First the good news: I had a successful launch of my book, which I hope all blog readers will buy. (Great gift! Perfect for all weather! As seen on tv!). There was a little party and it was lovely to see everyone who came.

I have also been visiting in the digital sense, and an excerpt from my book is on the Voluntary Action History Society blog.

In the not-so-good developments, it looks like I'll be sans academic job for the foreseeable. I had a couple of campus visits, one at the University of Nebraska and one at Colby College*, but didn't end up landing one of those posts. At both places—very different types of institution—I met great faculty and students, and people who I am sure would be wonderful colleagues. So it's disappointing to be turned down, but I get the impression that any department hiring has their pick of strong candidates, and it's flattering to get that far.

What this does mean is that I'll be focusing on some other things for at least a while. As some of you know, a long-running side project of mine relates to the history of disappearance, and a piece I wrote on Amelia Earhart and popular disappearances is on The Atlantic site. I'm going to be working on that book for the next few weeks, and see how that goes.

Those of you who have been listening to the podcast: thank you! If you have particular topics you'd like to know about, please comment over at the Cities in History site.

*for those of you having a heart attack about confidentiality, these universities both named me on the internet as giving a job presentation there - which I didn't mind.