On vacation, that is.  Almost two weeks of Away.  No laptop.  No deadlines.  No hours at the desk, beating my head against the wall.

Refilling the well, is what I’m doing.  Sightseeing and seeing friends, and reading books I didn’t write, and eating meals I don’t cook and…

ok, there’s going to be some work.  The brain doesn’t just shut off like that.  But it’s FUN work.  And only an hour or so a day max.  I have been So Informed. 

I may appear on Twitter, occasionally (@LAGilman).  There may be some Foreign Correspondent Blogging on BookView Cafe.  Otherwise…

radio silence for a while.  Y’all be good.  Or at least, productive.

From Twitter:

@LAGilman  We never know how long we’re going to get – we just get this chance NOW to do something. Anything. Don’t wait. #fuckcancer

If you don’t know someone – probably several someones – with cancer, it’s only because they’re not talking about it.  Cancer hits everywhere, in small doses and large ones, and every form of it is terrifying, our own bodies turned enemy.  And the clock that is always ticking, suddenly becomes that much louder.

I know too many people with cancer.  Some of them have been fighting it for years.  Some have only just been diagnosed.  Some have hopeful outlooks – some have a death sentence.  I’m honored to know them, because each one of them has said, in effect, “fuck cancer.  There are things I need and want to DO.”

Don’t wait until your doctor looks at you with That Expression.  Don’t wait for the ticking to get louder.  If you have something you need to do, if you have something you want to do…. do it.  Now.

Don’t wait.

Remember a while back I showed you this cover?

And told you about my story – “Don’t Toot Your Horn?”

Unlike the sax, the trombone blasts its way onto the scene, sliding like a triumphant runner into third base, giving the rest of the band a neener-neener as it brushes itself off and accepts the accolades of the crowd. You needed a certain kind of arrogance to pick up a trombone, and you needed even more to keep playing until you got the hang of it.

            Dax had been playing since he was eleven, his battered second-hand horn squeaking and slipping until it finally bowed to his will. He’d worked so many nightclubs and offsite shows, he’d forgotten more than he’d ever remember, one gig sliding until another until he couldn’t remember sleeping, either.

            He’d done all the classics: booze, sex, pills, then shooting it straight into his veins, but it hadn’t been until he wandered down the wrong alley one night, half out of his mind with exhaustion and speed, that he’d figured it out.   Mad City.

Well, it’s out!  The coolest original anthology of the year, if I do say so myself. 

and you can order it here

Down a lonely alleyway, under a starless sky, lies a city that never was, yet is: the Mad City, where nightmares walk the streets, and a good night’s sleep can get you killed.

Here, then, is a book from that place. Within these recovered pages are the tales of the Awake, insomniacs who’ve walked those perilous streets, bringing a bit of the power of dream with them to fight back the night—always at a terrible cost.

For many, it will not end well. For a few, they might just become heroes—or at least find their way back home.

For you, a choice. Turn away. Don’t read this book. And maybe you’ll continue to rest easy. Or open the cover and enter a world unlike any you’ve ever dared to imagine…

DON’T READ THIS BOOK

Edited by Chuck Wendig and featuring the stories of…

• Stephen Blackmoore
• Harry Connolly
• Rich Dansky
• Matt Forbeck
• Laura Anne Gilman
• Will Hindmarch
• Mur Lafferty
• Robin D. Laws
• Ryan Macklin
• C. E. Murphy
• Josh Roby
• Greg Stolze
• Monica Valentinelli

EHP1002 • ISBN 978-1-61317-012-0
Book: 200 pages • Softcover • 5.5″x8.5″
eBook formats: PDF, Kindle, Nook, iBooks