Currently reading …

Actually, I can tell the new book, after its extremely long-drawn-out birth pangs, is going well at last. I’ve got Vol. 25 of Fullmetal Alchemist and, no offence meant to Hiromu Arakawa, my favourite mangaka, but I glanced at it, thought, “Oh, good, at last,” and put it in my stack of things to read later, as horrible things are happening to Z. and I burn to get back to them. The moment that bogs down, though, I’ll devour the latest FMA in one sitting. I’ve also got an interesting book, The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, by Frances Wood (2002). I wish I’d had it when I was writing Blackdog. I looked for something like it at the time, to no avail. But at least I have it now, and with a couple more used books on Mediterranean natural history in the mail (hopefully not too delayed by the erratic postal strike), I should soon be immersing myself in a summer’s worth of nonfiction to nourish the new project. (And there’s the latest issue of Mallorn, Earwig and the Witch and The Rampage of Haruhi to read, too. I need twice as much time in my life. Speaking of multiplied time, I’m sure “Endless Eight” works much better as a short story.)