It looks like my first school visit tours for GDC are beginning to settle into place on my calendar. Most aren’t set yet, but I’ll be in the north and south Salt Lake area sometime in September, and in Layton on Sept. 9-10th. Each tour will include a Thursday signing at Barnes and Noble. I won’t put these up on my calendar until they’re finalized, but I thought I’d give a heads up—after all, I haven’t written anything in a week and needed something to say.

Here’s another something. I just passed the six month mark of a certain publisher considering a certain requested manuscript. When they buy it—yes, when!—I’ll let you know just what “certain” means.

And finally, I’ve been so busy I had to invent time to read, so I no longer spend half and hour or so puffing away on my elliptical every morning—instead, I spend half an hour puffing away on my elliptical every morning with a book in hand. It means all the stress of the machine is born by my bad knees but so far I’m managing to tough it out. The book of the moment is Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Just started two days ago, but so far? It’s a really fun read, which for me on Neil Gaiman is about an “egh, so-so” level comment. I’m not finding it on the same level as American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book, but then saying something isn’t on par with one of the hundred greatest novels of the last hundred years, a Newberry winner, and a should-have-been Newberry winner isn’t the most biting of criticism. I’m liking Anansi Boys better than Stardust, which was a fine book in its own right. Let you know if my feelings have changed when I finish.