Alive and Kicking

Though I am shamefully behind in blogging, reviewing, interviewing, and e-mail answering, nonetheless, I am not dead yet. Just busy in the midst of a few different things, especially trying to figure out how to teach anything to energetic 9th and 10th graders and, in the bits of spare time that allows, reading stories for the next edition of Best American Fantasy (thanks, by the way, to Rick Klaw for a very nice review in The Austin Chronicle).

Proof of my status as a living, breathing human being can be found at two upcoming public events in Manhattan. First, on October 30, I will be participating in the Interfictions reading at the wonderful McNally Robinson bookstore, with some of my favorite fellow-readers, Tempest Bradford, Veronica Schanoes, and Delia Sherman.

And then on November 21, I will be reading at the KGB Bar with Lucius Shepard. (I expect to read a story that will be coming out in the next issue [I think] of LCRW.) This is something I'm looking forward to tremendously, because Lucius Shepard's story "R&R" was the cover story of one of the first issues of Asimov's I ever read, and the story perplexed and bewildered me in just the right way (I was far too young to understand it all) that it helped make me a devoted reader not only of science fiction, but of contemporary short stories. I've been reading Shepard ever since, and some of his more recent work, especially Viator and Floater, are among my favorite novellas of the past decade or so. I've never gotten the chance to either meet him or hear him read, so my plan is to read as quickly as possible myself so he can have most of the time (this is assuming I'm the first reader; if I'm second, I'm just going to encourage him to keep going as long as he wants). (And while I'm talking about Shepard, will somebody please collect all of his Dragon Griaule stories in one book?)

Further posting around here is likely to be minimal for the next month or so.