November 2006

Some highlights of the past few weeks:

** Hanging out with my fellow Poe-scribe Matthew Pearl (The Poe Shadow) at a New York University panel. In addition to being ridiculously young and a bestselling author, Matthew turns out to be a really nice guy, and it was a genuine pleasure to meet him in the flesh after having our books jostle up against each other for months. (Everywhere I went, I heard “Oh, yeah, Matthew was just here,” or “Yeah, Matthew’s coming next week.” Very “William Wilson”ish.)

** Appearing in a quasi-theatrical reading for Toronto’s International Festival of Books, where I met another pair of extremely nice writers: T. Jefferson Parker and Louise Welsh. This niceness is a deeply worrisome trend in the literary community.

** Being nominated for a British Crime Writers’ Association award, aka the Dagger. I wanted to win, only because I wanted to say, “Is this a Dagger which I see before me?” On the other hand, I couldn’t have afforded the trip to London, and that line has probably been used before, and anyway, I didn’t win. But it’s, you know, it’s the honor of … of being nominated….

** Seeing my son trying on his Halloween costume, which can best be described as zombie-having-bad-hair-day. (He wants me to get a matching one.) My other son is going as the green Power Ranger. It was very important, apparently, that he be the green Power Ranger and not the red. It reminds me a bit of “Reservoir Dogs”: Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink….

** Hearing from folks courtesy of this very Web site (which I spent so long resisting). One of my favorite correspondents: a man who went to West Point with my dad and remembers him as “marching to a different drummer.” Which would have fairly serious implications on parade ground, I think. My dad’s now in assisted living, but he still keeps his own beat.