It has been a long time since I published a book -- eight years. And during all of that time, I have been writing. But that work has just been one failed attempt after another. I think that maybe this is one form of writer's block -- you write all the time, but you write shit.

But failure is part of art. You just have to trust it and breathe.

So it is strange to be in the depths of serious writer's block and at the same time have a book coming out. While googling myself (a key activity of the blocked writer) a couple of days ago, I discovered that my newest book is available for pre-order on Amazon. I was surprised to see this because 1.) I feel somewhat disconnected from this book, having done nothing with it, except for tedious but necessary tasks like checking references and making an index, in over a year now, and 2.) I keep expecting the publishers to realize that they have made a terrible mistake and that they must not release this book. I check my email with dread in my heart, but nothing from them so far. It is still some months until it is actually available, of course, and many things may go wrong between now and then.

In the meantime, I have four (4) novels here, sitting in files on my desktop, that are either stalled or failed. I am thinking of taking up knitting.

Today, in a shop in town, when the cashier told me to "have a good day," instead of answering "you, too" (as I had intended), I said "whatever you want." He was probably pretty surprised by that. I know that I was.