Must Remember to Wear Pants...

The Klaatu Diskos series is complete, and this summer I have been quietly enjoying the blank time between publication events, and working slowly on a few smaller projects—a couple of short stories, a new YA novel (about birth order and pizza), and a long-term adult book project involving elves and magic. Next year I have two new publications in the queue: Eden West (4/15), a book I’ve been writing since 2001, will be coming out in April, followed a few months later by my first solo middle grade novel, The Flinkwater Factor (9/15).

Eden West will be available April, 2015

I’m told there are many things I should be doing to build “buzz” for the new books. Blogging. Tweeting. Glad-handing at every bookstore within range. Optimizing and monetizing my neglected website. Making book trailers with ebola-like viral potential. Leaping on every available meme. Joining Google+ (blerg) and LinkedIn (double blerg). Soliciting blurbs from John Green and J.K. Rowling. Setting up a virtual blog tour. Printing and distributing bookmarks and other swag. Interviews, ARC giveaways, newsletters, book clubs, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook ads, skywriting, sacrificing a goat…

All those things are doable—I’ve done most of them at one time or another—but in aggregate they are paralyzing. Like most authors, my first instinct is to pull the blanket over my head and whimper, “I just wanna write books and watch kitten videos!”

Yeah, well, in the real world that doesn’t work so good—not if I want to, you know, eat and make car payments.

So I’ll be slithering down the cobwebby staircase from my writer’s garret and, blinking and scowling at the sun, trying again to engage the public. Want an interview? I’m available. Want to enjoy my self-consciously clever Twitter posts? Follow me. Need a friend? Find me on Facebook.

Now, time to get to work on that book trailer. And steal a goat.

Here's something you should know about vengeance demons. We don't groove with the sorry. We prefer, "Oh, God! Oh God! Please stop hitting me with my own rib bones!" —Anya (from BtVS season 7)