The Impending Disasters

Hi.

Yes.  I’m back.

Scotland was lovely.  Amsterdam was lovely.  London was lovely.  Then Scotland was lovely again.  I drank literally everything: ciders, whiskies, beers, vodkas, gins, tonics, some kid’s juicebox, an orangutan, Parliament and then philosophical concepts like love and hope.

I drank them.  I guzzled them.  I grew heady off the delight that came from swallowing in great gulps the desires and sweet aches of a man smitten by a woman who had never before known that he has never forgotten the winter’s day when she sighed and leaned against his shoulder and he smelled the blend of ash and bargain shampoo and has always wept a single tear at the aroma of crushed cigarettes and shower spunk.

Suffice to say, the wedding was a success.  My sister is now a missus.  I have an in-law.  I am now irrevocably linked to several brash and joyous Europeans that I simply could not get enough of.  I’ll spare you the details–such as the adventure in which I was arrested for smuggling in London and had to escape in three days’ time by earning the trust of the female bounty hunter who brought me in and learning the ways of the mute Korean that was my cellmate.

Because HEY, LOOK AT WHAT WAS IN THE MAIL WAITING FOR ME.

Yes!  Those are copies of The Skybound Sea!  Finished and ready for print and so very close to waiting to be purchased by your eager, greedy little hands!

Coincidentally, this news links up well with my other announcement.  While it may come as a shock to no one else, I will be attending Dragon*Con for the third year in a row now!

And yes, that absolutely means that copies of The Skybound Sea will be available to buy at the Pyr Booth at the Marriott Marquis Ballroom (booth 209, if you’re really interested).  And yes, literally all of them, and anything else you could possibly want, will be signed by me.  Or any of the other awesome Pyr people who will be at the booth (of which there are limitless multitudes).

All you need to do is come by the booth!  With a big smile upon your face, I would like you to say: I’ve got a Real Red Wagon!

That will do absolutely nothing.  I just kind of want to see if you’ll say it.

I dearly hope to see you all there.

But this does present another problem.  I’ve been puttering through my various items and sundries when I discovered this.

That is the last of The Skybound Sea Advanced Readers’ Copies.  One I didn’t end up doing anything with.

What the heck am I supposed to do with this, guys?  In a few weeks, it won’t mean a lot.  Do I give it away to someone?  Do I try to milk more precious fanart out of people for it?  Do I hold it in reverential awe against the twin I hold in my private collection?  Do I use it to bludgeon ornery toddlers under the vague and ominous justification that doing so will somehow make them smarter?

What?

WHAT DO I DO WITH IT?