E-mail came in from Mark Kelly at Locus online saying that, yes, American Gods is the only novel to be nominated for the Bram Stoker, the Hugo, and the World Fantasy Award.
I leave for the UK on Tuesday (following the 6.00 am radio interview madness described in an earlier post).
And since no-one asked.... currently the tomatoes are amazingly happy, as are the peppers and the eggplants (aka aubergines). The potatoes and the corn are kind of sad (although I found enough purple, red and gold potatoes to make a great potato salad tonight) . The carrots and beets are doing well. The pumpkins are fifty fifty -- none of the giants survived, but the others are doing brilliantly. Peas are done as is Asparagus and rhubarb, garlic is harvested (er well, dug up and hanging in the cellar to dry out), and the courgettes (aka zucchini) -- why isn't there an English word for them? The English borrow the French word, the Americans borrow the Italian's -- are doing much too well and will turn into giant prize-winning vegetable marrows the moment I turn my back on them, I expect.
The grapes are starting to enjoy the grape arbour.
...
At Achuka, we learn that:
Lemony Snicket's UK tour has been called off at short notice. Egmont have issued the following press release: "Due to ill health Daniel Handler has been advised by his doctor not to travel. Sadly this means that the Lemony Snicket UK tour has been cancelled. David is hugely disappointed and very much looking forward to rescheduling the tour. On behalf of David, Egmont books would like to apologise to all booksellers and Lemony Snicket fans."
Which leads us to the immediate and disturbing question, Who is David? Daniel Handler is ill. Lemony Snicket will not go to England. David is disappointed and apologises. The whole Lemony Snicket mystery deepens. Hmmm. I think the reading public should demand to know the unvarnished truth, that the mysterious "David" should be identified and, if necessary, exposed, and I hope Daniel's feeling a lot better soon.
...
Holly was deeply offended that I called her "almost scarily normal" on the Well interview. I'm not sure what I can do to make up for it. I offered to remove the "almost", but that didn't placate her. I suppose I could make a point of letting people know, one-on-one that she's secretly kind of weird, but no-one would believe me.