1) Origami as done by a master. I can’t wait to show this to my son.
2) An alternate history that I’m glad is alternate: The speech William Saffire wrote for Richard Nixon in the event that the first men on the moon could not return safely.
3) Steve Harvey: Relationship guru. All I need to know is that the book his advice is taken from is titled: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Pass.
4) The gender wage gap, state by state. I’m sorry to see Washington state looking so pale.
5) Win free manga!
I could not finish Man Bites World this morning before the signing. The end was just too far away.
After the signing, the socializing, and the lunch with an online friend and her family, my family returned home to the site of the copyedit of Game of Cages. It’s due back at the Random House offices on October 13th, which is a Tuesday. And if it’s going to arrive on time by express mail or whatever, I’m going to have to send it on Saturday.
That means I have one week. Did I mention that I’m a slow reader? That I’m trying to teach myself speed reading?
My poor wife is sick of her absent husband, not least of all because shortly after I deliver the copyedit, she’s going to be flying back east to spend some time with her parents. There’s talk of home upgrades for them. Who knows? I’ll be staying here.
However! I did not want to jump into the copyedit with MBW so close to finished. So that’s what I did.
Yep, Man Bites World is now complete in rough(est) draft version. A bunch of story beats need to be spackled over, there’s one section where Ray is too passive for the story to work, and one location that–surprise, surprise–turned out to be the scene of the climactic conflict. I have to go back and change the earlier scene to match them up.
And there are a lot of small changes to make. Plus, I should iron out the text. I’m not exactly Mr. Gorgeous First Draft (although blogging helps). Still, I solved that story.
So, a full copyedit in only one week is a challenge for me, but I’m going to do my best. But not tonight. Tonight I’m going to have another beer out of the celebratory six-pack of Dead Guy Ale my wife bought us, and I’m going to spend some quality time with the Internet.
… Was a success!
I signed 27 books for people in two hours, and caught up with a lot of old friends. Thank you, everyone, for coming down.
The podcast of the radio interview is available with Sohaib Awan is available right now. Give it a listen. Unlike the chat I posted previously, there are no embarrassing pictures of me, but you do get to hear me stammer and abandon perfectly good sentences.
Before you click and listen, though, I’d like to make one comment. This is the book I’m reading right now:
It has a female protagonist and sex, too. It’s also damn good. Just saying.
Today’s a triple book day–the copyedit for Game of Cages arrived late last night (so late that I didn’t find it until this morning), I’m hoping to write the last two scenes of Man Bites World today and then there’s the signing for Child of Fire later this morning.
Busy day. You know what worries me most? My wife and son haven’t been sleeping all that well. Will they have the reserves for two hours at the store and socializing after? dum dum DUMMM!
After that, I’m concerned about having the copyedit back to Del Rey in only ten days. Have I mentioned that I’m a poky reader? I do believe I have.
Btw, for folks reading this on LiveJournal, I’m still at skip=90 or something, and it’s been hard to find the time to catch up. Sorry.
To work.
It’s the fourth day that Child of Fire has been on sale. Yes, I am still visiting Amazon.com twenty times a day. Yes, I’m still checking for new reviews. Yes, I’m still glancing at the “sales rank.”
No, you don’t need to tell me that Amazon.com’s sales rank numbers are pretty much meaningless. Really, don’t. I already know that. But it’s one of only two ways I have of judging public interest in my book (all copies at my library are checked out or on hold) so I keep looking at it.
Before the release, the sales rank was in the low six-figures. On release day and after, it hung around 3K. At this point, it’s ping-ponging between 10K and 15K. I don’t care that it isn’t a good judge of how the book is selling. It’s the only input I can look at.
Am I the sort of person who makes an excuse to wander into Borders to see if there are fewer books on the shelf? (Apparently.) Am I the sort of person to linger by the shelf because a guy is standing right next to my book with a paperback in hand? (Yes.) Did I see a complete stranger carry my book to the register? (No. Congrats on the sale, Seanan McGuire!) Am I the sort of person who buys other books to hide the fact that I’m basically skulking around the store? (Oh, hell yes. And Mastercard is damn grateful). Were there, in fact, fewer books on the shelf? (Yes!)
Anyway, it’s weird. As Betsy, my editor, mentioned in the chat I linked to earlier in the week, Del Rey acquired my book with a pre-empt–before financial deregulation sent the economy into a nosedive. There are expectations for this book, and it has come out at a time of nearly 10% unemployment.
Which… okay. Perspective: millions of out-of-work people around the world is a bigger problem than the possiblilty that my book will underperform, but I can’t help but link them.
I keep wanting input but it’s slowly fading. I’m going to have to shrug it off soon and put it behind me. Soon. Don’t I know that it’s pretty much out of my hands now? (Yeah, in fact, I do.)
In other news, I hope to finish the rough draft of book three tomorrow morning before the signing. We’ll see.
Last night at dinner, my wife and I went back and forth over a question of protocol for tomorrow’s book signing, and I promised I’d try to settle the matter by asking you, O Internet, for your opinion.
After tomorrow’s book signing, I have a couple of people who want to have a nice lunch. Friends I only know online or haven’t seen in years–that sort of thing. After lunch, my wonderful wife wants to be prepared to invite folks back to our apartment for a little socializing.
Me, I expect to have run out of extrovert by then. Flip side to that is that I expect the signing and lunch to interfere with socializing, and I’d like to spend a little time with these people.
As for my wife, she has been having trouble sleeping lately, and I do *not* want her to spend today cleaning up our small, dark, cluttered apartment in anticipation of socializing tomorrow. She’s exhausted enough as it is, and I can’t do a damn thing to help her from my chair here at the ole day job. Did I mention that our living room has been taken over by fort-building?
On the flip side for her: She’s an extrovert and doesn’t socialize as much as she needs to. Having people over might actually energize her, even while it enervates me.
What do you think, O Internet? “Party at my house!” after the signing and lunch, or is that Simply Not Done.
Update: Thanks everyone. I’m convinced. We’ll be out of the apartment for our socializing.
I’ll be signing copies of Child of Fire at Magnolia’s Bookstore on Saturday, 10/3, from 11 am to 1 pm.
Anyone reading this is welcome, of course. I plan to have my extrovert face on the whole time.
Andrew Wheeler discusses the pricing of e-books, especially the widely-held contention that they should cost less than ink-and-paper books because they cost so little to create.
As Wheeler points out, creating the file is a lot more complex than “Print to PDF” or a quick bit of copy pasta. It’s also not free to store or sell after the file has been created.
As an additional datapoint, someone on my LJ friends list (not named here because it’s a locked post) linked to this news report about the launch of Amazon.com’s Kindle in the UK market. Is that a good thing? Maybe not for authors, since breaking down the various rights for different markets into “World English” reduces the money writers get. (For the record, I sold world english rights when I signed my contract). Also Amazon.com has worked hard to force huge discounts from publishers, which limits my payments (assuming I earn out).
At which point I say “Hrm.” In the years leading up to my sale, I tried to learn as much as I could about publishing, but I skimped on ebooks. I don’t read them and I know sales are still quite small, despite the noise people make about them. Plus, every time you scan a discussion of electronic texts, somebody starts waving the skull and crossbones, and I’m not interested is chewing that meal for the thousandth time.
Always something new to learn.
1) Suburban fantasy. Heh.
2) Chris Sims writes up another issue of the Anita Blake comic. Double heh.
3) “Is this a typo or are you being experimental?” Comments written by actual students extracted from workshopped manuscripts at a major university.
4) This is the best use for a droid I can imagine: R2D2 as mobile gaming unit.
5) I laughed while reading this: “Shitasmia,” or the first Mac/Windows/Linux rant worth reading, ever.
6) Who is HOBODARKSEID? And Why Should You Care? This, along with Shit My Dad Says, make me want to sign on to Twitter.
7) The true nature of Superman’s powers. Warning: pdf file.