Getting these Mars illustrations in order is a damned headache. I wish Pocket Books would send a company helicopter to land on my roof to disgorge a selfless assistant. I hand over everything -- finalized maniscript, bibliography and photo captions with relevant URLs -- on the 25th. I'm almost finished with "Perdido Street Station." Next up: possibly Stephen Baxter's "Vacuum Diagrams" or Robert J. Sawyer's "Hominids."

So far, no buzz about UFOs screwing with the United States' energy grid. But I'm still predicting that someone will make the connection.

My birthday is in four days; I'll be 28, which is depressingly close to 30.