A double posting? Wha? It’s Halloween. I’m excited. I love scary movies and severed heads.

A few years ago I started obsessing severed heads. Not real ones. The traveling-freakshows-in-a-jar severed heads. Pay a buck and peek behind the curtain; there sits the head of some famous criminal/intrepid explorer, preserved in an old apothecary jar. Bloated face, milky eyes, swirling hair–what’s not to love?

And then we moved to the ‘burbs (okay, maybe Holliston is more rural-chic) and Rachel said it was a very bad idea for me to buy my own fake-head-in-a-jar. It’s the ‘burbs, and people talk. What better gossip, than the writer who works in his shed, and counts among his muses a decayed head, floating in amber liquid?

Terrific gossip. So I delayed the dream, yet again. Sometimes I’d poll one of my friends: Would you find it weird if you stepped into my writing shed, and saw a head in a jar, sitting on the shelf?

Yes, they would. Do I care? Not really. But I do care about my wife, and if it makes her uneasy, I can’t do it. She’s patient enough. Maybe next year, once the neighborhood realizes I’m as boring as every other writer out there. Except the ones who think they’re fascinating; those are the really boring ones.

Anyway. My name is Micah Nathan, and I have moderate sleep apnea. This means I stop breathing, on average, 18 times per hour. Last night I slept with a CPAP machine. This morning I awakened as if superhuman. Seriously–I haven’t felt this energetic and well-rested in…well, in forever. The CPAP is my new god.

I already mentioned it, but it’s worth a re-mention: Memphis is Burning has been delayed to Spring 2011. Same great publisher, same tour plans (from Buffalo to Memphis), different publication date. Am I disappointed? Of course. Pub. dates get me excited. Am I confident the delay will result in a better publication? Yes. My editor left Random House, which meant his projects got backlogged. Thanks to trusty agent Jud Laghi and my new editor, MIB remains in excellent hands.

The graphic novel plans. Ah, they remain shrouded in mystery. But here’s something–we have an artist attached. Strike that–we have an amazing artist attached. He did all the illustration work for Raekwon’s latest video. He calls himself 1000styles. And he is…wait for it…wait for it…fresher than fresh.

Okay. Time to hook up the scuba equipment. CPAP, I am thy humble servant.

In the interest of convenience and self-promotion–always a treat when those two collide–I’m posting a link to my most recent short story, Simulacrum.

For those of you keeping track, Simulacrum was a finalist for Diagram Magazine’s Innovative Fiction Award. Accolades are nice when they come, because they never come often enough.

Onward. We’re switching to a new server–this means more speed and less impatience (theoretically). This should also mean more frequent updates (theoretically). Can I use graduate school as an excuse for the sporadic postings? I didn’t think so. There is some law–”law” in the this-always-happens sense, not in the legal sense–that states a project will always take whatever length of time is given.

At first, I thought “Well, duh.” But at second, I thought “Hmm.” Maybe that explains my inability to finish anything early, school-wise. Having established my own (successful) deadlines for nearly seven years, I’m shocked at my procrastination. Then it hit me: they were my deadlines. The old anti-authoritarian streak rears its rebel head.

An example of what happens when bad writing meets bad everything else:

One last thing, and it’s kind of important: the publication date for Memphis is Burning has been pushed to early 2011. The good news is we’re getting galleys early. So I can post potential covers, and you can comment as needed.