Notes of some interest:

Bone Shop is done, done, done. I think it turned out well, and I do plan to do a print/ebook/Kindle/audio version (with the help of some wonderful people who will be acknowledged and praised to the skies when the time comes). Details will be posted here, on the Bone Shop page, in the RSS feed, etc. etc. I'll miss writing it. Donations had trailed off in recent weeks (understandably!) but they were still trickling in at the rate of around $100 a week. In total the book has brought me nearly $4,000 so far, and I can't thank you enough, all who donated. You paid for my kid's health insurance, and you bought all our groceries for the past four months. You kept us healthy and fed. The response overwhelmed and heartened me. I hope the story was worth it for you.

Heather has to do a phone interview with the Unemployment Insurance people in a couple of weeks; we have no idea why. But in the meantime, they're not sending checks, which means we're missing at least a month of her payments, which means OH GOD FINANCIAL TERROR. We can survive, assuming they reinstate her benefits after the phone interview, though it'll be a tight month in the interim. And if for some reason they don't reinstate her payments... I don't even want to think about it. Let's all hope she finds a job or I sell a novel to a big publisher soon, okay? (After hearing about the paused payments, I dreamed I was being drowned by a kelpie, to which I can only say: way to be subtle, subconscious.)

I keep thinking something has to happen, that something will develop to save us from financial ruin, but, of course, that's just silly magical thinking. People do get ruined. It could be us. Fortunately we have friends and family we can fall back on -- we're unlikely to become homeless -- but it's entirely possible we'll go bankrupt, have our credit ruined, have to sell most of our possessions, etc. We can get along for another four to six months, I'd guess, but after that, the outlook is murky...

But life is not all sadness and endings and worry. It does look like I'll be doing a weird/fun pseudonymous work-for-hire gig, though I don't know how many details I'll be able to make public. It's not a lot of money, but it's some money, and it's an entertaining project, so it was easy to say 'yes' to. Gonna keep me very busy for the next few months, too.

I'll be at the World Fantasy Convention this weekend with my wife Heather and (occasionally) our son River, though he'll be getting babysat some of the time. I'm doing a reading at 1:30 pm on Friday, so you can definitely find me there, or at various parties, or in the bar, or the book room... I'll be around. Don't know what I'll read yet. Maybe a chunk of my novelette "Troublesolving" that's upcoming at Subterranean.

The reading at Dog Eared Books last Saturday was fun, if not terribly well-populated. (Helpful hint: don't do a reading in the Mission the weekend after LitCrawl; people are sick of going to readings on Valencia Street!) But the audience was friendly and appreciative, and it was nice to meet them all. Greg Gerke (who invited me to read with him) is a fun and interesting writer; check out some of his stuff at the link back there.

I've been reading (reading is cheap entertainment!): Blackout by Connie Willis is wonderful, but such a cliffhanger! It's really half a book, and part two, All Clear, won't be out for a while. Ken Bruen writes some of the most depressing, dark detective stories I've ever read. Also been reading a lot of books for that work-for-hire project I mentioned, of which more anon, probably.