So I walked outside just now, into a bright, blue-sky, warm late-spring day; somehow the seasons have changed since the last time I noticed (in fairness, that did happen overnight, but it works well as a metaphor for how long it's been since I've blogged so I'm going to go with it).
So, Rob, what have you been up to since the last time you checked in hereabouts?
Well, the short answer is "working". The long answer, sadly, is also "working".
Bedtime Story is finished, and off to the copy-editor (if you click on that link, you'll note that the publication date has shifted slightly, and the book will now be available November 2 in Canada, two weeks later than the previously announced October 19). I'll be getting the pages back shortly for a not-quite final once-over (I'll look at the first pages as well), and then the machine will kick into high gear: ARCs, pre-publication promo, review mailings, etc, etc.
The book will make its semi-public debut on Tuesday, July 13 at an Author Breakfast at the Western Reps summer trade fair, a chance to talk about the book to a roomful of my left coast bookseller peers.
Let's see, what else has happened?
Well, I've accepted an invitation to teach a week-long fiction workshop in Scotland next spring, at the Moniack Mohr Writers' Center. I'll be there from April 11-16 — it'll be my first time ever in the UK, so I'm very excited about the whole thing.
I've also accepted an invitation to appear at the Vancouver International Writer's Festival in late October — I'm thrilled to be invited! It'll mark the book's public debut — the festival takes place just before Bedtime Story comes out, but it WILL be available there. SO thrilled!
There's also been some business-type stuff that we've been working on, and there should be some announcements made in the next little while, so keep your eyes open for that.
On a more nuts-and-bolts level: one of the things that has been happening over the last couple of months has to do with what, and where, you're reading. I've been working with the good (read: visionary) folks at redwerks.org on a wholesale re-vamp of robertjwiersema.com, just in time for the new book. They've been very generous with their time and efforts, and I think the results are going to be fantastic — they've got a great combination of technical knowledge, artistic skill and client-intuitiveness. I'm very pleased.
Truth be told, though, that process is part of why I've been neglecting this blog of late (no, not an excuse — there is no excuse — but an explanation). Rest easy, though: I see a LOT of blogging in my future. And not just the usual mix of personal and self-obsessed: I've got a lot of deeper things that have been percolating in my head for a while, and I want to spend some time exploring them. And what better place than here! So stay tuned for pieces about the disappearance of genre, the myth of the unsympathetic main character, and a post in which I call out Margaret Atwood. You won't want to miss that!