Getting Cool Things

A few weeks ago, I posted a video by The Forest Children and commented on the awesome of both video for and song itself, Cold Blooded. Friday, thanks to Shawn C Barker, half the Forest Children duo, I got their 2007 album, PsychoAngelic Crypt in the mail.

I have listened to it straight through twice already, playing several of the songs more than that. Conjure The Nomad is my favorite, but the whole album is certainly worthy of your attention if you're at all into dark rituals, demons, killers, and the imagining of said things.

Very good stuff, and I wonder at why I am the recipient of such generosity. Which leads me to the next cool thing I will be receiving:

Some of you may know that I participate fairly regularly in two or three chats on Twitter. One of those is the friendly, thoughtful crew at #UFChat, the subject of which is Urban Fantasy. I stumbled into it one day a few months back and really enjoyed the lively discussions and friendly atmosphere.

I come back to the friendly because there is so very little geek snobbery going on, something I cannot say about some of the other chats I have attended. Indeed, while I do not write UF, and have limited plans to ever do so, they possess an energy I find enticing. So much so that I have even asked the UFGirlz to attend, with limited success. They are, after all, a busy, busy gang (I am told it is hard being the awesome all the time).

So, enough of why I like to attend. Yesterday was the first time I had been on while a guest author answered the moderator's questions. The author, Merrie Destefano, authored Afterlife a book published by Eos/Harper Collins. The book, as described by Destefano, sounds like an SF novel with romance elements, yet has garnered a following among Urban Fantasy fans. The author is an intelligent and witty sort, open about her work. The chat went very well, and I came away interested in reading the book. There was, lucky for poor me, a drawing of participants at the end of the chat to see who might win a signed copy of Afterlife.

I won. I will be getting my signed book in a week or so.

I do no win things. I do not. In fact, I'm one of those bitter sorts who only grudgingly says, "Congratulations," when the loot is handed out.

But there it is.

And I didn't have to go down on anyone for either of these cool things.