Brief thingy-things:

I’m going (as a fan) to The Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival, which looks to be promising.  I’ve had the privilege of meeting several of the invited guests before, at NecronomiCon and readings elsewhere.  But although I have signed editions of all of her books that I know of (except one small collector’s edition of “Stone Animals”), I have not yet gotten to convey my appreciations in person to Kelly Link, which I hope to do at this event.  “Two Houses”, from her new collection (and previously published elsewhere), is one of my favorite short stories of the last decade, maybe of all time.  I glowed about it some over in this review.  Although she’s one of the most consistently top-notch authors I know of, that piece really deserves to be remembered as much as “The Specialist’s Hat,” which seems to be the go-to story when talking about her fiction.

Here’s a fun anecdote and brainriddleteaser: the first thing anyone says in the story I’m working on right now is, in fact, literally nothing at all.

Readingwise, I’ve been consumed by a spate of works from New York Review of Books, most recently William Sloane’s “The Rim of Morning,” due out in a couple of weeks.  More on that shall be forthcoming forthwith.