Hey, thanks for all the congrats and kindness yesterday! I've known about the sale since May, and it was killing me to sit on it, as sitting on good news goes against my internature. You know, I post pictures of my coffee, fer crying out loud.

Just to clarify, the second book on the contract conceivably could be a follow-up to Kid vs. Squid -- I've got fleshed-out ideas for more books with those characters -- but most likely it'll be something else. My editor and I talked about a YA science fiction, and that's what I'm developing now. I hope to have solid plans for what's next sometime in October or so.

I've also gotten inquiries over the past several months from a lot of people about a sequel to Norse Code, which is something I'd love to write, and I've also got a significant fraction done of a novel based on Osteomancer's Son. But if and when those see the light of day is contingent upon publisher interest.

It'd also be cool to write some short stories again at some point. I miss 'em.

Okay, so, I've told just a very few people about this and have been annoying with the oblique hints, but now the contracts are done and I can speak with my customary devotion to internet blabiosity.

There's the weird beach middle-grade book I've been talking about for sometime. I've displayed some pictures of it:

Flotsam Novel Progress

And I am vibrational with joy and excitement to announce that I sold it to Margaret Miller at Bloomsbury Children's USA. The title was originally Flotsam, but some other guy wrote a children's book with the same title and won some kind of award for it, which I might have known had I spent five seconds on Google before falling in love with my title. After help from a great many funny and generous folk, we went with Kid vs. Squid, suggested by my friend, colleague, and confidante, sarah_prineas.

It's loosely based off this piece of flash fiction I did years ago, and it's about a kid who's spending his summer vacation in a weird Central California beach town where the survivors of Atlantis wash up every summer. There's a very large squid in it, among other things.

Kid vs. Squid is part of a two-book deal (handled with expertise and grace by my awesome agent, Caitlin Blasdell). The second book is to-be-determined, but I've got a pretty good idea what it's going to be. Last I heard, the first book is scheduled for spring of next year.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to next year. In the mean time, there's that second contracted book to work on, plus another fantasy novel for "grown-ups," and then whatever else a guy's gotta do to make a living.

This is another case in which I'm grateful to a great many people for their support, advice, commiseration, and good humor during the hammering-together of this book. I foresee a long acknowledgments page, but for now, thank you, thank you, thank you.

paulmelko's (Paul Melko's) first novel Singularity's Ring debuts today. Honestly? I haven't read it yet. But I have read his short fiction and parts of his novels in-progress, so I'm absolutely confident that I'm going to like Singularity's Ring a whole bunch, and perhaps you will too. Thing is, you won't know unless you buy it, so you know what you have to do.

Also, sandramcdonald's (Sandra McDonald's) novel The Outback Stars is now out in paperback. It's got cosmic grandeur, suspenseful action, workplace conflict, and romance, all on a big starship in space. It's really, really good, and if you read it now, you'll be ready for The Stars Down Under, Sandra's follow-up book, which comes out this May March.

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Another reason why Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash is my favorite pro athlete: Steve Nash invests in pro women's soccer league. He's also the only athlete I know of who was outspoken against the war when the war was still popular. I also liked it when he apologized to the entire nation of Canada for NBA players being such wussy brawlers.

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I just voted my ass off. If you can, I suggest you do the same. (I'm for Obama. I won't be broken-hearted if Clinton gets the nomination, but I think Obama's the better choice.)

I had a Borders gift certificate I planned to use on the second book in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, but then I realized I don't currently own a copy of Welcome to the Monkey House, which seemed wrong, so I got that instead.

Yesterday I gave myself a break from the novel and instead fiddled with a piece of flash fiction that's turning out to be quite a hard fiddle to play, so that wasn't very satisfying either. I figured today I'd give myself another day away from the novel, you know, for distance and perspective and all that shit, but I think the day after a great author of personal importance to me dies, finding excuses to shirk writing seems just a little too wussy, even for a wussy shirker like me.

So, the novel and I are still going through a bit of a rocky stage together, but at least we're on speaking terms.