1 First off, octopodes are the smartest, craftiest, prettiest invertebrates out there.

What’s not to love about an octopus.

Case in point, I give you the mimic octopus?

2 Second, they have been adopted as the personal mascot of my group of friends.

So they remind me of wonderful people and good times.

(Yes this was my fault, there was a squeaky rubber mascot involved I used to bring to exams as my emotional support octopus. What? You don’t have one? Everyone should have an emotional support octopus.)

3 Third there is a strange enduring connection between steampunk and other science fiction and cephalopods.

Don’t know why, I blame Verne and Lovecraft.

4 Lastly, after all the other things you can do with an octopus, you can then eat them too. Yummy!

An interview with RT Book Reviews has dropped.

Here is a sample:

Whitney Sullivan: Your heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, has no soul (and her partner is a werewolf) – what does she find most inconvenient about these unusual circumstances?

Gail Carriger: She will turn supernatural creatures mortal when she touches them. This can be terribly embarrassing, not to say fatal, for said creatures. It also means that on several occasions certain baser elements of society are actively trying to kill her, without proper introduction – so rude. One side effect of her soulless state is that Alexia is very practical in her approach to coping with most problems (including said werewolf partner). She either bashes them over the head with her parasol, or talks at them, with equally disastrous results.

Quote of the Day:

“Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep.”

~ Catherine O’Hara

STORY DE JOUR!

Meat Cute: Parasol Protectorate Prequel

The Hedgehog Incident

PICK YOUR VENDOR!

Direct from Gail

From the comedic mind of New York Times bestseller Gail Carriger comes the much requested prequel short story to Soulless.

Alexia Tarabotti attends what appears to be a very dull London party, until the new werewolf Alpha turns up, is unconscionably rude to her, and sits on a hedgehog.