I’ve been back from Florida for a few days now, and it’s time to settle into regular life once again. I have a few more days off from work, as the restaurant is closed for renovations, so there’s plenty of opportunity to get some work done.

I’m still working on the novel proposal. I’m still writing two short stories: one to finish out the collection manuscript, and one for an anthology I’m not allowed to mention. I need to put up the next installment of “The Cannibal Priests of New England.”

I’m reading a draft of my friend Alexa Duncan’s first novel, and loving it so far. I want to talk about it here but obviously that would be inappropriate. Suffice it to say that the world is strange, complex, and thoroughly believable, the characters alive, and the prose turns as smoothly and elegantly as a Swiss watch. Alexa kicks some serious ass. You’re going to love her.

This weekend the writer Dale Bailey is coming to stay with me a couple days. We’ll talk over our projects and tell each other what geniuses we are in an effort to keep us moving and motivated. If you also want to call me a genius, I would be okay with that.

I’ve determined I’m going to be going to genre functions more this year: Readercon is a lock, World Fantasy Convention is a possibilty (mostly because they’re not having it on Halloween this year, thank god; to those of us with little kids, Halloween is as sanctified a holiday as Christmas or birthdays), and I’m thinking about attending the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts for the first time ever. I’ll know for sure if that’s viable in a day or two.

In the meantime, I’m reading Glen Hirshberg’s The Book of Bunk and Matt Fraction’s Casanova. I’ll talk about Glen’s book when I’m finished. I’d also like to get my hands on a scanner so I can write reviews of graphic novels like Casanova, too. It’s a crazy book, in the way Grant Morrison is crazy. But Fraction has a better sense of humor.