92 words a minute on the subway, standing up.

So good to be in the swing of a new story. This is a short one, and I'm not usually good with writing short stories -- I tend to either build up too much steam so I trick myself into thinking I'm working on a novel, and then 60 or 70 pages later I look up and, woops, I realize I forgot these things are supposed to end.

But I have a good feeling about this one. It started when I was listening to this album, which you can download free from that link, so if anyone wants to start writing, we can have a fun little war.

Also fun: Neil Gaiman's new children's book has been turned into a Flash film by his publishers. A little bit magic, but a little bit cheesy. A friend at HC says that they're starting to do this for all their picture books. Reactions?

Richard Nash Leaves Soft Skull

OK, I'm as freaked out as you are -- here is the story, if you haven't heard. The halloween candy-size version: Richard Nash, who took over Soft Skull Press and polished it and shined it made it (even) great(er), is relinquishing command.

My guess is as good as yours, people. I thought that, if it ever happened, Richard would blast off straight into some new Web 4.0 idea of Twitter novels or Books That Read You or something even more revolutionary. Of course, what he says on his site makes just as much sense -- that he'll be consulting publishers and working to save our industry.

According to their press release, Soft Skull will keep going. Candy in Action will stay in print -- and have I mentioned it looks great in paperback? -- and I'm still friendly with them, as far as I know....and yes, if "Orthodox Girls" gets made into a movie and I sell a million copies of all my books, I still want to put out all my future books on a tiny indie press. There is no back catalogue I have a crush on more than Soft Skull's, from Daphne Gottlieb's manifestos to Mike Doughty's couplets. And, praise G-d, they're still going to be alive (well, except for Doughty, who went out of print a while ago....dammit). And Soft Skull's associate editor is sticking around, which gives me hope for the future, as much as it does for the present.

So there is no reason to be afraid. And every reason to think that Soft Skull will keep going, and that Richard will get under the skin of other publishers and implant little Soft Skull-like parasites there and create new little Soft Skull-inspired life forms crawling through Random House and Harper's and even (gasp) Scholastic...Hey, here's hoping.