That's me at the bottom. I've come all the way up to #11 since last week.


Something I never knew before: Apparently, "An asterisk (*) indicates that a book's sales are barely distinguishable from the book above."

Makes me wish I'd bought a few more copies off Amazon to give away to friends....

Little story: After I got the news that I was now officially a New York Times Bestselling Author, I wandered out of my office and into the hallway, where my girlfriend was looking at her butt in the mirror. You can't really blame her for this, it's a nice butt.

"I made it to # 11 on the Times list," I said.

She made an excited squee-like noise and did something that was kind of like a little excited dance, and kind of like jumping around. It was the perfect response, and I'm glad that she did it. Somebody really has to. If I did it, I'd look demented and feel weird about myself. But when she does it it looks cute and earnest.

"You're so cool!" she said. "Do you want to celebrate?"

I thought about it. "We could get some Chinese food and watch Doctor Who...." I said after a little bit.

And that's exactly what we did.

It was only later that I realized when she said "celebrate" she was probably thinking something more... grandiose. It does make sense, I suppose. Making it onto the Times list is a pretty big deal. It's sort of an occasion. The type of thing that most people would associate with popping champagne and passing around cigars. Or renting a limo and going out to some manner of fancy dress-up restaurant.

Me? Chinese delivery and Doctor Who.

That's just how I roll.


Later all,

pat

Labels: accolates, cool news, new york times, Things I didn't know about publishing

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!


Sincerely yours,

pat

Labels: accolates, being awesome, cool things, geeking out

For those of you in the Boston area, here are the details:

I'm going to be at Pandemonium Books at 7:00 on January 3rd. If you need directions or need to contact them, you can get the details HERE.

I'll be reading and answering questions for about an hour, (or until we get bored.) Then I'll sign some books, hang out, and chat. Cool thing is, Pandemonium stays open until 10:00 AND it sells games as well as books. So if there's time after that, I just might try to kick somebody's ass at Catan....




It has been scientifically proven that I cannot be beaten at Catan. If anyone claims to have beaten me, they are lying. If they aren't lying, then some outside force must have influenced the game, thereby rendering it statistically insignificant.

In short: Bring it on.

Back to the signing: since I've scheduled it on such short notice, I'd appreciate it if any of you would help spread the word. Especially if you live in the Boston area, know folks around there, or are visiting for the holidays. Thanks much in advance...


In other news, I seem to have topped the Onion's list of Best Books of 2007. Yay Me!

This particular list means a little extra to me because I grew up reading the Onion in Madison. This was way back around 1990, WAY before it went national. When I was in high school, my dream job was to write for them, and now they're writing about me.

It's a strange world.

pat

Labels: accolates, appearances