frenetic

Okay. It's just getting too damn busy for one person to handle.

I need a part-time personal assistant. Just for a while. I can pay with liquor, witty banter, an unhealthy dose of sarcasm, my uproarious jokes, and a hint of brooding. How's that for recompense? If you need an application, just jot all of your relevant info (what authors, music, and movies you like) and stats (including height, weight, gender, and hair color) on the back of a cocktail napkin, then email me with a photo attachment via this blog, and I might reply with the pertinent details.

I vigilantly await a virtual tsunami of responses.

For the first time in many months, I opened up my manuscript for my second novel, "Somewhere, Sometime, Some Enchanted Life." And though dozens of the passages struck me ("Wow, I wrote that?"), I also noticed that it needs work. Editing. "Fading out of sight, we spun westward... The damage incurable, the damage done. Now, we were running at the speed of light."

So, the Falling From the Sky anthology goes to the printer Friday. As in, this Friday the 30th of March. That means it will soon be available to you, the eager and discerning reader. And it also means that the publicity machine is about to kick into gear. Okay, it's not like the clamor surrounding the release of celluloid claptrap like The DaVinci Code, for example, but still, for an independent publisher, it's fairly impressive.

One of the authors, Steve Quinlan, has set up a May 10 reading at Edinburgh Castle Pub on Geary Street in San Francisco. It's a 90-minute block, from 7:30 until 9:00. Quinlan will read his contribution to the anthology (Glimmer), Oakland resident Mallory Small will read his story Night Time Is the Right Time (which is set in the very district where the reading is happening - the enchanting Tenderloin). Other west coast anthology authors might just hitchhike or pogo stick to the City by the Bay for the reading, as well.

And me, the editor of the anthology? I might - might - just head out to San Francisco, too. I haven't been back since I left - nearly ten years. And besides the fact that I occasionally miss my old stomping grounds, this reading is another reason to get back there. Plus, I always enjoyed drinking at the Castle (Harp beer was my libation of choice there). The company I work for has a hotel near the financial district (on Clay Street near the Embarcadero), so I can, in all likelihood, lodge for free. This is all dependent upon how badly my taxes deplete my bankroll (one of this weekend's many tasks and assignations) and, of course, the cost of airfare.

Perhaps my imponderable non-assistant could do my taxes for me. And secure me a surfeit of prescription mood elevators for the flight.

There is also the Third Annual New York Round Table Writers' Conference on April 13 and 14 at the Small Press Center (20 West Forty-Fourth Street here in New York) which I will be both attending, and lending my sardonic self as a volunteer. I attended a couple of years ago, in April 2005, and the conference is a fantastic venue in which to mingle, promote, and network with an abundance of creative types. So Falling From the Sky and Another Sky Press promotional materials and bookmarks will be distributed by the handful to any and all in attendance.

There are a few other events coming up in the next month or two at which I will press the flesh. But I have rambled enough, and I do not have a personal assistant (yet), and I need to continue the forward momentum (even if I am stuck at the office right now).

What's for lunch?