I just realized it’s been more than a month since my last blog. I’ve been busy promoting almost non-stop from April through Labor Day in September. Enemies & Allies (Morrow, May), Terra Incognita: The Edge of the World (Orbit, June) and the accompanying rock CD Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon (ProgRock Records, June), and The Winds of Dune (Tor, August) as well as Paul of Dune (Tor paperback, August). Nearly a hundred radio, TV, print, and online interviews, four convention appearances, and an 18-day US and Canada book-signing tour.

When I came home from DragonCon in Atlanta on Sept 7, I found that I had a few free weeks ahead of me . . . and about four months of writing to catch up on. I was able to do my first edit of my Hellhole chapters while I was on the road, but it’s hard to be productive when there are so many other demands on time. By hunkering down here in my home office, and spending four days in a quiet mountain retreat, I was able to finish all of my revisions and editing on The Map of All Things, which I’ve just given to Rebecca for her careful copy-edit before it goes into production.

Our fan club president and very close friend Deb Ray just went into the hospital Monday for some fairly serious surgery and is having a difficult time recovering. Rebecca’s mother went into the hospital Tuesday for knee-replacement surgery, and we’re helping to take care of her.

My stepson Jonathan and his fiancee just returned home from two months of volunteer work in an orphanage in Ghana, Africa. They’ve got plenty of horrific stories about poverty, filthy conditions, and corruption as well as uplifting stories about some of the people they met and children they helped. They’re staying with us now and are looking for new jobs before they go back to school next semester, a new place to live, and also planning for their November wedding.

So, all in all, my focus has been on other things besides blogging. I will try to catch up with a few retro-blogs to recap the Writers of the Future event in Hollywood, the Dream Theater concert in Denver, and DragonCon in Atlanta.

When I get a free second…