Out of the frying pan...

One of the things that Texans enjoy doing in July and August is leaving the state for parts more northerly, where it will, in theory, be much cooler. Alas, this didn't work this year...We flew back Tuesday (just in time - I understand NYC was hotter yesterday than Austin).

Didn't blog at all for the second half of July due to a severe stomach virus that struck the day Cyn left for Vermont and lingered as a severe headache for about ten days. Then I flew up to Vermont and parts north so Cyn and I could have a quiet mini-vacation. Anyway, Cynthia blogs about our trip here.

Random notes:

There's going to be a Japanese language version of NINJAS, PIRANHAS, AND GALILEO, probably by the end of next year! Poplar Sha just bought the rights...

Austinite Anne Bustard, author of Buddy: The Story of Buddy holly, has begun a new blog, called Anneographies, which features picture book biographies on the subjects' birthdays.

There's been some great blog-o-sphere buzzing about Cynthia's gothic fantasy TANTALIZE:

Author Gail Giles posts about it here; author Cecil Castellucci here; Gwenda Bond of the Shaken & Stirred blog here; and Liz B at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy blogs about it here.

Finally, there's something very peculiar about the fact that the Blogger spell-check does not recognize the word "blog."