Kristin Cashore, author of the fabulous and forthcoming Graceling, wrote this blog post about walking around outside in Florida during tropical storm Fay. She observes that, very often, death during floods happens because people are just too curious, want to see what the flood looks like, and whoosh, there they go. I myself have been thinking about cases of sightseeing natural disasters, because Thomas and I were recently by Naples, where the eruption of Vesuvius took place near Pompeii. A lot of what we know about the eruption, which happened in 79 AD, comes from Pliny the Younger. His uncle, the more famous Pliny the Elder, saw the eruption of Vesuvius from a safe location across the bay. It probably looked a lot like an atomic explosion, with a huge mushroom cloud of gas and ash. Pliny the Elder ordered a lot of boats to row across the bay to pick up survivors, which was very good and noble of him, but he also went there just because he wanted to check out the volcano. “Tra la la,” he thought. “I am a scientist. I observe natural phenomena. I think I’ll go see what an exploding volcano looks like up close.” Friends, in the case of volcanic eruption, help those you can, but don’t stick around for the pretty light and falling ash show like Pliny the Elder, because he ended up very toasty and very dead.

Thomas and I are now far away from the sleeping-but-one-day-will-explode-again Vesuvius. We’re in France, spending time with his parents. I’m still working on Book 3 of the Kronos Chronicles. Wish me luck with that.

Here’s some stuff for you to look at, if you like. Stanley Fish wrote an interesting article in The New York Times about censorship. The blog Fuse #8 on the School Library Journal website posted this review of Cabinet. Yes, I know that I posted this before, as an Amazon review, and please do excuse me for reposting. But this version has pretty pictures. Also, SciFi Wire did a profile of The Cabinet of Wonders. I was so excited when I found out that John Joseph Adams was going to write one for this site, because the site is the news source for the SciFi channel, and can I just tell you how much I love their shows? Firefly. Doctor Who. And (squeal) Battlestar Galactica! Oh, I can’t wait for the rest of season 4!

Coming up: a report on my favorite fall YA books and announcements about a couple of readings/event thingies I’ll be doing soonish.