a week of work

With the arrival of September and the start of (pre)school, I have gotten more work done in the past week than in the past three months combined. There’s a cafe in the same building as my son’s preschool, so I’ve been dropping him off, walking thirty meters to order a cup of berry tea, and sitting down to write for close to 3 hours. It’s a godsend.

On the second morning, the barista said, dubiously, “Do you *like* the berry tea?” and I cheerfully admitted it was about the only kind of tea I *do* like, as I’m not much of a caffeine drinker. People are always so very amazed when I say I don’t use much in the way of caffeine, as if I must be some kind of genuinely alien being. (It gets worse when I mention I don’t drink much alcohol, either. I’m not a teetotaler but I’m close enough for government work. All of this is not because of some degree of moral superiority but the fact that I don’t like the *taste* of coffee, tea or most alcohol. “You have to develop a taste for it!” people tell me, but I feel that if I have to develop a taste for it I probably shouldn’t be ingesting it in the first place. :))

Anyway. :) The same morning a man in the cafe asked what I was working on. “A book,” I said. “I’m a writer.”

“Oh,” says he, “have you published anything?”

Me: “My 25th novel just came out.”

Him: O.O

I admit, I’d really like to be able to answer that kind of question with “Yes, you’ve heard of me,” someday.

(Neil Gaiman got to do that once on an airplane. Little old lady in the seat next to him asked what he did for a living and he said “I write books.” She said, “Oh, how lovely. When will you make the NYT bestseller list?” He said, “Last August.”)

Over on Twitter when I announced my media blackout, fellow writer Adrian Faulkner threw down a September Word War gauntlet and we’re now working to…well. See who can write the most words in September, but it’s not really about winning, just solidarity, so if you need a kick in the pants, join us at #SeptemberWordWar.

Mid-week I caught up on MAGIC & MANNERS to a sufficient degree that although it kind of killed me to do so, I put it aside to start working on my nephew’s book. I’m hopefully halfway through M&M now, although…maybe not. :) And I really, really wish I could just charge ahead with it, but any way I cut it, my nephew’s book has a shorter wordcount to reach finished, and is also almost a year late. So. His book it is.

Except, as it turns out, I have gotten nowhere with his book, except deleting 7500 words and then staring at 10K I threw out a while ago and wondering if maybe that was better after all and finally, slowly and grudgingly, concluding that I may not actually have a plot for this book, which is…pretty depressing…and…yeah. So I have to go find a plot and unless I do it really soon this book’s not going to be done by the end of the month either and just argh.

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