There's an interview with me up at Newsarama right now about the next thing with my name on it that'll be coming out from DC, Final Crisis: Revelations. Look for a companion interview with the amazing Philip Tan, as well. If you've seen any of his art, then you'll understand why I'm willing to use the word "amazing" to describe it.

So we have an official announcement, now, of at least one of the things I'm working on, Final Crisis: Revelation, five issues of 30 pages each, Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya sharing pages again, though each of them in a much-altered form. The Spectre and The Question. Has to go down in history as one of the all-time oddest team-ups ever, which is probably one of the reasons why I'm enjoying writing it so much. First issue is out in August, I believe, so yes, it's a wait, but I think it'll be well-worth it.

( Here's a little taste of what Philip's doing. )

While we're on the topic, the ancillary material for the The Question: The Five Books of Blood hardcover that's coming out in June was finalized on Monday; we've included some six pages in the back about the Montoya Journal, including images of a couple of the props that didn't make the final cut for inclusion. I've written some commentary about the journal, the process, the ideas behind it, and the like. For those of you who were intrigued by that particular flight of fancy, it's definitely Value Added Content.

I promised a couple of posts back to explain the quiet that has descended here... and it's going to be relatively quiet for another month or so as I finish the draft of the tentatively-entitled new Kodiak novel, The Walking Dead. That's priority right now, and until I get out of the Very Dark Place that is this novel, I'm not going to have a whole lot I want to share, or even will feel like talking about, I suspect.

A week from today, on the 24th, mercuryeric and I will be doing a live chat at the ComicBloc Foum, starting at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. I expect it'll last 90 minutes or so, but it may run longer. If you're not registered at the 'Bloc, I believe you'll have to be to participate, but I could be wrong, as I've yet to actually do a chat there.

And then there's The Blue Religion, a new short-story collection edited by the blazingly-talented Michael Connelly, including shorts by the man himself, Laurie R. King, Alafair Burke, and many others. I'm one of the others, and the short is entitled "Contact and Cover." Fans of A Fistful of Rain might want to check this out, as the story is told by Tracy Hoffman, and gives a little insight into what her life on the job was like before making detective.

( Here's the cover for the collection. )

Finally, an unsolicited endorsement. Find E. Benjamin Skinner's book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery.

Buy this book.

Read this book.

Read the parts that make your heart break. Read the parts that make your eyes burn. Read the parts that twist your stomach.

Read this book.

Then find someone else, and make them read this book.

And while they're reading it, get to work, and any way you can, in any of the ways that Skinner suggests, join this fight.

Several months back, or so it seems, I did an interview with Andrew Farago (andrewfarago) for The Comics Journal. Like all Journal interviews, it was (or at least it felt) pretty exhaustive, and Andrew was great to talk to, and all-in-all, I think it came out well, and I even managed to avoid saying anything I was sure I'd regret later. I can't speak for Steve Lieber, who was also interviewed by Andrew for the same issue, but I can guarantee that Steve had more interesting and insightful things to say than I did.

Excerpts of both interviews have been posted, and they'll be available in their entirety in The Comics Journal #287, which, I am told by Mister Farago himself, most likely hits shelves...uh, today, actually.

The timing on this is interesting. I've been in a slump for the last six-to-eight weeks or so, dealing with a variety of issues related to writing in general, and my writing in particular. Continued frustrations in dealing with people who really ought to know how to do their jobs properly, for instance, and the lethargy that seems to always set in just in time to really complicate the already exceptionally complicated rush into the holidays. I don't know if it's just SAD from living in the PNW during weather like this (and for a wonderful write-up on just how, uh...wet it's been for some folks, take a look at mercuryeric's journal) or something else, but, like clockwork, my mood and my productivity both go to Hell in a handbasket around my birthday.

I was in LA on personal business the last two days, and I got to spend some time with my brother and his bride, and I got to see Andrew and Xtie, and that was good for the soul, especially opposite the contortions I've been going through the last several weeks. I feel better. I've made some decisions. One of them is that I'm not renewing my exclusive with DC. Others less deserving of announcement at the moment, but of no less import to myself and my family.

And last night was the beginning of the Festival of Lights, and for all the crap that swirls around the historical truth behind the holiday, it's still wonderful to fill your home with candles and to light them eight nights in a row until there's a riot of tiny, dancing flames reflecting in the windows. One solution to seasonal affective disorder, at least.