progress

5 Things Make a Post

Standard

1) I have three things left to do before I send Twenty Palaces to my agent: clean up some formatting issues like chapter headings, spellcheck, and check every instance of “him” in the script to see if I should have changed it to “me” when I went changed the book from a third person pov to a first person pov. So incredibly dull but I’m really catching some embarrassing errors, like “I jumped to his feet.” Oh well.

2) Here’s my Norwescon schedule:

Friday: Whatever I want.
Saturday: Whatever I want.
Sunday: Stay home and hang out with my son.

Hah! I’ll be there as a regular attendee, mainly to look around and see whatever this is to be seen. It’ll be my first convention, so I don’t expect to know anyone. If you’re going to be there and you see me, please feel free to say hello. I look like this. Also, I have a terrible memory for faces and names, so don’t be offended if it takes me a couple of seconds to “place” you.

3) Seattle is enduring the coldest April on record. I’m sorta sick of it.

4) Revisions on Twenty Palaces have taken control of my life. I can’t wait to send them off, if only so I can go back to responding to comments promptly (as opposed to passive-aggressively complaining on my blog, like this post) and reading books. Honestly, I can’t wait to spend some hours every day reading.

5) This NY Times article (only available if you haven’t used up your 20 articles/month) isn’t the first time I’ve heard that fidgeting has a powerful effect on weight gain and loss. I’ve been using my standing desk more often (thanks to the Topricin my wife just bought me) but I attribute most of the weight I’ve lost recently to the fact that I’m getting the sleep I need. I still have a long way to go, of course.

A quick note about Twenty Palaces books

Standard

For a while I’ve been working on a project I haven’t wanted to be specific about, but what the hell. The deal is, I’ve been revising the Twenty Palaces prequel (cleverly titled Twenty Palaces) in the hopes of…

Actually, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. When I review what’s coming up this summer, I don’t really see a window when I could release it independently (unless I was intent on messing up Del Rey’s plans for the summer–more on that later). Maybe this fall?

Anyway, I’ve been working like crazy on the book, cleaning it up and fixing the story. The scene where Ray creates the ghost knife! His first meeting with Annalise! What exactly he did that made her hate him sooooo much!

It’s been fun, and it’s been instructional to see how screwed up this book really is. Sorry, everyone I ever queried about this! At some point, I’ll have to write a new story of how I got an agent and landed my contract, because now that I’ve seen the book that didn’t sell, I know I’ve been telling the story all wrong.

Today

Standard

Today, while I worked, my wife and son rode their bikes more than fifty miles. They’re about to collapse into sleep, while I’m feeling restless. I want to work more on my book, but I know I should go to sleep.

Just thinking about it gives me a weird feeling I can’t quite articulate.

Five Things Make a Friday Post

Standard

1) Quick question: Should I do another August book giveaway to promote Circle of Enemies? I’m not sure it did me any good last time, as far as drawing in new readers, but it was nice to give away cool stuff.

2) My wife and son are spending the day on their bikes, riding the Burke-Gilman trail as far as they can go. That means that, instead of spending the day writing at a Starbucks and the library, I’m going to work at home, sans interruptions. Kitchen floor: swept.

3) What have I been working on? I should be able to let you know very soon.

4) Taxes are nearly done. At this point it’s about printing them, e-filing and transferring the money to the correct account. Also, I was a complete idiot about them this year. Here’s why: I’d been stressing over the bill. Now, we had the money in savings, but I was stressing over it because it would cut quite deeply into our cushion. It was only last night, late, that I remembered that I had a CD with no early-withdrawal penalties set aside specifically for taxes–and it has triple what I need to cover the bill. Phew!

5) I’m not gluten-free anymore. I did lose a little weight, but it was mainly because we didn’t have food available when I was hungry. Me with low blood sugar? Not a good husband. Not a good parent. Besides, it’s unsustainable and unhealthy. Also, it didn’t stop the allergic reactions on my face. (This is an FYI: no diet advice, please.)

Yesterday was one of those difficult days

Standard

Sometimes being a writer is easy and fun. You know what comes next in the story and you’re excited to get it all down, all the nuance and confusion, all the sudden unexpected turns of plot that seem just right.

I don’t have a lot of those days, myself. I suspect I struggle more than most writers; I’m certainly slower. I don’t talk about it online as much as I used to but yesterday, as I was doing some revisions, I realized a major complex scene was completely wrong and ridiculous. It turns out I’d established a much easier solution to the Problem At Hand early in the book, and why were they going to so much trouble when they already knew the easiest possible solution?

Discovering this sort of plot hole so late in the process fills me with despair.

A week or so ago a bunch of Tor authors, including Beth Bernobich, were doing a chat on Twitter, and I offered up a question that I thought the readers might be interested in: paraphrasing myself because of poor memory, I asked: “What’s the most surprising thing that’s different now that you’re a published author?”

All three writers gave pretty much the same answer (“There’s an awful lot of additional work involved!”) but for me it would be different. For me, the surprising change is that, as far as the writing goes, nothing is any better.

In non-writing aspects of my life, things are absolutely better. It’s great to have readers, and incredibly smart pros offering me revision notes, and to see my books in stores, and the money, too. All of that is better.

But in terms of sitting down at my computer and putting words on the page, there’s no extra confidence, no sense of validation, no ease or comfort. If anything, the struggle has extra headaches added to it: deadlines, personal and professional expectations, so on and so on.

So this morning, instead of getting out of bed, I laid there under the covers for an extra hour, thinking about the characters, what resources they had, what they needed and what they would never, ever do. I think I have the scene ready, and it’ll be better (not so “Hollywood” if you know what I mean) and shorter, too. What’s more, it’s a less tragic ending than I’ve been writing, which makes a nice change.

I’ll write it out later today or tomorrow. I’m nearly done with this thing (which for me means… what? two more weeks of work?) and then I can go back to something more fun. And hopefully I won’t have to freak out on Twitter again.

Time to go home

Standard

But I have to say I got a helluva lot of work done today. Sorry for ignoring you, internet! (Especially you, Twitter ::tickles Twitter under chin::) Don’t expect to see much of me tomorrow, either.

No internet today

Standard

I’m setting Mac Freedom for the full eight hours and heading out to work. That means I won’t be around until at least 2 PST and probably later. Don’t hate me if I don’t respond to your emails right away.

I have GOT to finish up these revisions, and while I won’t reach the end today, I hope to reach them very very soon.

Quick post

Standard

I’m about to get back to revising The Unnamed Project but I thought I’d drop in here for a quick post.

I have great news! … which I can’t share yet. Yes, I know, I’ve become one of those tiresome writers who talks about all the awesome things they’re not allowed to talk about. This one won’t be too much delayed in announcing; the contracts should be all signed and ready very soon now.

Gluten-Free! For the first few days I was doing pretty well (and dropping a few pounds) but fell off the wagon. I put the pounds back on and my face is inflamed again. Annoying. I also tried out a few of the apps folks recommended but they were unsuitable for one reason or another.

I tried the free version of the Livestrong app, for example, but apparently there’s no way to put a food into it at quantities smaller than their minimum serving size. Apparently, everyone who has maple syrup eats a quarter cup of it at one go; no one ever just adds a tablespoon to their yogurt. It’s also annoying and I’m not sure if the paid version fixes this flaw.

Galleys for Circle of Enemies! are done. I’m going to make copies of them and then ship they back to Del Rey later this week. There are sections I wish I could iron out–not too many, but some–but I still think this book is the best I’ve ever written.

Science Fiction Conventions! I’m going to one. Norwescon, in this case. I bought a membership over the weekend because I figured I’m supposed to be going to Readercon later this summer and even (gulp!) be on a panel or something, so I should probably go to one as an audience member to see what they look like. I realize they’re not the same sort of convention, but what the hell. I have until the end of April to remember where I left my extrovert mask.

iPad! Finally, a gadget my wife will actually use.

Ebooks for 99 cents! Boy has this been bouncing around the internet for a while. Personally, I’m sure the price of ebooks will drop below the current prices, but I’m not so sure they’ll fall all the way to 99 cents. This indie author has an interesting take on book pricing, mainly because she isn’t interested in the 99 cent market. She doesn’t believe those readers will follow her to other, higher-priced books, and also that they’re kind of a pain in the ass.

Combine that with some other readers out there who say they avoid one buck books because they assume they’re crap, and you see a case for higher prices. It’s pretty interesting and things are changing quickly.

Christ, didn’t I say this was supposed to be quick? Time to work.

“It was as if they’d gathered together in one place as a gift, to give me another chance to murder them all.”

Standard

The galleys for Circle of Enemies are done, barring one or two fiddly little checks. I need to send a note to the associate copy chief to ask her a quick question, and I need to look over one bit of exposition. That will be no big deal.

I’m honestly curious how people will respond to this book–it’s a little different from the other two. It’s shaggier and more personal. I also wish I could give it another polish, but that’s what I always say.

Tomorrow I can get back to the project that can not be named, and soon, hopefully, to A Key, An Egg… It’ll also be nice to spend more time with my family, which I can never seem to manage.

And of course the subject header is a line from the book.

Corned beef, I will love you until the day I die

Standard

I’m leaving my laptop at home today so I can work on the galleys for Circle of Enemies without distractions. I won’t be checking email or reading online (unless I get to jonesing and stop off at a library computer).

You good folks have a nice day.