I’ll be leaving for Seattle only three weeks from tomorrow, so as you can imagine I’m pretty busy with preparations. Next week I’ll be in “scramble” mode, and the week after I’ll be in full-blown headless chicken protocol, but for now it’s just “busy”. I’ve got my touring car back from my mechanic, with a clean bill of health; by Sunday I was caught up on my blog, and starting this weekend I’ll be trying to get ahead. I haven’t even thought about packing yet; the suitcases are on the bedroom floor, but I haven’t put anything in them. Do I just pack winter and early-spring clothes, knowing I’ll be back here in April? Or do I try to take as much as possible this time? Do I bring whatever kitchen things Jae doesn’t have, or do I just buy new ones up there? How many books should I try to bring? Do I take my desktop computer this time, or just work on the Chromebook for now and wait until next time to carry up the desktop? Such are the weighty matters occupying my brain, and I haven’t even started!
Today I’ll be working all day on my next book, The Essential Maggie McNeill; it’s a collection of all the “must-read” essays from the first two and a half years of the blog, so new readers can catch up more easily without having to slog through quite so much material. After all, many of the essays from that time have either been superseded or dealt with then-current events that don’t matter so much now, so y’all might find it helpful to have a collection of what I think are the must-read essays from July 2010 to December 2012. I’m also going to try to reprint some of my outside work, assuming I can get the permission; I know a lot of my readers will buy it just to support me because y’all are wonderful that way, and I want to make that gesture worthwhile. I hope to have it done before I leave, but…well, you know. I’ll keep y’all posted.
Speaking of helping me out, I want all of y’all who subscribe, or send me gifts or donations, to know how thankful I am for all that help. The Christmas email I sent out is only the beginning; I’m going to be taking a lot more cheesecake photos this year, so keep your eyes peeled for periodic holiday greetings. That’s not to say I won’t be publishing new pictures on the blog, but those I send out privately can be…well, a little more NSFW. So if that sounds appealing and you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a good time to consider it!
