I’ve been out and about this past week: I already wrote about the Arts Center opening reception fun. Wednesday I was at the Albany Public Library to talk about how social media has changed the writer’s life. I must say that Deanna and Sarah sure know how to put on an event! How much it helps to have organisers touch base with you enough to be sure that they are on top of things — and they couldn’t have been more friendly and enthusiastic. I was really glad to have a nice dinner with Debi and Lin at Jewel of India on Lark, where the service is exquisite and the food YUM!

For the talk I tried to focus on the profound nature of changes in the publishing world, occasionally diverging into headline fodder like Scott Turow’s luddite moaning, but mostly saying that yes, things are still changing and no one knows how it will go. The bottom line: yes, more options to publish than ever before, but also a greater challenge to find your readers (and to make any of it pay, alas). I had some challenging questions from the audience, so I feel as if we had a really good discussion.

Before I headed out to the Dark Carnival at Annie’s Book Stop in Worcester, I found my Desert Island picks were up at the Forbidden Planet International blog. It’s hard to choose just eight! On a different day I might have picked a slightly different list, but I am happy enough with the gems I chose. Of course I’d hate being stuck on a desert island — give me a windy, rainy island in the north!

Annie’s Book Stop is a wonderful oasis! Wow, the selection is terrific, especially for genre stuff, including a bunch of Doctor Who merchandise (so tempting!). It was great to see the indefatigable Broad Universe pres Trish Wooldridge there as well as pals Morven Westfield and Jason Harris in addition to meeting new folks. Jess and I took turns reading during our slot. I first read from Rick Hautala‘s “Iron Frog” — it’s a comfort to think our words might live on and I was glad to share some words in his memory.

I returned home to find my copy of Fear and Learning: Essays on the Pedagogy of Horror waiting for me and then yesterday heard that The Cinema of Terry Gilliam: It’s a Mad World will be out this week. It includes my essay “Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children!” on his film Tideland. I’m really pleased to see that both books are also available as ebooks for about half the price of the print editions.