Here’s one reason why. It’s the best De Profundis action I’ve read in years. And so personal!

I would give up all
the first issue Supermen in 1938
the how do you dos Mr. Lincon in 1865
the love your works Mr. Shakespeare in 1616
the compound interest since 1937
the polaroids in the first billionths of a second

I would give up all
the fallen leaves in Gethsemane
the nightmare laser guns in the South
the fake Mona Lisas in Florence
the triangulated peepholes in Dealey Plaza
the hairs on Einstein’s head

I would give it all up
for one
shiny new
never been used
dollar twenty nine
brake light.

Set the controls
for Earth
Albuquerque, New Mexico
the high school parking lot
April 18, 1991
And when I say run
run.

The Phenomenauts are the rockinest, rollinest band in the galaxy, and I’m ticked octarene to know that they’re releasing a new album this month! Sadly, their tour schedule gives them a wide orbit from Albuquerque. I’ll make do.

I love these guys. They’ve got a fun roadhouse sound mixed with an in-your-face pro-science agenda. Robert Heinlein would doubtless bring them aboard to write the galactic anthem. Go get yourself some good tunes!

It has nothing to do with the Writers Guild strike. Honest.

Grad school started the second week of January. There’s not much time to spare between now and 17 months down the road, so all projects are effectively over for the foreseeable future.

Dice Make Bonk and In The Wind both have a significant amount of unedited footage. DMB probably won’t be picked up any time soon, but if it is, I’ll make a note in all the usual places. ITW is in what we in The Biz call “pre-post.” (Maybe I’m the only one who calls it that.) It’s ready to be edited, but it’s not being edited yet. I expect arrangements to be made sometime in the Spring or Summer, but that’s down the line and over the horizon right now.

There’s no time for writing things that aren’t essays, so N Minus is out in the cold for the nonce as well. I’ll write about Local Heroes and other nuggets as the inspiration hits me.

So that’s that.

Please join me at the Dire Cafe for conversation and general geekery, though! Berin’s made an enduring social spot, and while my main energies are directed toward my education, I do drop into the Cafe every day and spout some gobbledeegook.

You know those battalions of NaNoWriMoneers charging for the finish line? I know I said I was going to skip it this year, but hang me if I’m not lured by the siren song of flabbergastering imagination run amok on the page. And as it turns out, the past month has been good to me, so my brain’s looking for something to leap on before grad school starts in January.

[EDIT: Kenneth Newquist, host of the RadioActive RPG podcast and paladin of the Dire Cafe, just clocked in at over 53K. Given our past rivalries, you know I can’t allow this to stand.]

So I’m limbering up for December, which I’ve declared to be my Personal Novel Writing Month for this year. On December 1st, I’ll once again put pen to paper — in the sense of “type away on a keyboard” — and by the end of the year I’ll have written 50,000+ words of yet another high velocity masterpiece.

Hey, it’ll give me something to talk about at the wrap party for In The Wind. “Oh, me? I haven’t been up to anything much. I’m just writing a novel before I enter grad school next month. How’s it been for you?”

My first novel Threshold, which had something to do with an old D&D campaign, can be found in reverse order here. My second novel, a real-world-meets-fantasy epic mystery of technical support and old-school wizardry, is not online. Sorry about that.

I don’t know what this upcoming novel will be called, but it’ll come to me, I’m sure.