So, I went to the big annual conference of the American Library Association last weekend, and in addition to getting to hang out with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and meeting wonderful people whom I had hithertobeforehandyetpriorly not met, and being around so much book squee and getting to look at awesome library return bins and vacuum-powered mechanical page-turning devices, I got this nice little bit of good news:

There’s going to be a Scholastic Book Club edition of The Boy at the End of the World, most probably in August. When I was in grade school, getting that Scholastic catalog was always like the best thing ever. I’d get whatever books they had on Bigfoot, UFO’s, and Dynamite Magazine, all sorts of random stuff. So to have a book of my own in that flier? Total bucket list stuff.

There’s also going to be a regular paperback edition in October, with a new cover that I of course will show off as soon as I am allowed. This week, I am a happy writer.

If you’re convenient to Phoenix and you’re into comics and animation and science fiction and fantasy and that sort of thing, I strongly suggest you come to Phoenix Comicon this weekend. I’ll be hanging around Friday through part of Sunday and appearing on a couple of panels.

• Researching Odd Locations and Places: Friday 1:30pm – 2:30pm
• Writing Books for Pre-Teens: Saturday 12:00pm – 1:00p

Show up to the Friday panel and I’ll talk about how I sank into a geothermal mud pot near the Salton Sea and almost ruined my iPhone.

Addendum: Between panels, I will sometimes be at table 1133 in case you’d like me to autograph a book or just wanna say hello or something. I’ll leave a notepad on the table if you come by and I’m not there and want to make sure not to miss me. I know missing me would destroy your entire con experience, and I don’t want to be responsible for your tears. Also, my books will be available for sale from the very fine independent bookseller, The Poisoned Pen, who will be occupying tables 1126/1128.

So, there you have it. Responsibility for your own tears.

Another web-comic thingie:

Well, hey, there, people of the world, or at least subset of the world that reads my blog, which is admittedly a very small subset but, to me, the most important one.

Really, I’m very much into you.

So, what’s been going on ’round these parts? Much the usual, but I suppose I can drill down and find some specifics:

1. I’m well underway on Book 2 of the Osteomancer series, but I think I kinda went off the rails a couple of days ago, so I’m making adjustments. I’m expecting edits on Book 1 very soon now.

2. My last freelance job ended last month, and I just started a new freelance job. Work is good for all the reasons work is good (mainly because it gives one the ability to buy stuff), but I’ll miss the blissful void of my days.

3. I bought this piece of art, which is a page of the comic book Red Robin by the fabulous artist Marcus To. If you’re not up on your Batman, Red Robin is Tim Drake, the third Robin, and possibly my second favorite Robin after Dick Grayson. Yes, I rank my Robins. I am not remotely the only one who does this, so you can just stop looking at me that way right now. Probably that link will go dead before long, since the page is no longer for sale, since I have it and it’s mine, mine, mine. Marcus To draws pretty Robins. Pretty Superboys, too. And pretty pianos. And pretty fish tanks. He’s really good.

4. So, as I’ve probably mentioned too often, I am very interested in writing comics. I would like to be hired by a company to write comics. But one need not wait for  permission to work, so, despite a lack of art skills, I made a tumblr where I’m posting my little one-page photo comics. It is here: Duck Monolith Comics. These are not really the kind of comics that I want to write, but these are the ones I can make without an artist. We do what we can.

How are you?

Writing. Yeah.

Over the 11K mark now. This was the easiest part of the book.

10,000 words, end of Act 1.

Act 2 is always where I screw up.

I will use the occasion of this word-count/coffee/computer pic to say that Zeus: King of the Gods by George O’Connor is a fun graphic novel, with the Greek gods doing some cool superhero posturing. So, if that’s what you’re into.

After yesterday’s limp writing, today I got to do a scene involving banter with a lunatic. Much more in my comfort zone.

Man, sometimes getting the words just sucks.