Due to continuing inclement weather, the City Colleges of Chicago remain closed today. Thus, the reading I was scheduled to give today at Kennedy-King College has been postponed. I will post the new date and time when I find it out. Sorry for any inconvenience. As a side note, it really is dang cold out there today, so don't go outside unless you have to and unless you're really bundled up.

I'll be doing two readings next week. If anyone has a notion, I'd love for you to stop by and say howdy. 

The first reading will be Tuesday, January 28th at 2:00 PM, on the second floor of the Kennedy-King College Library, which is located at 6300 S. Halsted Street. I'm extremely excited about this event because Kennedy-King is the college where I teach, so there's the added benefit of the home-field advantage. 

The second reading will be Friday, January 31st at 7:00 PM, at The Book Cellar, which is located at 4736 N. Lincoln Avenue. The advantages of this reading are that I'll be teaming up with some pretty awesome writers (Ben Tanzer, Mark Brand, and Joseph Peterson), plus The Book Cellar is a super kick-ass book store. So, really, no reason not to join in the festivities.

It's been a great and fun year, one that started off at a pretty low point, but continually picked up steam as the months passed. Of course, the biggest news was the publication of my first novel, The Last Good Halloween. Through that project, I've had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great, new people in the publishing world and for that I'm incredibly grateful. 
Before we kiss 2013 good-bye, I wanted to mention a few fun items that came up at the last minute this year. 
First off, I had the chance to participate in a Sun-Times blog series on hot writers in Chicago. This was an opportunity that definitely fell into the push-your-comfort-zone category -- especially since the point was to provide a "pin-up" style photo. After a bunch of bad ideas that didn't turn out well, I ended up embracing the concept and, well, you can see the results for yourself. Turns out the pic that worked best was a selfie. (And, for the record, this is the first time I'm typing that word.)
Second of all, I got asked by the good folks at The Next Best Book Club's Blog to give my top three reads of 2013. I'm proud to have been asked to participate and even more proud of how indie-press-centric the entire list is. If you want to find some reads that might be a little off the beaten path, check it out!
As for 2014, well, I've got some readings coming up in January and February, plus some more writing projects lined up, so stay tuned. I'll let you know more when I know.

Gentle readers, The Bygone Bureau just came out with a Best of the Arts in 2013 and I had the opportunity to add a few to their estimable list. Check it out here and see what really got me excited, artistically-speaking, this  past year.

Just a quick note to all the Chicago Folks:

My publisher, Tortoise Books, is sponsoring a table at the Chicago Book Expo this Sunday, November 24th. I'll be there signing copies of my new novel The Last Good Halloween. If you're interested in getting a signed copy, or just want to keep me company, I'd love to see you there! 

The Expo is going from 11 AM to 5 PM. The address is 1345 W. Argyle. 

Seeing all your bright faces will help take the edge off missing the Cowboys game, which, let's be honest, it's probably better if I don't watch it anyway.

Just wanted to let folks know about a guest blog post I wrote that went live this morning. Not quite an ouroboros situation here, but certainly meta on some level.
I was recently given the opportunity to contribute to The Next Best Book Club's blog. If you're not familiar with this site, it's a great place that helps spread the word on on new and established indie authors -- so you can imagine my delight at hearing from them.
Anyway, they've got a variety of regular features and the one that seemed best suited to my novel was the Books & Booze series.  All of TNBBC's stuff is great, so you should definitely plan to spend some time there, but if you're pressed for time, you can just check out my post and take a gander at the rest later. 
I tried to give a little insight into the alcohol consumed by Kirby Russo in my novel The Last Good Halloween. There are no spoilers, so don't worry if you haven't read the book yet. You can think of this as kind of a DVD extra that might give a little more insight into the life and mindset of Kirby.

Just a quick post to let folks know that my novel, The Last Good Halloween, is now up for sale on Amazon. 
For the first several hours I was fascinated by the fact that it has an Amazon best seller's ranking that seems to fluctuate pretty wildly from hour to hour. It peaked somewhere around the 14,000s. Now today it seems to have settled into the 25,000s. All of which means very little, I think, but it allows the mind to spin and spin, perhaps a bit too much.  My publisher's advice was pretty much spot on when I started emailing him frequent updates on the rankings: "At the end of the day, though, what feels best is working on something new! If we start a new project, everything else will sort itself out." 
Funny how these words seemed to calm me down. The fact is, I've been in a bit of a writing rut since the publication schedule has ramped up. There's always been something else that needed tending to before I could crack my notebook and start writing. Perhaps now that the book is finally out, I'll be able to find the mental headspace to get back to what got me here. That's the plan, anyway.

The official launch party for The Last Good Halloween is now set for Saturday November 9th, at 7:00 PM. The location will be Uncharted Books, in Logan Square. 

Since this is my first launch party, I'm a little unfamiliar with what exactly is supposed to happen at one, but my operating assumption is that there'll be a reading (by me, I guess, unless we can book James Earl Jones) followed by a book signing and a general breeze-shooting. Maybe some wine and vittles will be consumed on site. If not, we'll certainly book a bar nearby in order to do that shortly thereafter. Anyone and everyone are invited to attend, as my understanding is that there'll be plenty of space and it would certainly gladden me to see some friendly faces in the room.

The address for Uncharted Books is: 2630 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL. I hope to see as many of you as can make it!

A gigantic package arrived this week, and the world's most amazing birthday gift has made its debut on the Southside of Chicago. No matter how well I try to photograph this thing, the images will never quite do it justice. Still, I wanted to try to share it with the rest of the world because keeping it on a wall in here seems like it would somehow be an injustice.
The painting was done by Minnesota artist Scott West. He painted it after reading the manuscript for my forthcoming novel, The Last Good Halloween. For me, hearing about the inspiration for a piece of art is almost as important as the art itself, so I was curious to hear what he had to say about this piece. Here's the note he sent me:
"This painting was very different for me... usually my compositions are cluttered and busy and overbearing with color.  The void was important.  Knowing Izzy through your writing I felt an absence in her character,  almost a separation from her surroundings because she knew she would one day leave.  She became a metaphor for the connection we all have with loved ones that all too often leave our immediate life. They gift us life lessons for our future relationships and the strength to understand reasons why they leave.  This is why I chose to paint just Izzy.  She was the underlying current of the story for me. Thanks again for the opportunity and for sharing your wonderful work."
Obviously, I was touched and moved by his thought and sensitivity in the way he treated my characters. It's strange, I was pretty nervous to see what he'd come up with because it felt like some kind of judgment on these characters I'd come to know and love. In the end, I couldn't be happier with the result.

As the publication date for my novel approaches, things are starting to snap into fast-motion, where once they seemed to mosey along without a care in the world. The biggest item thus far has been settling on a cover. We've gone through many iterations and had some great suggestions, but I think we're finally zeroing in on a coherent idea. There are still a few changes that'll need to happen, but here is the prototype:

From here on out, the rest of the work will center around launching and promotion. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding the launch party and for upcoming interviews/reviews. For now, I can tell you that I've already recorded an interview with the good folks at WordPlaySound. They'll be coming out with a special episode close to our publication date which will also include a recording of me reading an excerpt of The Last Good Halloween. 

That's all for now. Surely more to come soon.