Last night The Duchess and I crashed an io9.com meetup in NYC, at The Magician on the lower east side. Got to meet editors Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders, and a couple of folks from my publisher dropped in as well, including marketing goid Alex and my fearsome editor Devi. The bar was a real find, and Annalee and Charlie were very nice to an awkward and slightly inebriated author. I learned a little bit about Women in Refrigerators, and got to hang out with some cool people. A pretty good night, I’d say.

Ah, livin’ the dream: burgers and hot dogs on our sizzling hot deck (sweet baby jebus, is the sun parked next door in someone’s backyard? It feels like it is) a few sleep-inducing beers, and our cats, spooked by visitors, hidden all over the house, inviting our friends’ 3-year-old daughter to play the age-old game of Find & Terrify Teh Kittens. And then, bleary-eyed and sleepy, revising fifty pages of The Eternal Prison, chopping out words at a murderous and righteous rate. We’re at that stage of the manuscript where chopping words is really the best thing you can do.

Some of you folks may recall that when The Electric Church came out we had a little “alternate-reality game” set up for it. Well, ARG is maybe a bit ambitious for what was really a collection of online puzzles. Anyway, did you know we’re running a new one for The Digital Plague? Ayuh. You can start it here if you’re interested.

I’m excited, because the game’s been live for a week or two and no one’s gotten very far in it, which either means no one cares (bite your tongue!) or the puzzles are harder than I realized, which gives me the warm fuzzies.

Is there a prize? I can’t say. But it’s got to end somewhere, right? Plus also too, the web page is a nice collection of supplementary background material for the book. A good time is guaranteed for all.

Now, back to chopping words. I had no idea how often I repeat myself when writing first drafts–it’s like I’m smoking Meth while writing and not remembering it. Which would explain a lot, actually.

Well, The Digital Plague is out there, folks, and that means reviews are comin’ in. Here are a couple of the more interesting ones to come my way recently:

– Paul Di Filippo ran his eye over it at Sci Fi Weekly: Not completely laudatory, but any review that contains the line “Still, let it never be said that Somers is not a daring writer” makes my toes curl.

– Fantasy Book Critic took a swing at it as well: “I immensely enjoyed the book—even more than “The Electric Church”—and my adrenaline is already pumping for the next Avery Cates adventure” HUZZAH!

Reviews are funny things; on the one hand when I see one come across the transom I get a thrill, because someone is talking about a book I wrote. On the other hand, you hate to read them because they might say something really disheartening, and then you have to on an epic drinking binge, waking up three weeks later in Panama wearing someone else’s suit. It puts a dent in the writing time. And also too the brain cells.

J

If you’re wondering why I wasn’t on the Joey Reynolds Show last night, well, I got bumped. This is what happens when approximately 99.99% of the population is marginally more famous than you actually are.

The good news is, I’m rebooked for tonight, at 1AM.  So the magic of Jeff on the radio is not lost to the universe.

WHERE: Joey Reynolds, 710 AM WOR
WHEN: May 13, 2008 @ 1AM (so it’s really technically morning of 5/14)
http://www.wor710.com/pages/46370.php

Later.