I'm still here, just not online very much. Eight days of travel spread over a week and a half, book-ended by doctor visits for Georgia (a slight scare that turned out to be nothing, with her getting a clean bill of health after a battery of tests yesterday), loads of eating, and taking what little time I have to myself to catch up on some reading. (Currently on the docket is Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Fencing Master, and Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon's Caballistics, Inc., both of which I'm loving.) Allison and I watched all of the episodes of Torchwood to date the last few days, and agree that it got much, much better after a spotty first few episodes. Watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, and a few hours later Allison issued a moratorium on me pointing out all the things wrong with it, which were legion.

I'll probably be back to something like normal posting next week, but I'll also be putting nose to grindstone to finish work on two, count them two novels by the middle of February, so then again I may continue to be a bit derelict, after all.

This last year was immeasurably better than 2005 (which is damning the year with faint praise), and I've high hopes for 2007. I got some terrific news a few days ago that I won't be able to share for a few months, but suffice it to say that I'm ending the year on a high note. We've squared away the MonkeyBrain Books lineup through 2008, and I'll hopefully have time to put together a formal announcement about the forthcoming titles in the next few weeks (and post something to the MonkeyBrain announcements mailing list, which I've embarrasingly never done to date). And just to cap the year off nicely, here's a brief note from Publishers Weekly about one of our recent offerings:

"Mark Finn quietly and expertly demolishes a number of misconceptions about pulp icon Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) in Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, which looks at Howard as a populist writer whose dyspeptic view of civilization was forged in the corrupt Texas oil boomtowns in which he grew up."

I'll likely not post again until the new year, in which case I wish everyone the happiest of new years.