Citizens of San Francisco and the greater “Bay Area”! A reminder to you that in precisely one week, I and the lovely and talented Mary Robinette Kowal will descend upon your town, as if from a cloud of rose petals and gum, and land at Borderlands Books, whereupon those among you lucky and brave enough to attend will experience a wonderous thing your grandchildren will tell their grandchildren about: Us!

Yes, that’s right, Mary and I will regale you with selections of our short work, causing you to convulse uncontrollably with laughter and other amusing seizures! It is very literally possible that you will vomit yourselves with joy. And gentlemen in San Francisco then a-bed (or whatever other things might they do there on a Friday night) shall think themselves accursed they were not there, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks that saw us roxxor their soxxors upon that January 16! And the women won’t feel that great either! So:

January 16! 7pm! Borderlands Books! San Francisco!

You know what you must do, people.

See you there. Bring your friends. Bring your friends’ friends. Bring random people who you’ve never met before! It’s all good.

You Facebooky types can RSVP here. Everyone else, you can drop a note in the comments. Facebooky people can, too. I mean, if they want. We’re all about the options, people.

It’s been a busy day for updates about Metatropolis, and here’s the biggest update of all, which is also one of my big January announcements:

I’m pleased to announce that Subterranean Press is taking pre-orders for the printed, hardcover version of the Metatropolis anthology, which will ship this August. It includes all the stories in the audio version of the anthology, now in handy-dandy printed form. You know, for those of you who prefer the voices inside your head, the not the ones brought in from the outside.

This version comes in two flavors: the standard hardcover edition, and the special, signed limited, which will feature the signatures of all the authors (Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, and me). There will be only 200 copies of the signed, limited edition, so if you want it, the time to get it is pretty much now.

I’m really excited to have this version of Metatropolis coming up, because while I’m obviously biased, I think the anthology well and truly rocks, and I’m happy it’ll be available in both print and audio. Also, having seen the layout and design of the printed version, I can tell you that this is one pretty book. You’re going to want to hold and pet it and give it a special name. Trust me on this one.

While I was on my two week semi-hiatus, I got a phone call that went like this:

Me (picking up the phone): Hello.

Some random dude: You should be ashamed of yourself.

Me: Well, okay.

(Dude hangs up)

I thought this phone call was pretty rude, not because this fellow told me I should be ashamed — because, oh, I should be — but because this fellow didn’t specify, particularly, what I needed to be ashamed about. Which leaves me at loose ends, you know? There so many shameful things I do. It’s like a hobby. But I don’t want to be ashamed about the wrong thing; that’s just wasted effort. But it’s just so hard for me to choose. So I’m going to let you choose for me. Thus:

Let me know. I thank you in advance for your assistance, and will start being ashamed right away.

Two new reviews of Metatropolis in the last week. The first, over at Green Man Review, is ecstatic (“METAtropolis will win a Hugo if there’s any justice in the universe. Yes, it’s that good”); the second, at Strange Horizons, is somewhat more tempered. It’s nice to see people still talking about our little project in any event.

Also, and related, when I did my Award Pimpage 2009 post earlier in the week, I left off my Metatropolis novella “Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis,” because I wasn’t sure whether being read as an audio production qualified as “publication” for the purposes of the Hugos and other relevant awards. I have since been assured by people who would know that, indeed, audio presentation qualifies as publication, so I’ve added it as something for folks to consider when they’re considering their nominations.

That said, if you are considering my novella here, I hope you will strongly consider the other stories in the collection as well, since (putting on my editor hat), of the five stories in it, mine is the least impressive. Mind you, I think my story is perfectly good. I just think the others are better. Also remember that for the Hugos you can consider the whole audio project for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Which would be a kick, and would keep you from filling in that last Dramatic Presentation, Long Form slot with Space Chimps. Which would be its own reward, I’d say.

The reason I’m not writing much about politics at the moment is mostly because I’ve decided I’m on a politics vacation until the first of two following things occurs:

1. I finish the novella I’m working on;

2. The new guy gets sworn in.

Mind you, I reserve the right to change my mind about this, like the capricious font of snark and bile that I am. But I suspect I won’t; there’s other stuff to write about, and also, I don’t mind having some time off on the subject. Also, going back to the novella, at the moment what I don’t need is to be distracted by a long, involved comment thread, either in my capacity as a site moderator or my capacity as someone teeing off on someone else’s head because they’re wrong wrong wrong.

I hope this doesn’t come as a major disappointment to you, and if it does, well, you can survive for 11 days, I think. And in the meantime, there’ll be bacon and cats and Wiis and writing stuff and probably some other things to keep you busy and/or amused. Try to keep your enthusiasm to a dull roar.