Life at 900 Miles Per Hour

It's been pretty busy around these parts of late. Not really with the new book, though we've sent out some electronic galleys to writers in order to gather some cover blurbs.Giving them time to read the book while they do all of THEIR own writing stuff. I thank them for whatever effort they can give.

I've been writing, of course, though it seems to be going slowly. And I've been doing a lot of other stuff for book promo, all the pre-pub stuff that needs to be done. Mostly booking appearances. My May looks like a maniac's calendar. So far I am booked at the following places:

May 10-11: Maryland Faerie Festival
May 17-18: Steampunk World's Fair
May 24-26: Balticon

If this isn't enough, there's also a chance of my heading up to BEA the weekend after Balticon, just to hang out with other Strange Chemistry people and maybe meet my editor, Amanda. We'll see if that happens. These events above, I'm mostly doing promo for the book -- handing out postcards and bookmarks, and maybe some other goodies if I can get my crap together. I need something really cool. But since the cover isn't ready yet I can't quite do that. Hopefully soon!!! Once that cover comes out, I'll be doing a cover reveal at YABC and all over the place!

Oh, and at Balticon I'll also be launching GASLIGHT AND GRIMM, a Steampunk anthology coming from Darkquest Books, where I have a story, as well as (hopefully), Alma Alexander's new YA book RANDOM, and the new Steampunk YA, ALI BABA AND THE CLOCKWORK DJINN, both coming from Palomino Press.

THEN, I'll be on faculty for the NJSCBWI conference at the end of June. And finally, I'll be at CONvergence July 3-6. Or mostly July 4-5, since the 3rd and 6th will be travel days. Now, at THAT convention I WILL be signing ARCs of the new book, stationed at the Strange Chemistry book in the dealer's room. There may even be some kind of SCB reception/meet-the-readers kind of thing. Not sure yet.

Yes, the schedule is packed. And somewhere in there I will also be working on the launch party for A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON, which looks like it will probably be in a Haddonfield, NJ in September, and then booking up some signings after that, before I go to the Baltimore Book Festival at the end of Sept.

And, if that that wasn't enough, in the middle of all this...I got a new job. I haven't really been talking about it too much because it sort of happened in Slo-Motion. First I sent a resume, then I had an interview, then another...then I got the offer, then I had to wait for their school board to approve me, then I had to submit my resignation at my old job and give my notice. Now it's all paperwork to be finished.

I am really happy about the new job. I will miss the people and the kids where I am now, but in the end it's the right choice for me for about a million reasons. Older kids and older kid books (its a K-8 school). Structure. Dependability. All kinds of other things that would take another ten pages to explain. It's not any closer to my house, the money is slightly less, but in the end it's what I need to do.  And, of course, the timing is terrible. I'll be starting right in the middle of state testing, right at the end of the year...and right before my writing life goes from 0-60mph in about 2 seconds. I start April 30.  I know, I must be an idiot, but this is the way it had to go.

I WILL make it. I won't bail, or fall. And in July, I will sleep. And sleep. And hopefully have enough of the new books done that I can spend the summer revising and turn them in in the Fall. Sigh.

My Aching Writing Life!

Greetings, all!

It's my turn once again to post.

I almost didn't make it. Even with the multiple reminders that pop up to warn me ahead of time. But I have reasons.

I'd read back in January that 2014 was going to be a very chaotic year. And is it EVER!

I'm always mentioning in my newsletters how busy I am. But 2014 has punched 'busy' in the face and made him step up his game. Life since January has been Super Busy! (Just when I thought I'd had my fill of it, it raised the stakes on me!)

Busy is not a bad thing. Beats being bored any day. But there are limits. And while I've been doing writer type things as part of all the 'busy', I've not gotten any actual writing done for months. :(

My day job is in accounting. And for the last two years, my company has been working to get in line with audits, systems, processes, and all sorts of other things. Overtime has been plentiful...and ongoing. Then I added more - Inner Demons was picked up by Mundania Press late last year. Hadn't expected to hear from them for months as getting a contract is a fabulous thing, but also normally means you've now been put in a long cue and will need to do more waiting before your book rolls into the editing phase and beyond. Well, imagine my surprise when they assigned me an editor right away and we got cracking!

So overtime at work, overtime at home. Then having to go over the final version for that last pass for finding last minute mistakes before the book hits print. (Water heater broke and we were without electricity for over half a day during the weekend so they could fix it - best blessing ever! I made sure to charge the batteries on my laptop so I could do my last pass while they shut the power down - 6 hours straight I would not have gotten otherwise! Booyah! (The kids were twitching from 'lack of internet' withdrawal though.) Heh heh)

A month goes by, overtime waxes and wanes but does not go away. I do some side web work for one of my publishers and their host has been hacked. Been battling changed files and other issues for MONTHS. I swear there's something major getting mucked over there almost every week!

Inner Demons is RELEASED! Now I've got to juggle work and promoting a new book! (Been doing abysmally at the second part. Wah!) Convention season starts. More overtime at work.

Noooooo! Edit sessions for Jewel of the Gods (no web page for this one yet) comes up and smacks me in the face! (Another novel I'd already been contracted for but this one is with Zumaya Publications. I'd put some edit sessions on the editor's calendar for Feb thinking all my year end accounting stuff would be done by then but... HAH!)

So here's how the last 3 weeks have run... 9 to 10 hours doing accounting work, come home, shove dinner down my throat, 2 hours online editing sessions, 1.5 hours of TV to detox, go to bed and sleep. Rinse and repeat. Throw in 3 day conventions and taxes coming due, and I've plenty to keep me off the streets and out of trouble. lol.

This is what I've felt like lately.

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 Heh heh heh.

But I will SURVIVE! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(Yes, step away from the nice writer lady. Do not make eye contact. She can smell your fear.)

Have an awesome weekend!!!!! (I'll be working...:P)