I’m off on a secret mission tomorrow—a joyful prospect—and this morning, when I sat down to plan out everything that needs to fit into today, I realized the day was already full before it held half of what needs doing. Have I said this before? It bears repeating. I remember hearing a lot about parenting before I became a parent, the standard “say goodbye to your life” hazing which: haha suckers, I didn’t have a life to start with! But there’s a certain math that prevails in these matters, and the cold-equations aspect of it was oddly underdiscussed, maybe because it’s actually more daunting than all the ho-ho-your-life-is-over nonsense everybody’s half-quoting from impacted sitcom episodes. You have, now, an additional full-time—the words aren’t quite there in twenty-first century English. “Job,” ugh no. “Responsibility,” shades of Highlights Magazine. Quest. That works. You have a full-time always-on quest. Anything that’s in your life now, needs either to change to accommodate, or be somewhere else.
Eclipse and Terraforming Mars haven’t hit the table nearly as often for a minute now, is what I’m saying—about our upper limit is a hand of Arkham Horror LCG, and that as a special occasion, an opportunity seized. Hands of bridge, when the in-laws visit, are delightful in part because (around a troubled bedtime) it’s easy enough to lay the cards down. Last year an extremely early bedtime happened as if by magic, and we watched Tár, and that was a trip, a classical music movie for Gene Wolfe nerds, a pure shot of Grown-Up to the vein. But most of the time—look, do you know what’s great about Bluey? Sure yeah, Empathy Magic Family Generosity-of-Spirit Profundity Storytelling Play, but also each episode works, it utterly functions and accomplishes Some Story Thing in a way that connects right down to the monkeys-singing-songs core of us, and it’s done in seven minutes and you’ll be feeling it afterward. Your replacement value Bluey episode is a finger of narrative scotch.
So there’s all that. And also there is this tremendous, glorious, growing person, full of will and dream and grit, sandy pockets and wicked smiles and stories chasing stories. Dauntless. As a nerd, as a dragon-handler and a wizard-friend, it’s strange to have thought for so long, I will keep these in trust for you, and now they are needed, to realize how light they are, compared to the one I’ve kept them for.
Last week I sent off the page proofs for Wicked Problems. If you frequent Netgalley or Eidelweiss you will soon be able to request digital ARCs there. If not, the book itself is only five months away (!!) and preorders are live. While you’re lining up your reading for next year, I really liked the forthcoming In Universes by Em North, and, look, I just finished the forthcoming Exordia by Seth Dickinson and I don’t know what form the final blurb will take (if indeed it ends up anywhere near the book) but here’s my initial draft, with some curse words removed:
“Seth! Jesus fucking christ, Seth, you can't keep doing this to me, I have a kid who's going to get up at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning no matter how late I stayed up reading, again, it's been days, I can see time." - Max Gladstone, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling This is How You Lose the Time War
I’m bearing down on revisions on the next book now. In the way of the business, there’s exciting news I can’t talk about right now. But: yay.
Take care of yourself, friends. It’s a whole world out there. Work for the liberation of all sentient beings.
I’m no expert, but if you have donation dollars to spare, I’ve been told that the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund can make good use of them once they resume on the ground operations—currently suspended due to, well. Everything. But they seem well positioned to do the needed work, when it becomes possible. And work is needed.