I have been busy!

Gah. I’ve been pillar to post. I can’t even tell you what I’ve been up to – not because it’s a secret, but because I’ve done so much this month that I simply have no idea what any of it was. I feel as if I’ve just taken my finals all over again, that weird purge that shunts everything it took three years to learn onto a few bits of paper and wipes it from your brain for a year…

Anyway. News from Harkaway Towers (which as I have mentioned has no tower and in fact consists in large part of basement):

I’m a finalist in the Locus Awards, which I’m really jazzed about. I would tell you to go and vote like crazy for me, but you can’t, because, as Scalzi observes, the actual winner is already decided.

However, in general terms: bwahahahaha! Soon I shall have understanding of microwave ovens!

(Incidentally, does anyone notice a slight similarity here between David Warner as the Evil Genius talking about things being different because he has understanding, and Dick Cheney saying he had a ‘different understanding’ of the Vice-President’s job? No? Well, I won’t insist…)

Aside from that, it occasioned me to read this really heart-warming piece about the book, and go through my now-familiar pattern of delight, awe, terror (that I will never write anything that moves people this way, ever, ever again) and determination (that I bloody well will).

Elsewhere: I had a message from the Sci-Fi London festival earlier, and they’ve told me I can give a pair of tickets away for the panel I’m participating in on Sunday. I just have to come up with a way to decide who gets ‘em…

I thought about asking you define spime flu. It didn’t seem as clever when I typed it as it was in my head.

So, tell you what – if you want ‘em, drop me a line. I’ll dish ‘em out to someone on an entirely unscientific and semi-random basis. If you can come up with the question I should have asked, that will almost certainly help your chances. I’m also told that anyone who buys tickets for any of the literary panels over the weekend can have two for the price of one if they use the words AUTHOR BLOG when they book by telephone on 020 7451 9944.  This offer is good until Friday 1st May.

Must go to a meeting now…