Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The story so far...

Since I've neglected to post for quite a few days on quite a few topics of interest to myself (if not to you, the loyal reader) I hereby decree this will be a blog of no single topic, but rather a gooey confection of many random bits. Enjoy:

The weekend was a whirlwind. Friends came in from out of town, and we spent the day at Fiesta Texas. In 100 degree weather. Even though most of the time was spent in the waterpark, we were all pretty much drained all of Sunday. I managed to do some reading, but just a little bit of this and that--nothing really substantive. I also transplanted a palm tree from a large pot in the front of our house to the ground in the backyard, because it was dying anyway and the change might do it good. But then the girls' kittens attacked it, so I may have merely hastened its death. Also discovered the first passion fruit of the season dropped from the vines, but the beagles got ahold of it before I found it and mangled it pretty thoroughly.

I wrote a little on "The Whale Below" Friday night, and again Monday, but the words are coming excruciatingly slow. It doesn't seem so when I'm actually writing because the flow is steady, more or less, but at the end of two hours I scroll up and see I've merely completed a page or so... man, that sucks. What I'd originally planned to be a one-week jaunt has expanded to take up almost the entire month of August. The good news is that I've gotten to the point where there are only two sequences left, so perhaps this week I really will finish it. Hey, even under the worst-case scenario I'll have it finished in time for Turkey City on Sept. 30. I've also been distracted by a side project that has gotten far more positive feedback that expected. I'm dumbstruck, really, since similar endeavours in the past have been met with resounding indifference. With luck, I'll be able to say more about this after World Fantasy.

And speaking of Turkey City, Bruce Sterling's working on a new novel, and has called for a Turkey City on Oct. 14 to beat some of it into shape. Glutton for punishment that I am, I've signed on for that and will be taking some chapters of Wetsilver in for evisceration. I figure that deadline can serve as a jump-start for my renewed efforts on the book. It's looking pretty bleak for my original plan to have Wetsilver finished in time for World Fantasy, but with two months to go I don't see it unreasonable to have the first two-thirds completed in semi-final form. If nothing else, at that stage I won't feel bad about chatting the editors up about it.

Mark Finn has sent me money. I wish that everyone would send me money. This money isn't without strings, however. The devious Mr. Finn has contracted me, Brewmaster to the Stars, to craft a limited-edition beer in support of his new book, Blood and Thunder, a biography of Robert E. Howard which will be released at World Fantasy. Coincidentally, this beer will be available to members of said convention. Clever, huh? I wonder why nobody has thought of that before?

A review of mine sent in to Green Man Review apparently never made it to its final destination some weeks back. So that problem has been corrected.

Lisa has informed me that my birthday present this year is a set of tickets to Texas A&M vs. Army at the Alamodome on Sept. 16. The whole family's going. Should be great fun--haven't been to an Aggies game since they beat Colorado two years back.

Finally, I'm also facing some turmoil/interesting times at the day job. But unlike most cases of this sort, the upshot is potentially very, very good for me, if stressful in the interim. I'm not going into details here, because hey, who am I to jinx anything. But fingers are crossed.

Now Playing: Glasnots Brave Spirits

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