Nick Mamatas is offering to critique manuscripts extensively for low low prices (couple bucks a page). He's a very astute critic. If you're looking for that kind of service, check him out.

Superpowers by David J. Schwartz is out! (It has been for a few days, but I've been busy.) Of the crop of recent superhero novels, this is the one I thought had the most heart and ambition. Check it out.

Over at SF Signal's latest Mind Meld, various people were asked to speculate about Tomorrow's Big Genre Stars, and a couple of people were kind enough to mention my name. I'm even included in the list of "The Top 21 Genre Authors To Keep an Eye On," which places me in some rather exalted company (including some people I tend to think of as rather established -- national bestsellers, people who've published a bazillion books, etc. But the definition of "new" writer is always pretty thorny. I've quite enjoyed being a new writer these past 9 years, since I published my first small-press fiction -- though to be fair I published my first story professionally only six years ago, and I was well below the radar even for most hardcore genre fans until I won the Hugo last year). As these things will, the list is generating a lot of discussion, at that page and elsewhere, so join in! Any way you slice it, there are some awesome writers working today, and many of them are young and new enough that we can look forward to years and years and years of good stuff from them.

Yesterday we engaged the fabulous Mya to sit on our baby for us, and headed up to Napa with Susan and Matt, who are soon to abandon us for more humid pastures in New York. They wanted to say a fond farewell to wine country ("But there are wineries on Long Island!"), and were kind enough to invite us along. We hit a couple of their favorite wineries and had lunch at their favorite restaurant up there (no hardship, as they are people of good taste), and, well, let's just say I was drunk before noon on a Wednesday, which is not a typical experience for me. The barrel tasting (mmm, barrels) was especially nice, even if we did get kicked out before we had a chance to sample everything, on account of the winery's CEO showing up with friends in tow. (On the plus side, they gave us a high-end bottle of wine as an apology for the inconvenience, and we drank the hell out of it at lunch.) The grounds of the Chandon winery were especially gorgeous, though their tastings are overpriced. Conn Creek wins for yumminess, though. Naturally, we returned home with a few bottles, just in time to say hi to River and give him a bath and play with him a bit before putting him to bed. (As an aside, he slept the whole night through, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., which was wonderful. He's been waking and bellowing at 2 or 3 in the morning every day for the past week. Mmm, uninterrupted precious sleep.)

So, you know, life is good. Going back to work today was a bit disorienting though.