I could not have awoken to better news this morning than to find out the rights to my first collection, All Along the Pacific , had been returned to me by the publisher. This was the classiest thing they could have done, and I am so relieved. To have my first, big creative endeavor back in my own hands, to be able to work with it again and get it out to readers, is an amazing feeling. At this point, I'm just so hyper with ideas bouncing around in my head of how to make it better. To lure in those of you who bought the original, I'm going to include a new story. I haven't even thought of what it will be yet, but something unexpected...or totally expected that I overlooked before. Emperor Norton? Something "straight out of Compton"? Maybe a trip on the delta of Sacramento or twenty-six miles across the sea to Catalina. And I do believe my artist will fix us up with a new, second-edition cover.