In New York and an awesome Alex Van Helsing review at Goodreads

So it's a busy week-- I'm in New York for a conference and visiting a lot of people I work with, a whirlwind of panels and business cards and catching up over lunch. But the evenings are a treat-- last night I went to the Bowery Poetry Club to hear slam poetry, while tonight we're headed to hear an event called The Moth, the recording of stories for that fantastic podcast. Literally, people get up and tell quick, short stories without notes. Fantastic.

We have a new review of Alex Van Helsing over at Goodreads-- the first online review! "Can't wait to read the next installments." This one calls out that it's an adventure book of the kind I used to like to read. That's my goal-- rock-em-sock-em adventure with vampires. What kind of vampire series is this? This is the kind with motorcycles and humvees and secret underground spy complexes.

The review was from an ARC, an advanced review copy, a soft-back version that's available in very limited quantities months before the book comes out. Who makes that possible? A lot of planning from the publisher.

I had the opportunity-- a tremendous gift, given these people's schedules, to get cocktails with my editor at HarperCollins, and I shook hands with a whole army of people who touch the books along the way-- editors, assistant editors, art directors and designers. What does a publisher do? They spend thousands of man hours making the book the best it can be. I get a sense of how seriously they take their work. My work is to churn out the best story I can, and then hope we all get it more or less right.

And I guess we'll see!