pub date

I had mixed emotions as I headed for the airport this morning to start the first leg of my book tour.  I'm happy that the official publication has finally arrived of course, and the idea of doing publicity is kind of exciting, in the way that novel things are exciting.  But another part of me is kind of sad, leaving my kids for six days.  I know six days isn't a hell of a long time, but that's all relative.  And for a two year-old that lies in bed every night clutching a hank of my hair, brushing the wisps against his cheek while murmuring, "Hair...hair..." it might seem like an awfully long time.

(Does that sound creepy?  He's a baby.  Not creepy.  But if he was a grown-ass person, yes, kind of weird.)

Even as a resident, I never spent more than 36 hours away from my kids (well, singular "kid" at the time), and the first time I spent even more time away than that was a few weeks ago when I went to Iowa City for 48 hours.  So this is...a longer trip.  Six days.

But I really wanted to do this and I think it's important (or at least, I hope it is) to do some in person events in big medical cities and at least start to thank some of the many, many readers that are generating good word of mouth for the book and making sure that it's going to be a success.  So let's make it count!  Come on out to the book events, tell your friends, drag along your relatives, whatever.  Or else I'm going to have to tell my kids that I spent six days away from home in order to sit on a series of folding chairs in various bookstores while pretending to check my email.

See you guys at the Columbia University bookstore (116th and Broadway, thereabouts) at 6:00pm tonight, and for a drink and some giant haggis-looking burritos at The Heights afterwards.  And if you're in Philly, join us for the event this Friday the 13th at the Penn Book Center.  FRIDAY THE 13th.  Like I said before, I can't promise that the reading won't prevent you from being crushed by a falling piano, but IT MIGHT.  Not worth the risk either way--just go to cover all your bases.

Oh, and you know the book has finally gone live for the Kindle and the Nook, right?  Oh good.  Also, the bookmarks giveaway is officially closed, thanks to everyone who e-mailed me and who pre-ordered the book before today.  I'm working on getting those bookmarks out in a timely way, but there are a lot of you guys, and that's a lot of notes to write and envelopes to lick.  But never fear, I'll get them all to the post office eventually.