That is, Absent With Leave. I’m finishing up a book, due two weeks ago. It’s based on, but more than, the Success Tips. Title: The Little Big Things: 179 Ways to Be Excellent, from HarperStudio, due out more or less January 2010. Fact is, writing for me allows ABSOLUTELY NO DISTRACTIONS. (Except for a speech in SF on Thursday.) “Absolutely” means exactly that. I have only so much writing energy—it is the most intense thing I do. If I post, it not only absorbs time, but I get engaged—normally a good thing, in this case, an AWFUL thing. Sorry about that—see you in mid-August, maybe a little before! (And on top of all that, it’s summer in VERMONT, the shortest, sweetest, loveliest of times. No excuses needed for being a “summer slacker” in VT!!) (And Susan just broke her leg and will be on crutches for about 6 weeks—you’d know that if you were reading my Tweets; I can occasionally manage 140 characters.)
[Note from Cathy: But the success tips are written already, you say? Not so. Tom wants to look at them again, add, delete, rearrange, edit, emend, clarify, and otherwise put them through a wringer before he’ll allow them to be published as a book under his name. And, publishing dates are unpredictable, depending, as they do, on authors. So, we apologize for not announcing sooner why Tom is not blogging much these days. We hope you understand why we held back from saying, “Expect a book from Tom soon.”]