So. I’m home again.

The bad news is that I haven’t been online for more than ten days. There are more than 2000 messages waiting for me in my e-mail. More than 500 pieces of fanmail. Two dozen packages are waiting for me downstairs, unopened. I hope none of them contain food. Or, like, a puppy.

The good news is that as of today I’m finally back from my book tour. I have some stories to tell.

In addition to finally being home, something else cool happened today. This might not be news to all of you, but it’s pretty cool for me, so I thought I’d share it…

For those of you that don’t know, every week the New York Times publishes a list of books. Nobody knows exactly how the books are selected for the list. But generally speaking, the more copies of your book you sell in a given week, the higher up you are on the list.

It’s called the New York Times Bestseller list. If your book makes it into #15 or higher, it’s a New York Times Bestseller. It’s a pretty big deal in the publishing world. As I mentioned before on the blog, I was lucky enough to hit #11 with The Name of the Wind.

Here’s a picture of the book section from today’s (Sunday’s) New York Times.

(Click to embiggen.)

Why don’t we get a little closer….

Can you see the coolness yet? No. I’m not talking about the copy of The Guild up there.

Ah hell. Let’s zoom all the way in:

Yeah. There’s The Wise Man’s Fear. Right up there at #1.

Thanks for helping me make it up there everybody…

#1 on the NYT is a pretty big deal, and I feel like I should be doing something monumental to celebrate. Something rockstar. Something with hookers and hot tubs and cocaine. Something that ends with me throwing a television out a hotel window and getting arrested for conduct unbecoming a novelist.

But honestly, I’m too tired for that to sound like a lot of fun right now. Plus I don’t think Stevens Point has any hookers. Besides, my TV is in the basement, so I’d have to carry it up a flight of stairs before I threw it out the window. And then tomorrow I’d have to clean it up off my own porch. Maybe I’m getting old, but that just doesn’t seem like a lot of fun to me.

So I’m guessing I’ll probably hold off on the rockstar celebrations for now. Instead, now that Sarah and Oot are asleep, I think I’m going to install Dragon Age 2 and make some Mac & Cheese.

That’s right. I’m not going to dig into my e-mail at all. Not tonight. Tonight it’s just Dragon Age 2 and Mac & Cheese. I make some badass Mac & Cheese, let me tell you. I put all sorts of cheeses in there. Plus spices and shit. And corn. It’s really something.

Man. I’m really looking forward to it. You really have no idea.

Maybe I will also drink some rum while I play Dragon Age. Because…. well… because I can. And because that makes it just a little bit rockstar. It doesn’t hurt to be just a little bit rockstar sometimes…

Night all,

pat