Sundry, again--

My writing room.
Weaving by my daughter when small;
Egyptian diorama by child no. 3;
Welsh postcard;
tiny poetry book by Jeffery Beam.

INFANT STEPS

IAM-Otsego takes another little step: my new group blog. (I'm neglecting The Lydian Stones at the moment because: a. I am busy; b. nobody has sent anything new, and I haven't bugged any of the people in queue. And people need to be bugged for such things!)

BOOKS IN TRANSIT

Reminder: books shipped three or four days ago from the Georgia warehouse to indies and online stores. If you are an Amazon or bn.com buyer and want a copy of A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage, know that the pre-order deep-discount will go POOF! very soon.

APORIA, HIATUS, ETC.

I'm very sorry, but I am now too swamped to read manuscripts, read ARCs and do blurbs, etc. Temporarily saying a big fat "NO!" to all such things. I have now finished all but one of those sorts of obligations and shall not take on any more for some time. Update: As soon as one posts something like this, a request immediately arrives! Apologies to T. Aaron Payton, and good luck to him on his first book, The Constantine Affliction, a steampunk adventure forthcoming from Night Shade Books.

READING

Finished Mundome while folding a mountain range of laundry. The book strikes me as having been an excellent start for A. G. Mojtabai. Clever handling of point of view. I'm going to have to read some more by her and see how she progressed.

INTERVIEWS

A full-length interview for A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage will be up Thursday-Friday, so please come back tomorrow.

What I'm reading, etc.

Today, when I'm not fooling with taxes and other distasteful tasks, I am reading or writing. And what I am reading is A. G. Mojtabai's first book, Mundome. And sometimes listening to Far Away and Long Ago by W. H. Hudson, which I read as a child several times. And now and then reading a poem or two from Jennifer Reeser's new book, Sonnets from the Dark Lady and Other Poems. It's a strange but good combination.

Leave news of what you are reading! And if anybody has a brilliant thought on books for athletic boys of 14, leave that also, please.

Ten days until A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage appears. Pre-orders will be done in a day or so, as books have been shipped from the warehouse. Much to do.