastinating for all I’m worth before the madness truly begins. I really do work best like this, so I am forced to go into the onion-layers of the story as deeply as possible.

But it’s going to be hard.

To reward myself, I’ve ordered Peter Beagle’s new book of short stories. That’s right–the author of The Last Unicorn and my personal favorite, The Innkeeper’s Song[1], has some new fiction out, a collection of shorts and poems. Beagle is an automatic buy for me; he never disappoints. The man has more craft in his little finger than the rest of us have in the mass of our bodies. (IMHO, that is. Gaiman is a close second, but he’s always an exception to everything, dammit.)

I had the honor of meeting Peter Beagle once (it was at DragonCon) and had the opportunity to tell him how much his work, especially The Innkeeper’s Song, meant to me. We both teared up…

Okay, you got me. I cried like a baby. That book literally physically saved my life, as much as The Last Unicorn taught me about risk and reward, and that a story did not have to end happy–it had to end right.

So, if you’ve got the bucks to spare, I highly recommend ordering a copy. You can get it signed and personalized for $30, which is an awesome deal. And I am planning on rewarding myself with the book after I finish the death march that is going to be the next six months…

…but who am I kidding? As soon as I get the book I’m going to rip open the packaging like a starving hyena and promptly fall into the world of a master artist. That’s going to be reward enough.

[1] If you have not read this book, ZOMFGBBQLLAMA, go buy it wherever you can and read it ASAP. Beagle pulls off first-person from several different distinct characters, and the end of the book is like a suckerpunch to the gut. I cry every time I read it. GO BUY IT NOW FER GOSH SAKES!

Related posts:

1. Helping Out Peter Beagle
2. Strange Angels Book Trailer
3. From Earrings To Book That Will Not Die

Tags: books, Joy, novel madness

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 7:20 am and is filed under Neato Keano, Real Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.