Still

Taking the week off was good. I'm going to get a little work done on the next book now, before something else shows up, but probably not terribly much. It occurred to me last night that we're very close to one year since I got the initial offer. It seems a lot longer than that, but the calendar says different. And it's just under a year until the book is actually out.

This is why I have trouble blogging. I don't have anything to say. Guess what? I still hate my job. I don't know why I have so much trouble being happy. I want to get to the next level, just like I did last level, and the level before. I still want to be better than I am. I still expect too much of other people. I still have friends all over the place, except for where I am. I still hardly ever talk to the friends I do have in the area.

So anyway. More work on the next book tonight.

Brutal Surgeon (A term I added to the book)

My god, I've finished the line edit revisions. I'm glad I went through the whole book one more time, because I found a bunch of remnants from the last big revision. It was nice to dust through the book and make tiny adjustments. I'm happy.

And now I'm going to put it aside for a while and let my editor take the next step. Probably won't do any more work until next week, because I've got a D&D campaign on Saturday. Should look over my notes.

Meanwhile, I read an interview with Richard K Morgan over at io9. I'm a big Morgan fan. He said some interesting things about noir that I hadn't really sat down and cogitated, and it's going to have an impact on the next book. But for now I'm just going to sit around and be mellow.

Well, when you say it like that

Once again, I'm sorry that it's been a week and a half. I've been busy. I took on some freelance work, and then my line edits came through, and then work got busy. And I got to Calgary next week. Helluva time.

Today I got the proof copy of the Solaris Book of SF 3, of which I am a part. It's heady company. My story appears next to Ken MacLeod. Intimidating. But I reread the story and I'm happy with it. It's true to my style, it's fun, and it's a good read. *shrug* Can't do anything more than that.

The freelance work kind of sucks. It's a lot of effort, and the pay is low. But it's hard to find work if you don't have much of a portfolio. You think ad agencies would like to see my collection of RPG work? Maybe my short story about monks killing a little girl? No? Hm, well then. What to do.

I drove thirteen hours

So. How about that economy. Good times.

I was home in North Carolina all last week, spending time with my parents and walking around the old home town. I like that place. The problem is that all of my connections there are laden with religious implications. My classmates are all missionaries and preachers and homeschoolers. Decent folks, and we get along just fine, but there's an awkward distance between us now. Half of what you believe is superstition, to me. Everything that's important to you is in your imagination. How do you have that conversation?

Anyway. It was good to be home. I wish the trees had changed, but they didn't.

While I was home I got my line edits from Nottingham. They asked for them by end of month, so I prepared myself to be all busy for the next couple weeks poring over the notes and making changes to the manuscript. And then I did the whole thing in two fairly short sessions, Sunday and Monday. I must be missing something. I haven't sent the correct manuscript back, because I printed it out and am giving it one more read through. It's been a couple months since I thrashed this draft together, so my eye on it is fresh enough. You know what? I'm happy with the book. I'm enjoying reading it. I think it's good.