I am returned from a fan convention in Washington, a trip to my dear publisher Soho in New York, and a stock signing at the ever-friendly Mysterious Bookshop. Many wonderful and exciting things happened in the last two weeks, but here I'll mention something that happened at the very end.
I acquired a few books while I traveled, as you might imagine. Here is the state of my book bag when I picked it off the carousel at Sydney airport.
If that last little piece of fabric had failed, all the books would have been scattered across three airports and two continents.