Completion
A little early this month. For reasons. Which I will explain.
Eventually.
You’re probably reading this the day before Valentine’s Day, a holiday that can get a bunch of different reactions from people for a bunch of different reasons. I hope you’ve got someone to celebrate it with. Somebody who, in one way or another, makes you feel a little more complete or whole and a little less... well, less. A lover, a friend, or even a pet. Heck, even if it’s a place or an activity or a hobby. Something that makes your days feel a little lighter and easier.
In other news... about two weeks after the last newsletter I was finally done with Instagram. Locked down, no longer updating, no long replying. The only reason I’m not deleting is because A) I don’t want some rando grabbing my name/account and posting who knows what and 2) I mean, seriously, it could be a month before half my followers even see the announcement I’ve left. Which right there is, y’know, a pretty good argument for leaving.
That said, I was pleased to see a bunch of names I recognized from Instagram show up on Bluesky over the next week or so. A couple old friends (old in the sense of we’ve known each other along time—not that any of us have gotten old, ha ha ha ha, no). One or three toy-related folks. Heck, my publisher, Blackstone, has started an account there (which I think makes them the biggest publisher on Bluesky).
Speaking of social media, I also finally deleted my Twitter account. Well, deactivated, and now I’m waiting for Twitter to actually delete it. Like I mentioned last month, it’s been two years. More than enough time, and the past month has established it’s never coming back. Plus, y’know, all the Nazi stuff from Musk That made it easy, too.
So at this point I’m on Bluesky. Right now there, here (the newsletter), and my website are probably the best places to reach me. I’m still trying out Pixelfed and Cara for more visual stuff. No idea which one, if either, will be the one to pass that all-important critical mass point. I like Cara more, but it does feel a little more art-oriented. I get this weird vibe that my random toy photos or book covers are pushing some sort of invisible line. Pixelfed seems to be a little more open to things and has a lot of features I like, but like so many federated things (see: Mastodon) it’s kind of impossible to find anyone/anything unless you know exactly where to look, so it also feels very empty right now.
No, this isn’t an invitation for anyone to explain how inherently better and simple federation is, you just need to...
Anyway, let’s get to the real reason you signed up for this newsletter...
As I mentioned in the surprise mailing, God’s Junk Drawer is now up for preorder. I think everything’s updated/ rolled over/ rebooted/ whatever so it should be available to preorder everywhere now. I’ll probably bug you about it in the next eight or nine newsletters because preorders are so important and you wouldn’t believe how low the numbers usually are. Folks were stunned (and very happy) when my book, The Fold got around (if memory serves) 1300 preorders. I’ve been told Stephen King rarely gets more than a few thousand. If everyone reading this newsletter preordered it (and there’s only about 500 of you at the moment), it’d make my publisher giddy. Seriously.
So I’m going to keep mentioning it.
THAT SAID... Now that we’ve got an actual release date and preorders, I want to hammer out details for that west coast signing tour I mentioned last time. Starting in San Diego and then tentative stops in LA, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle and... I don’t know, you tell me. Is there somewhere else in there I should stop? I was thinking of San Luis Obispo at one point, but I don’t really know the town. Feel free to toss out suggestions for specific bookeries in these cities or other places I should consider stopping by (and yes, some of you already have).
There’s also New England. Hoping to be out there just after Thanksgiving. I think I’ve got a slightly better sense of bookstores out there, but if you’ve got a local indie you think would be open to me scribbling, please let me know. My hope is to do a stop in each state, with maybe a signing in eastern and western Massachusetts. And yes, some folks have already offered suggestions here, too.
Again, none of this is a guarantee—it’s possible stores might not be able to make my schedule work for them (completely understandable), plus... I mean, who knows what’s going to happen between now and then. It’s the undiscovered country. But once we get these nailed down (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) you could switch your preorder to your friendly local bookstore, give them some business, and then we’ll all see each other this fall.
In other news, I finished the latest draft of TOS and it’s off with a handful of trustworthy, brutally honest friends and so far the response is... positive? I’m feeling really good about this one, which could very likely be massive self-delusion or... maybe it’s actually good? Hoping to have notes/ comments/ critiques back from everyone in another week or two, which means I’ll probably have more thoughts on this for the next newsletter.
Also-- Combat Monsters came out this week and is available everywhere. yes, everywhere! It’s got a new Carter & Kraft story from me, “The Night Crew,” and if you live in southern California I’ll remind you that a few contributors (including me) are going to do a sort of mini signing tour over the next few weeks. We're going to be at- Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego this Saturday (the 15th) at 1:00, then Dark Delicacies in Burbank (3pm, Feb 22), and Artifact Books in Encinitas (3pm, March 1). Preorder the book through one of them, then come by and get it signed by us when you pick it up. And if you’re a few hundred miles away and can’t make it, I'm pretty sure they all deliver. Just sayin...
Also-also-- I’ll be at WonderCon at the end of March. Possibly doing a few panels. Probably more on that next time, too.
Wow this has gotten long. Okay, not much more...
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
Finally started watching Severance, which I’ve been hearing about for a while. Only knew the premise, very little of the actual plot or story so this has been fantastic. We’re probably four episodes in as you’re reading this. Also The Dragon Prince is back and we’ve been enjoying that a lot, as always.
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
Got an early peek at Fantastic Four: Solve Everything by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham and that was really great. Also finally got around to Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne and it’s simple phenomenal.
Cool New Toys
Weirdly enough, the cool new toys that stood out this past month were a bunch of old toys. See, back when I was in college my parents cleaned a lot of stuff out of my bedroom and accidentally (or so they claimed) got rid of, well, pretty much every toy I owned before the age of twenty. The only ones that escaped were some things I’d locked away or taken to college with me. As such, it kind of stung when, a few years back, my mom started talking about this box of Transformers she’d found that was probably mine or my nephew’s. I grumpily pointed out they couldn’t be mine since those were all somewhere in a New England landfill. She laughed it off and eventually asked my nephew, who looked at the box and said they weren’t his, either. Said box came up again when my folks were visiting back in November and I said, fine, send it to me. It’s be interesting to see what it was, anyway.
Anyway, I told you all that (this is so long, I apologize again) so you’d have an idea how stunned I was to open this box when it showed up and see that it was a random bunch of my old toys, including, yes, some G1 Transformers. Things I hadn’t seen in almost thirty-five years! An Optimus Prime. Two of my favorite Decepticon jets. A GI Joe B.A.T. And more! I just sat there kind of awe-struck for almost half an hour.
Okay, I think that’s all (ha ha ha) I’ve got for you for this month. See you next time. Thanks for reading.
And again, I hope you get to spend some time this weekend with someone or something that makes you feel more complete.
