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Feel free to copy and distribute!

Feel free to copy and distribute!

Guess what these are.

No, they’re not key necklaces, they’re sweet sweet candy.

The last time I did a release party, I got this half-sheet cake with the cover of the book printed on it. It was really cool, and made a great impression — but this time, I’m having *four* release parties, and frankly, I don’t have $150.00 to spend on cake right now, what with having just gone through an extended period of unemployment and all. So rather than bring nothing at all, I decided to shoestring it and bake some cool cupcakes.

Now, when Paul was doing his big Moped Army signing, we bought dark-brown cookies and did his MA logo on them in red frosting. They were kind of difficult to execute well, and since my key designs are more intricate than that, I knew I’d probably need a plan B. Going through Michael’s, I found some ready-made Fondant — which is that soft white stuff you see professional cake people using on Food Network to cover cakes with perfectly smooth coatings. After thinking quite a while about my plan of attack, I took one of the key necklaces and pushed it into a square of fondant, thereby making a food-safe negative mold. I dried it out in the food dehydrator, and the next day I started cranking out the little fondant keys. Once I’d pressed them, dried them a bit, carved off the excess and dried them again, I painted them with this edible silver stuff called “luster dust” to make them look all spiffy and metallic.

The only downside is that they don’t taste all that good. Well, they taste better than they did, because storebought, premade fondant tastes like modelling clay. I’m not kidding. It’s disgusting. So I mixed about half a bottle of mint extract in, and now they taste minty with just a hint of modelling clay as an aftertaste. Still, better than it was. Next time (If I am crazy enough to do this again) I’ll either buy fondant from a local cakemaker, or make it myself.

So. If you’re one of the lucky first three-dozen people to come by each signing (that’s a full gross of cupcakes, if you’re doing the math at home) you’ll get a tasty, freshly-baked cupcake with a not-so-tasty-but-really-cool-looking-and-still-quite-edible silvered sugar Vögelein key on top. Depending on which day you show up, you may get chocolate with vanilla frosting, vanilla with chocolate frosting, chocolate with chocolate frosting or vanilla with vanilla frosting.

Hello, everyone!

In a dramatic change from last newsletter, I have nothing but good news to report this time around.

THING ONE: THE BOOKS ARE DONE.

They’re done, they’re done, they’re done. Thanks to the wonderful folks down at Malloy, Inc in Ann Arbor, I finally have books. Unfortunately, since Diamond had to re-cut the PO due to the prior delay, the books should ship to comics stores around the end of September. But they’re done, and they look good, and if you’ve ordered one through your Local Comics Store, your order *will* be fulfilled. YAY!

THING TWO: LET THE PARTY BEGIN.

Or, rather, parties. At the moment I have four signings lined up. If you’re in the area, please come on down and visit — I’d love to see you guys. Your kind words have kept me going through the last few years, and now it’s time to celebrate! Here’s the schedule:

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26th

FANFARE COMICS

2-6 pm

4415 S.Westnedge Ave.

Kalamazoo, MI 49008

Phone: (269) 349-8866

Email: info@fanfare-se.com

www.fanfare-se.com

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26th

ROCKET STAR CAFE

6pm till they throw me out

1504 W. Michigan

Kalamazoo, MI 49006

269-553-5555

www.rocketstarcafe.com/

***

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th

VAULT OF MIDNIGHT

12-3pm

219 S. Main St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

734-998-1413

www.vaultofmidnight.com

AIM: VaultOfMidnite

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th

GREEN BRAIN COMICS

6pm till they throw me out

13210 Michigan Ave

Dearborn, MI

313-582-9444

greenbrain@greenbrain.biz

www.greenbrain.biz

THING THREE: I GOTS THE KEYS!

I have key necklaces. Most of them sold before I could get them home (seriously — they were that popular), but I might have one or two left by the first signing. If you really really REALLY want one of the first batch, email me ASAP; first come, first served. I’ll hold the rest of the names in the order I received them. Don’t send money until I can confirm that I have an actual key to sell you.

That’s all the news for the moment; the hardcovers are being bound, and with a little luck I may have a few of each title with me on some of the speaking engagements. Get ’em while they’re hot!

In case anyone wonders who I take my pointers from (and who causes me to feel like a heel for “wasting time”), please read these two journal entries by Colleen Doran:

Time Management I

Time Management II

Yesterday was awesome, especially in contrast to all the stupid emo crap I spouted a couple days ago.

I got up bright and early and drove to Ann Arbor in a thunderstorm to arrive at Malloy Inc, my new printers.

I walked in the front door and there was one of those little name-board thingies with the white plastic letters on ’em. I did a double-take, because it said:

Blush. What an awesome way to start your day! Even better, my Account Exec only drives in one day a week and she changed up her schedule so that she’d be in to meet me, and I also got to meet my CSR — it was good to finally put faces to the names of the people I’d been working with. So I get the hard proofs and I go into their conference room to go over them.

A couple hours later I finished the proofs, and then they took me out to lunch — a really nice new place on Jackson road with great atmosphere and fantastic food. I know this seems like little stuff when I type it out, but dude, If y’all knew how much I’ve been through trying to get these books printed, it was literally like crawling out of the desert and into an oasis.

An oasis where they served really good club sandwiches.

So then we went back to the plant and went over the changes together, and I got a full tour of the plant. Wow! Now, those of you who know me understand what a huge nerd I am for cool machinery, how-to sessions, and books — so the tour was a total geekout for me. If only I’d had my camera! Why didn’t I bring my camera?!

I got to see everything: collators both small and large, the hot-glue perfect-binding machine, the huge 1 or 2-color Timson presses with these cool holey spindles that shoot a buffer of air out of them so the paper never actually touches the spindle and another neato thingie that hypodermically injects just a little bit of water into the fold of the signatures so they’ll crease more easily, and the rows of 4-color Heidelberg presses, thermal plate-printing machines, the trimming machine with the built-in hood that sucks up all the loose trimmed paper (complete with b/w Suction Cam, I kid you not) and the table where they cut the heavy covers down to size where the surface of the table is all covered with these little gasketed beebees and when the heavy cover blocks depress the beebees a jet of air shoots out of the gasket, thereby essentially hovercrafting the coverstock around so that it doesn’t get scratched, and the casebinding machine and the machine that crimps and folds the dustjackets and and and and I got to fish around in the waste bins for hardcover books yay. Squeeeeeeeeee! It was nerd heaven.

And then I went home and fixed the changes and sent them over by FTP.

So I don’t have the books yet, but it’s looking like they’ll ship very, very soon. I was going to hesitate and not put up any information on Malloy until I received the books and was okay with them, especially given the run of luck I’ve had recently, but the experience I had was just too much fun, and far too positive not to recount. I really feel like the guys at Malloy have their heads on straight, and my reps seemed really super knowledgeable (not to mention really kind to me), and the company seemed really well- and tightly-run. Best of all, I really felt like they were devoting their total attention to me, and that I wasn’t just some flyspeck small-presser who they could blow off, or were too busy to deal with. I really felt special there, and that is really, truly, exactly what I need right now.

So yeah. I can’t yet vouch for the product because I don’t have it yet, but I can give their customer service a pretty big thumbs-up at this point, at least for the “courtship stage” of our relationship. All signs point to yes!

Woo!

Yesterday was New Comics Day.

And guess what was in a New Comic?

Look familiar?

You totally rock, Dave! Thanks for the huge (albeit subtle…) shoutout!

Here’s the text of my most recent newsletter:

********************

Five things:

ONE: WHERE ARE THE BOOKS?

By now I’m sure you’re all wondering where the heck the new Vogelein books are, especially since I promised they’d be out in time for Independence Day. Unfortunately, the printer I was using has had some quality assurance problems. I’ve not said anything up until this point because I was hoping we’d be able to work it out, but we went through three separate print runs (!!), and none of the books have been up to my standards for delivery.

The good news is that I’ve been granted a refund, and I am working with another printer to get acceptable books printed and shipped as soon as I possibly can. At this point it looks like the new printing will ship sometime in mid-September. I would rather ship a late book than a substandard book, and I hope that you will be patient with me as I work to get the book done as quickly as possible.

Knowing that these books are late, for whatever reason, is a serious concern to me as a self-publisher, and though I’m working to rectify the situation, it still makes me feel like I’ve let everybody down. I want to make certain that each of you knows what’s going on, because without you, and your incredibly kind support, I wouldn’t have come this far in the first place.

TWO: WEREN’T YOU AT WIZARD WORLD?

Why yes, yes I was. I was a bit incognito, primarily because when Paul sent the check, they didn’t put my name on the list, but I also didn’t make a big stink about my presence there because I wasn’t sure if I was going until the last minute… I didn’t think I’d have saleable books (In the end I still didn’t, but I sold the aforementioned less-than-perfect books at a discount and with a disclaimer). And lastly, I arrived Friday morning with no sleep due to a horrendous sinus infection, and I wasn’t much good for anything until Sunday, by which point I’d almost completely lost my voice. I didn’t feel up to doing much, and aside from a very nice dinner on Saturday night with Pam and Nick Bliss, I didn’t get out to see a whole lot of the show or talk to a whole lot of people.

But! I did have a bunch of really super people stop by and say hello, including several fans who were really happy to get their hands on the new book, and said such kind and wonderful things that I left feeling completely uplifted. It was also really great seeing all the midwestern folks including J.Kevin Carrier and Pam and Matt Feazell and Jim Melby and Spike and Matt and the Cannon Boys and Jennie Breeden (even though she’s not actually from the midwest) and sweet merciful crap I can’t forget to mention how utterly kind and sweet Ben Avery was to me. He sent about eight hundred people by my table with a personal recommendation, so the least I can do is tell my readers to go check out his stuff as well.

Other than that, I mostly sat around counting the minutes until I could take the next round of sinus meds. For a more complete (and lucid) version of our trip, check out Paul’s Con Report here.

THREE: WHAT ABOUT THOSE KEY NECKLACES?

I don’t want to take orders for these until I have some in hand. The good news is that I think I’ll get some of the “basic” version (the kind with a chain that you can wear, as opposed to the “super-deluxe” version that comes with a special, custom-made box) on Labor Day. As soon as I receive them, I’ll post them up for sale and send out another email. In the meantime, you can see photos of them, here.

FOUR: HARDCOVERS?

I got to see the early stages of the limited edition Old Ghosts hardcover this afternoon. Hokey Smokes, are they pretty. Bessenberg got a papersmith to custom hand-marble the paper specifically for this run. I asked them to “Make it look like ‘Winter’,” and boy, did they ever. These things are going to be utterly spectacular when they’re done.

Also, I have exactly seven copies of the limited edition Clockwork Faerie hardcover remaining. You can purchase them here, if you’re interested.

FIVE: SPX!

After a lot of hemming and hawing, we’ve committed to doing SPX this October. If all goes well, I should have everything there with me: Final printings of the book, Original art, hardcovers and keys. Woo!

Well, that’s all five things. I’ll send out another update as soon as I get a firm release date on Old Ghosts. Or you can probably listen for the crazed, lunatic shout of happiness and relief that I’ll give as soon as I get my hands on them. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to hear it five or six states away.

Yours,

Janer

We’re back from ALA! It was a long, long trip, but really worth it. We had a ton of fun both at the conference and in DC, but we’re glad to be back home again. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger picture — you can advance through the whole slideshow at once or just view them one at a time.

We left early last Thursday morning, with the car loaded at least 250 lbs past her carrying capacity… but even with the AC running, Silverbean still managed an awesome 45mpg average. Go Biodiesel! Our route took us along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where we saw lots of cool stuff like these windmills. We also passed through Irwin, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, so I had to snap a picture.

Once inside DC, we checked in, unloaded, then ran out to meet up with my cousin Joan, who introduced us to the wonder of Kramerbooks, a 24-hour bookstore with a restaurant attached. The food was great, and since Joan was buying, I sent her home with a copy of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. I predict a new Westeros fan by year’s end.

Friday we got in to the exhibitor’s hall and got set up pretty quickly, so we headed out to get in a little sightseeing before the show. The Exhibition Center is right smack downtown, just a few blocks from the White House and the Mall, so we just walked on down to see what museums were open. Our first stop was the National Aquarium, which is kind of a dump, compared to the beauty of Shedd and New England — it’s in the basement of the Department of Commerce, for crying out loud. Half the exhibits were down for repair or renovation, but the ones that were open were pretty interesting; Paul got to see his very first real live octopus. Every time he’d been to an aquarium as a kid, the octopus was always out having babies, or in an isolation tank, or dead. Though we weren’t allowed to take pictures of it for some reason, the pretty orange guy really put on a show for Paul, climbing all over the glass and showing off his arms. Gorgeous. Paul also liked the Nautili in the next tank.

After the Aquarium, we passed the Washington Monument and headed over to the Museum of Natural History to look at the dinosaur bones. I was all inspired after I’d recently re-read JimO’s books on Paleontologists and dinosaur artist Charles Knight, so I was really excited to see such a wonderful, exhaustive exhibit. This really made up for the disappointment of the Aquarium. They also had some really wonderful gemstone exhibits, and we got to see the Hope Diamond, along with some really incredible examples of minerals from around the world.

Much to our sadness, the Bug Zoo was closed, but the Mammal exhibit provided some coolness. They had a huge glass case of stuffed bats, which I gleefully photographed for Duskie reference. I really wish I could find an hourlong PBS video of fruitbats… I’ve looked and can’t find any. There were lemurs and pangolins and wildebeasts and all sorts of amazing taxidermy. On the way out of the exhibit, just below the vaulted ceiling, on the left, there’s a tiger mounted in a ferocious leap, and on the right hang a manatee and a dolphin of some variety. Seen from below, it looks like the tiger’s making a grab for a really big fish.

JimO’s flight had been rescheduled, so we met up with him after the museum and ate dinner, then ran out to a YALSA party, where I nearly died. See, I got to meet and shake hands with Sherman Alexie. At the end of the audio version of his book, Indian Killer(which is awesome, by the way, and which he reads himself) there’s a brief interview and Q & A Session in which he states his frustration with white authors who incorporate Native American characters into their books and then claim to be trying to benefit Native American culture. If you want to help Native American culture, he says, donate to a Native American scholarship fund. I took this challenge pretty seriously, and though my new book doesn’t have Native Americans in it, it does have Romani characters — so when I was talking with the scholar who gave me the specifics for my Romani characters, I made sure to get the name of an aid fund that he recommended, and made a donation before the book even saw publication. I hope to do the same for each reprint. So anyway — I mentioned this to Mr. Alexie, and told him that his message was actually getting out. He was very gracious and kind, and we swapped business cards. And then I went into a corner and swooned. Swooned, I tell you. Sherman Alexie, you’re so dreamy. And you’re totally my hero.

Saturday was the first day of the convention, and what a day it was! ALA’s website says that there were over 28,000 attendants, and I’d believe it. We got put next to the guys from Unshelved who were really nice and kind and great boothneighbors. They also gave us all sorts of awesome schwag, including copies of their books and Library Raid teeshirts. I love Unshelved (It’s on my Livejournal feed) so this was a real treat. They were also such a big hit, and so well known, that it gave us an immediate locator when we were hobnobbing elsewhere: “Where’s your booth?” “Oh, we’re right next to the Unshelved guys.”

The other really awesome thing was that we were like rockstars. The Graphic Novel pavilion was crazy busy the whole time, and we almost never had a lull of longer than a half-hour. People were constantly stopping by to talk or look, and I handed out something like 1300 free copies of the preview book, and 80 copies of the first two books (“You’re the Graphic Novel Buyer for the entire San Francisco Library System? Here, have free books from everyone!”). Between handing out promos to reviewers and influential librarians, I figure I saved myself at least a few hundred bucks in postage alone. It was a terrific feeling to always be busy and to have such an accepting, excited audience. It was a very, very positive atmosphere, and each day I left exhausted, but pumped for the next day, which was a good thing because boy, were the days long.

I also got to meet some really awesome writers and illustrators — James Gurney was signing free Dinotopia lithographs right across the aisle from us. Talk about luck! Jim and I immediately jumped in line for those, lemme tell ya. While I was speaking withJackie Urbanovic, a really kind and enthusiastic illustrator, JimO was leading this really good-looking, sharp-dressed guy into the booth. As the “guy” leaned forward to check out Jim’s books, the name-tag turned sideways, and Holy Moses if Alison Bechdel wasn’t standing in our booth. I gasped audibly and then had to apologise to Jackie, who laughed at my reaction and said “Oh, I know Alison from back in Minnesota! Isn’t she the best?” I had to excuse myself then as Paul and I fell all over ourselves gushing at her and thrusting our books in her direction. Wow.

Let’s see. I know I’m forgetting a bunch of cool stuff. Oh! Right! John Bintz came by to say hey and dropped off a copy of his new self-published book. Go John! Mark Smylie stopped over to deliver hugs and advice on printing in color. Cousin Joan showed up, and we sent her through the stacks hunting for freebies. She scored some good schwag from the DC booth, and then ran off looking for other cool stuff to see. Carla showed up late on Saturday, with a husband, two kids and a propellerhead (hey, Shawn!) in tow. We nattered a bit, then they walked around some, and then I absconded with her to go to Sherman Alexie’s signing and we both ga-gaaed over him like a pair of schoolgirls, handing him copies of our books and telling him how much he rocks. ‘Cause he does. I also found the Coolest. Purses. EVER. (Lisa Jonte, you are hereby ordered to look at this link, ’cause you will DIE WITH THE AWESOME. Yes, she had a Pride and Prejudice one), and though I couldn’t afford one, I’m going to try my hand at making one.

On Sunday, John Scalzi was signing at the Tor Booth, and I dropped off my business card with our booth number on it — and then he dropped by to say hi, which was really awesome. I had to confess that I hadn’t actually read his books yet (though I do own Old Man’s War and it’s tops on my to-be-read list) but that I was a dedicated Whatever reader. We chatted a bit and then he had to run off to lunch. I was way geeked.
Sara Ryan was there, too — she’s a friend of Jim’s, so we grabbed her on Monday night and headed out for really amazing Japanese/Mexican fusion food in Chinatown. We also saw the Chinatown Hooters, and a storefront that proclaimed itself a “Kung Fu Gift Shop”. This was odd, but Sara showed us a photograph that she and Steve had taken of a shop’s neon sign advertising “Martial Arts / Marital Aids / Stun Guns”. Jim suggested adding “Restraining Order” to the list somewhere, but I thought “Notary Public” would make it a more well-rounded business.

Tuesday morning I actually got in to see Garrison Keillor give the closing address. His speech was really great, and the hundreds of librarians gathered there gave him a standing ovation when he finished. My family’s been regular Prairie Home Companion listeners for literal decades now, so it was a really special added treat to an altogether awesome week.

There were a gajillion awesome librarians there, too — not just authors. Tina Coleman and Stephen Raiteri and Shari Fesko and Dawn Rutherford and Kat Kan and Robin Brenner and Kalamazoo’s own Kevin King and Laurel from New York (Mindy Fulk, check out the pix below for your secret message!) all stopped by to say hello. I know there are literally dozens of names I’m forgetting to add here, but it was all a whirl, so if I neglected you, email me and I’ll add you to the list of shoutouts.

On Tuesday, the show finally closed in an orgy of book giveaways. We were not exempt from said giveaways, and I walked away with a whole bunch of cheap and/or free books! Awesome. Jim got on a plane for home, and Paul and I headed out for Carla and Mike’s house, where we were very kindly put up and fed. We played with their two lovely kids, and Paul helped Carla set up her new book, and I got to read the whole rest of the first part of her current book, which I could hardly keep my hands off. It’s wonderful, and y’all are gonna love it. We headed home first thing in the morning, to clear blue skies and an easy, traffic-free drive, thanks in large part to Mike McNeil’s astute directions.

And now we’re home, and now I’m done with my wrapup, because I’ve been at it for like three hours now. Here’re some pix from before, during and after the show. They’re kinda mixed together, so just page on through.

My key is here! My key is here! My key is here!

Rollande dropped it off last night in the mailbox and we found it when we got home. Isn’t it purty?

This is an example of the “non-special-edition” keys. Each will come in a black, recycled-paper box with a 18″ length of sterling silver Italian-made chain. The special editions will come in a fancy wooden box, and will feature a short length of baby-fine sterling silver chain; those are intended for display purposes only. We’re projecting that the special editions will run $50 and the unlimited series will be $35, not including shipping. As soon as we have a few of each in stock, I’ll open them up for sales through the Vögelein Online Store.

YAAAAAAY!