I went through the entire SHAMAN RISES manuscript in one pass today. This may have been a mistake, since it’s nearly impossible to retain any degree of impartiality after about a hundred pages in one day. But I’ve done the first revision pass, and holy crap, that book hits the ground running and doesn’t let up. And either it hangs together a lot better than I thought it would or I’m far too close to it right now to see its glaring errors. After a few detail fixes and a…
Okay, that’s awesome. I just got an email from a friend–the father of the boy that Billy Holliday’s son Robert is named for, in fact–who said he was hanging out with his son’s class on a beach day, and he (the father) was reading the Dresden Files. A girl asked what it was about, and he said “A wizard in Chicago.” “Oh, cool,” she said. “I’m reading something similar, but I can’t remember the writer’s name right now. I’ll get it for you.” “Heh,” my friend said, “I actually know…
Me, to Mom: Want to do some hired sitting this week? Mom: What book are you about to write now? Me: Just polishing up the last Walker Papers. NEXT week I get to write the Spirit of the Century novel for Fred Hicks/. Mom: In a *week*? Me: It’s only 60K. It is possible there is something wrong with me. (And also, no, I am not going to be writing a 60K novel in a week, although it’s *theoretically* possible. That theoretical world, however, is not this one. :))
Ted sent me out of the house today to write, which was an unexpected gift. So I went away, surprised myself by writing 5K in 3 hours, and finished SHAMAN RISES. The last words of Joanne’s adventures have now been written. Wow. I mean, there’s revision work to do, both of my own and editor-requested when those come along, but yeah. I’ve wrapped it up, and I’m surprisingly satisfied with the ending. I shall celebrate by watching at least one and perhaps TWO episodes of Downton Abbey. :)
I have a perpetual case of “Ooh, shiny!” in terms of wanting to do new projects; everyone, I think, knows that at this point. (And I am doing my damndest to keep it under control, but nevermind that right now.) Part of this is because new things are fun; part of it is unquestionably financially motivated. At EasterCon, I was talking with Walter Jon Williams about selling through Amazon (“I get a nice check every month from them,” he said. “It’s a bit like receiving your pension from Darth Vader,…