Bread Loaf Conference

As I hoped and expected, the New England Young Writers Conference at Bread Loaf was a great time, and entirely too short. My daughter Julia attended the workshops led by another fiction writer, while I worked with a talented and extraordinarily open and enthusiastic group of fourteen high school students on their fiction writing. That was just the core of it; there were also readings (from the podium where Robert Frost used to hold forth—I did one myself), additional writing sessions open to all, conversations with writers of all stripes, good food and good company, and—wonder of wonders—sunshine on the mountain. I was sad to leave. But I'll tell you this: there are some excellent writers coming up in the years ahead! Be warned. Be heartened.

The Sunborn galleys arrived for my inspection and correction just before the conference, and I didn't have time to so much as glance at them over the weekend. Now I'm working on them, but I'm also getting ready to leave on another trip, this time to meet with another group that wants to pick the brains of SF writers.

I hope you're all enjoying your spring.

"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork." —Peter De Vries

Sunborn Available for Preorder

For years, readers have been sending me emails saying, "When is the next Chaos Chronicles book coming out?" or, "I'm not getting any younger—will there ever be another Chaos Chronicles book?" or even, "Thanks a lot for leaving me hanging, because it's obvious there's never going to be another book, you jerk."

Readers of this blog have known for years that Sunborn, the new Chaos book, was coming—or at least it's been my word against the doubters. (Sometimes, I've been among the doubters.) Well, you no longer have to take my word for it! It's up on Amazon. And you can even preorder it. Now. Today. Go ahead, click the link! It won't hurt.

Preorder now!

I was surprised it was up this soon (the pub date is October of this year, from Tor Books). In fact, I didn't even know it was up until a kind reader in Germany sent me a note telling me about it. I quickly discovered that they'd misspelled my first name on the dustjacket, at least as displayed on Amazon, but a note to my editor resulted in that being fixed pretty quickly. (I hope it stays fixed. I'm sure it will. Nothing can go wrongg.)

That's the news from here. I might not get this written up before I go, so I'll just mention that next week I'll be heading up again to the Bread Loaf writing center near Middlebury, Vermont, to teach at the annual New England Young Writers Conference. If you are, or are the parent or teacher of, a young writer of high school age, you really should look into this for next year. It's a terrific program. I'll tell all about it, after I get back.

And did I mention? You can preorder Sunborn from Amazon.

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." —Red Smith