Going to New Orleans

In June I'll be the guest of TOR Books, publishers of my new children's novel Down the Mysterly River (out this summer), at the American Library Association's big get together in New Orleans.

Go here to see more of what it's all about. I'll be there Friday and Saturday, the 24th and 25th, signing at the TOR Books booth and taking part in some of the programming.

If you plan to be in the New Orleans area around then, and if you share a love of all things books, do please think about coming by.

Bill is the Special Guest at Renovation

This is quite an honor. I've been selected as the Special Guest for Renovation, which is the name for the 69th annual Worldcon. It takes place in Reno, Nevada, from Wednesday, August 17th, to Sunday, August 21st.

If you want to find out more about the big event, go here.

If you want to read a bunch of scurrilous lies written about me, from someone who should know better, in conjunction with the big event, go here.

Look for posts with the Renovation logo -- the little blue fellow on the rocket up there -- for updates and program details, which I'll post as they're finalized and as the big day approaches.

Peter and Max

Peter and Max, my Fables prose novel, is officially out today (though it was unofficially on sale from many stores -- such as the three that had it in Tel Aviv, while I was just there -- for a few days now).

Look at the front-of-the-store placement it's getting, just as if it was a real book from a real novelist.

Pretty cool, huh?

Are we dead yet?

No, I'm not dead. But I haven't posted here in a good long while, for which I have far too many excuses to list. Let's just boil them all down to, the work load has been pretty large of late.

But I'll start up here again soon. Take that to the imaginary bank.

Bill's Recent (tardy) News Roundup

I am in Minnesota, having just hauled my library of far too many books up from Vegas to my new house, which isn't quite ready yet. That's fine, because now I'm about to fly back down to Las Vegas (since I'm leaving my car up here too) and pick up the final load of furniture and odd stuff, to drive it up via U-Haul.

I spent a day in Amish country, looking at my bookshelves, which are nearly done and just about ready to be installed.

I get to move into my house on April 1st, which seems an auspicious day for me. Then I get to spend most of April and half of May getting the place in shape for the Clockwork boys to come up here for our annual retreat and super secret, star chamber, meeting of the cryptera top board, where we basically decide the fate of the world.

I get to go to Italy at the end of April for two back-to-back events, a comic show and a folklore festival.

Fables was just nominated for a fairly prestigious, outside-of-the-funnybook-field award, which I should be able to mention by name in a week or so. And Jack of Fables just made the New York Times bestseller list in their new graphic novels listing.

Behold the Library!

Well, the shelves actually, unstained and still in Jake's workshop, but not for long. Don't they look glorious?

        I always swore that if I were ever lucky enough to own a home it would have a dedicated library -- even if I had to sleep on the porch. This is going to be grand.

Since Cindy wants kitchen pics...

...Cindy gets kitchen pics. The cabinets are done and are finally being installed, as you can see. The section under the window is going to be the sink and stove area. The fridge will go against the wall between the two cabinets there. The floating section attached to the pillar will be a butcher block area.

        Upper cabinets will be installed at some point soon in the kitchen building process.

I'm still deep in the writing hole, but...

Look at the size of this rat caught (alive? the article wasn't clear) in Beijing. The age of monsters isn't quite over yet.

I think the cloth from his chest represents the attempt to draw all of the poisons out.

Fables 81 came out today. This concludes a story I knew I'd be doing for some years, but kept to myself for most of that time, even keeping it from the editor and the artists until they absolutely had to know.

        What a joy to be able to make long range plans for a story, a series, and the characters within it. For all of the fun of working inside the DCU fictional universe, I don't control that one, and those that do make so many changes, so often, usually on the fly, that long range planning for DCU comics series is almost a wasted effort, and always one fraught with frustration.

        Maybe it's just the way I tick, but my stories need time to grow and ferment, for some really big payoffs later. This issue of Fables contained one of those payoffs, the first seeds of which were planted way back in The Last Castle story.

        On a not entirely unrelated note, take a look at this gorgeous final cover from Fables' long time cover artist James Jean. In addition to its central theme, you can see bits and pieces of his entire run on the covers scattered here and there around the composition. Quite an impressive goodbye. We'll miss you, James, but will continue to follow your amazing work, and the complex and involving stories you continue to tell with it.

Wood

Just as the downstairs is all slate flagstones, the upstairs is all wood. This is just after the stain was put on when it's still wet.

The Snowfort Progresses Apace.

The fireplace is just about done. Now I have to consider what might be worthy enough to sit on, and hold its own compared to, a mantle piece so imposing as this one.

        The actual firebox looks a bit small, until you scroll down and remind yourself just how huge the mantle piece is, to get a true sense of the scale of this thing.

        The third annual Clockwork Retreat is going to be held here, at the new house (mostly because I feel so broke after buying this thing that I can't justify a trip just now). Many interesting conversations will be held in front of this fireplace, baptizing it just right in thoughtful ideas, advanced storytelling theory, and a reasonable modicum of boasting and bragging.

It's all about Flagstones.

This is the floor for the downstairs half of the casa nova. Between this and the fireplace, it's pretty clear I'm going for just a hint of actual castle in the old, "A man's home is his castle," imperative.

        The upstairs by contrast is all wood. No carpets. I never liked wall to wall carpet. Area rugs, yes. Carpeting no.

Snowfort Redux

As work progresses on the new hacienda, my new closest neighbor Tom can be seen here running his sled dogs through my back yard.

        When I was a wee child I used to dream of someday growing up to be Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (with his trusty lead sled dog Yukon King). Well maybe I can't be Sgt. Preston, but it looks like I can live next door to him.

Once again it seems I lied.

Apparently I am not going to post daily writing progress updates here, during the month of February. Just as I have decided to go deep into the writing hole this full coming month, my buddy and oft-times writing partner Matt Sturges has decided much the same thing, although in deference to the fact that he has a loving family that needs occasional attention and care, his hole won't be dug quite as deep or isolated as mine.

        But, that said, the fact that Matt is doing much the same thing for the same month is too much of an opportunity to pass up. So, instead of just posting my own daily progress here, Matt and I are both going to post daily progress reports over at the Clockwork Blog. That doubles the accountability, which is the entire purpose of posting daily reports in the first place. You can get to the Clockwork Blog by clicking on the link right there in the upper left hand side of this page.

There's a big fire coming...

And it's going to be in this fireplace, which is really shaping up nicely. Note that the huge mantle piece that was featured below is now in place.

February Plans

In March I move into the new digs, up in snowy Minnesota, just in time to officially move in on April 1st. That means I can't count on getting too much writing work done then. So I need to get ahead on all deadlines and various writing obligations now.

        Therefore, in the month of February, I am disappearing deep into the writing hole. No days off. No dinners out with friends. Few phone calls. No computer activity not directly related to getting my work done. Just writing, and more writing.

        Here's what I need to get done in one month: 1) I need to finish the current novel, which is fully plotted, researched and begun, but much of which remains unwritten. 2) I need to write at least three full issues of Fables. 3) Along with Matt Sturges, I need to complete, at a minimum, two issues of Jack, two issues of The Literals, and two issues of JSA. 4) I need to finish a couple of short stories and various items that always come up, and can't really be scheduled.

        Can I do it? Sure. I'm pretty prolific when I decide to knuckle down. For the prose work I just need to channel my inner Chris Roberson, who can write a full length novel in a long weekend. For the comics work I just need to do daily what I am able to do, when I really dedicate myself. Will I do it? We'll see.

        In order to help keep the fire lit under my too-often lazy (insert earthy anatomical reference here), I'm going to try to post daily progress reports here.

Because I am not computer savvy...

Blogspot, the service that hosts this blog, has recently changed its sign-in procedures, in conjunction with some sort of new alliance with Google. When they did this, I became unable to sign into my own blogs. It took me days to figure out the new system, which is why I haven't been able to post here (and in the Clockwork blog) for some time. Most sign in functions have hints built into the system to prompt those who've forgotten their account names or passwords. This one didn't. And since this one required far different account names and passwords than those I often use, I couldn't suss it out by trying all of the variations I typically use for such things.

        In any case, after spending frustrating hours jumping through all sorts of hoops and roadblocks, some glitch in their ultra-cryptic system finally redirected me to a page that was clearly designed for idiots like me to deal with their bold new ways. I have no idea how I ended up at that page, so deftly hidden as it was, in case I ever need to go through this process again. We'll see how it goes.

Sure it looks big, but the camera adds ten pounds.

This is either the huge block of wood that is going to become my fireplace mantle, or the stick I'm going to beat Sturges with if he ever tries to come visiting.

        But seriously folks, the fellow shown here is Carl (or is it Karl?) the Amish cabinet maker who's building my kitchen cabinets and library shelves, and providing the mantle piece. Pretty cool, huh?

Big update: I have been told by Stacy, she who is overseeing the finishing of my house, that I got the name wrong. The Amish fellow who is making my cabinets and bookshelves and such is named Jake, not Carl -- or even Karl. How I got Carl from Jake I cannot begin to fathom. And, as if that wasn't enough, this isn't Jake in the picture. It's his number one son named Raymond. Boy do I feel uninformed and un-authoritative.

And yet another JSA favorite

Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern is going to play a pretty big part in my half of the JSA series.

        Here are a few carefully worded bits and pieces of the plans Matt and I have worked out. Of course this is all subject to changes down the road, when we learn that the next big DC crossover involves turning the entire line over to some hot young tyro from Hollywood or Real Books who plans to kill all of the JSA (stuffing the bodies of the women into refrigerators and the chopped up bodies of the men into tool boxes) and replace them with super powered badgers. But barring that we plan to:

        First arc. A big thing happens, but we also get all of the characters into position for the really big thing that happens next.

        In the second arc, Obsidian and Mr. Terrific are the prime movers of the plot and (in at least one case) the source of the jeopardy.

        In the third arc, it's all about Green Lantern (whom I will not continue calling the Golden Age Green Lantern, since he's the original and the other Green Lanterns should call themselves the Green Lantern Copies, or the Green Xeroxes, or some such). Of course none of this implies that the other characters won't be important, just that we want each character to have a particular moment in the spotlight.

        Hold on. Wait a moment. I just heard that Matt Sturges may have other plans for the next two arcs following the first (which we are writing now). Hmmm. Maybe you'd best treat the above plans as tentative until I work things out with the enthusiastic young scribe.

Snowfort

This is what the new house looks like today.