Last time on the video blog, my special guests were singer/songwriter Sam Phillips and poet Luci Shaw.

Next time, it might be you.

Let me explain.

Starting this weekend, I will be hard at work on the last book in The Auralia Thread.

That’s right! (Or… that’s write?) Auralia’s Colors and Cyndere’s Midnight are out there, and Raven’s Ladder arrives in February. So by the time you read the prologue of the third installment (and discover what happened to the ale boy as he descended into the Core of the beastman realm), I’ll already be halfway through the first draft of the series finale. My deadline for the first complete draft is July 1, 2010.

Since this is a big transitional weekend for me, turning my attention from one story to another, I’m glad that Over the Rhine will be here on Saturday and Sunday to play two sold-out shows. They were a great inspiration to me this last year. I give them a shout-out in the book… not just in the acknowledgments, but in the actual narrative, for those who are paying attention.

Over the next few months, watch my Facebook and Twitter pages for more details on upcoming Auralia Thread antics.

I’ll tell you about one of those endeavors right here: I’ll be hosting a multi-part Q&A right here at Looking Closer… on the Video Blog.

On an upcoming episode, I’ll take some time to answer questions about Raven’s Ladder and the rest of The Auralia Thread. Send in your questions by email to joverstreet@gmail.com, and I’ll select some of them to answer directly on that video. If you send me your webpage URL, I’ll include that when I answer you. That might bring some other Auralia readers to your site.

And there will be other treats on the Video Blog as well… including U2. Yes, U2.

I’m not quite sure about the schedule for these blog entries. It’s going to be a crazymaking time. I’ll continue to turn  in film reviews to Filmwell, Image, Seattle Pacific’s Response, and another site that has invited me to offer comments on contemporary cinema. (Stay tuned for news on that: I’ll kick that one off with reflections on The Road, starring Viggo Mortenson and, in one of his greatest supporting turns, Robert Duvall.)

In the meantime, if you write for a magazine, a newspaper, a blog, or have an audience in some other way, and you’re interested in posting a review of Raven’s Ladder, or hosting an interview, email me at joverstreet@gmail.com and we can set something up. I may be very, very busy, but I can always find time somewhere (usually during a coffee break at my day job) to answer some questions.

Thanks for all of the encouragement as I soldier on. LookingCloser.org readers have been a constant source of inspiration so far in this series, and I’m grateful for all of you who have shared your thoughts on the books, the reviews, and everything else.

Here we go.