Hello mah sweets,

I’m writing to you from the comfort of my flat in London, where I’m curled up on my couch, watching the rain and very much enjoying a quiet night in. I had a fabulous week last week–a friend was visiting, and we did loads of stuff, including a trip to Brighton to visit my awesome US cover artist, Sharon Tancredi. My dear friend, Jana, was also in town and we got to see her. And we had a great night out with one of my favorite Orbit pals, Philip Palmer, and a group he put together, including Mike Carey and other SF/F and comic writers. All together, it was a fabulous night and an equally fabulous very long weekend!

But today was back to the grindstone! Luckily, my visitor came just when I got officially stuck in my manuscript. I’m in the final few chapters, and I have vague notes in my outline, such as “Big Battle Scene,” which are outrageously unhelpful. But I had a nice distraction for five whole days, and when I sat down to write today everything made so much more sense. So another chapter is written and the final chapters are much more thoroughly outlined.

This week, then, will be mucho writing-o, but it’s not all sweat and tears. Last night I saw my friend from high school, Erik Tomlin, who is hilarious. Today I had a lovely long lunch with my editor here in the UK, Anna Gregson, and tomorrow I’m getting together with a bunch of writers, including Karen Mahoney, Stacia Kane, and Suzanne McLeod. Stacia’s spending the night so I’m sure there will be shenanigans involving vodka, fire, maybe one of Stacia’s switchblades, and definitely a certain self-pubbed erotic hot mess that makes us pee ourselves laughing. Ohhh yeah, I’m looking at you, PE!

Thursday I’m having a dinner and movies date with Dr. Ruth, then bright and early the next day I head up north to meet my friend for a final bout of research for the book. And by “research” I mean wandering around, eating pub food, and being generally debauched. In all seriousness, however, I will also be scouting out sites for the final two locales of book five. I’ll not tell you where they are, however, to keep you guessing, but mayhaps I’ll post a pic or two on twitter to give you evil, vaguely spoilery hints.

So that’s my life, here. It’s going stupidly fast, and I’m already dreading leaving. I love it here, I have so many friends, and London’s just a great place to be. But the good news is that when I DO return to the States, it’s to two very fun conventions, the first of which is in Denver.

Now, Denver is also host to the beauteous and wonderful Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein, and Mario was his typically generous self in organizing us a bunch of non-convention shindigs, to make the visit to Colorado even more fun. He’s organized a Mucho Mojo tour for us, and here’s the flier he made. I’m stupidly excited to be a part of all of this:

The first event is Thursday, August 4th, from 7-9 pm at Madwine Bar and Novo Coffee. I’m apparently contributing talismans and bringing my mojo, but considering how jetlagged I’m gonna be you might all have to buy me some drinks to get me going. Like nine. Nine drinks should do it. 😉

The next event is another signing with a load of other local authors and authors in for RomCon, and that’s Sunday, August 7, 4 pm at Broadway Book Mall.

So print off the flier and come see us!