The Blatantly Obvious

Well, I had a baby boy.  His name is Willem Owen Cody and he is as fine a specimen of baby-perfection as I have ever seen.  Razor wit, Herculean strength and Jedi reflexes.  This kid’s got it all.  Now that he is out and about in the real world, I’m changing the focus of this rather focus-less and rarely if ever updated blog into something different and (hopefully) much more reliable.  Since my focus for the foreseeable future is going to be life-as-father-husband-writer that’s what I’ll be writing about.  All the early morning crankiness, the deadline-making nervousness and, of course, spit up. So I hope a few folks will tune in. On that note, I thought I’d better post a few professional updates: 

• I received the first round of edits on Powerless and am hard at work to meet a February deadline, for a 2009 release.  It’s amazing the lead time that is required in the publishing world, but there it is.  A huge thanks to Joan Slattery and Allison Wortche at Knopf for their insightful comments and deft red pens.
• The second book of the Knopf deal may not be a Powerless sequel after all.  I’ve got another project on the back burner that seems to desperately want front-burner status, so that may come first.  I’ll let you all know more here when I’m more settled.
• I just turned in a story for a Clarion anthology that should come out sometime this summer.  The anthology is being edited by Jeff and Anne VanderMeer, both of whom I’d take a bullet for.  (A small bullet.  One preferably of the non-lethal and imaginary variety, but it’s the thought that counts).  Jeff writes some of the best adult surreal fantasy out there and Anne was recently made Fiction Editor of the legendary mag Weird Tales.  Check out Jeff’s musings here and subscribe to Weird Tales here.