A Meerkat's Bolthole

I tried to take the weekend off the Internets. For the most part, I succeeded, mainly due to

a) massive amount of work to be done.

b) utterly perfect early spring weather that got me outside.

c) friends moving into the city the next neighborhood over (technically, they're in Manhattan and I'm in the Bronx, but it's a mile walk between, so screw technicalities).

I didn't get anywhere near enough done, and I didn't get enough time outside, but hey, that's linear time limitations for ya. I could go without sleep to finish things up, but I've reached the point in my life where that feels more stupid than solution. Meh.

The Sunday Morning topic of Important Discussion here at Chateau Felidae was hair: should I cut it short for summer, or grow it elf-long? And, irrespective of either, should I keep the silvering, or not? (I'm thinking keep. I kind of like it).

In other Stuff, it was proposed this weekend that indignation and entitlement are twinned concepts, in that very few of us are 100% oppressed by the existing system (you are Black, but you are a male. You are White, but female. You are a minority religion, and a male. You are a White male Christian who is handicapped, etc in a thousand different iterations) and for each hit we take, we are also given a hall pass.

I'm not going to say yea or nay to the theory (it doesn't take into account those who are 100% minority mixes), but it is...something to chew on, with a side of context.


And so we go into Monday. Wheee?

 1) Did you see my happy cover reveals for HEART OF BRIAR and SOUL OF FIRE?  If not, checkit! http://www.lauraannegilman.net/first-look-heart-of-briar-and-soul-of-fire/

2) The Skiffy Internet is in an uproar because some white male readers got ewwwww!cooties from all the female and non-white (and non-white females!) on the Nebula ballot.  All I can say is: cootie-fearing fandom, grow the FUCK up already. And if you can't, then stay in your own cootie-free playpens and leave the adults alone.  Sometimes there are more guys than women on the ballot(s).  Sometimes there are more women than men. Genders and nationalities and skin tones shift.  This?  Is all GOOD. It means we have a vibrant and expanding genre with lots of good work to choose from.  If you think this is something to moan about, please see above re: playpens. 

3. There are a lot of new books out from Book View Cafe this week!  Go checkit.  

4. 2013, in addition to being the year of Being Really Damn Busy, is also the year I let myself work ALL the hours... M-F.  And very few hours S-S.  So far, this is... working extremely well. Workaholicism With Limits.  It's the hot new religion cult  philosophy.


Status Report:

Today I: wrote 2k words. Edited someone else's story. Signed on for a long-term freelance project. Mended a coat. 

All four of those things filled me with the same level of competent accomplishment. Or accomplished competence. Whatever.


The daily darling:

The boss never forbade them anything stronger, but Marie frowned on the girls drinking while they were working, saying men could make themselves foolish, but a woman never should.

What, you mean other than snow? (and sledding.  Sledding was fun, although I am now bruised in certain places I should have been expecting)

Well, having finished off everything else I had pending, and only having client-work to keep me occupied until Monday, I have turned my attention to a New Project. Which means, I did a hell of a lot of research-reading, talked to someone who qualifies as an expert in one of the things I need to research, and generally poked at the first chapter until I wasn't embarrassed to be seen in public with it. I mean, I still dress it funny, but I'm okay with that, it will grow into its own fashion sense, eventually.

"There was a handprint in the door. Just the handprint, nothing else. No skin, no blood." If a hand had been hot enough to leave a char-mark, it would have been terribly damaged, the person in intense pain. Assuming it was a person at all. "Did you do that?"

Fee is badass.  She might even be as badass as she thinks she is. But Nur is way more badass than that.

I also  worked on other things that are not spoken of yet (if ever), started some freelance copy-writing, arranged for transport for next weekend's rally in D.C., met with a client via the wonders of Skype, and told a few people about the NEWS.  What NEWS, you ask?  Oh, the NEWS I'll tell you on Monday.....

"Let me get this right: you're worried because your editor really liked the book, and didn't find any major broken things you need to fix?"

"Yes!....*pause*...That's not normal?"

"...*sigh*..."


So maybe it's just me, I don't know. My editor's a smart, experienced woman, but I'm SURE the book has some major whoopsie in it... maybe the copyeditor will find it for me. Or, yeah, maybe I did sweep the table, this time. Maybe. *peers suspiciously at manuscript, which may or may not be peering back*


And that pretty much sums up this week for me. Working on the writer-edits for PROMISES TO KEEP. Working on the editor-edits for FIXED. Working on the cover(s) for both Sylvan Investigation novellas. Working with d.y.m.k. clients. There's other stuff going on too, some of which has required me to dress up in my adult person clothing and take lunch meetings, but it's nothing to be spoken of in public yet.

Oh, and waiting on one, two, three different checks from publishers, while I shuffle my budget to get through the month. I hate January.

The State of the Meerkat (2Q) report

BLOOD FROM STONE -- in stores
FLESH AND FIRE proofs -- done/back to publisher

new Luna proposals -- to Madame Agent for feedback
new Nocturne proposal -- to Madame Agent for feedback
new historical fantasy material -- to Madame Agent for feedback

PACK OF LIES -- draft revision in progress. Original deadline was Monday, but since it's not scheduled until
Winter 2010, I have an officially-sanctioned extension of (woo) a month.

MUSTANG -- two chapters shy of a first draft, at which point it will be set in the cave to turn blue (cheese reference, for reasons obvious to Word War participants -- due July)

Cosa Nostradamus short story -- draft done, aging (due August)
Untitled Fantasy story -- draft in-progress
Untitled Fantasy story #2 -- draft in-progress

Pending Freelance #1 -- due 18 May
Pending Freelance #2 -- due June

VINEART #2 -- file open, outline and research files ready... (due November)


Upcoming Public Appearances:

Pandemonium Books, 8 May 7pm (Cambridge, MA)
Library of Congress luncheon Presentation (as part of BookView Cafe), 22 May
Balticon, 22-25 May (Baltimore, MD)
BookExpos America, 29 May (NYC)
East Coast Genre Mafia* mass signing @ the Waldenbooks at the Oakdale Mall, 20 June (Binghamton, NY)


* Joshua Palmatier, S.C. Butler, Patricia Bray, Barbara Campbell, Anton Strout, Laura Anne Gilman, Jackie Kessler. Can you afford to miss that? Dog knows what's going to happen....

In the winter, I don't use my main living room much, unless I have company. It's a lovely room, with a great sofa and chairs, and books within reach...but it's also the only room that doesn't have natural light streaming in. So I tend to gravitate to the rooms (bedroom, office, kitchen, dining nook) that do.

That dynamic changes come warmer weather, though. Unlike the source of my nickname, I am NOT a warm weather critter. I like indirect sunlight and highs in the low 70's. Warmer than that [like, ugh, today], and headaches and crankiness ensue. So I head for the shadows. As in... my living room. There's a cross-breeze from the windows, but the sunlight is diffuse by the time it reaches the sofa -- which means I can leave the shades up, which the cats and the plants and probably my subconscious mood appreciates, and not feel like I'm being broiled.

So yeah, the netbook and the manuscript and my pens and my feline companions are all scattered around me as I work from the sofa, which is why, when someone asks me how much of my living space is set aside as an office, I laugh and shrug helplessly. All of it? [since I get story inspiration and plot breakthrough in the shower, I can even claim the bathroom as work-space]

The change in venue seems to be working: I hope to wrap up the first pass on the very rough draft of PACK OF LIES today. I think I've caught most of the 'OMG how stupid were you when you wrote that?' moments, plus found places where I could make the storyline stronger. Second pass should go a little easier... (why is it the seemingly simplest of plot-tangles make the biggest writing messes? And why did I decide to write caper novels? A straightforward murder mystery is so much easier to plot....)

Page proofs still await, as does the short story and the freelance that has to get done, um, tonight. MUSTANG is on the back burner for a while, since it's the least-urgent deadline. See? I can too have a midway point between 'all-out' and 'comatose!'


EtA: Jules, the Phile Cabinet pillow makes a perfect netbook lapdesk. Yay for useful repurposing and multitasking!

Was in bed this morning, waiting for the feline alarm to ring, thinking about the nicely-gelling plans for the California Road Trip, and suddenly realized that I have Something Major due the day before I'm supposed to head out there. Which caused me to run backward over my schedule in my head, from October to now, and realize that I'm already off-schedule for everything I have to do.

Gack.

Time to ramp up again.

(the problem with All Things Planned is that I'm also under orders not to a) overwork, b) disappear for days at a time, and c) go without sleep. The Plan did not allow for things like sleep or a social life. Or a kitchen renovation. And yes, Catie, I can hear you laughing from here...)

It's all doable. The Plan says so. *nods firmly*

EtA; And now I'm even more behind, thanks to various no-shows and delays not of my making. The phrase "needs killin'" has resonance in my life right now... and yet, since I didn't actually expect any of those things to go right today, I'm angry but not upset. Hi ho hi ho it's off to Mordor we go...

and here we have an example of the perfect writer/editor communication:

author: I hate this book. I have to shred it all and start again. You'd be okay with not getting the book until June, right?
editor: * whistles, ignores you *

ANYway. I have decided that The Muppet Show tells you everything you need to know about my generation-decade [too young to be Boomers, too old to be GenX]. Especially kradical. Seriously. Serious humor, leavened with bad puns, sexual innuendo, political awareness, social responsibility, and a sense that the Big Secret to Life is that Animal's the sanest one of us all.

So, to give us all a break from the wheee!stress fun times going on in the world.... if you were a muppet, who would you be?

Bonus question: Who would I be? (( that one's already been decided, actually. )

So it looks like I'll have room to take on 2-3 new editorial clients this year (I only take on one person at a time, so they get 100% of my editorial brain). I offer everything from brainstorming/development to line editing and submission formatting, but NOT copy-editing or proofreading (there are folk out there who are better than I at that, you should talk to them first).

If you're interested, contact me at dymk-at--optimum-dot-net to discuss.
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Meanwhile, I seem to be alone in not pimping my work for various award consideration. Rest assured, it's less that I don't want to be considered and more that my short fiction output has fallen dramatically, and two of the markets that were supposed to publish stories last year have failed out. Alas.

However, for those who are curious/tend to nominate, for your consideration:

"Illumination" in UNUSUAL SUSPECTS, edited by Dana Stabenow (December 2008) [fantasy/mystery]
"Wolfling" in Abyss And Apex #26 [sf]
"Dreamcatcher" (novella) in e-format from Nocturne/Harlequin, as Anna Leonard (September 2008) [paranormal romance]

FREE FALL (Luna) [fantasy]
THE NIGHT SERPENT (Nocturne, as Anna Leonard) [paranormal romance]

It was pointed out to me that yes, the meerkat's normal levels of activity are indeed "napping" and "go go GO!"

Today was very much in the latter category. Revising and BVC-related writing and conspiring, and a phone call that may make my life More Interesting, going forward, and back to the gym for the first time since I broke my toe..... and then some more revising.

After all the go-go-going, Tech Services came over, and while I fed same and his lady, the great Migration from Old tower to New tower occurred -- not without some mishaps but there was single malt and storytelling, so that was good, too. Stronger, faster, more able to handle multiple applications in a single bound!

Tomorrow (that is now today) is another day of Much Occurring. I probably should go get some sleep...