Queer · and · Loathing · in · America

For some reason I woke up before seven, and I have that body-tired but mentally alert combo that drives me insane. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

It's been an up and down week, frankly--big highs and incredibly awful lows. But fuck the lows, here's the highs:

1. Timothy is a TLA Gaybie finalist! Oddly enough, it's nominated for Science Fiction/Fantasy (!), but there you have it. You can vote for it, and my friend William Holden's Secret Societies for Mystery, right here: http://www.tlavideo.com/gaybies/a-2 and remember to bookmark it so you can vote over and over and over and over again...

2. Night Shadows and Raising Hell are both Lambda Literary Award finalists, in Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror and Gay Men's Erotica, respectively. This is a tribute to the amazing stories I got from amazing contributors rather than any particular editorial skill of mine, to be frank. Best advice I ever got about editing an anthology? "Use good writers." I believe these are my 11th and 12th nominations. Inching ever closer to the record for most nominations, which is kind of cool.

3. I signed contracts for Chanse 7, Murder in the Arts District, and another y/a novel, The Orion Mask, both forthcoming in 2014. I am very excited about this; Chanse was always intended to be a seven book series, and so while I am not going to say this is the last Chanse, I am glad to see the series made it as far it was intended to go from the very beginning. The Orion Mask is also kind of exciting, as it will be my first y/a set in New Orleans...and it's a story, like Timothy, that I've been wanting to tell for quite some time.

4. I am doing a blog tour for Fashion Victim; if you're interested in seeing my interviews, reading some reviews of the book, and reading some guest blog posts (I wrote one about Trixie Belden, and another about Mary Stewart), you can find them here: http://www.clpblogtours.com/2013/01/fashion-victim-by-gt-herren.html ;this is the comprehensive list of my appearances with the links.

5. I finished the revisions on Lake Thirteen as well as a pesky short story, "A Streetcar Named Death." Huzzah! And Dead Housewives of New Orleans has really started flowing. Huzzah!

6. Speaking of Paige, I also signed the contract for Paige 3, The Mad Catter, this morning.

7. I also got my panel assignment for Malice Domestic--which is going to be a lot of fun!

I finally finished reading Thunderball; it was just okay, and have now moved on to The Man with the Golden Gun.

And huzzah for the weekend's arrival!