The Horror!

I've had some scary experiences in the past 24 hours or so. It all started yesterday afternoon, when I was watching the noon news on TV. Just as the newscast ended, suddenly the Teletubbies took over my TV. Instead of the dramatic closing newscast music, there was this happy la la la kind of stuff and then these freaks with high-pitched voices started dancing all over the screen. I looked, and instead of my cable box showing a channel number, it had a weird code. I grabbed the remote to turn it back to the channel I was on, but it was still Teletubbies. I tried clicking up and down channels, and it would show those channels for a split second before jumping over to the Teletubbies. I'm sure they were here to convey a message from their Evil Overlord, but I wasn't taking any chances, so I turned the TV off in a panic. It was truly awful!!! (What happened was that suddenly every channel was showing PBS. that's somehow a default whenever something happens to the cable signal, but it usually doesn't last that long.)

Fortunately, we got a wall of terribly severe thunderstorms with hurricane force winds blowing through last night to help erase the Teletubbies and give me something else to have nightmares about.

And then this morning on my way back from the career day I decided to drop by the neighborhood B&N to visit my book. And they had one copy. Shelved spine out in general fiction. In the past, they've always had stacks of my new books on the "new fiction" table. It was so depressing. Combined with the reports about stores where people who've bought books in the past not carrying this one, it's very discouraging. I'm trying not to panic. So, tell me more good stories about books selling out in one day or seeing stacks of books (rapidly diminishing, I hope!) in the front of stores. And keep on pushing it, even though it looks like it will take more work, as people won't be able to just stumble over books in stores. The decision about book five will probably be made next week.

On a brighter note, there was a nice article about me in the Dallas Morning News today. And I had a great time at the career day. Those kids were really cool and asked some good questions.

Now, a couple of little notes based on feedback I'm getting about this book. Yes, there is another book in the series. It's already written. I planned these two books as kind of a two-parter, so the story is definitely not over, and really, these people do have to go through some stuff in order to really get what they deserve at the end. I can't make it too easy for them, or it would be a boring book. My original plan was for this to be a holiday season book, with the next book coming out, well, around now, but the publishing schedule didn't work out that way. The main characters will be back, just in a slightly different setting (vaguing that up so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read Damsel yet, but those who have read it will probably get the hint).

Great Blog Campaign update: See short interviews with a lot of secondary characters.

And on the GCC, I answer three questions at Joshilyn Jackson's blog.

Remember the booksigning tonight in Dallas! 7 at the Borders at Preston and Royal. If there's a critical mass of people there (like someone who doesn't work at the store), then I'll do a short talk, maybe a Q&A and a reading before the signing, so if you want to see that, get to the store at 7.