By this time tomorrow morning, I will be at the San Francisco International Airport, drinking overpriced airport beverages and waiting for my 8am flight to New York. I will have kissed my cats goodbye and walked through the Bay Area house for what will be, in many ways, the last time: when I get back from New York, the house will still be here, but everything I own will be gone, packed up and pulled down and shoved into the moving truck, already making its way up the coast.

From June 3rd to June 28th, I will be on the East Coast, doing business (numbers, numbers, math math math), doing pleasure (people who know how badly I need to be distracted from what's happening in California have made sure I will have many good distractions), doing appearances (I will be at the Manhattan Kinokuniya on June 11th; details are here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1547988148830559/ ), and doing conventions (CrossingsCon, in Newark, New Jersey, with my beloved Mark Oshiro).

Things I will not be doing: mailing stuff. All my stuff will be a) on the West Coast, and b) in a moving truck. Replying to email with anything resembling alacrity. Sleeping much, between "New York in June" and "did I mention people are touching all my stuff and my cats are very far away?". Breathing.

If you're in the New York area, I hope to get a chance to see you this trip (looking at you, The Swarm). If you're not, please be patient with me while I navigate what has been a huge and stressful endeavor, but which seems to be coming, finally, thankfully, to a blessed end.

I have a move date now. Actually, I have a stacked succession of move dates, all of them coming one right after the other, like evil demon ducklings on their way to nibble me to death. And to make things SO MUCH MORE FUN, literally all but one of them happen while I am traveling for work. Seriously. Truck arrives in the Bay Area to get all my stuff loaded into it? New York. Cats are transferred to Kate's so they don't escape during the packing process? New York. Truck leaves for the Pacific Northwest? New York.

I get home, I go to where my cats are, I surrender my keys to the California house (my housemate, who is staying in the area, will be handling the sale with the help of a realtor we both trust), and then Kate drives me to my new home.

The day the truck arrives to be unloaded, I am, in order, heading for the airport, on a plane, and flying to San Diego to launch my combo book tour with Sarah Kuhn and Amber Benson. BECAUSE THIS ISN'T STRESSFUL AT ALL. (I am lying. I am lying through my teeth. This whole process feels like a huge psych test to see how much pressure I, as a person with OCD, can take before I snap and hide under my bed for the duration of, oh, forever.) All the unloading, all the checking that things aren't broken, is going to happen before I get home.

Vixy is organizing the helpers on the Seattle end of things, and if you're someone I know well enough to be all "hi, want to come and empty a truck that contains all my earthly belongings while I'm, you know, not there, also there will be pizza," you'll probably be receiving an email from me soonish.

I do have a short-term Patreon set up to help with moving costs, located here: https://www.patreon.com/seananmcguire?ty=h

I'll be honest: I would feel guilty about reminding people that the Patreon exists, given how high pledges already are (thank you, thank you, thank you), but moving turns out to be really, really, really, horrifyingly expensive, and all figures are actually 1/3rd lower, due to taxes. So every little bit helps (and our June story, "Stage of Fools," will be a return to the Londinium-era Tybalt--one of my favorite subjects!).

Please expect me to be scattered and a little twitchy for the next few months, while I survive this process. Thank you all so much for being here.

Well, here we go.

As many of you have no doubt heard, through one channel or another, I'm getting ready to move to the Seattle area. The move is becoming increasingly, terrifyingly real, and at this point, I'm not sure I could slow down the process if I tried. (Which is probably a good thing, because let's be honest here: if I thought I could slow down something this stressful, I very well might.)

As part of my prep, I am opening a short-term Patreon called The Toaster Project, which you can read about here. The formal launch will happen in late May/early June, but as physical rewards are limited, I wanted to give all y'all the first crack at claiming them. A banner image and welcome video and all that good stuff will be forthcoming. In the meantime, Tara made me some snazzy welcome images, and also there are cat pictures.

Hooray for cat pictures.