OH, THE HUMILITY
Or, the fabulousness of the writing life.

Or, when you search for your own name, don't be surprised at what you find.

It was a quiet, impoverished weekend at the Byrnes Estate, so -- while I got some solid writing done (and YAY for that!) -- I had a lot of time to kill on the Intertubes. For some reason, Google has stopped working on my home computer (as has the Blogger log-in page, aka Son of Google), so, in an effort to satisfy my egomania, I searched for my name on Amazon.

I shouldn't have done that.

Among the things I learned was that I am approximately 150 years old, or maybe merely 60-something; and that my most recent novel -- according to Jeff Herman's Guide, is titled "When the Stars Corse Out." I was slightly relieved to discover that the title error is not, in fact, in Herman's book -- blame the mystical robotic Amazon scanners for that error -- but still I was having all kinds of Rodney Dangerfield moments.

Oh, and also? Rachel Spencer? Yeah, the girl is still getting credit for my book. I'm sure she's as happy about that as I am.

And speaking of The Night We Met, a reader posted a new review on my (and Rachel's) Amazon page for the book, and wrote:

Reading it I would occassionally imagine it as a movie, or even as a yaoi manga.

You know, quite coincidentally I hold all contractual rights to yaoi manga versions of the story. Also on action figures. Who says my agent and I can't negotiate a good contract?

Penultimately, I have some bad news. I won't be able to make Saints & Sinners next weekend after all. I was really looking forward to it, but -- with the recent move and a few other financial matters that had to be dealt with -- I realized last week that I would have to pull the plug. That sucks, but I guess there is always next year. However, you can still find me at the end of the month at the Lambda Literary Awards and Book Expo America.

In other writer-related news, you really have to go to Becky Cochrane's site and read this. I don't want to discourage anyone from writing, but -- as other commenters pointed out -- Becky's comments should be required reading for everyone with aspirations, and should be force-fed to every asshole who thinks writing is easy.

That is all.