I’m all over the ball park with today’s post. If I was marking a student paper, I would say this selection is “unfocused.” But — hey, we all have unfocused days, right?

First of all, I’d like to invite you to pop over to Sara Crowe’s blog, The Crowe’s Nest, to read my guest post there on adapting my novel We Hear the Dead to a screenplay. Thanks, Sara, for inviting me to contribute, and thanks to all my blogging friends who’ve already read it, commented on it, and tweeted it!
Secondly, my Kindle broke! 🙁 That is, the 3G modem on my Kindle ceased functioning. However, all is not lost. I worked with a Kindle support person on the telephone for a few minutes, and after he had established (via having me enter super secret commands) that the 3G capability was, in fact, dead, he ordered up a replacement. I had it the very next day! I have to say that Customer Service is one thing the Kindle crew at Amazon has down pat, and I cannot praise them enough!
Finally, I wanted to share a video posted by the Dorian’s Parlor crew of my first on-stage reading last November. (Thanks, Kyle Cassidy, for finding it!) I am simultaneously excited and mortified to see it. I covered my eyes and peeked through cracks in my fingers to watch it. Reading in front of an audience who is mostly more interested in their snacks and drinks was a bit of an experience, and I was so blinded by the stage lights I couldn’t even see my audience. That was disconcerting!
It’s a little long, so if you watch it, you might want to skip the middle. I answer some questions at the end — one of them asked by “my ringer” in the audience: daughter #2 Gina, who asks, “What inspired you to write this?” It was her idea to rescue me with a question. Nobody prompted her — and I have to hand it to my 10 year old daughter who had no fear standing up in front of a rowdy crowd dressed in outrageous steampunk attire and taking the microphone!