I think I saw the ghost of Norman Mailer on the subway.

I think I saw the ghost of Norman Mailer on the subway. I told my girlfriend, but she just stared at me for a moment before asking if he was the guy who wrote that Hitler book. It's odd that she's not familiar with his mountain of work and instead jumps directly to The Castle in the Forest, which is sitting on my nightstand now. Autographed, too. I met Mr. Mailer at, I believe, his last book signing before he passed away.

Probably wasn't actually Norman Mailer's ghost, though. I'm working on some of New York Comic Con's literary panels now and locking in a lot of the speakers -- all authors of comics without pictures. The big names are Peter David and Terry Brooks, and they'll be joined by a number of Science Fiction and Fantasy scribes including Danielle Bennett, Kate Brallier, Isamu Fukui, Felix Gilman, Nina Harper, Jaida Jones, David Keck, Naomi Novik, Brian Slattery, and Alissa Torres.

At the same time, I'm working to confirm some Guests of Honor for the New York Anime Festival in September and am close (I think) to getting a major Japanese author there. Who? Not telling. He should be a hit, too. If not, I can keep him busy by signing all my copies of his books.

I'm going to presume my typically-oppressive workload along with the authors I'm speaking with for both NYCC and NYAF resulted in the Norman Mailer apparition. Or, I just saw a cranky old guy.

I've also got some more literary good news. You know that novel I've been writing? The one that I haven't touched for the past five months because of work? Well, I wrote a paragraph this week and really want to write more. Of course, rather than writing more, I'm right now writing this. Maybe I could steal enough time to start writing in earnest again by saying I'm writing for the blog but actually producing the next great American novel. With vampires.

If you're a publisher or literary agent and would like to talk about buying the book or representing me, let me know, because if you like these trite, little diary entries, just imagine what I'm capable of when I put effort into it.

That's right, pretty much this, just longer.