It was the best of times . . . and then it got really good.

Was here for StokerCon 2017 this weekend:

But I never really saw it from that exact angle, or all lit up like that. Really, here’s the angle I saw it from:

That’s me reading “Dear Final Girls” at the Shades & Shadows event. And here’s a game of Werewolf the Apocalypse I got to public-play with the creator of the whole phenomenon, Bill Bridges, along with, after Bill on the far left, George R…

The first is a little ten, eleven minute out-loud thing I did at Dink:

122: Stephen Graham Jones, “Insisting on a Dream”

The astute will note that I get the issue of Secret Wars I’m talking about there wrong. Sorry. What happened / my excuse? I forgot I was on this panel until about fifteen minutes before, and then I had to look up what I was supposed to do for it, which took about fourteen and a half minutes on the terrible signal I had going on. Figured out what I was …

I mean, because it’s Powell’s Books, of course. But also for this:

Also in the pic: Jeremy Robert Johnson, the real Stephen Jones, Lisa Morton, Mr. King

…

That’s the afternoon. For the evening:

http://www.shadesandshadows.org/2017/04/shades-shadows-live-at-stokercon/…

Mapping the Interior is sneaking out into the world:

That was the Tor offices. This is Twitter, later:

New books from @neilhimself @SGJ72 @jasonshiga and Carrie Vaughn. pic.twitter.com/v1oiy8WYrX

— Andrew Liptak (@AndrewLiptak) March 23, 2017

And, Ellen Datlow, she without whom Mapping the Interior wouldn’t have ever happened:
…

So honored to have Mongrels on the final ballot along with so many excellent writers, so many good books:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Hand, Elizabeth – Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books)
Jones, Stephen Graham – Mongrels (William Morrow)
Langan, John – The Fisherman (Word Horde)
MacLeod, Bracken – Stranded: A Novel (Tor Books)
Tremblay, Paul – Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (William Morrow)

 …

Man, been nine months since Mongrels went live, and it’s still getting words. Like these, over at LARB:

“One of Them Now: Stephen Graham Jones’s Mongrels“

And, those nine months ago, of course, LA Times was already on the yellow book:

“The Wild Boy Wants his Fangs“

Honored. Thanks, Kristina Baudemann (LARB) and Steph Cha (LAT).

And, any post with Mongrels in it is a good-enough excuse to post a werewolf gif:

…

Just stashing these here so I can remember them:

[ other Trump-stuff on site, here: “The Day before the Earth Stood Still“, “Trump” ]…

We’re all holding our breath. For four years. But we’ll lose it a few times, I know, from shouting. We’re going to need a lot of shouting, and a lot of watching. Anyway, there’s hope, too. This is last night:

However, we can’t forget that this kind of thing is now happening as well:

In Case You Missed It
The Senate voted 51 to 48:
1. To end coverage for preexisting conditions, veterans benefits, and aid to rural hospitals.
2. To remove discriminati