Newest News: In addition to school beginning (see the school bells up at the top here?) there's always something going on in Balona under the warm September sun (actually the September moon!), only most old folks I know don't want to see it, and the teens don't want anybody to notice the goings-on. Mostly it's nooding (a word you can figure out for yourself) in the Yulumne River, where kids leap in the icy water in the moonlight, their important parts turning at least puce. Constable Cod Gosling parks his police cruiser up there on the levee so he can save drowning bodies, he says, but probably only to look at the naked cavorters. I have not deigned to go up there yet since I haven't decided on the just-right bathing suit that could give the impression I was naked, too. Besides, I'm all bloated up from happiness with the great reception of our curly-headed Jon Riis's book Something for Nothing. Unfortunately, Jon's other great new bookWoman Times One got trashed by one juvenile reviewer. If you are a fairly sophisticated person, you really ought to see for yourself, since it's not for little kids.

   You could email me and tell me, especially about a book I'm a star in: Community Spirits, a ghost story you can read any time of the year, but specially now with Halloween coming up next month already.

    More yet: Handsome Mr. Joaquin Peralta is getting lots of attention because of his three BalonaBooks now in print. The first one is, An Almost Private Eye and supposably is written by an ex-boyfriend of mine whose name shall never again cross my lips (so you are out of luck about that). The others are really, really good: Bandits! and the other new one is Emma Snow. I love them both

   More about our cute, curly-headed editor Jon Riis. He started his own blog on MySpace.com a while ago. He admits that he doesn't keep it up-to-date, probably because his girlfriend is always phoning him. You can read it over there at Jon's Blog. I hope you will e-mail me and tell me if you like my own blog.     Patella's E-Mail