I think I’ve forgotten how much work it is to blog on a regular basis (yes, I’m using the ugly word “blog,” and I’m even using it as a verb — I’ve given in!). You have to go get your links, figure out what you’re gonna say, maybe add a graphic or two. So much work.

Of course, I haven’t even been doing much “tweeting” on Twitter, either. I’ve been busy with the baseball novel, which has started rolling along with this latest chapter, as my various players on the team have suddenly started taking over, which has been fun.

Oh, and Elizabeth and I both got one of these a week ago, so playing with those new gadgets and all those lovely apps available (most of ’em free!) and updating calendars and contacts and To-Do lists (I think I’ve found a keeper in an app called “iProcrastinate“) has taken up all sorts of my time. Not to mention the ol’ Day Job, which has been busy as well, as I added a few more chainsaws, machetes, and sledgehammers to the objects I’m already juggling there.

But I had to return to blogging (ow!) to mention a really fine review of my book A Gathering of Doorways by writer John Teehan over at the great site Forces of Geek. This was one of those comprehensive, insightful reviews that showed you that not only did the review read the whole book and follow the plot and characters, but also thought about the book as a whole.

He has some great things to say (including one sub-plot I was planning on developing but kinda forgot — a bit that nobody else had discovered, until now!), but I’ll leave you with a tidbit from it:

I’ve also heard the book described by others as reminiscent of 80s horror. I’m not so familiar with that particular slice of the genre to judge, but I’m going to assume it’s an unfair comparison. Why? I didn’t really get the feel of a horror novel. I got the feel of a dark fantasy. Visually, the Undercity is very much a dreamscape. Buildings and streets move and shift. Doors appear in odd places, opening and closing at will. There are rules, but what are they? The architecture of the Undercity is both familiar and alien. One is almost tempted to say the style defies genre-fication, but what fun would that be? We like our labels.

Overall, A Gathering of Doorways is a very good story with all the things I like to see in a fantasy-like adventure: flawed heroes, quests that have meaning, misdirection, shocking revelations, imaginative settings, and villains with dimension. Oh, and I like a bit of tragedy. Call me weird.

I still get a huge kick out of getting any kind of feedback on my writing, even for a book that’s as personal as this one. I hope you read the rest of the review, and definitely check out the rest of the fun at Forces of Geek!

Now, to go add some more to-dos to my iPhone in my final act of procrastination this morning!