Weekly Update - 7/30/25

Well, I survived Colorado and Red Rocks, although good fucking God, somebody could've warned me that it was like 25+ flights of stairs straight up to get to seats. I was there to see Andrew McMahon set a new record at Red Rocks - he was opener, headliner and closing act. He played in all the various incarnations of his bands - Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, Andrew McMahon (solo) and Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness. He even had his daughter Ceceila come out and do a duet with him. I've been a fan of Andrew's for 23 years, so it was nice to see him having a huge night with all his friends, and to be there and be a part of it.

I'm about halfway through QT2:44 right now, and the expectation is that I'll finish that tonight, get it in front of the writer's group, let them read through it overnight and post it post-edits tomorrow. After that, moving straight on to QTUM and then probably back to Brewster's, after a lot longer than it should have been. July was a chaotic moth, but these things happen, I guess. I don't have any more travel on the books until September, and even that's basically just a long weekend trip. So we'll try and get back into the rhythm of things, little by little. I appreciate everyone's patience in these things.

I haven't even had time to go see Fantastic Four yet, so maybe I'll take time in the middle of tomorrow to step out and see that. Or maybe the new Naked Gun film. After that, there's nothing I want to see in theaters until Spinal Tap 2 in September, and Tron: Ares in October. And no concerts on my schedule until October either, when I see Sleep Token for the first time.

All this is a very long-winded way of saying that my August is basically completely open in nearly every way possible for the time being, and I'm going to use that time to write as much as I can. Sometimes the hunker down approach works wonders. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. Creativity isn't, unfortunately, like a math problem - inputs don't always generate the same outputs. But I'm optimistic about the whole thing.

I'm expecting to put a paperback version of Neon Stonehenge on sale in September, I think, but we'll see. I still need to write a Foreword, a Foreword to the Foreword, an Afterword, do an edit pass and a formatting pass, and the cover art isn't even in yet, so all of that'll get done in August sometime, if luck holds, but that'll mean I'll have signed copies going on sale in October. That's all still speculation, though. We'll see if time permits.

Here's what's coming publicly over the next month or so - 8/2 - Captains' Days 4, Silversmith 5; 8/9 - QTUM 6, QT2:35; 8/16 - QTPT 23; 8/23 - Pack 16.