Being a devout follower of the Great Pumpkin (hallowed be His fields), today is my local new year, for values of "local" that include me, my cats (who enjoyed their new year's treat of tuna juice from the can), and any pagans in my vicinity.

I like having multiple New Years. It gives me the chance to try again if I feel like this one isn't working out (although strict application of the math involved may well mean that I'm in my sixties). I like the fact that everything is different today than it was yesterday, even if everything is also exactly the same.

I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween, whether it's something you celebrate or something you endure or something you barely notice until it's over and the basic cable stations stop showing endless horror movie marathons and repeats of Hocus Pocus. I hope you ran amok, or didn't, as your heart prefers. I hope you spent some time in the cornfield of your heart, remembering the sweetness of the season.

From all of us here (mostly me and the cats) to all of you out there, Happy New Year. Welcome to November.

It's going to be a good year.

So Friday night, I will be appearing at The Booksmith in damp, drizzly San Francisco, California, as part of their Read Until the World Ends Halloween Bookswap. I've never done one of these before, so I turn to their website for details:

"$25 gets you dinner and an open bar, a bookstore all to yourself and forty of your new best friends, discounts and swag, a chance to rub elbows with amazing authors, and tons of surprises. Amy Stephenson hosts."

$25 to share a room with me and an open bar. Oh, the drinks that we'll drink! Oh, the thinks that we'll think! Oh, the giggling as I slowly list gently onto my side and go to sleep! I...okay, that last part wouldn't be very professional of me. So I won't do that. But if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and looking for a fun way to spend a Friday night, come and spend it it with me in my guise as Mira Grant, and with all the boozimohol the bookstore can provide.

Whee!