Over the past year or so, I have missed a lot of potentially important emails to my website email address, because they were either lost amid the insane amount of spam I was getting, or bounced back because the inbox was actually full from spam. That’s how bad it was — and that’s how bad my spam protection was.

If you’re someone who tried to contact me, and didn’t hear back, I probably never got the email. I usually try to write back to everyone, except for the occasional crazy who crosses the line. So if it was worth writing about, please do write back.

I won’t be checking that old email anymore, and now I have a new email address, which is far better protected in a number of ways. To reach me, go here.

So, yeah, that whole getting back to the blog thing in September didn’t exactly happen.

It was a really crazy fall for me, and I haven’t had much time for the blog. But I’m going to ease back into it now — or, more likely, in January.

But, for now, here are some updates:

1. The paperback of Shut Up, I’m Talking will be released this summer.

2. I finished the manuscript of my second book, How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less without Leaving your Apartment, a little later than planned, but it’s in and going through the editorial process now. If all goes well, it should also come out this summer or early fall. Check here for updates, I guess.

3. The only major article I published this fall is here. It’s in Toronto Life, which is sort of the New York magazine of Toronto. The piece is about dealing with undergraduates today and their internet dependence.

4. I’m working on a book proposal for what could potentially be my third book. It’s not about the Middle East.

5. And although I’m definitely going to continue doing Middle East stuff here, I’m also going to be branching out quite a bit. I want to start writing about writing — in all its forms.

6. Speaking of that, I’ve been dabbling in screenwriting. More on that later, I hope.

Because I’m still being pestered about this, I want to make one quick point about my “Obama should make Bush Middle East Envoy” piece that Newsweek ran the week before last.

As should have been evident to anyone who actually read the article all the way through and has even a modicum of ability in critical thinking and reading comprehension, it was quite obviously mostly tongue-in-cheek and meant simply as a thought exercise. If some people somehow didn’t see that, that’s pretty unfortunate.

So if you haven’t quite picked up on it yet, I consider myself on leave from this blog until early September — when I will have finished writing my new book. I hope to have some big announcements here after that as well.

At that point, I’m actually also going to change up what goes on here a little bit, perhaps with a little more emphasis on discussing writing (in all its forms) and somewhat less emphasis on making jokes about international relations. 

But speaking of that, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that I have my first piece in NEWSWEEK today. It’s a little odd, but take a look.

****

UPDATE (07/30): Memo to people of the internet — don’t take things so literally.