I’ll be going to get Mia on Sunday, and life will be back to normal here. I can’t wait. She’ll have a full month before sixth grade begins, so there will be plenty of time for end-of-summer activities, like white water rafting and blueberry picking. While in Alabama she got a mild case of what might be poison oak. When I asked her how the itching was, she said, “It’s doing its job.”

Damn I miss my kid.

Last weekend Jeff and Ann VanderMeer were in town for a Steampunk Bible/Thackery T. Lambshead event at Malaprop’s Bookstore. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of years, so it was nice to spend the evening with them. I’d forgotten how much fun they are to talk to. It was a very cathartic and welcome experience. We went to the Battery Park Champagne Bar and Book Exchange the night before the event, which is one of my favorite places in the city, and had champagne cocktails.

It’s possible that I’ll be going to World Fantasy this year, and sharing a room with Lucius Shepard and Bob Kruger. As with all things, it depends on money, but this looks pretty doable.

And the writing continues apace. Revisions are nearly done on the last short story before submitting the collection (behind schedule, but what else is new?), and the novel is still in progress.

Life barrels on.