I’ve finally got a minute or two (past couple of weeks have been quite the hectic), so I’ve added a few things to the sidebar on your right; namely, my email address is up there, as is a link to SONICDIARY!, a blog kept by my best friend and I. We need to update more often. But when there is chatter about music, you can bet that’s where it goes (folk excepted — that goes here).

Oh! And there’s a link to Streetfables, too, to make the lives of interested parties much easier.

In other news, my busted Treo was replaced. What better way to celebrate than with some new camera phone photos?

I’ve got a review of Alice Hoffman’s wonderful latest, THE FORETELLING, to write for Endicott, and I can’t find my copy. Boo.

I’m currently plowing through TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyer, for the next review.

Cherie Priest’s FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS arrived today.

PRE-RAPHAELITES IN LOVE remains unfinished, but that’s okay, as it makes for a fine book for nibbling.

I kind of feel like kicking back and reading a book on, say, journaling.

Feel free to note what you’ve been reading in the comments section. I’d like to know!

I had some snappy subject line dreamed up but I can’t remember what it is now. Ah, well.

So, we sold out of WEIRD SISTER. How do you like them apples? And I got to meet Dash, which was most fun and unexpected. Also along the lines of delightful and surprising, Liz Gorinsky appeared at our table on Friday night. We talked her out to dinner. The lass, she’s the ginchiest.

Other highlights: Mr. Wood making me laugh at the bar, Batton Lash telling me that I look like that cute girl from FREAKS AND GEEKS. Never heard that one before. I’ll take it!

Much thanks to everyone who came by the table and picked up the book. We felt the love, for sure.

Our books are packed and we’ll be getting on the bus soon. If you’re going to Bethesda, do stop by table V-68 and say hello. I can’t promise I won’t put a book or two in your hands, however.

Leland will be teaching a class at MoCCA for teenagers, starting Oct. 13. Please put the word out to any teens who are interested in learning how to make their own comics. The class is going to be good.

Comics And The Craft of Page-Making
A grand tour through the fundamental mechanics, tools and working
methods of telling stories with pictures. Learn what makes a comics
page work, how to do it yourself, and multiple approaches to putting
them together in the most effective ways to tell a story that hits
home. Learn professional techniques and trade secrets!
Weekly class starting October 13!

Instructor Leland Purvis is an Eisner-nominated and Xeric winning
comics artist and writer. Through work on diverse projects such as
his creator-owned series PUBO (Dark Horse), his critically acclaimed
self-published anthologies VOX, and SUSPENDED IN LANGUAGE (GT Labs),
he has cultivated an extensive knowledge of all aspects of comics
creation. Self-taught as a writer and artist, he brings a unique
perspective and enthusiasm to comics, teaching and creative theory.

Rather kind of Heidi to include WEIRD SISTER in her list of debut books. Thank you, Heidi! Click on her link to see WEIRD SISTER’s cover, or check it out here.

Also check out a sample piece from my flash fiction chapbook, PORTRAITS OF TWENTY-TWO KEYS.

Latest column is live. This one includes tips on how to get the most out of your writerly reading experience, including how to break down and analyze stories.

As comics fans, we blaze through books like they’re going to spontaneously combust before we get to the end. Most of the single issue comics (22 pages, for those here who aren’t familiar with the form) that I read these days take no more than, oh, 7 minutes for the once-over. Manga? Well, reading an entire 200 page book in the time that it takes me to ride from Court Street to 49th on the R train isn’t unheard of. I sometimes have visions of folks laying tummy down on their beds (that’s the best way to read comics, see), inhaling pages in a frantic haze of “enough is never enough”, then throwing the finished books to the side in a frenzy to get on with the next thing.

Reading like a writer is fundamental.

More here. Archives here.

This could be a dangerous thing:

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

As could this.

“The space between the space where you are and the space where nobody goes.” — Leland

where Manhattan meets the Bronx
Fort Tryon Park
the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges
downtown 4/5 @ Fulton St. subway platform
Battery Park City, Hudson River walkway
the Staten Island ferry
the top of the Empire State

Have I mentioned that I love the Victorian aesthetic? I don’t think I have, but I suppose it’s bloomin’ obvious to anyone who looks at me closely. The men’s clothing back then was really quite the best. All those dark suits and button-downs…

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about the dark suits and button-downs of the uptight men of yesteryear. No, I’m here to pass on vintage Halloween knicky-knacks. I think I do this every year. I can’t remember.

We were at the Strand today, and picked up this:

It’s a Taschen book with vintage Halloween stuff. I think I’m in love. From the Dover end of things, there’s this, which I stumbled upon by happy accident:

Lastly, there’s this:

Old Fashioned Halloween

I know I mentioned them last year, too, but they bear repeating.