I'm told my book Blood Engines has been seen (and acquired!) in a real live bookstore, so the genie's out of the bottle, the horse is out of the barn, and other sundry analogies. *Swoon.* This book publishing thing has not paled in the slightest for me. It's still completely thrilling.

Sorry for the lack of updates. (I have updated over at my Marla Mason-oriented blog; visit MarlaMason.net if you wanna read that, but it's all just book babble.) This journal (and, back in the day, my private pen-and-ink journals) is how I construct the narrative of my life, pretty much, so I've been feeling a bit adrift without the formative influence of writing here. I've just been friggin' busy, and when I have a little down time, I use it to gaze at the TV or play World of Warcraft instead of sitting down and writing journal entries.

I put our crib together, and it's really quite beautiful. We're gradually getting ready for the appearance of baby, though we still need to buy several hundred diapers and some other necessities. Tonight we meet with our doula to talk about the actual labor... techniques for helping manage pain, move along labor, etc. It'll be good to learn that stuff -- we've been so focused on getting the house (and our bank accounts) ready for the birth that we haven't been thinking as much about the actual giving-birth part! It'll be good to refocus. Tomorrow evening we're touring the pediatrics department so we can find a doctor for Pixel. Much to do.

This weekend we jet off to lovely San Diego for Conjecture. Heather, Greg van Eekhout, and I are doing a reading at noon on Saturday. Come by if you're in the area! I'll be on a few other panels too, on Saturday and Sunday (I don't have the really truly absolutely final schedule yet.)

We return Sunday night. The following day I go to work. The day after that I get my wisdom teeth yanked, and the next day I spend doped up on Vicodin. Plans become hazy at that point, though I do have a reading at Borderlands on the afternoon of October 13... and also that night, as well, as part of LitCrawl. So if you're in San Francisco you'll have many chances to see me then.

Just writing this journal entry made me tired. But, also, excited.