Farewell, September; My October Vanishing Act

I have had a very, very good September.

I traveled across the country, and back, twice (with offset credits for my carbon). I gave fifteen speeches, to (I would guess) over a thousand people in total. At many of my stops I made new friends, or was able to get reacquainted with old ones. I even got to speak in the Phoenix area where I was born, where my mother grew up, with three of my uncles in the audience.

I did umpteen radio interviews, and even caused a radio station to fold (that's the interpretation if you're superstitious, anyway). I signed probably hundreds of books. I had not one, but two, parties thrown for me. One here in D.C. at Science Club, and a private book party held in New York by Seed. Both were big successes.

I received a science award from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. I got attacked by the Discovery Institute. I watched a book come out about my book.

On top of all that, I turned 29.

As I'm sure you can gather from all of this, I have been having entirely too much fun lately--and that has to come to an end with the onset of October. You see, I have a hurricane book that now requires my assiduous attention. I wish I could just cancel sleep or something and keep on talking about the "war on science" while also bringing the other book across the finish line over the next several months. But it just isn't possible. Throughout my twenties I've been over-extended in one way or another, but I've finally learned the hard way this year that there are real limits to what I can do. (Which totally sucks.)

So, here's the story: I plan to go under, leaving this blog untended, for about a month. That's to make sure that I get a lot done. I don't know yet exactly what I'm going to do with the time, but probably boring stuff--sitting in a room acting like a desk reporter, and then staying up late at night writing. I suspect it will be easy to spot me at Tryst in Adams Morgan.

Granted, if the need arises, I might do something more creative--like fly out to Flagstaff, Arizona to sequester myself again for a week, as I did back in May. That was very productive. Don't worry: If I go, I'll make sure I'm covering my CO2.

However, for those of you who are really, really going to miss me, it turns out that I am going to be reappearing at the end of October for nothing less than four talks in four days:

Friday, October 27

4:15 PM-5:45 PM

National Association of Science Writers

Fall 2006 Annual Meeting

Tremont Grand Meeting Facility

Tremont Plaza Hotel

Baltimore, MD

Saturday, October 28

7:00 PM-8:30 PM

Quail Ridge Books

3522 Wade Ave.

Raleigh, NC 27607

Sunday, October 29

4:00 PM-5:30 PM

Regulator Bookshop

720 Ninth Street

Durham, NC 27705

Monday, October 30

Duke University

Details to Come

Durham, NC

And then two days later there's another talk:

Wednesday, November 1

4:30 PM-5:45 PM

St. Mary's College of Maryland

Details to Come

St. Mary's, MD

And then, I'm also in Orlando, Florida, on November 9, for a talk in the morning (yes, that's am):

7:30- 9:00 am

The Westin Grand Bohemian

for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando

Tickets available at www.ppgo.org

So while I may be disappearing, it won't be for that long, and I'll be popping up again before you know it.

Incidentally--even though no one who knows me well really believes it--I seriously intend to be much more balanced and sane about my schedule and workload in 2007....