I have been feeling a lot of “Shut up, Carl” type feelings lately, though I say that with apologies to any Carls or Karls I actually know: not directed at you! Your name just sounded funny in context!

The Tucson Festival of Books was last weekend, and it was just splendid. All my panels were delightful, from the brilliant co-panelists, to the excellent moderators, to the large and superlative audiences. Here is a piece of crowd-sourced information for you: the majority of people don’t want their books signed to them, though they do want them signed, and yet everyone, universally (in my sample set) wants you to draw their favorite animal for them on the signature page. This tallies with my old research about how many people (all of them) want you to draw an animal for them in chocolate on top of their mocha.

I am very tired. Spring is beautiful, though the days are already getting too hot. The songbirds are going crazy, the entirety of the Tucson outdoors smells like flowers.