In no particular order, issues that have come up in the comments:

My tour schedule will be posted on my website in about ten days.

No Portland stop -- sorry, David!

No film interest yet in ABSENT FRIENDS. That I know about -- my Hollywood agent is apparently one of these if-you're-not-serious-don't-talk-to-me types. (I say "apparently" because we've never met; he came onto the team through my literary agent, with whom he's worked a lot and to whom he reports.) So for all I know he may have already rejected a half-dozen offers he didn't think were serious, meaning not enough money was attached to imply a real commitment on the part of the people making the offer. I would be interested, though the book's so complex that I'm not sure how you'd make a movie of it. But they made THE ENGLISH PATIENT, so it could be done. I have a feeling Hollywood would just rather not hear about 9/11, though. It was brilliantly handled in THE 25TH HOUR, and that film sank like a stone.

Lois, thanks much for the library update. Though I had to have it translated -- you people speak a private language!

Now back to waiting.