My parents are now on their way back to Canada from their winter digs deep in the south of Texas right on the Mexican border. Unlike their normal migration, this year they’ll be making a few detours as they stop off at bookstores along the way to hand out ARCs for A Darkness Forged in Fire which Pocket Books were kind enough to ship down to Texas before they left. My folks got as far as San Antonio yesterday and stopped in at two Barnes and Nobles. Many thanks to store manager Melissa at the B&N on the NW Loop outside of San Antonio, and to assistant store manager Marisa at the Bandera Road B&N. Oh, and a big thanks to Conrad at the 4050 N 10th St McAllen, TX B&N. Conrad, tell your wife the second book will be out next summer.

A severe weather front is moving throughout the area so my folks are going to take their time heading up to Austin. We’re still fine tuning our system, but essentially I’m acting as tower control passing along vectors to my mother who acts as navigator while dad pilots the RV to the next destination. On Saturday I’ll be passing control over to my brother in Belleville, Canada as I’ll be flying to England for the London Book Fair.

You know, I’m fortunate to have parents who love me enough to try something as odd-balled as this.

This morning I went indoor wall climbing with a friend for her birthday. She was Spiderwoman-like in her abilities, graceful and assured. I, on the other hand, was like those paintings of buffalo being stampeded by Indians over the side of a cliff. Technically, I had two near death experiences, but only near because in both cases when I lost contact with the wall I was spared from splattering on the floor so very far below by the belay line attached to my harness. In each case my friend, with my life in her hands, gently lowered me back to the floor then asked if I’d like to try again. Naturally, being male and trying to impress her, I said yes, and the thing of it was, I really did want to try it again. There’s something incredibly exhilarating about pushing your body and getting outside of your comfort zone. The best part was reaching the top of the wall then just letting go. Talk about trust. You just let go and your partner slowly belays you back to the floor.

If you haven’t tried climbing I’d highly (well, not too high to start) recommend it.

Next week I’ll be at the London Book Fair doing a fair impression of a chicken recently separated from its mind. I’ll be attending for my job as an editor for Stackpole Books, meeting with a lot of foreign (mostly British) publishers to make some rights deals. Essentially, I look to pick up North American, or even world rights to hard covers first printed in Europe that I can then reprint/repackage (meaning new cover, removal of the letter u from colour etc., and sometimes adding a photo insert) here for the US/Canadian market. It’ll be three days of meetings, but I will find a bit of time for other activities while I’m there. One treat will be meeting my British editor at S&S UK. Over there, the book comes out in September and will be released as a trade paperback. I don’t know, but I suspect they’ll be busy adding all the u’s to my prose which is ironic seeing as having been born and raised in Canada I grew up putting u’s in everything to start with.

The day after I return I’ll be going to my first Comic Con which conveniently is being held right here in NYC. Good thing it isn’t far because I’ll probably still be jet lagged and a bit loopy…well, more so. Pocket Books have set up a signing and give away of advance reading copies of the book so anyone interested just look for the disheveled guy dunking an imaginary scone in an imaginary cup of tea.

As P-Day approaches (pub day if you’re wondering) the last chance to make revisions draws nigh. It’s a wonderful feeling, but there’s also some apprehension because my ability to tweak is almost gone. In conjunction with that is the crafting of the flap copy. It’s a selling tool and a chance, sometimes the only chance, to engage a reader who picks up the book and decides to give it a quick perusal. Get it right and a reader’s curiosity will be piqued. Get it wrong, and you have a serious problem. We’re fine tuning the copy now, and it’s as intense as editing the whole book. It’s a lot like the pressure to nail your query letter to an agent or an editor. I reject mss daily based on poorly written query letters. It’s a shame, but judgments get made that fast, and flap copy is similar. If it doesn’t intrigue the odds get longer that a reader will keep reading. Not unlike a movie trailer when you think about it.

In other news (now wearing my editor hat,) I have three books on the war in Iraq coming out this fall – Red, White, or Yellow?: The Media and the Military at War in Iraq; Achieving Victory in Iraq: Countering an Insurgency; and the trade paperback reprint of probably my most successful book to date, Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. I also have a big book coming on immigration and border security titled The Border: Exploring the US-Mexican Divide. The books are strong by themselves, but with Iraq and immigration/border security likely to be major election issues they should all get extra attention. Timing books to coincide with events is often a very useful marketing tool, although it’s much tougher if not close to impossible to do with fiction. For the most part, fiction just isn’t news worthy. Not to say it isn’t worthy, but it’s the very rare novel that attracts any kind of attention from news outlets (fictionalized memoirs notwithstanding) so again, getting the flap copy right is critical.

Living in Manhattan means having every possible food on the tip of your taste buds. You just step out the door, go a few blocks and whatever your heart desires you’ll find. As an editor I meet with agents, other publishers and authors fairly regularly and most of these meetings take place over lunch. As an author I get in a few more. I decided a while back to take these opportunities to try new restaurants and new foods each time, in part for the sheer joy of it, and in part as research for dating. It’s definitely been hit and miss, but even the misses are interesting. A gourmand I’m not, but I’m slowly eating my way around the world via their representation in the Big Apple which in turn is giving greater impetus to get out of bed early in the mornings and go for that run in the park. There is, inevitably, a price to be paid.