Dear Internet friends,

It's been great. I think you're swell. However, I need a little space.

I'm going to be taking off from the Mercury for three months to work on a book about relationships. Whenever I look for relationship advice, wandering distraught and slightly drunk through Powell's Red Room on a Friday night, I'm reminded that most relationship books are horrible. I can't think of anyone I know who wants their romantic life to center around snagging a man and an engagement ring. What about a little help, please, for those of us who don't want to define success by two kids, a holy union, and a minivan?

So, I'll be spending the next three months interviewing smart sex and gender writers (and lots of other people, too) about how they make decisions in relationships and compiling their life lessons into a book that spells out rules for relationships that aren't based on religion, tradition, or "thou shalt not."

This means I'll be in Blogtown exile for three months. I'll still be doing a weekly sexual politics columns, though, and I'll still be on the internet all the time, every day. Try to be nice to my enthusiastic replacement, Alex Zielinski. If anyone wants to get really-short-notice-sort-of-goodbye drinks, I'd love to see you at Give a Shit Happy Hour tonight!

Hugs,
Sarah Mirk