It’s time for a general update type of thing. Where I am, what’s planned, what’s out, where to stalk me - all that good stuff. So let’s go!

Last week I put all of High Noon of the Living Dead online for free reading. Also out there is Crazy Little Thing. Both stories are in the collection Crazy Little Things. And yeah, I do ask if you enjoy either story you consider picking up a copy of the whole book.

And if you do, I will be grateful. And if you don’t, well I hope you enjoyed the stories anyway. Whatever works for you.

Upcoming works include, but are in no way limited to:

• January ‘09 - The start of a new project that will be ongoing. And exciting. But I can’t announce it yet.
• March ‘09 - The Complete Strange Angel comes out. All 3 novellas in one volume plus some extra material. Actually a fair amount of extra material. Almost a whole new novellas worth. Because I love you. Also Jungles Are For Dieing In - an Angela Cooke Adventure comes out that same month! Big, exciting month.
• Strange Angel was a fun project - taking bits of what made Buffy work and changing the hell out of the rules. No one is safe, death always counts and punches hurt.
• Angela Cooke is … well it’s set in the 50s. Think Indiana Jones, without the reason. Consider Doc Savage, the old pulps, the fun and non-stop action and adventure. All in the hands of a woman who simply has too much fun finding new ways to get out of trouble to stop and consider not getting into it in the first place.
• August ‘09 - Tentative date for Stays Crunchy in Milk.

There are other things going on in-between March and August. Just not sure of where they are, exactly, so I won’t mention them yet. I am planning on being at New York ComicCon (Feb 6-8), LunaCon (March 20-22), San Diego ComicCon (July 23-26) and I think that’s it for the year. I may also stop by Balticon and Horrorfind, but we will see what funds and time permit. I also plan to be in Ohio for a week during summer ‘09. But that’s not a big eventy thing, that’s for relaxin’, so if you wanna stalk me there you have to buy me drinks, too.

Where to find me: Well right here of course. Also: MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and FaceBook. You can also read my stuff over at the footnote.

And that does it. For now.

Oh fuck it. I was going to save this news until Monday but I can’t. I just can’t.

Yup. Now, of course, I have two books coming out before the novel does. Those hit March. But…

August 2009.

Creative Guy Publishing (them what gave you Installing Linux on a Dead Badger and Brine as well as lots of other stuff) will release:

Many more details to follow over the next 11 months.

You know why I don’t go to cons much? I don’t like people. I mean, I just generally don’t. And cons seem to have a larger than normal collection of people who manage to drive me quietly up a wall.

The main two, recently, have been:

The people who tell you how much better people who go to cons are than everyone else. They are, according to these people: Smarter, funnier, more adaptable, more open-minded, better equipped for life and overall more wonderful people.

These are often the same people who will then berate people who don’t like [genre of thing here] as “Mundanes” and then continue to tell you how they are so far above people. You know, let me let you in on a little fucking secret. Calling 90% of the planet by a cutesy put-down of a name does not endear you as the wise inheritor of the planet.

If you want to tell me how you realize everyone is the same and how we’re all just people, no matter the things we like or how we dress - then try acting it. Otherwise you are wasting my time making pretty speeches and shitting on them at the exact same time. Which is impressive, from a head-up-ass standpoint, but only from that angle.

I just don’t get it. And this often comes from people I would otherwise judge as good people to hang about with. But then these lines come out and you see the real scorecard. They think they’re better than everyone else, simply because they like a TV show, type of book or the cut of some historical jib. And it’s true in any fandom. People convince themselves that THEIR fandom makes them BETTER. It doesn’t. Sorry. It really fucking doesn’t.

We’re all folk. We all have a thing we enjoy. Taa. Fucking. Daa. Now stop being so forcibly special and sit the hell down and enjoy yourself, honestly.

The other type of person that has been bugging me recently is the dreadfully under socialized human. There are a lot of them at conventions and yes I know about the whole Asperger link and so on but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about people who know how to carry a conversation, you can watch them do it, but they will also refuse and tell you too much, keep going and never let something go until they tell you what they want to tell you. They will just also try like hell to not make it seem like they want to tell you the thing they end up telling you, but that it is simply where they ended up.

Bullshit. You have forced your way into telling people something that no one wanted to hear. Why not just say it outright in one sentence? No that wouldn’t do. You have to dole it out over a 15 minute claw and hammer style fest and make me want to kick you in the head.

“This lighting reminds me of a good time.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah, it was this really great party.”

“That sounds awesome.” At which point a previous conversation with someone else has picked back up. But no. No that won’t stop the force of this story.

“You know when lighting reminds you of something?”

“Uhm. Yeah.”

“This is like that. It reminds me of this great party.”

“Right. Thanks.” In other words: shut the fuck up.

“It was great because I met this girl there and well…” And a smirk. And a refusal to notice that everyone else is talking about something else. Forcibly. “The lighting, it dimmed just when, it looked like this then, right when, heh, something really special happened.”

Ok. Did I need to know you got blown in a room lit like this one? Nope. Did I want to know? Nope. Did anyone nearby want to know? Not in the slightest. But you not only had to tell people, you had to do it slowly. You want to tell that story again without drawing it out and making people REALLY want to kill you? Try this:

“Man, this lighting. Reminds me of this party. I got blown. The lighting totally reminds me of that. Ever get that?”

Now we all know too much, can say “No,” and turn away and be done with it. We still don’t want to know but at least it wasn’t dragged out for even longer. But no, so many people at cons don’t get that. They don’t know how to converse, how to tell a story or when no one wants to hear one. You don’t have to jump in all the time to be heard, you don’t have to comment on everything to be thought of as smart. It’s all right. Relax, unclench and go with it. People will then want to talk to you.

God I don’t like people much. I need to lock myself away, or drink. Or both.

Do you want to know how much I love you guys? I’ll tell you how much. I ordered, back in April, Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. I had heard about it months before that and would check Amazon once a week to see if it was even listed yet. The first time I saw it listed I pre-ordered it and have been waiting for it ever since.

I have been mentioning to some people for the last two weeks “Hey, you know, on the 9th I should get Anathem!” as if it was fucking Xmas. I have been, in short, looking forward to this book. A lot.

And it is at home. Untouched. And do you know why? Do you?

Because if I start it it might be quite a long time until I can read Shaft Among the Jews and report back to you guys on it. So I am making myself read Shaft first. I am putting aside new Stephenson for Shaft, just to entertain you people.

And wow, this book. I won’t say much here but this review will have quotes! It will have examples! It will be epic!

But man I wanna read Anathem something fierce.

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So I utterly forgot out the free fiction thing. We’ll try that again this coming Monday, all right?

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Still nervously awaiting word on a big thing. GAH! Ah well. Mustn’t dwell.

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And for all you LHC people joking about the end of the world - STOP IT! You’ve got it wrong. Today is just a beam test! The first collision won’t even happen for two months. So uhm, save it up, folks. You still got two months.

There are some books that seep under your skin. I have a few books I read over and over again. After a while, when you’ve read a book enough that it is part of your waking memory at all times, it can slip into your being, without you fully noticing.

Dhalgren has done that to me. I mean, it did it years ago but there you have it. I just finished another re-read of it and find myself, my internal constant monologue, colored by the book again. For a few days I’ll notice the sky more, think about the small every day seconds a bit clearer and wonder why we live our lives the way we do a bit more often.

My mental speech pattern shifts for a few days, fully.

There aren’t many books that do it to me, anymore. Just the three: Dhalgren, Illuminatus! and Lonesome Dove. I don’t know why those three, either, but they do. I can read, and re-read, them endlessly and each time I do I have a few days where I am myself+bookhead. I enjoy it, but it also kinda messes with me.

I dunno. Rambly.

Oh, and I was gonna start posting new free fiction today but due to having my keyboard die this Saturday and not getting a replacement until Sunday and then having to do all my Saturday work on Sunday and getting dates confused - I left the file at home. Makes it hard to post. So sorry about that. I will start it tomorrow or Weds.

If you like Talking Heads I did a bit on the footnote on Friday that was … well … Talking Heads, but with footnote staff. It’s the start of a new thing called Pipe Dreams.

Books I have on the way:

* Neal Stephenson’s Anathem
* Stan Nicholl’s Orcs
* Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft: Among the Jews
* Matthew Stover’s Caine Black Knife (Oct 14th, mind you so on the way is loose)

I still have to read Malfi’s Passenger as well.

I am awash in great looking books!

More later.

I really can’t wait until I can reveal the new project I’m working on, in full. It doesn’t start until Jan ‘09, mind, but soon there will be teases and reveals and such. And they will roll out over the rest of the year. I just can’t start that yet and it’s killing me.

Muahahahah!

Say someone wantged to buy a cheap digital camera. Say they wanted to spend no more than $150, but more like $100. Battery life is important, as is quality and size.

What then, would you suggest they look at?

Mark Deniz interviewed me recently, and here it is. It includes a bit of news regarding a new project you won’t find anywhere else, snark, banter and raw, inflated, fucking ego. I had a good time.

Oddly the notice is over somewhere else because Brian Cronin is a good guy who is owed many beers. But there ya go. Feel free to spread that link around.