Dancing to Dirges

Depressing and happy things Tim says, sometimes while drunk

Thursday, December 20, 2007

And the reviews are in

Well, mostly in. More accurately, the long tail of review sources for IZ 212 has finally ended, with the arrival of my December Locus. Overall the reviews for the story have been good. And since I'm officially committed to the long form now, these may be the last short story reviews I have to develop stomach acid over. Phase one, shutting down.

Apparently, we're open on xmas eve. Isn't that cool? I'm pretty much going to sit here and read all day long. There hasn't been much work, cuz people are winding down for the holiday early, and I don't expect it to pick up until the new year. Glad I like to read.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

I care for candy canes. I care a lot.

I have officially forgiven management for "pizza party holidays", because it was a specific choice between fancy party and bonus check. I think we all know where I stand on that.

I've found a sudden need to learn German. Also, my beard feels like a knit scarf, and winter is beautiful and clean and all the things that nature should be.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I'll just stop sleeping

It comes down to a negotiation between ideas and time. I only have so much time to write, both in a given day and over the course of my life. I have this problem with staying on task sometimes, because I want to get done with the thing I'm working on and get to the next thing in my head, because that thing is shiny and hot and all that beautiful stuff. Maybe with more time in the day. We'll see, once this becomes the full time thing. Someday.

Also? I love winter. It's damn beautiful. And staying in a warm house seems like a good excuse to not see other people. It makes it seem natural.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Grind comma back to the

Well, I'm back at work. Not much changed around here. It looks like our xmas party is going to consist entirely of "pizza" on "wednesday". I'm looking forward to that. Because, you know, pizza is a real treat. Maybe that's when they'll give us our bonuses! Ha!

I've started work on the next proposal. There's a rhythm here that I'm going to have to find...writing one book, pitching the next, transitioning from project to project like some kind of...monkey. Word monkey.

Right. Things to do before I can go home. Junk mail don't presort itself, bitches.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

I'm a Lit major, people. Data's a hobby.

Over the weekend I went to the xmas party of one of my clients. Complicated, because my wife used to work there and still does a lot of freelance work for them, and sometimes people leave my company and work there, and some of my good friends work there and we play poker together on a semi-weekly basis, but mainly complicated because they are a *huge* client of mine, like 60% of my company's income and you have to be careful what you say and blah blah blah. So it's always kind of stressful but also kind of fun.

One of the people who recently left my company and now works for this other company is my *heh* boss, as in the guy who just got bought out and was the source of so much trouble. Complicated? Yes. Awkward? Sure, why not. But we had a polite conversation and everyone was happier for it. Also? One of their HR people asked me if I was thinking of leaving my current employment, wink wink. That's nice, to be wanted, but I would pretty much never work there because they have a horrible corporate culture and strange ideas about communication and parity and all that. But still, nice.

Then, today, I have this meeting. I'm off all week, but one of Jen's clients wants to talk to me about data stuff. This guy also happens to be a client of mine again, a printer, but they recently added their own mail shop, so we don't do much for them. So we meet at a local coffee shop and I talk him through his data problems (not much to it) and at the end of the meeting he asks "So, you ever think of leaving that place?"

This guys no slouch, understand. I'd work for him in a heartbeat, but I've made certain promises at work, and I tell him that I'm here for at least six months. I'm giving them that long to straighten some stuff out. But he said, Well, call me in six months if you want. We'll always have a place for you.

So there you have it. Two offers in four days, and I'm not even looking. What I *want* to do is write all the time. What I seem capable of doing is data, and that well enough to be in demand. That's life.

Monday, December 10, 2007

This week's installment

Another week of "Practicing the Writer's Life" with Tim Akers. Today was pretty good. 2800 words, and I didn't get anything done this afternoon because I was 1) doing the grocery shopping and 2) fielding calls from the office. So that's a good morning's work. I have a meeting tomorrow morning, but then I can get back into it. I want to wrap this project up by end of day Wednesday. He said optimistically.

I've been cooking a lot recently. I'm just tired of packaged food, and it seems like a relatively easy thing to do. Put food together...make stuff. I don't know. It feels so *adult* though. And not in that Instant Access Now sort of way.

Friday, December 07, 2007

I don't really like monkeys, to be honest

Oh. My. God. Today is taking forever. I hate days like this. I should be doing something, or going somewhere. I have things to do, out there in the world. But instead I'm here, just staring idly at my screen and...direct mailing. It's reprehensible. I mean, there's nothing to do, but I can't write because that involves paper and pen and...not staring at my screen. And it's hard to pretend you're direct mailing with a fountain pen. Hmph.

The short story I'm writing is coming together pretty well. Scraps of the book that got discarded are making a contribution, though I'm not yet convinced that it's a shared-world work. I guess we'll leave that up to the editors.

Yeah. Slow day. And this didn't take up as much time as I was hoping, and I can't seem to think of anything else to say. Skullcrusher Mountain.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Missed out

Bummed I didn't get into this anthology here

Life will go on, I suspect.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Push that cart

Back to work. Apparently there are two furnaces for the office, and one of them is off. Not working. So I'm cold, and my hands are stiff. No fun. But it was pretty slow here in my absence, so all is well. No clients fired us, no one quit, the walls are all still in place.

Got a nice review of a story I wrote three years ago. That's always a nice bit of sunshine in the midst of random work. It's stacking up to be a busy year. I like busy years.

So little to talk about. Uh, we had an icestorm? I drove around in it, because I have priorities and fear ain't one of 'em. And I had places to be. And it really wasn't much of a storm. Really. This is Chicago, people.

Man. I wish I was at home, wrapping up a morning of writing with an hour of Starcraft before lunch. With my wife. Work sucks.