Fun thing about my job? Getting to read cool books, months before they'll be widely available. Last week I read Pratchett's new Tiffany Aching YA, A Hat Full of Sky, which is even better than The Wee Free Men (because it has lots more of Granny Weatherwax, one of my favorite characters in literature). Now I'm reading Eastern Standard Tribe, Cory Doctorow's new one. (They're both short books. I like short books when I'm reading galleys, because I mostly read them on my lunch breaks at work, and if I was reading, like, the new Neal Stephenson tome, it would take me a month of lunch breaks.)

Not so fun thing about my job? Working a ten-hour day on Monday to get the huge year-in-review issue done. But it wasn't that bad, actually. My boss bought us pizza for dinner. Since Heather can't eat cheese or tomato sauce, and since I have no wish to torment her by eating food she loves but can't eat, pizza is now a valuable and rare treat. My boss got me a kitchen sink pizza. Yum. It made working late very nearly painless.

I finished The Eyre Affair last night. Eh. It had nice moments, but since I've heard the sequels fall of markedly in quality, I'm not going to bother with them, because just reading this one was touch-and-go. I liked the overarching conceit -- Literature as Pop Culture -- but thought the execution was a bit ho-hum.

Umm... oh! Actual news. I'm doing a book signing (to roughly coincide with the release of the Little Gods trade paperback) at Borderlands in San Francisco (winner of this year's Tropism Award for best bookstore, you might recall). When? It's not yet clear. Some time in March, probably. I'll tell you when I know. And, seriously, y'all, if you're even remotely local, you have to come. For real. Come. I can't have no people at my first ever actual book signing. And even if you think my writing sucks, come anyway, because Borderlands is a fabulous store. I promise it'll be entertaining. I'm a charmer. For real. I'll entreat you again when I have details.