July Fourth

Hello and Happy Fourth of July!

I've not blogged for a few days because we were in the midst of moving house again. (No, I wasn't just fleeing the Black Widow!) I'm in Fresno now, and there are plenty of Widows here. We decided that we needed to be in town in preparation for my teaching in the MFA program here at Cal State. So the move has taken up a good bit of my energy these last few days. But we're here now, and we're gonna stay put for a while.

As for Acacia: The War with the Mein news, I was pleased with a kind mention in the Contra Costa Times. It was a bit of a fantasy/sci-fi roundup, lead by Patrick Rothfuss and with the likes of Harry Turtledove and John Scalzi in there as well.

I also came across a heartfelt blog post by a guy named Joey Clifton. He's not a reviewer or author or anything like that. He's a reader, though. He writes about Gabriel's Story as a sort of life changing book for him. That's wonderful to hear, and wonderful to be reminded that these books have lives and interactions of their own that are happening daily. Coming across Joey's post was a glimpse into that reality, and I'm thankful for it.

On another note, a review I wrote of Clare Clark's The Nature of Monsters appeared in today's Washington Post. You can check it out here. For my part I had quite mixed feelings about the book, which I discuss in the review. I'm happy to say that lots of others like her work unreservedly, though. Why am I happy to say that? Because I know how hard it is to write novels, and I hope that anyone who manages to do it also manages to connect with some readers.