Views from Medina Road

It's a busy season for author tours. Over the last week I've received, or sought out, tour schedules for a number of authors with eagerly anticipated new books out this Fall... Terry Brooks, Neil Gaiman, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Richard K. Morgan, Terry Pratchett, John Ringo, R.A. Salvatore. The author events pages -- the one by author is the most relevant -- are as long at this given moment as they've ever been.

It brings to mind the contrast between art and commerce. The books our field's most visible readers -- Jonathan Strahan, Cheryl Morgan, Matt Cheney -- might be looking forward to this Fall -- by Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Jonathan Carroll, George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett, David Marusek, Kim Stanley Robinson, if I might hazard to guess (based on Forthcoming Books) -- overlap by no more than half those that booksellers (who host those author events) and many bookbuyers are most interested in.

• I've just watched, live on TV, the landing of a passenger jet with skewed front landing gear on a runway at LAX. Remarkably, the landing gear didn't collapse, though it did appear to burn down to the nub...

• Two ongoing stories continue today: Lost's second season begins tonight, and Myst V arrived in the mail today. No, I haven't given up reading; I'm part way through books by David Berlinski and Kim Stanley Robinson currently. I do need to update the sidebar column of cover thumbnails...