I keep meaning to mention this. My Locus interview is in the November issue, which recently mailed. There's a special deal where you can order that issue, postage paid, for $5.95, or you can subscribe and get that issue free: Tim Pratt special offer. Go forth and take advantage. That issue also has a review of Rangergirl, and a wedding photo where Heather looks beautiful and I look at my feet!

Heather's out having dinner with a friend, so I'm here with the house to myself. I have to pick her up at the train station when she's done, though, so I'm staying out of the wine. For now.

It was a very good mail day, electronically and otherwise. My editor sent me the news that there's a starred review of Rangergirl coming up in Booklist next week. And I came home to find two final copies of Rangergirl on my doorstep! It'll be in stores in a few weeks, and I've got more author copies coming eventually, but my editor's assistant Josh Pasternak popped a couple in the mail to me as soon as he had them. (Josh has been really cool and helpful throughout the whole novel-publishing process actually.)

They're actual books. Real finished books. I held them in my hands, and just started laughing, that crazy up-bubbling kind of joyous laughter that takes me by surprise sometimes.

I finally published a novel. I've been dreaming of this since the third grade, and it's actually happened. I'm really, truly, living a wonderful life. It's so easy to get caught up in the minutiae, to brood over bad reviews, to worry about the development of my craft, to doubt myself. But when I held the final copy of my novel, all that fell away. I am one of the tribe that worships novels, that lives for stories, and now I've made my own small contribution to the art form that I love the most. It's something worth taking joy in, and I do.

I also got contributor copies of Best American Short Stories. Which reminds me -- I'm doing an appearance in San Francisco on December 14, at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books. It'll be me, and guest editor Michael Chabon, and David Kipen. I was familiar with Kipen's work from when he was book reviewer for the Chronicle and a radio commentator, but he recently became the director of literature for the NEA. Pretty esteemed company. I'm still not sure how I slipped into this particular orbit, but I'll do my best to avoid crashing into the Earth. I'm glad it's a month away. Gives me time to read the other stories in the book!

Oh, Heather just called. Have to go pick her up soon. More later.