Happy Halloween!

Yay for Halloween!  I love Halloween, and not just because these days I get to share in my son's breathless excitement over trick-or-treating.  Candy and costumes and creatures out of our darkest imaginations...what's not to like?

Our freshly-carved pumpkins.  

Though it feels strange to be celebrating, knowing how so many people out east are struggling to recover in Sandy's aftermath.  The monsters of our childhood imaginations may not be real, but plenty of dangers lie in wait, and there's no such thing as perfect safety, for all we like to convince ourselves otherwise.  My heart goes out to those who've lost their homes, and had their lives forever altered.

Here in Colorado, untouched by the storm, life goes on apace.  I've been quiet online these last days, thanks to a looming work deadline.  I'm leaving for World Fantasy on Thursday, and really looking forward to reuniting with writer-friends and enjoying all the con has to offer.  I'm not doing any official programming other than the mass autographing session on Friday night, so it's a rare chance to just relax and hang out.  Well, except for one teensy thing...NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and this year I'm taking the plunge once more.  (This'll be my 2nd time doing NaNo; the first time was back in 2007, when I first started The Whitefire Crossing.)

My goal this time is to get a nice big head start on my first draft of The Labyrinth of Flame.  I may not make 50K, but I'd like to reach at least 30K by the end of the month.  I can't wait to dive into the story!  These last two months, I've pretty much been spending all my scant writing time on interviews, guest posts, and other non-fiction writing, so I'm really itching to get back to "real" writing again!  I know how Labyrinth begins, and I know how I want the story to end - the rest, I look forward to discovering along the way.

In the meantime, since I fear I won't have time to prepare a Thursday Adventure post before leaving, here's a link to last year's Night Bazaar post in which I shared my favorite Halloween reads.

And if you've got any burning questions, either about the Shattered Sigil books, or even mountaineering, rock climbing, canyoneering, or figure skating - mark your calendars!  I'm doing an "Ask Me Anything" next Thursday Nov 8 over at Reddit's r/Fantasy: you can leave questions any time during the day, and I'll answer them "live" at 8pm CST.