Scarlet Letters

Just a quick note to let you folks know I have uploaded this season's recaps on the web site. They're spotty, because I missed a lot of TV the last five months. What can I say? I spent a lot of time, y'know, writing books. And stuff. But thanks to the mysterious Leprechauns and their anonymous gift of a Tivo, I won't be missing anything else! At least, once I figure out how to set the stinking thing up. And I'll do my best to fill in the gaps for the season. Formatting was a pain in the neck, so if you see any funkiness, please drop me a line. Recaps are now linked on the main page. Hope you enjoy! www.elizabethdonald.com

I had the great honor and pleasure of meeting Peter S. Beagle, author of fantasy classic THE LAST UNICORN, last year at a convention in Atlanta. The gentleman was pleasant and friendly, and I was honored to buy a signed copy of his book. The other night, I introduced my seven-year-old to the wonder that is Beagle's decidedly-not-children's novel set to the best animation Rankin/Bass ever managed with strange, haunting solemnity and doomed love. I loved this movie as a child, and I love it still. Maybe because it was the first "kid's movie" I ever saw with a bittersweet ending, not unlike my preference in my own work. When the music started at the beginning and America began singing the Unicorn Song, my son turned to me with huge eyes. He recognized the song, of course. I've been singing it to him since I carried him in my womb. There's something bleak and dark in that song: its imagery of the end of the world, of a dusty fountain and the last of everything...

I'm having an online release party for my new book, SETTING SUNS! It ships Monday, and we'll be chatting about it, Infernii and anything else that comes to mind. Bonus: I'll be giving away free stuff! WHAT: Setting Suns Online Release Party WHEN: 8 p.m. CST WHERE: The Wilderness Chat Room Directions to get into the chat: a) Go to http://wilderness.homeip.net/wilderness/connect/bean/index.html. b) Wait while it loads. This can take a minute. You may see a little coffee cup thinking. c) If it asks you if you trust the applet, you say YES. d) You'll see a little black screen. Click File and go down to Connect. There you go. It'll ask you for a login name and a password. Don't worry, no one's collecting so much as an IP address. If you get stuck, go to the chat room attached to my Yahoogroup: groups.yahoo.com/group/elizabethdonald. I'll be keeping a window open there to help out lost chatters. :) Hope to see you there! :) ekd

You've got less than 24 hours left to preorder SETTING SUNS for the discount price of $11! At midnight EST Tuesday, SETTING SUNS goes to its regular selling price and you twerps missed out. So if you haven't yet ordered your copy of the most enthralling, tantalizing and terrifying collection of short stories I've ever written, hie thee hence to www.newbabelbooks.com and preorder yourself a copy! Ship date is now slated for Feb. 20. In all seriousness, I'm very excited about this book. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

(The following is an essay I have written for the Cerridwen Press newsletter. Enjoy! -ekd) There was a very tall man with broad shoulders standing in front of me. The room was crowded, so I waited patiently until it was opportune for me to step past him. As I did so, he turned toward me and said, “Excuse me,” in a polite, friendly voice. He had horns. Not huge devil’s horns out of some bad fantasy movie with Tom Cruise. Just small, discreet horns about two inches long, protruding from his forehead. Now if you looked pretty closely, you could see the thin clear band holding the horns to his head. But I didn’t want to look that closely. He was a pretty big guy. And he did have horns. I was at a science fiction and fantasy convention. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, there are thousands of Cons every year, ranging from a small gathering of a few hundred in Nashville to Dragoncon in Atlanta, which attracts more than 20,000 every Labor Day weekend. The stereotypes evoke...