Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Writing is Thirsty Work Sometimes

Greetings and Salivations. (Yes, I really do mean drool.)

I'm feeling somewhat silly and spacey. I got the galleys in. (WHOO HOOO!!!!) On time. Found a couple of funny boo-boos and a couple of not-so-funny ones. One of my favorites, instead of Samuel Adams DARK beer it was Samuel Adams DANK. I suppose it would be the perfect beer for a Goth to drink in a cave or dungeon. In another one a sentence got turned around so that instead of the sweat from his mug falling on the bar, he did. (That Sam Adams Dank is one TOUGH beer. Not for wusses!)

ANYWAY, I need to focus on writing, and on doing the website (the goal is to have it revamped by the end of September.) And the promo items, etc. Instead, I'm all over the place. I burnt myself out badly doing Touch of Darkness for one thing. For another, the health has been wonky. I'm having symptoms I haven't had to deal with in years. BLECK.

Hopefully my head will clear soon.

In the meantime. Drink up. [Grin]

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Grumpy, Complaining type stuff you may want to skip.

Blah, blah, blah.


Hi. I have a bad case of the—you guessed it—blahs. Nothing is really wrong. It’s just I’ve been stuck doing STUFF this weekend. You know what I mean. STUFF like, ooooh baby, working on getting all the viruses off of a laptop because they hadn’t updated or used their Norton for two years, and galleys, and cleaning house, and laundry, and repairing a hole in the wall, unplugging a stopped drain. . . STUFF. None of it is bad. All of it is useful and necessary. But it doesn’t really provide inspiration for my weekend. And it doesn’t make for an exciting blog entry.

Also, Lucky the Wonder Dog is being a POOP today. I love the dog. But she is a BIG dog with a LOT of energy. And if I miss walking her either morning or night I pay for it because she’s just that restless. Unfortunately, I’m not as young as I used to be AND it’s been @#$&* hot. (Okay, maybe everybody else doesn’t think it’s THAT hot, for summer, in Texas. But I do. So sue me. GRUMP GRUMP GRUMP.) So anyway, I missed the morning walk. And she’s being a POOP. But now she’s being a poop in the back yard for a while. And I am going to write to improve my mood.

Rather than bore you all more, I will try to cheer myself up.

Later.

Cie

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Odd

OK, it's early morning and I'm feeling. . . odd. I had a very important nightmare last night.

Important?

Yeah, important. You see, nightmares for me generally pretty directly address my life and my future with just terrible wicked symbolism. Also, from Biblical times and beyond nightmares and dreams have been among the way God nudges his people. So I take some of them pretty serious. Not all. But you can usually tell the ones that are just indigestion from the ones that have meaning in real life (if you can just unravel the symbolism).

I realize that probably makes me sound like a lunatic. But there you go.

SO, I'm trying to unravel the symbolism and NOT forget the details this morning. Thus far, I'm making slow progress on it. I do know that some of what I've uncovered isn't exactly flattering. It shows my faults in all their hideous glory. Oooh baby. Just what I wanted to look at. (NOT. But then again, I probably should. I am TRYING to fix the suckers.)

Maybe I'll go look on a dream site and see if any of the symbolism they talk about helps.

Later.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Clearing Some Confusion

OK, I re-read yesterday's post and would like to clarify something. Heather Osborn ROCKS. She is the editor that replaced Anna Genoese at Tor. We are looking forward to working with her. BUT based on logistics (she's new, she hasn't had a chance to read our entire backlist what with getting broken in and all) we are having Anna freelance edit the Sazi and Thrall books while Heather will be doing the stand alone and future stuff. (Assuming, of course, they WANT future stuff. I mean, Lord knows we HOPE so. . .) ANYWAY, no slight was meant to her. Heather is our esteemed editor as well. We work fast enough that there is plenty to go around.

NEXT -- we discovered that someone had pirated our stuff and posted it whole on a website. (SHAME on you!) Now folks, I know that books aren't cheap -- especially if you're a reading junkie like yours truly who goes through a lot of them. But PLEASE, that's what the library is for. That's what borrowing from your buddy with a promise that you REALLY REALLY REALLY will give it back undamaged is for. Or, if you're a little more flush, what used bookstores are for. Pirating is not only illegal, it's mean to your favorite authors. It steals the profit right out from under the book. This means that not only do we not get paid (bad enough) but that there is no sales record with the publisher, which lowers the books profit which may impact whether and how much they're willing to risk another book by that author. Please please PRETTY PLEASE don't participate in this.

At least we were in good company. Really, the biggest names in the business were up there. I suppose I'm flattered.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Newslettery Post/Simultaneous With Myspace

Hi guys! I am writing this bulletin because. . . well. . . because.

The draft of Touch of Darkness, the final book in the Kate Reilly/Thrall series is in the hands of our esteemed editor, Anna Genoese. We made it in ON DEADLINE. (WOOT!)

Cathy is working on the first draft of a stand-alone novel which is the next book due under our contract. It has a seriously cool premise and everyone we've talked to about it has been very excited to see what we can do with it. (And no, I'm not giving any hints yet. LOL)

The galleys are here on Timeless Moon. (This is the Sazi book with Aspen Monier as the lead female character). So that's first up on the plate for yours truly.

We are also working on completely revamping our website. At this point we're getting permissions for some of the content we want to include (like photos, banner, and so forth) and are brushing up on our web building skills. (That have grown a little rusty with disuse). But since Cathy and I are both very "hands on" types, we're actually kind of excited about having the chance to create it exactly (we hope) the way we have in mind. Wish us luck in pulling it off. When the time comes (which won't be for about a month I think) I'll send around notice and ask y'all to take a look and give me some feedback as to what does and (le sigh) doesn't work.

We're also looking at some promo items, but that's still in process as we wait for permission on some of the artwork we want to use.

FINALLY, Upcoming events:Cathy and I will both be going to FenCon September 21-23, 2007. For information on the con go to www.fencon.org.AND we will be part of a multi-author book signing on Saturday, October 20, 2007 from 11-2 or 3 at the Hastings in Stephensville, Texas. I'll send out more details when we get closer to the date. In the meantime, anyone who wants autographed copy of books by Cathy and I can call and order them from the Waldenbooks in the Sunset Mall in San Angelo, Texas. We periodically go in and sign their stock. The phone number is 325-949-7040.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all are well and happy. Keep reading.


Cie

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I SLEPT

At last, long last, I slept most of last night. Oh, I got up once in the middle of the night, but that's IT. Otherwise I actually got REST. No night terrors, no tossing and turning. Halle FREAKING Lujah.

Can you tell I was getting tired OF it as well as tired FROM it?

Writing is going reasonably well. Since I'm not the one on deadline right now I'm doing things like working on an updated website, advertising and promo items, cleaning the house, AND writing. But that's okay. It all needs to be done.

And right now what needs to be done is getting ready for work and walking the pup.

See you later.

Cie

Saturday, August 11, 2007

UGH

Remind me not to send e-mails when I wake up at 3:00-3:30 in the morning.

I am not tactful at the best of times.

When I'm suffering from insomnia is SOOOOOO not the best of times.

OY.

The thing is, I didn't mean to sound cranky. I didn't mean to sound possessive. I honestly don't care so long as the name changes.

I'll need to apologize. Again. Because I was a jerk. Again, again.

I do wish I was sleeping better. Just not. I've gone back to doing what the people at the sleep disorder center were telling me more faithfully. Thus far it doesn't seem to be helping much. At least it's just the insomnia instead of night terrors and sleepwalking.

I hate night terrors. REALLY hate em. However, I have to admit they are VERY useful for when you're writing horror. Because boy oh boy can you get that ole creepy vibe going after a few mights of coming half-awake to blood-curdling fear. You betcha.

Tonight I should sleep well though. I've been working my body VERY, very hard all day so that I will basically collapse when the time comes and hopefully sleep. Because on the days after a sleepless night I have significantly more pain than usual. I don't like pain. I also don't like taking things for the pain, even over-the-counter stuff isn't good for you if you do it too often. So, I try not to.

ANYWAY, I'm going to head out now and draft my apology. Ugh.