Earlier today, I got together some copies of Dancing Barefoot for players in the Katrina tournaments. I sat on the floor in my living room, and tumbed through a copy, and felt like I was looking at baby pictures. You know how you are so proud of them now, but you occasionally miss the simpler times, when they couldn’t talk back?
Okay, that’s a lousy analogy, but you get my drift, right? The important thing is, I adore that little book! Even though the writing is a little rough in places, and will be seriously reworked before I do the audio version (which I’m thinking of as a “bugfix” release. Har. Har. Har.), I am incredibly proud of it. I worked very hard to make it as good as I was able (at the time), take it from idea, to product, and finally to readers. Whenever I reflect back on it, I feel terribly sad that the whole Just A Geek thing was so frustrating, and I am really grateful that that sadness is starting to be replaced by the excitement of finishing Do You Want Kids With That?
Because Do You Want Kids With That? will be a Barefoot-style book in so many respects, I asked my friend Ben Claasen III, who did the illustrations Barefoot, if he’d do some illustrations for The Kids. (Har. Har. Har.)
Readers have consistently told me that they love the illustrations from Barefoot, even the people who didn’t entirely enjoy the writing, so I am very proud and excited to announce that I spoke with Ben yesterday, and today he agreed to come on board for Do You Want Kids With That? His work is going to bring a lot to the final book, and I can’t wait to see what he creates.
Afterthought: I just came upon this review of Dancing Barefoot, at Amazon:

Whether you are a Star Trek fan (which I am not, but have friends who are…), a voracious reader of memoirs or aspiring memoirist (admitted), a Gen-Xer on the precipice of your 30s (which I am), or a fan of Wheaton’s Blog (which I’ve become), I recommend “Dancing Barefoot.”

Wow. Thank you 🙂

A famous satirist is suing an about-to-be-famous comedian . . . for satirizing him. Excuse me while I decide whether to scream or just smack my forehead.
Read my post at Blogging.la for the whole story.

Fifteen minutes before Katrina Relief tournament number three begins, here’s a quick look back at Katrina Relief tournament number two.
The final table included two friends of the blog:

1. darth_forte (Crofton, MD)
2. kkalin (Sterling Hts., MI)
3. 4_2_it (Huntingdon Valley, PA)
4. chico6y (Basel, Switzerland)
5. Saturn21 (Ottawa, ON, Canada)
6. FF07 (Bowie, MD)
7. spurgehogan (Arlington,MA)
8. GoodRev42 (Santa Ana, CA)
9. yestbay1 (Grapevine, TX)

yestbay1 is a longtime reader, fellow actor, and all-around supercool guy. Congratulations, DW! Also, GoodRev42, who is a fellow Metroblogger (he writes for The OC Metblog, but I won’t hold that against him) busted me out, follwing in the footsteps of stardawg, who busted me on Monday, and went on to finish second in the $5 tourney. The moral of this story is: if you bust me out of a Katrina Relief tournament, you will make the final table.
I’ll be live blogging the action in tonight’s $50 event over at CardSquad, for anyone who is interested.
And the whole reason we’re doing this is kicking ass. Our two events so far have raised $51,581.00 for victims of Hurricane Katrina. A whole bunch more will be added tonight.

Anne is /away with one of her friends for a couple of days, on a well-deserved mini-vacation, so I’m pulling Mr. Mom duty with the kids. (So far, we’re having a great time, and I’ve managed to avoid setting any of us on fire. I’m very proud.)
But! This means that I get the entire pot of coffee to myself.
The world seems . . . really . . . clearandsharpandinfocus . . . today, and all the stuff I’m writing will either be reallyreallycool or reallyreallylame.
Bzzzt.

Welcome to the shiny new Do You Want Kids With That? department,* where I’ll track and discuss progress on my next book, which is surprisingly close to completion.
A famous author, (I think it was Harlan Ellison or James Ellroy,) once said something like, “Don’t just write what you know. Write what you love, and wish there was more of in the world.” Well, I love short stories I can relate to, like the ones I hear on This American Life, and I wish there were stories about the little and not-so-little victories we stepparents have, that help to balance out the tough stuff that comes with the territory. As a bonus, this also happens to be what I know.
So Do You Want Kids With That? is a collection of stories about being a stepparent, with a focus on those moments (with the kids and with my wife) that make the whole thing worthwhile. It’s not an advice or HOWTO book (or a Star Trek book, or a celebrity bio), but other stepparents may find a kindred spirit between the covers, and all you WWdN readers who have wanted more family stories will probably like it, too. (There’s only one poker story in the whole thing 😉
It is similar to Dancing Barefoot in a couple regards: it’s about the same length, and it’s a collection of material that originally appeard on my website. I took the entries that I liked the most, cleared out the blogcruft, reflected upon and rewrote most of them, and divided them into different thematic sections (one of them is tentatively titled “My Stepgeeks,” which I just love). My wife, Anne, has agreed to write down her thoughts and reflections on the entries, and I may even be able to get some commentary from Ryan and Nolan, which would be way cool. Do You Want Kids With That? will be released by Monolith Press later this year (but much, much sooner than you think.)
*I know that the category links don’t work. It’s on my list of things to fix.