I won a Joshua Norton Award for The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl! There's a description and photo of the award here from last year's ceremony, but basically, it's given annually to a work of speculative fiction by an author who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, or who has written a book that involves the SF Bay Area (Rangergirl qualifies on both counts). Two Joshuas are given each year, with the other award being for services to speculative fiction -- this year it was awarded to the Other Change of Hobbit bookstore. So I'm in good company!

The actual trophy -- a bust of Emperor Norton I -- isn't ready yet, so in the meantime I got a nice framed certificate. They assure me the trophy will follow. It's especially cool to win this award, since Emperor Norton is one of my favorite historical figures. My next novel, Blood Engines, is set in contemporary San Francisco, and actually has a character who (in the universe of my novel) served as the secret court magician for Emperor Norton. So the award is almost prescient.

I received the award from jurors Jacob Weisman, Alan Beatts, and Richard A. Lupoff at the Tachyon Books 11th Anniversary Party at Borderlands yesterday, and hung around after to chat with folks and sign a few books. I didn't go out to dinner with everyone, though, because Heather and I had to get home for an exciting evening of... moving furniture. Our new couch is arriving on Monday afternoon, so we had to move a lot of shelves and whatnot in order to move the old couch out. That was kind of an ordeal, but we wrestled it through narrow doorways and down three flights of stairs to the street. (Are you local? Do you want a somewhat cat-scratched couch, suitable for putting in the yard and drinking beer on? We posted a Craigslist ad about it, and last time I looked, it was still down by the curb. Take it away!)

We had big plans to go to Folsom Street Fair for an hour or so this morning, but we just didn't manage it. We had too much other crap to do, including taking advantage of the couch-free living room to sweep, mop, and generally decrappify the place. We're heading to Pacifica for writing group this afternoon, which is hosting Fog Fest today, so we'll get to experience one street festival, at least. I suspect Fog Fest will feature rather fewer people in fetish wear.

Good weekend. Really good. But busy busy busy.