I've been rather busy, so my reading has slowed to a crawl and my posting has been non-existent. But I am enjoying Eric Choi's collection of hard SF, Just Like Being There, and I can heartily (and headily) recommend the anthology, which hardily goes where no one has gone before.

But summer has fled and it must be the season where leaves crunch underfoot, hungry wolves howl, and gourds stand guard. Harvest and Thanksgiving (at least in Canada) approach and of course, Halloween.

Remember the rules, kiddies! If you're old enough to regularly shave any culturally-appropriate part of your body, go to a party! Hand out candy! Support a local haunted attraction, especially if it's for charity! Jump in the leaves! Leave begging at the doors for candy to the kids.

On the 15th, I will be a part of a writers' event in Milton, Ontario, at the Milton Mall: authors, readings, book sales, and snacks. And, come on! It's Milton, Ontario, famous as "that place you pass on the way to Toronto." Give it some love, people!

I'll also be heading out this month with friend and collaborator, D.S. Barrick, to the Snyder Fear Farm in Bright, Ontario, reputed as one of the best in Canada. We're working on an illustrated book about Things That Go Bump in the Night, mostly lesser-known cryptids and small-town mysteries. I write the campfire-appropriate but healthily-sceptical accounts; he creates the imaginative illustrations. We thought the foray to the farm might serve as inspiration.

During the day, Snyder's also features a family-friendlier Pumpkin Patch.

And Canadian Thanksgiving, of course. Although my family grew up with the traditional version of the holiday, at some point my sister drew from our Italian heritage and created "Lasagna Thanksgiving." We each prepare and bring an Italian dish. Buon appetito!

Currently, three early beta readers are examining at the draft of my next novel. It will be some time before it is truly finished. "Detroit" has already offered me some sage and experienced advise about scenes involving firearms.

I also need a medical consultant, but that shouldn't prove too difficult. At one point, I have an ambulance attendance say, "Something medical!" It's a minor point, but I need to know what they might actually be saying at that point.

Future inspiration: strange dreams lately, involving four sisters who perform magic with multicoloured birds, old and new friends gathering in a room, a race/gender-blind-cast production of a 1930s colonialist play, and a retro-1940s female hero who finds herself in a world of cut-rate kaiju. Yes, I literally dream stuff like this.

Assuming dreams are literal.