Randomly...

• Hotties: Well, Michael Stearns did not win GalleyCat's Hotties in Publishing men's title this year. If only my blog were more popular! (Tell your freinds.) If only I would have campaigned more vigorously! Bumper stickers, slogans, t-shirts...A website! I feel personally responsible. Sigh. But, alas, it is an honor just to be nominated.
• Tour: Don't forget--anyone in the greater Cincinnati area should be at Joseph-Beth at 7 p.m. tonight for the kickoff of our market books tour. There will be handouts. And complimentary pens. And cupcakes. And free beer. And a dozen well-respected literary agents from New York who are looking for clients. (Um, a few of those things might not be true.)
• First Books: I've got a great stack of emails from a great bunch of authors and illustrators and it's going to be absolutely painful not to choose each and every one of them for my annual First Books feature. But starting Monday I'll be weeding out my stack, making a short list, checking it twice, whittling it down all the more, until there are but four (or five if I must). So there are just a few days left to email me about your debut titles. Many thanks to all I've heard from so far--and to those writer-friends out there who directed first-time authors to my First Books blog post.
• CWIM 2008: Is it too early to start talking about this? Not for me! I've been vigorously planning the next CWIM, going through queries, making lists, sending emails, assigning articles, dreaming about it at night--it's my favorite time of the year! I've got some cool things lined up for all of you out there and I'm going to be busy writing writing writing (after reading reading reading and interviewing interviewing interviewing). You'll likely see hints of who I'm talking to in future installments of I Finished a Book (An Ongoing Series).