Thread by @seananmcguire

It's September first, 2019. Ten years ago today, ROSEMARY AND RUE was released in bookstores across North America (the import shops took longer to get their copies). Ten years ago, exactly, this wacky adventure began in earnest.

(My time with Toby started considerably earlier, in 1996, when I wrote a short story called "Of Koi Fish and October Dayes," and my girlfriend at the time demanded I expand it into a novel. It took a while.)

When I announced that I had sold three new urban fantasy novels to @dawbooks, a surprising number of people were willing and eager to tell me that urban fantasy was dead, and I had already failed. Some of them believed themselves to be friends of mine.

@dawbooks Note that they hadn't read a word of the finished books at that point; they hadn't seen the covers, they knew nothing but the genre, but they were more than happy to rush in and tell me my dreams were dead.

@dawbooks They are not, for the most part, people I speak to anymore. Because genres don't DIE. They ebb and flow, they peak and level out, but they survive. What we call "urban fantasy" today would have been "fairy tales" a few hundred years ago.

@dawbooks Magic and mystery (and murder) in a familiar setting, using places and technologies you understand? Forest, it's a fairy tale. Fresno, it's an urban fantasy.

@dawbooks And to be a little fair to the folks who decided that being assholes was more important than being cheerleaders, 2009 was right after the first big UF boom. Many people had full reading lists. Many of the UF authors who debuted with me have either changed names or changed genres.

@dawbooks I honestly think, although I can't prove, that my success was at least partially due to the fact that in 2009, most people assumed I was a dude. "Seanan" is shaped like a male name if you aren't familiar with it.

@dawbooks My covers also helped, presenting Toby with the same solemnity and lack of sexuality as most male UF protagonists. There is nothing sexy about @cmcgrath72's styling for Toby.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 (And yes, I like to think the quality of the books helped at least a little, but the best writing in the world gets you nowhere if people won't pick up your books.)

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 ROSEMARY AND RUE came out in 2009. A LOCAL HABITATION and AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT followed in 2010, by which point I had another three-book contract. LATE ECLIPSES was the first Toby book to hit the NY Times bestseller list.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 And now, we're thirteen books on and still rolling right along. Which may be part of where the people telling me I had already failed verged on correct: the market for series this long in UF really isn't there, thanks to too many people stopping or getting cut off in the middle.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 I still have people tell me I won't finish, because no one finishes, and cite every series that's ever been canceled on them as proof.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when people refuse to buy series books until the series is over, leading to it being canceled in the middle due to low sales.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 But! My sales are good, and @dawbooks believes in me, and for ten years now, we've managed at least one Toby book a year.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 And we'll keep it up for at least five more years, since I have five more books under contract:

A KILLING FROST
WHEN SORROWS COME
SLEEP NO MORE
THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS

...and one book whose title is still fighting us.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 If I have my way, that won't be the end; my intention has always been that the last two books, if we can reach them as planned, will be FEAR NO MORE and COME TO DUST.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 This is always going to be the series that defines and defined my career, even if it doesn't have the critical cachet of some of my later work. Toby is my imaginary friend, and I am honored and overjoyed to share her with all of you.

@dawbooks @cmcgrath72 And if you haven't met Toby yet, ROSEMARY AND RUE: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION comes out next month, with a new intro, new novella, and map of Toby's world included. Come meet my fictional family!