My father was cutting up some wood and asked if his city boy son (city boy, not sissy boy I’d like to stress) would like a turn. I did, and took the chainsaw and proceeded to cut up some wood AND avoid any great and lasting physical injury. The whole time I was cutting, however, I had this eerie sensation of a lot of little eyes watching me. Sure enough, I turned around and three black squirrels were about 15 yards away.

With the cutting done, I went shopping. Nothing extravagant, but it was a sustained effort. I’m one of those people that will go months without buying anything of note, then go on a bit of binge. This was more window shopping than actual buying, but it was distracting which was nice.

Then I went for a walk. I actually don’t know how long I was gone because I didn’t take my watch or my Blackberry. I just felt the need to go. To be somewhere else. You know that feeling? To just be your body while your brain checks out.

Sorry for the radio silence, I’ve been in Canada visiting family and friends for the Canadian Thanksgiving. I’ve also been to a few stores and met some terrific people at Chapters-Indigo as well as the very nice Max Arambulo, Simon & Schuster Canada publicist, who kindly escorted me around Toronto last week. I’ll post more about this later.

Right now I’m on vacation and feeling a bit…lost. Unfortunately, there’s no map for my current displacement.

Yes, the three exclamation points are appropriate or apropos, as the Latinese say. Fall has arrived! The weather is cooling, the breezes are picking up, the sky is turning that wonderfully ominous slate gray, and squirrels are selling hot chocolate in Central Park. Ok, maybe not that last one, but oh wouldn’t it be grand if they did.

In publishing news, I received the countersigned contract and the first part of the advance for Ashes Of A Black Frost today which makes everything extra official and means I can order those tiny little marshmallows for my hot chocolate now (the squirrels will be soooo happy). Thanks especially to Deputy Publisher Anthony Ziccardi, my editor Ed Schlesinger and all the nice folks at Pocket Books, and my agent, Don Maass, and his wonderful staff. Oh, and I would very much like to thank the incredible efforts of Sneak Attack Media and the publicity and marketing folks at Pocket for the exceptional job they did in promoting The Light Of Burning Shadows. Writing might be a solitary endeavor, but it’s about the only part that is in publishing.

To celebrate I was going to offer hot chocolate for everyone, but then you’d all want the little marshmallows, too, and that’s where the squirrels get you when they jack up the price for “extras”.

If you click the link and scroll down a bit you’ll see the video featuring Sting promoting a new drive to save the rain forests of the world. A great cause (and a great song).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/message-in-a-bottle-sting_n_303993.html

At the end of the interview I did with Jackie at Literary Escapism she has a contest set up which I forgot about. Here’s the link:

http://www.literaryescapism.com/2009/09/22/4462/

In other news, I’ve been writing like a fiend while sitting on a bench overlooking the East River here in New York City. Now that fall is here the breeze is cool and makes for the ideal writing conditions for me…once I figure out how to keep the pages in my note pad from fluttering. I sort of angle into the wind for a more stream-lined writing style and for the most part it works, but every now and then a gust swirls in from a different direction and my pages go flying. If this keeps up the third book will be one constant wind storm.