THE WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS is always a week of cleanup for me. Putting away the remnants of one year to prepare for another. I spend hours organizing and backing up computer files, updating my iPod, cleaning off my desk from weeks of detritus… and I also think back a lot on the last 12 months. Of the things unanticipated. Of the dreams met, and dreams lost. We only get so many seasons, and I think…
I HAVE TO SAY, this has been a pretty good week! On Monday night (actually, 1 a.m. Tuesday morning) I finished my final edits on my 6th novel, NightWhere! So finally, after a couple weeks of editing and rewriting (and a series of very late nights there at the end!), I turned in the book to my editor Don D’Auria at Samhain. It’s scheduled for release in June 2012. The next day, I was on…
I LOVE ROADTRIPS. For a couple years, I did a lot of them, since when my first few novels were released, I drove to Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis, Indianapolis and even Atlanta to do bookstore signings. Over the past year, with changes in the book industry and the collapse of Borders, it really hasn’t made any sense to drive around the country for books… but we did stage a family vacation a couple weeks ago,…
SO. TWO AND A HALF years ago, I stopped in Nashville for a night while driving — on my way to my first Dragon*Con in Atlanta. It was the week Covenant, my first novel was released in mass market paperback, and so, I ended up doing the very first booksigning for my novel in Nashville at the West End Borders Books. On my way driving into town to that Borders, I passed a brewpub a…
I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS about this city, but something here calls to me. I’ve spent more time here than almost anywhere besides my home in Chicago, some by choice, some for work. I’ve set two novels just north of here, and a short story that I wrote about the Tenderloin district was on the Honorable Mention list of the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror a few years ago. Tonight I walked through the…
LAST WEEKEND, I FLEW out to San Francisco for four days to run a seminar for my dayjob. The last day of the trip happened to coincide with my birthday, so I took the opportunity to stay over in the city a few hours on Sunday and walk around a bit and just enjoy my favorite city. (This lollygagging unfortunately meant I got home at 1:30 a.m. early Monday morning, but… it was worth it!)…
OK, FOR EVERYONE who’s never gotten to walk or drive across the Golden Gate Bridge… this one’s for you. I’ve done both now (it’s much easier to drive it!) On my way back to San Francisco after exploring the small seaside towns of Jenner and Bodega Bay an hour or two north of there, I decided to film my re-entry to urban sprawl. Can’t beat the soundtrack that just happened to come in on cue from…
TAXIS ONLY SHOW UP early when you’re not ready. Otherwise, they’re late when you really need to be… on the road! This morning, my cab was early. He sat in the drive as I pulled my son’s socks on for him since mom was in the shower, gulped a half cup of coffee re-warmed from yesterday’s unemptied pot, and downed a Claritin-D. And then I was off to O’Hare Airport on a Sunday morning… and…
I THOUGHT THINGS were going to slow down after the end of the main leg of the Covenant bookstore tour… but life hasn’t crept to a halt by any means. Over the past month I haven’t blogged because… well… I still haven’t been home! Shortly after my Oct. 24 signing in Racine, I spent more than a week helping to man my dayjob’s annual convention, and a few days after returning from that, I hopped…
IT’S BEEN ANOTHER whirlwind week on the Covenant book tour! Two days after getting home from my Indianapolis/Cincinnati signing spree, I had to fly to one of my favorite cities — San Francisco — for a two-day business trip… so naturally, I slipped in a bookstore signing while I was out there. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, I signed at the Borders in the Westfield Centre mall down on Market Street from 4 – 7:30 p.m.…
