Hi Red Room. I've got some potentially bad news for those of you who were hoping to pick up a copy of The Handless Maiden and Other Twice Told Tales at my KGB reading on July 16.

As of this morning, the 30 copies of The Handless Maiden and Other Twice Told Tales my publisher shipped to me to sell at the reading are still in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa post office - where they've apparently been since July 2 according to the US Postal Service tracking system. I'm guessing that the flooding in the area has created a backlog and/or other forms of chaos at the city's post offices, and this is the reason they're not here.

Sadly, unless the books arrive today it's very likely I won't have many or any on hand at the reading or Readercon. Overnighting 30 books is simply too expensive for my already limited travel budget, so the most I'll have on hand (provided they show up at all in time to be overnighted) is 5. I will, however, have copies of Ossuary for sale and what is probably my very last copy of The Minotaur's Last Letter to His Mother, the chap book I published with Ash Phoenix Books last March. 

What makes the situation even more frustrating for me is the fact that I'll probably be flying over Cedar Rapids on my way to New York. I'm sorry, folks. My publisher and I did everything humanly possible to get this book out for the reading, but there's just nothing for it when disasters such as those floods strike.

Like I said, I'm hoping there'll be a big package waiting outside for me today, but at this point I'm very doubtful.

Nuts.