I left my superpower in my other pants.
Don't be ridiculous. You're not wearing any pants.
As I write this, it’s before sunrise, and I should probably be working on my novel. I just got home from the Worldcon in Dublin two days ago, though, and apparently my body is still on Irish time.
This means, alas, that I have lost my superpower.
I have, all my life, been a natural short sleeper. When I was younger I would wake up refreshed after five hour of sleep and I could endure miserably indefinitely on three. These days I need six or seven, and I suffer from a touch of midlife insomnia, so I don’t always get it despite having the incredible luxury of almost never needing to set an alarm, since I work for myself these days.
I also used to be immune to jetlag. I’d get wherever I was going, go to bed at the appropriate hour for the destination, and wake up with my ducks all in a row, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, mixing metaphors like a true professional.
Now, alas.
Now.
Every ten years, it seems, something one relied on about one’s body breaks. This time, it was the circadian clock.
On the plus side I seem to be able to nap now, which was something I could never manage before without feeling awful afterwards. On the downside, I seem to need to nap.
Middle age, wow. Well, at least it beats the alternatives.
In other news, I have some stuff that’s out now or will be out soon:
Two more Promethean Age ebooks are available in the UK now: Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth. The final one, One-Eyed Jack, will be out September 17th.
Also, when I came home from Worldcon, there were a pile of author copies waiting for me! Look!
That’s an advanced reader copy of The Best of Elizabeth Bear, which is available from Subterranean Press in January and can be pre-ordered now. There’s also a copy of Sanction (US title Chill) available from Gollancz right now. And on the right, the 70th anniversary edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which contains my story “Erase, Erase, Erase,” which is about reclaiming one’s identity after a profounfly abusive relationship (or not) and also thwarting terrorists (or not) and also fountain pens (without a doubt.) That one is available for sale September 1st.
Cheerio! That’s all for now.