There's a part of me that still feels like I have something to do, but I know there isn't.

Last night I sent the files for Four-Day Weekend to the printer's. After the usual endless round of checking and cross-checking, tweaking this and fixing that, it's now being prepped for its debut at AnimeFest 2008. Signed copies will be available directly from me at the show for $15+tax, and after I get back it'll start showing up here on the site for sale.

I'm exhausted but also hugely happy. The book started off very differently, in a far more scattershot and meandering vein, and I'm now certain if I had tried to write it as I had originally imagined it, it would have been an overblown mess. After I found the discipline to cut it down to the story it needed to be, it took off and really started to go places.

I've talked with friends about the possibility of revisiting Winthrop and Henry and all the rest in another story, but I haven't decided completely what that is. One idea that sounds better than most of the others is for them to visit Japan -- but I'd want to actually do that before I attempted to write about it. So there's no hurry about embarking on a follow-up -- yes, I'm loathe to say "sequel" if only because I've always been against the idea of simply writing another book for the sake of it. This would have to stand on its own two non-prosthetic feet as an idea before I could even think about hitting the keys.

So, where from here? I'll save that discussion for another post, but I'll leave the last word to Kurosawa: "People always ask me what my favorite of my own movies is, and I say, 'My next one'."