News Nibblings In A Savory Gravy, Baby

THINGS AND STUFF AND NYAAAARGH

You’ll forgive me — for the past two weeks I’ve been in San Diego, sampling beaches and zoos and the fart-scented, soul-flensing flesh tornado that is SAN DIEGO COMICCON, which was an awesome, energizing, tiring, maddening, and overall fun experience. I met Wiliam Gibson! I marveled at Margaret Atwood at a distance! (Both have comics out, you know: Atwood’s Angel Catbird, and Gibson’s Archangel.) I hung with grand homies like Kevin Hearne, Victoria Schwab, Adam Christopher, Richard Kadrey, Jason Hough, and more. I got to finally meet Cecil Castilucci! It was good. It was tiring. I am dead now, especially since on the last day of travel our nice tidy five-hour flight was diverted at the last moment to Richmond, because some sinister monsoon had nested over Philadelphia like an angry thunderbird. There we waited in the plane for hours before finally getting to Philadelphia — where they had a gate for us but not a jetway. Another half-hour on the tarmac. Then because of all the flights landing, Philly was a traffic-locked mess and we couldn’t get a parking shuttle and then came little delay after little delay until we finally got home just after 2AM. Blergh. And all this with a five-year-old. (A five-year-old who did marvelously well — he was more patient than I was.)

Again: good trip. Bad ending. Am dead.

In the interim, things have happened.

No, no, nothing cataclysmic.

Good stuff!

Newsy stuff!

And so I am here to give you the quick lowdown.

1) Life Debt landed at #9 on the New York Times Bestseller list. AHHHH.

2) We’re just about three weeks out from when Invasive drops. And Booklist gives it a positive review, saying: “The eerie crawling sensation that comes with Wendig’s newest thriller will delight horror fans. Hannah Stander, a futurist consultant, is an expert in predicting how technology might be used for terrorists’ attacks. FBI agent Hollis Cooper, last seen in Zer0es (2015), calls Hannah in to examine a cabin containing thousands of dead bodies. Bodies consisting of one human stripped of his skin and a multitude of particularly aggressive and venomous ants that may have been genetically engineered. Hannah’s investigation leads to an altruistic billionaire known for innovative ideas and a remote island facility whose employees resent her presence and the implication their research has been used to commit murder. The isolated location, limited access to outside communication, and lack of trust make for a perilous situation when someone deliberately puts them all in mortal danger. Clever graphics placed throughout the text enhance the growing sense of terror in this tale of technology taken to a deadly extreme. This roller-coaster survival tale with copious amounts of creepy insects will appeal to fans of Michael Crichton.”

3) I’m doing a launch week event for Invasive at the mighty Doylestown Bookshop. August 17th. You going? You should go! It’ll be rad! I’ll give you some free stuff! I’ll yammer at your face! You can yammer at my face! It’ll be great! Exclamation!

4) Hyperion #5 is out today!

5) So is The Force Awakens #2!

6) So is How To Bombproof Your Horse! Okay, I didn’t write that one. Just checking to see if you’re still listening.

7) Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go start the writing of the fifth and penultimate Miriam Black book: The Raptor & The Wren. Hold still — this will only hurt a little…