Calm. And Collected.

June 15

I just. I simply. I can't. I don't know where to begin.

Rio Hondo was amazing. Expect occasional anecdotes to burble forth over the next several postings, since there's way too much for me to even attempt a coherent overview. Gorgeous scenery. Several great hikes. Brilliant stories, insightful critiques. The river, right there, for sitting beside. And the food. Oh, the food. I ate more perfect meals in a week than I normally eat in a year.

Bed beckons, so this will be short, but there's one bit of publishing-related rather big news I wanted to announce. Heather called me on Friday night, while I was drunk on Walter's marvelous margaritas and playing a game of Thing, to tell me that Sean at Prime Books wants to do a collection of my short stories.

That's right. I'm going to have a book. From the publisher that did K.J. Bishop's novel, and Jeff VanderMeer's book, and Gemma File's collection, and Jeffrey Thomas's latest, and, and... wow. I'm suffused with delight. Details to follow (like title, contents, who's doing the intro, etc.), but the book is tentatively scheduled for late 2003 or early 2004. Fast! I hope you're excited. I'm excited. There will be at least one good, substantial original story in there, so it'll be worth getting even if you've read most of my published stuff.

I owe this good fortune largely to Nick, who also has a collection coming from Prime, and who basically said wonderful things about me to Sean Wallace, and encouraged me to talk to Sean, and so forth. I wouldn't have gotten the ball rolling on this without his encouragement, and I thank him.

I'll be catching up on e-mail and journals and so forth this week, and soon I'll be re-integrated into life at sea level (as opposed to life at 7,000 feet). There will be stories about hopping vampires, card tricks, probability theory, wine, the lack of hot tubs, birds and other wildlife, hikes, and more. Probably. At least some of those things. Almost definitely.

Words written since February 1, 2003: 63,800

Words written since last entry:
Um. Some. I'll figure it out for the next entry, how's about that?

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Charles de Lint says it's worth reading! Are you calling him a liar? Huh?