#neato keano

[lilithsaintcrow]

Soundtrack Monday: Goodnight, California

The Salt-Black Tree releases tomorrow, and I am very nervous. Release days are always difficult, and I like to have a heavy workload whenever one comes around. Focusing on something else is a good distraction. Writing Nat’s story was almost an exorcism. I knew precisely where the ending scene was, and anticipated it feverishly as I drew near the end of the tale. As soon as Spring clambered onto…

[bobcat-pie]

I’m what you might call a “cool bean teen”

[lilithsaintcrow]

Iron Key, Active Brain

A key of iron, on a stump of wood… This was my most popular Mosstodon pic lately. I can see why, it stopped me dead in my tracks while out with Boxnoggin. Intellectually I know someone doing work on the park infrastructure (or the road nearby) set it there and forgot it, or someone found it on the road and put it there so it didn’t puncture a passing tyre. But the visual glutton in me was…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Blurry Snail

It was a Morning–Boxnoggin shimmied out of his harness and went walkabout, and that was just the FIRST thing to go pear-shaped–so the Friday photo is a little late this week, but better that than never, right?

We had beautiful, glorious, life-giving rain yesterday, and I got this (blurry, for which I apologize) snap of a snail on the deck steps. People who move to the PNW are Not Prepared for…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Blank, Pointy-Tooth Screens

The weekend passed in a blur, between chores and getting wordcount in on Damage. The best thing about it was the rain moving in. It is now officially autumn, and I couldn’t be happier.

I always work best when the rains settle like an inverted grey bowl, tip-tapping the roof and window, hissing between leaves beginning to turn, plopping into puddles. Maybe it’s all the negative ions being…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Hello, Cabbage

Cabbage and fennel in the foreground, blurry nasturtiums in the back. I am unsure if the cabbage seeds have actually sprouted, and I’m sure the fennel is going to do better because cabbage is surprisingly picky. It wants Very Good Soil, but these fellows are going to get what they get. I mean, yes, I have a compost pile and I spread the resultant black gold every year, but reading the…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Some Magic, and Some Mystery

Some Magic, and Some Mystery

I’m still ill and only upright for short periods of time, so I’ve got something a little different for you today, dear ones. I’m participating in an upcoming ebook box set with a collection of some very fine writers, and just LOOK at this beautiful cover! Secrets mixed with magic can be deadly. Secrets have the power to protect or destroy. Forgotten lore, mysterious weapons, and magical…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Bee Ware

You might not be able to see it, but the crack between the concrete and the dirt behind the sign holds the entrance to a beehive. On warm mornings they are busily flying in and out, pollinating, gathering, doing their bee business. The people who live there put the sign up a couple weeks ago, and I think they absolutely mean to leave the bees alone long-term since they’re not harming anyone.…

[lilithsaintcrow]

RELEASE DAY: Finder

That’s right, my lovelies! Today is the (long-awaited) day the sixth book in the Watchers series drops!

He’s not the only one watching her. . .

For years Jorie Camden has been quietly helping her police friends pursue cold cases, and she’s paid the price over and over again, her talent for Finding stretched to the limit. Now something different is stalking the streets, taking…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Audio ROADTRIP, and FINDER!

Audio ROADTRIP, and FINDER!

Well, isn’t this a banner Tuesday?

I’m pleased and proud–as punch, as Lee would say–to announce that Roadtrip Z is now in audio! Narrated by the amazing Erin Deward, the adventures of Ginny, Lee, Juju, and the gang are now available in a silken voice, ready to slip into your ear-holes. Cotton Crossing and In the Ruins are both available now; Pocalypse Road and Atlanta Bound are forthcoming.

[lilithsaintcrow]

Rock Possibilities

I saw this little fellow again while on walkies with Very Excited Dogs yesterday. The painted rocks move around the neighborhood in odd patterns; I half suspect someone knows I’m keeping an eye on them and moves them just to say hello. Or, you know, the rocks are moving of their own accord.

Of course the realreason is that the people who paint them are trading them, and people who like them…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Spring's Lady

Spring’s Lady

My writing partner had a blood lily that made a whole new bulb, so she gave me the new one. Since then it’s died back every midwinter and returns every spring.

I was feeling rather down last week (really, weren’t we all) until I noticed a tiny green nubbin. Which meant it was time to make sure the potting soil was good, and also time to bend over the pot nightly and whisper encouragement.…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Soundtrack Monday: Chrysalis Heart

Soundtrack Monday: Chrysalis Heart

There were a lot of songs on the Incorruptible playlist. (I am now hearing Pete Puma say “a whoooooole lotta lumps.”) But pride of place for that particular book has got to be taken by Delerium’s Chrysalis Heart.

I listen to a lotof Delerium while writings. Sometimes it’s just background, but other times a song will slide through my ears and pierce the throbbing heart of a story, and this…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Giveaway, and Other Monday

Giveaway, and Other Monday

Good morning, chickadees! It was a long weekend, and one I’m not quite sure I made it through intact. But I did get to settle on the couch with a book on contesting orthodoxy in the medieval and early modern era, so there’s that.

And we have a new giveaway! This month it’s for two signed, personalized Strange Angels/Betrayalsbind-ups, copies of which I have signed I can count on one hand.…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Leek Iteration

I love potato-leek soup for many reasons, not least of which is this little science experiment. It’s close to magic, and every time I walk by the kitchen window, I am reminded of the deep, abiding fuck you inherent in all earthly life, clinging on the surface or in the crevices of an insignificant rock whirling through space in a backwater galaxy.

The kids are making “Leek 2.0” jokes. I…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Edging In With the Lake

Edging In With the Lake

I’m edging back into piano practice again, and it feels good. Of course, every time I play this I expect to see a red-eyed Natalie Portman, but that’s a price one pays.

I want to finish this book of exercises and go back to doing Bach. Next year I’ve got to start working seriously on my Goldberg Variations Before I’m 50 bucket-list item, so it would be good to practice before then. And a…