As promised in my original post, Sara and I took on the challenge of a detox program this month. Last night it ended. For four weeks we ate nothing but raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, juice, and various noxious herbal concoctions that were presumably good for us.

It's not like there's some easy way to measure progress in this sort of thing, but I do feel cleaner. Or maybe just hungrier. I certainly lost about ten pounds (and two belt notches) in the process, which isn't bad. And I very much gained respect for the value of cooking with fire. It will be much easier now to accomplish my long-held goals of eating more frequent, smaller meals consisting of larger percentages of fresh produce.

Would I recommend this to others? Absolutely, because why should I suffer alone? Will Dewey be going through his own detox program? Just wait and see.

Last week I popped down to Omaha, NE, where I spoke to a group of Reference USA's customers, a group of reference librarians from around the country. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was a good warmup for what happens next month. Over four weeks I am doing six talks in five states, of which Gene is joining me for three. We've also been rapidly signing up speaking engagements for next year. It's nice to be in demand. In fact, I wish I could free up even more time for speaking, because I really enjoy it. Sadly, each day I speak is one fewer vacation day from my day job, and I need to reserve some for my family.

The next thing to think about doing is book signings at book stores. That would require an actual tour, which maybe I can start integrating with my speaking schedule. It all sounds very complicated and I'm not clear on the value. If you're an author and have something to say on the subject please drop me a line - I'd love to get some input. And of course if you want me and/or Gene to come speak at your event or gathering in 2006 let us know.

Two years ago I participated in the first Spawns of Insomnia, an event where Cartoonists Northwest members each attempted to meet Scott McCloud's 24-hour challenge: write and draw a full 24-page comic in 24 hours. The result was Whippersnappers, a surprisingly good effort that proved to me that I could make a whole comic book.

This year CNW is bringing Spawns back at the Cascadia Con, a science fiction convention at the Seattle Airport Hilton, Sept. 1-5. The participants are raising money through sponsor donations. The donations will be used to buy graphic novels for The Seattle Public Library. I won't be one of them - I'm low enough on sleep as it is, and I have less to prove than I did last time. But I hope you'll join me in wishing them the best and, if you have time, dropping by and egging them on. The results will be fascinating and the process itself is worth watching. Where else will you get to see artists writing and drawing comics in real time?