The final pass proofs for Dust just landed.

They want them back Oct 15.

Did I mention the 7,485 words I still need to cut from Ink & Steel, and the final revisions for that and Hell & Earth (for which I do not yet have an edit letter) both due Nov 1, which functionally means Oct 30, due to the abovementioned convention?

I'm not even thinking of the two novellas I need to try to write before I start Chill.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

The rock isn't going to cut it anymore. If anybody wants me, I'll be under this gun.

But right now, I'm going to walk down to the bank, and then come home and eat some oatmeal and do the long-put-off writeup post for CM 3x02, thank you for your patience.

Just so I have it all in one place: stuff I need to do.

Today/tomorrow:

*Finish going through the manuscript for Dust, make the (thank you universe) mostly light changes, corrections, and edits, and then type them in and send them to my Beloved Editor.
*Catch up on the reading I owe truepenny.


Before Readercon:

*Finish revising "Shoggoths in Bloom," including a new title. Then go through the half-ream of critical notes again and give it a final pass polish. Then figure out if it's SFy enough to send to Nature.
*Read the rest of the Viable Paradise slush.


This week:

*See my massage therapist and get to the gym at least three times this week. (Tuesday Thursday Friday?)


Before Bearcon*:

*Finish revising All the Windwracked Stars? Please?
*Write an urban fantasy short. Probably "King Pole, Gallows Pole, Bottle Tree," if I can figure out what it's about beyond a circus, Hoover Dam, and the Great Depression.
*Finish revising The Novels Formerly Known As The Stratford Man? At the very least, start revising it. Whether I have an editor or not.


Before Viable Paradise:

*Read submissions for critique.


Before the End of the Year:

*Write Bone & Jewel Creatures
*Start writing Chill, aka Jacob's Ladder II


Before the Middle of 2008:

*Finish Chill (due April 15. Tax day is doubly fun in Bearlandia.)
*Finish Secrit Novella Projekt

Oh no not me
I never lost control
You're face to face with the man who sold the world


Also, interspersed with this on an as-needed basis: conventions, workshops, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and galleys/proofs/CEMs/revisions.

Thank God for Google Calendar. What did I forget?

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*August 18th, aka my signing at Bakka Books in Toronto in August, with conflated Hanging Around with Friends.

It's mechanics time. I've decided, for various reasons, that the first book will have a very brief author's note at the front ( text of note here )

The second book will have something to this effect at the front:

Author's Note:

This is the last two fifths of a novel. The first three fifths are in another volume, entitled The Stratford Man. Turn back! Turn back! Find the other book! Read it first!

Otherwise, I expect this will not make a lick of sense.

And something a little more complete at the end.

( Draft author's note for The Dead Shepherd )

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In other news, I'm pleased to say that the well-known phenomenon of inspiration being found dissolved in common tap water, especially when the water is on the warmish side, holds true, as I have this morning in the shower come up with the solution for a sex scene I've been displeased with for the past two years.

And no, arcaedia, it's not the one you didn't like. *g* I just keep adding more bad puns to that one.

Now, tea and bread and butter, and on to fix that scene before I forget what I was going to do.

I checked fifteen things off my to-do list today.

It's longer than it was when I started.

Life is so unfair.

In good news, however, I am now the proud possessor of Singer's Creation's freeware Stickit program. So I no longer have to actually write my to-do lists on post-it notes and stick them to my monitor.

Now I can type them up and stick them on my desktop, over the icons I never use.

If only this sucker supported strikethrough. That would be a damned satisfying program.