Views from Medina Road

I spent the afternoon catching up on New Book listings, including listings of several audiobooks that have been sent to me over the past couple months by Audio Renaissance (who are owned by Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, who also own Tor Books). They're pricey items and need to be acknowledged, though personally I've never gotten the hang of audiobooks. I've tried a couple times, while driving, but wasn't able to maintain the constant attention required to track the narrative; it's not like you can look up from the page of the book for a moment, and then back down to the point you left off. Locus, both magazine and online, tried audiobook reviews for a while, from John Joseph Adams, but that didn't work out. Still, despite the prices ($49.95 and up), there must be an audience for them...

I'm off on a business trip this next week -- my first business trip of any sort in about five years, given recent corporate belt-tightening. It's a 3-day training course in Alexandria VA, just outside Washington DC, from Monday through Wednesday, and so I'm flying out of LA tomorrow, and since I was encouraged to travel on my own time, will be returning Wednesday night.

After that I'll be home a week before flying out for World Fantasy Con, on Thursday the 3rd, arriving mid-afternoon at O'Hare and then driving to Madison; returning by reverse means on Monday.