Kage Baker was fond of charabancs and road trips. She was especially prone to them when she was depressed or otherwise down – stumped on a story, overwhelmed with angst over the suicidal decline of the panda bear, furiously hunting for a beach somewhere North of Gorda that she hadn’t seen since we were in grammar school …

I would love to go a-journeying right now. But I have some commitments to honour, and it’s a holiday weekend coming up (which means my family panics at the idea of me on the road) and I am tired. So I am going traveling in my head.

Following a rite from childhood, I am going to curl up and read for a couple of days. Just read. The Highway in my head is beckoning, and I am going to answer the call. It’s a thing I haven’t done in over a year.

I’ll be in and out, Dear Readers, and back altogether in a couple of days. But right now, Scout Finch is calling me (start with the classics, I always say) and then I have a new book on the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and one on the human genome – portraits of each pair of chromosomes, in detail and one by one! That’s as good as a year’s worth of celebrity dish, that is. I have nectarines and pluots and Better Cheddar crackers and lots of chocolate and Mullah’s coffee – I’m rich beyond the dreams of avarice!

Thanks for your indulgence – see you all in a few days!