*steps into the open auditorium of the interwebs*

*squints into lights*

*taps mic*

Um, hi everyone.

It’s been quite some time since I shared an updated post on my blog, but I at least I have good reasons! What reasons, you might ask? How about:

• Drafting, revising, and revising again Book Two of the Thieves of Fate series!
• (Gently) Duking it out with my publisher about how to title Book Two! (That’s more or less decided now, but trust me, you’ll be the first to know it when it’s official-official.)
• Paneling at ConFusion! And CapriCon! And giving workshops in writing and world building at local libraries!
• Starting my double-life as a columnist for Luna Station Quarterly with my monthly feature of building authentic relationships between audiences and texts through world-building, characterization, and general sf bad-assery. The feature title is owed to Italo Calvino, naturally: “A Place Where It Rains.” You can find my posts there monthly, with a new one dropping May 4 on the role of fanfic in reshaping mainstream storytelling methods!
• Hosting two of my favorite sf authors, Sam J. Miller and Amal El-Mohtar,  for Skype sessions with my Speculative Fiction Studies Students.
• Welcoming the always-insightful and generous Michi Trota, Michael Damian Thomas, and Lynne Thomas of Uncanny Magazine to my school to speak about publishing anthologies and magazines in sff.
• Hosting the incomparable Mary Robinette Kowal for an all-campus workshop on structuring short fiction, and intimate chat with members of the student book club. (A shout-out to the SFWA Speaker’s Bureau for making this process that much smoother.)
• Drafting the opening pages and synopsis of Book Three for my editor!
• Prepping for the Nebula Awards conference, where you can find me doing Office Hours once again on Friday, May 18 and taking part in the panel “We’re New Here,” where new and emerging sf authors talk about their experiences navigating the publishing world for the benefit of POSTERITY.

If this sounds like a lot. . . well, it is. I’ve left out grading papers, writing report card comments, and the care and feeding of the Townsend Smalls as these activities continue at their usual pace. It’s really the pile-on of life as a working writer that makes the business hard rather than the business itself, I think.

Since it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted an update and I owe you for your patience, I’d like to do something in return for you: comment on this post with what you’d like me to share on the blog next & I’ll enter you into a drawing for a copy of The Nine in audiobook! 

That’s right, thirteen actual CDs of Alyssa Bresnaham’s spectacular dramatic narration, autographed in a set! Hey, it’s almost as retro as vinyl these days.

Only comments that follow the prompt above will be counted as entries. The comment contest for the audiobook starts now, and ends on May 4 at 11:59 PM.

Why then? Because it’s Star Wars Day. And my son’s birthday.