AletheaKontis.com

Mary Robinette Kowal tagged me on her blog:
The rules on this one are simple. For 8 days, post 1 thing every day that made you happy.

David Tauriainen, a friend of mine from Mo*Con, had asked me to sign a copy of AlphaOops for his niece Alexandra. I did it up in true Lee-Signature style, along with a note I wrote to Alexandra wishing her a happy holidays.

And then David sent me this gorgeous picture. It completely made my day.

Alexandra said of AlphaOops: "That’s the book where the Alphabet gets all mixed up! But it’s okay at the end."

Remember when you were a kid, how great it was to get letters to you in the mail? I bet you know a kid like that…and it wouldn’t take you five minutes to make their day. In fact, instead of tagging people to do this meme, I ask you to sit down and write one letter. Snail mail. Yes, with a stamp and everything.

Bonus points if you 1.) write in multiple colors, 2.) illustrate the envelope, and 3.) decorate the letter/envelope with stickers.

The Apex Plush alien. You need one. Your best friend needs one too.
You can get it here.

Yup. I still love Adam Rex.

Yup. I still love Adam Rex.

Trailer went live today. Check it out!

At the very least, it’s gonna be pure eye candy. (Have I ever told you how much I adore Liev Schreiber?)

I interviewed my dear friend, Campbell Award Winner, and Puppinatrix Mary Robinette Kowal for the latest issue of Subterranean Online. Find out the bizarre circumstances behind our first meeting and how, despite that, I seem to still rate an appearance in Mary’s perfect day.

Be sure to also read Mary’s short story "Waiting for Rain."

Princess Mary at the 2008 Hugo Awards

A fairy tale girl at heart, I was ridiculously excited about literary jester Jim C. Hines’s new young adult series. The Stepsister Scheme can be best described as Disney princesses crossed with Charlie’s Angels.  The story is a whole new take on what happened to Cinderella and her prince after the wedding. No… what really happened. In this month’s interview, I find out more about Hines and what he’s about. What he’s really about!

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Alethea Kontis: What is your favorite fairytale?

Jim C. Hines: I’m going to go with J. K. Rowling.  Not only do we have a single mother who now lives in a castle, but she did it on her own.  No prince or white horse required, just a lot of work and determination that paid off big time in the end.

AK: What inspired the teenage girl point of view?

JCH: All three princesses are in their late teens, but that was mostly a necessity of the story and my chronology rather than a deliberate choice.  The book takes place shortly after Danielle’s (Cinderella’s) wedding, and several years after the tales of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.  If I was going for full historical accuracy, I probably should have made Danielle more like 15, but I decided to fudge a little for my 21st century readers in order to avoid the creepiness factor.

AK: What was your favorite book as a kid?

JCH: That depends entirely on what day you asked.  I loved the Great Brain series, the Hardy Boys, A Wrinkle in Time, and, of course, I’ve always reserved part of the bookshelves for my Peanuts’ books.  I moved into fantasy with Raymond Feist’s Riftwar series, which I’ve read so many times the books will probably disintegrate the next time we get a breeze through the house.

AK: What’s cool about the cover art of The Stepsister Scheme?

JCH: Is “Everything!” a good response?  I love what Scott Fischer did with the cover art.  It captures the Charlie’s Angels feel we were going for while giving each princess her own distinctive look… it’s great!  Scott said he’d been wanting to experiment with a cover that combined western artwork with a bit of anime influence, and I love the result.  But the absolute coolest thing has to be Talia, the princess on the right.  Because I wrote the book for my daughter, I decided to see if there was any way we could work her into the cover.  I sent Scott a picture of my girl, which he aged a bit and used as the model for Talia.  Coolest thing ever!

AK: What’s your stance on this “one true love” and “happily ever after” business?

JCH: I’ve been happily married for five years, so I have to be careful here.  I do believe in love, and I believe it’s possible to have a generally happy life with someone.  I don’t really buy into the one true love, soul-mate, destined-to-be-together thing, though.  The average romance movie ends when our hero and heroine get together, implying that once you’ve met your soulmate, it’s happily ever after.  Well, it ain’t.  Relationships take work, and the moment you start taking things for granted and assuming everything will be rainbows and roses from here on out, that’s when the roof starts leaking or the kid throws up at 3:00 A.M. or your editor calls with a last-minute deadline.  Honestly, I helped to destroy several relationships when I was younger precisely because I expected me and my one true love to just live happily ever after.

AK: As a Genre Chick, I love Genreville–tell us about your column in Publishers Weekly.

JCH: That was fun.  Rose Fox invited me to be one of her guest bloggers while she was away.  I was a little intimidated at first.  I mean, this is Publishers Weekly!  (Almost as important a name as Ingram!)  Anyway, after stressing about ideas, I eventually relaxed and decided to have fun with it.  I wrote a lighthearted piece called “And the Award Shall be Known as … the Dangerfield,” talking about the fact that humorous and lighthearted novels don’t seem to get much award recognition in science fiction and fantasy and how it’s about time we put a change to that.  The fact that I write lighthearted fantasy had nothing to do with my motivations.  Nope, nothing at all.

AK: Does The Stepsister Scheme tie in at all to your previous Goblin books?

JCH: Not really.  Goblins do make a brief appearance in the book, and the Goblin, Diglet, might be familiar to readers of the Goblin series.  On the other hand, there’s a detail in The Mermaid’s Madness that careful readers will–well, I probably shouldn’t spoil things.

AK: What’s next?

JCH: I turned in book #2 in this series (The Mermaid’s Madness) back in November, and I’m currently working on #3, tentatively titled Red Hood’s Revenge.  I’ve got ideas for at least five of these books, but only the first three are under contract, so we’ll have to see how it goes.  As with all things publishing, the better the sales, the more likely we’ll be able to continue the series.

AK: You say your favorite Muppet is Animal. (Mine’s Gonzo.) Do you bear any personal resemblance to that character in particular?

JCH: Most people would probably say I’ve got more in common with Gonzo than with Animal.  Mostly I like Animal’s straightforward approach to life.  The dude lives in the moment, and he seems to be having fun with life.  When things go wrong, he lets you know, then gets on with things.  And I’ll admit, I do develop more of a resemblance to Animal around deadline time….

AK: If you could be a superhero, or have any superpower, who/what would it be?

JCH: Green Lantern would be pretty cool, just for the sheer range of power.  The ring can do just about anything, depending on your willpower and your imagination.  I think I’ve got a pretty decent imagination, and my family can attest to the willpower (though they might describe it more as stubbornness or sheer bullheadedness.)  If it was completely up to me though, I’d probably go with the whole Jedi thing.  The Force would be great at parties, and how can you turn down your very own lightsaber?

 it was like a movie. It was horrible sleety rain outside, but I was going to brave it anyway — the path to the Skating Rink is a side road, straight shot, so it would have been fine as long as I took it slow. I checked — yup, still rain. I got my towel and camera and cell phone, put on my shoes, and opened the door at the same time the phone rang. 

It was Kitti. 

She was looking out her own front door, at a scene much like this. 

Instant snow!

The League of Extraordinary Ladies

Join Kitti, Alethea, Lillie, and Janet this month as we share some English Breakfast, toast Lillie’s birthday, and chat about Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel Watchmen. Oh yes, even comic book geek chicks have tea parties too!

You can listen to the podcast here.

The Fantastic Four of Ingram Book Company

Miss Kitti Sunrise lends me her shoulder

I was exhausted yesterday. Black Wednesday came and went, and it was a horrible freaking day. I had stayed up into the wee hours curled up in a blanket on the couch, watching Season Two of Dexter. I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep, and I preferred to wake up to the alarm after four hours than staring at a dark ceiling at 2am. Work was fine — I even forgot I was tired until someone inevitably asked me if I was okay. But I was not missing skating.

Oh, no. Even if all I did was sit on the side of the rink and read Watchmen, I wasn’t letting Kitti and Jenny down. Plus…HELLO…there were new only-worn-once skates in the back of my car begging to be broken in! The purple wheels were calling my name (or that might have been a hallucination…I was too tired to know the difference).

As always, I left the house late and got to the rink early. (How does that always happen?) I paid my $5 and laced up, skated once around, relaced, did it again, and waited for Kitti and Jenny (who was working late again) to arrive. Especially Jenny — she’s been so swamped with stuff, I haven’t seen much of her around the office. We had a lot to catch up on. Kitti and I skated together for a bit, and when Jenny got on the floor, I cut across and went over to talk to her. Skategossip.

We talked for almost an hour.

It’s true — exercising goes by much faster when you’re all caught up in conversation with someone. It also forces you to not overdo it, because you still need enough oxygen for the verbal diarrhea. We shared jokes and outrage and secrets — I must say, the skating rink is a great place to talk in plain sight with no one overhearing. The music is SO loud…the guys in the van outside aren’t going to get squat out of the bug they planted in my hairband. And that’s just the way I needed it.

Which is a little ridiculous…I’m an author and a book buyer. I’m not friggin’ James Bond. But I have to employ some of the same tactics. (It’s not paranoia if they’re actually watching you.) You know, I’d like to see Bond on wheels whispering skategossip into a willowy young thing’s ear.

My leg was aching, my right foot was killing me, and I was starting to skate like crap, so I called a time-out. That’s when I realized it was 7:45, and we’d been at it for almost an hour straight. That’s as long as I work out at the gym on any regular given day, and i had never skated so long without a break before. Yay, me! So, I took off the skates, read a ilttle of Watchmen, and watched this week’s superstars on the floor.

And boy, were they superstars. One guy was spinning around ilke a top in the center circle, teaching three other girls exactly how he did it. (Those three other girls had some skillz already…I considered it a more advanced class. One day I’ll be that good.) Another guy — oh, he blew ua all away. His sates weren’t even laced up — the tongues were hanging out, and they looked at any moment like they would fall off his feet. In fact, he went around one lap woth one shoe off. I wondered what he was doing…until he crouched down, put the loose shoe UNDER HIS BUTT, stretched the free leg out, put his hands behind his head, and reclined almost perfectly horizontal as he went around. (I tried to take a picture. It was way too dark.)

No fear. No hesitation. No rules inside the box. He was all strength and ease.
One day I’ll be that good.

I was tired…but not that kind of tired.