I'm in Fairview, North Carolina, spending the week with my parents and working hard on my new novel, tentatively titled I DO NOT HAVE A TITLE FOR THIS BOOK SO IF YOU KNOW OF ANY GOOD BOOK TITLES FEEL FREE TO SHARE THEM WITH ME. (I like this title, but I worry that it might be a little long to fit on the book jacket.)

The writing is going reasonably well, at any rate. This is my favorite place to write in the world; I wrote a lot of AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES here, and much of Alaska was written in a different house, not far away. Why is North Carolina so good for writing? I don't know, but it works for Sarah Dessen. Speaking of Ms. Dessen, her new book is good. If you are among the eight Americans who do not yet own it, you should go out and get yourself a copy.

(You will note that there have been several excellent opportunities for hyperlinks so far on this web page, but I still have not quite mastered the art of hyperlinking and/or italicizing on my new MacBook. I really love this computer's ability to, for instance, let me take pictures of myself making funny faces. But if I could learn how to italicize stuff, that would also be fantastic.)

Readers who have had the perseverance to get this far into the blog post should know a few things:

1. I will be reading in Chicago on August 1st (as that tiny poster tells you. More info forthcoming).

2. Even before then, I will be reading at the Fairview Public Library in Fairview, North Carolina tomorrow at 7 PM.

3. I am going to give away some advanced readers' copies of "An Abundance of Katherines" as a contest. But what should the contest be? Should it be the person who emails me with the funniest chicken crossing the road joke? Should it be the person who comes up with the best anagram of their own name? (Katherines has a lot of anagrams, but--I promise--no chicken-crossing-the-road jokes). Okay, how's this:

The person who gives me the best idea for a Contest to give away galleys of "An Abundance of Katherines" will, him/herself, receive a copy of An Abundance of Katherines. It's so meta!*





*Katherines also has a lot of footnotes, so you might want to use that. Anyway, this contest will be open for a week. You can leave a comment here or email me at soundnfury *at* yahoo.com. And I know that my email address is kinda lame, but in my defense I came up with it 10 years ago and so now I have a sentimental attachment. Okay. That is all.