Well, all, it's about that time: my first official reading from Madness is a week from today (at RJ Julia in New Haven, CT, for you locals thereabouts). Countdown to takeoff has begun. I leave Minneapolis bright and early next Tuesday morning. Somehow, of course, it seems like every thing I could possibly need to do has collected itself and landed between then and now. How does that always happen? You're going along, doing your thing, and then suddenly the days are packed end to end with infinite tasks that all seem equally important in the moment—buy mini deodorant, write lecture, iron black pants so that they will be thoroughly re-wrinkled by the time you need to wear them, brush up on research, feed cat. Prioritization seems to have escaped me, and I'm making every effort to stop running around like the cliched headless chicken. Ever have one of those days where it seems like the day won? Yesterday was one of those days. A variety of events conspired and dragged me back to bed. I gave myself an hour to lie there being overwhelmed. When the hour was up, I went back to my office and was overwhelmed sitting upright instead. I'm pretty sure that in the end, I triumphed over the day, at least insofar as the day, you know, ended, and I'm still kicking.

I'm going to make my very best effort to blog every other day while I'm on tour—April 1 through 25—and I can promise you those entries will be both brief and somewhat incomprehensible, as I'm anticipating significant tiredness, and am trying to train myself not to yawn so that I don't wind up yawning loudly on the radio. Note: two new radio spots for the radio listeners out there—"Writers on Writing," April 2 on Bay Area's NPR station KUCI, and NPR's "Here and Now" on April 10. I'll put these on the schedule when I get more updates on local events in a few days. There's a fun review in Elle this month, and there will be an article in People next week. For my far-flung U.K. readers, there are several articles in Irish and British magazines coming up—those have been great interviews, and the articles should be neat.

Meanwhile, all's well hereabouts. I've gotten some great letters lately, and am already starting to hear from readers of Madness—many thanks to all who've written. As you know, I'm not able to respond extensively, but I absolutely read everything readers send, and am very grateful that all of you take the time to let me know your thoughts.

I'm looking at a stack of books I'm foolishly planning to take on tour, because I have this fantasy that I'll have all sorts of time to read on the planes and before bed, when in fact I will pass out before I've even buckled my seatbelt on planes, and fall asleep halfway to the bed every night. But I will persist in this fantasy, and lug around a number of books because I like to have them near me, because maybe if I have them they will seep into my head by osmosis and I won't actually go a month without reading anything other than my own blasted book. This weekend I'm choosing the sections I'm going to read at readings—wish me luck, because a week from tonight I'll be standing in a bookstore and will have to read something, and I can't read someone else's book, which is sort of a shame, because if I could I think I'd read a little Neruda, maybe some John Donne. Sadly, this is not encouraged. So it goes.

All right—I'm into the ring to box with the day. Cheers to all, and for those of you who already have your copy of Madness, happy reading.

Peace,
M