Man, I can’t thank Dirk Deppey enough for hipping me to The Horrors Of It All, which might be my new favorite blog. Old skool horror comics I’d probably never read any other way, because while I love the old skool horror comics, I am not obsessive enough to be a real Collector, aside from a buncha Warren mags found on eBay and some DC SHOWCASE volumes. The former doesn’t really count and the latter feels like cheating.

(On the other hand, I do have the 3 volumes of TOMB OF DRACULA kicking around here somewhere, which - let’s be honest - is more than anyone needs, really.)

Anyway. ‘Twas a week of Toth at the house of Horrors Of It All, so check it out.

1. I’ll be on a panel at San Diego with Tori Amos, David Mack, Ted McKeever, and the lovely Kelly Sue.

2. I’ll be really happy when this week is over.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Rantz has pictures of an advance copy of COMIC BOOK TATTOO. Go look.

Ok, three things.

Today’s my birthday. Huzzah! And I’m working. (Boo?)

Before you boo, I must note that it feels like my birthday has already come and gone. We had our first-ever get-together this weekend, wherein many friends stopped by, including a few wonderful pals I haven’t seen in a long while: Michael, my friend from my Manhattan DA office days (talk about kickin’ it old school - this was pre-Wicca), Evan from the grad school days, and Lynne from running around after rock stars days… oh my, but those were the days.

And Miss brought a pie! Nick brought me a CAKE! How cool is that?

But the hits just keep on coming:

That’s me with Terri Windling and the fabulous Lisa Stock. Terri has been in town and we actually got some time to catch up… all too short, alas, but blissful. Ellen Datlow has a great set of pictures from Terri & her partner Howard’s KGB reading here (including one of me that came out well, if I do say so myself).

Speaking of grad school, I feel compelled to note that in the pre-party cleaning of house, I finally tossed the very last of my old notes and text books. All that’s left is the piece of paper. Wild.

Kevin, Miss and I got into a conversation at dim sum about storytelling, in which I freely admitted what I have never kept a secret: that I am draconian narrative… mistress: harsh, brutal, unapologetic, unforgiving. Don’t ask me to spend hours of my life with you and give me no payoff. Other people may be okay with that, but I am most certainly not; there’s nothing else I can think of that’ll get you on my storytelling shite-list faster than lack of an ending.

I’m so passionate about this that I can’t seem to talk about it without resorting to profanity (my apologies) and foaming at the mouth, which is kind of embarrassing. So imagine my delight when, surreptitiously, I find this bit of gentle wisdom while researching my next WEIRD TALES interview:

“But there’s comfort. There are always more good stories, and now and then there are great stories. They come along if you wait for them. And here’s something I believe in my heart: No story can be great without closure. There must be closure, because it’s the human condition. And since that’s how it is, I’ll be in line with my money in my hand on July 21.”

Thank you, Stephen King. I will try to channel you the next time this subject comes up.

(In other news, the Scryptic column wherein I ranted about same is 3 years old, almost exactly to the day. The soothsayer in me is desperately looking for some meaning here somewhere.)

(”Soothsayer” is not the right word, but neither me nor Mr. O.E.D. can think of the right thing right now. We know it’s out there.)

A couple of random questions I’ll put to ye right now:

1. How much fat is in an avocado? I was indifferent until about 15 minutes ago.

2. Will GoDaddy ever stop sending me email and calling me on the telephone to give the the heads up on that crappy domain I’m intentionally allowing to expire?!?

Yes, I’m a little punchy right now.

Terri is in town this week. Hooray!

… this is what I’d write about.

First things first: there’s a brief new interview with yours truly over at Talking With Tim (the Tim in question being the lovely Tim O’Shea).

Second, when you go to your local comics shop this week, be sure to pick up a copy of Comic Shop News, because there’s a big article on The Chemistry Set and NO FORMULA in it. (How cool is this?)

MoCCA was hawt. And hot. We had a great, if stifling, time. Loved the way Vertigo handed out Minx ARC’s like candy - I picked up the forthcoming books from Mr. Wood, Mariko Tamaki (writer of Skim, another book I’ve been looking forward to; so happy I got to purchase it from her directly), and Miss Cecil & Jim Rugg (I do wish Jim would make an appearance at one of these things - feels like it’s been ages since we’ve seen him). And I ran into Charles Fetherolf - huzzah! - who doesn’t seem to be all that ticked off that he’s still waiting for a story from me (must! finish! Drilon’s!)

Topped off the con proper with a lovely chat with Brett from Top Shelf about how cool Sami is, then off to ACME with some kids for dinner. Did you know that Kevin has one of Bernie Krigstein’s drawing tables? Neither did we.

The best part of MoCCA, of course, was getting to meet Lynda Barry for Lady Bee. That’s a story in and of itself. In the meantime, check out the pictures here:

The book says “Wish you were here!”. Indeed, indeed.

What else? Led my first ever teleseminar (class by telephone) yesterday and survived! Next one is in a week. Whew.

Solid article on urban fantasy here - thank you, Matt Staggs. Matt keeps tabs on the “bookosphere” so we don’t have to - his daily roundups have quickly become invaluable. Thank you, Matt!

On the houseplants tip, my avocado seed didn’t really work all that well. And the herbs in the planter died while I was off at The System. But enough with the bad news. In the plus column, the tomato plans my mother sent in the mail (yes, really!) are thriving:

On Sunday morning, Leland discovered that yet another l’il bottle tree had pushed himself up over the edge:

By the end of the day, his first little leaves had unfolded and he was standing up straight as an arrow. Guess that desert sun we’ve had going in Brooklyn for the past several days is good for somethin’.

We now have three bottle trees. Sweet.

Back to work now…

Well, juggling four projects, for one: a major copywriting gig (with another on its heels), planning my very first teleseminar class (for BYMB), promoting BLUE, and working on the next thing (entitled - wait for it - WHITE). And all the other stuff. I’m so lucky! (No, that is not sarcasm.)

Attended The System last weekend as well, and met Ken McCarthy in person. Ken is one of the coolest folks you’ve never heard of - sincere, down to earth and so freaking smart. The System is now on my “must return to every year” short list.

NO FORMULA, The Chemistry Set anthology, has been announced. It’s in this month’s PREVIEWS (JUN083849), and will feature stuff from the site as well as goodies never-before-seen (well, by a wide audience anyway), including a tasty morsel from Kevin and I, RED.

Jen Contino has a roundtable discussion with everyone over at THE PULSE. My answers are in a lovely shade of pink. There’s a RED preview page there, as well.

Holy smokes, is it MoCCA weekend already? Leland and I will be there, tooling around. I’ll also be hanging with Stephen, I’m sure, plotting world domination or something quite like it.