My sword is a realm of suffering

So, a couple things happened today. First, I was diagnosed with tinnitus. That's a persistent ringing in your ears, for no good reason. Mine seems to have been triggered by a head cold, and might go away. It might not. It really isn't that loud, to be honest. I only notice it when it's quiet, and it really only sounds like a muted television is on somewhere. That high pitched sound you get out of electronics, you know? I'll probably get used to it just as it's going away.

I also finished reading Steven Erickson's Gardens of the Moon. It's the first of many books in his series. I was a little skeptical at first, what with the guy on the front with the Miami Vice beard and the mullet, swinging a two-handed sword. But the storytelling was good, and the world is...deep. I don't know. It's the highest of high fantasy, but I enjoyed it a lot. There are some really big moments in the book. Gods ascending, ancient forces gathering, "Save yourself, wizard, the earth has nothing left for me!" Bash boom cities blowing up. But it's a great time.

Hello, Joshua!

Got the official welcome to the club from my agent, Joshua Bilmes. Check it here.

Things are going well with the book. We've started talking covers and marketing and all. Exciting stuff for the community, if nerve-wracking.


Let's see, I moved to Chicago in 1991. Right? I remember the first really cold morning. It was probably February of the next year (I moved here in the Fall, for school) and I went out in my usual winter clothes. I got maybe five steps out of the dorm when my nose hairs froze. For the first time in my life. I stopped and looked around and said "Why in hell do people live here?"

So. That's the kind of weather we're having right now. And I still ask, sometimes.

In the arms of Ebd and Dunje, a city of cog.

Work review today. You ever feel like your career has run into an invisible wall? You feel like, no matter what you do, things will never get better? Years of that. It gets heavy. Escape plans take time to get together. Also, I'm not too happy with the calendar I bought for my office. It's waterfalls (those of you familiar with Veridon's environs will understand) but january at least isn't too impressive. Better ones later in the year, but I need waterfall power now. Today.

Book Tour 09

Well. There are people who know this already. Don't feel bad if I haven't told you. I lose track of who I've talked to about this, and who I haven't. You know I love you all.

I sold my book. Signed the contract today, mailing it off and grinding away at the word counts. The book went to Solaris, so yes, I actually am a famous British Author. American born. Also, I've never been this busy in my life. There's the first book to finish, the second book to set up the proposal for, the YA book to start refurbishing, the epic fantasy to block out. Oh, and the day job. And my lovely wife, who deserves all the credit in the world for putting up with me when I'm cranky and generally a bitch. Love ya, pie.

Happy or Content? Happy

Man, I'm so bad at this. I need to make an effort to get words on this page everyday. It's not like I have anything else to do with my time. Sheesh.

I'm settling into that old pattern of discontent. This most frequently expresses as a desire to move, usually in radical ways. I've casually priced homes in four different states this week. Nothing will come of it.

In the mean time, I'm learning a lot about the publishing industry. Not really, but I'm being exposed to a lot of information about the industry, and some of it is sticking. Well, it's sticky at least. I've become convinced that the prize giving bodies of the industry are not functioning in the best interests of readers. If you were to take all of the stories in a given magazine for a year, and make me read them, and then ask me to select the one I hated the most, I can almost guarantee that's the one getting nominated for the Hugo. At the least, it's getting pulled into "Year's Best" anthologies and getting nods for the various lesser awards.

I'll just appeal to my readers. Selling books will be my prize, and a career of doing what I love will just have to serve as consolation.

Well, I'm between projects. I turned in a story for an anthology over the weekend, and I don't want to move forward on my other project until the details are firmed up. But I don't want to sit around an watch television, either. I spent some time last night just kind of daydreaming, working on ideas for an unrelated series in my notebook. I dug up a plot and world from before I started writing seriously, something that needs to be seriously scrubbed before it can go anywhere, but it holds a special place in my heart. I don't know when I'll get around to actually writing it, mind you, but it's nice to have space to just run around and have ideas without having to meet deadlines or editorial expectations.

One of the things that will need changing is the naming conventions. I had been reading too much Jordan at the time (I'm one of those people who loved the early series, then fell away around book five or six when he got carried away with the description and lost sight of the storyline) and the names are all high fantasy. One of the god's name? Shadoth.