Laura Anne Gilman's Blog, page 73

Read in 2014

* means it was on my #TBRin2014 list


3. *EIFELHEIM, Michael Flynn
2. KNOWN DEVIL, Justin Gustainis
1. *INK, Amanda Sun


I'm not sure if I should put client manuscripts on the list. On the one hand - they are books, and I did read them! And it explains why my published-book-reading was slow the past month. On the other hand... not published, titles likely to be changed, etc. And CLIENT MSS #1 and CLIENT MSS #2 seems kind of silly?

oh happy day!

that has such reorganization in it.

For today the long-awaited office cabinet arrived.

hrm. The cherry finish is a bit darker than I was expecting from the website/other things I've ordered from them, but not out of line with some of my other pieces, so let's roll with it...



And thus...

Lower shelf for laptop storage, tech and assorted cords, middle shelf for various and sundry common-but-not-everyday desk supplies, and the top shelf for All The Papers, so they no longer become cat toys.The dragon on top is Nate. 100% hardwood, so it should last forever.  Or at least a decade.

Monday's State of the Meerkat roundup

Some days, Twitter, I just don't know.




Meanwhile, for those of you who were offline this weekend...

Publishers Weekly reviewed FIXED - a few month late, but they said nice enough things ("well-crafted" and "(a) comfort-reading cozy.") that we'll forgive them. :-)

And there may have been a drive-by snippeting for the WiP on Friday.

And who watched Cosmos last night?  I was a little underwhelmed by some of it*, aware that they were starting with basics for a good reason, no matter that we already knew much of it, and still found myself moved and very much looking forward to next week...  what say you?

I lost Saturday to an all-day writers workshop, where I did not make anyone cry but there were a few thoughtful flinches at certain moments, so I'm satisfied with that (if you come out of one of my workshops not having had a sudden Thought about your own work or process, I didn't do my job right).  Sunday was...  well, when I spend all day interacting with a largeish group, I need a day to recover.  So, yeah.  This wasn't the most work-productive weekend ever.

And while the loss of an hour for Daylight Savings didn't bother me, this morning the fog over the sky is matched by a fog in my brain.  So much to do, so few available brain cells to do it in.... *yawns, dunks head in coffee, gets on with it*






*they might have been better served by a smaller budget for computer graphics, is all I'm saying...

Working On A New Bio....

Which is harder than it seems/should be.  What do you leave in?  What do you take out?  How many versions do you have? (some places have a 100 words requirement, others 250, some 500…)

What do you want to see in a bio?  How far out do you want to know about upcoming books/how old is too old for information to be included?  Mention pets, or don’t mention pets?

Here’s the one I sent to various conventions for 2014:

Laura Anne Gilman is the Nebula-nominated author of the “Vineart War” trilogy, the popular Cosa Nostradamus books, and the forthcoming “Devil’s West” series (Simon & Schuster, 2015). She also writes mysteries under the name L.A. Kornetsky (COLLARED, FIXED and the forthcoming DOGHOUSE), and has been known to sell the occasional short story or three. A former editor for Penguin, she now runs d.y.m.k. productions, an editorial/writing service, and keeps herself busy splitting her time between writing, editing, and traveling.

When I’m acting directly as L.A. Kornetsky I mention the animals, because hey, writing an animal-featuring mystery series!  But do CatofSize and the Kitten of Thursday and the Time-Share Puppy belong in LAG’s bio? (of course they think so…)

Originally published at Writer, Editor, Tired Person.

A little late, but we'll take it...

Publishers Weekly just reviewed FIXED! I'm afraid they're not entirely sold on Penny and Georgie as investigative sidekicks, but call it "well-crafted" and "(a) comfort-reading cozy."

Yanno, we'll take that. Because it's true. :-)

a snippet, a snippet for the hounds...

“Perhaps indeed I was, and perhaps I wasn’t and what’s dead to the wind and bones?” He spoke lightly, but there was a deepness to it that Izzy felt, the way she thought she’d feel loneliness or sorrow, an ache that stretched from her mouth to her ribs, a twisting line of darkness, hard and hollow.


Occasionally, this book fucking guts me. Those are the good writing days.


Averaging about 10k/week on this, and another 5K/week on the 4th Gin & Tonic. I'd like to do more, but then I'd be falling behind on other (editorial-ish) deadlines, and that's a no-go.  Still, if I can keep this up reasonably well, the deadlines will come at an easy trot, not a mad, heart-thumping dash.

That would be a nice change.
.


(boo, my animated gifs are not animating in LJ.  LJ, some days I swear...)

Thursday looks back on Wednesday....

Yesterday saw 2k on SILVER, 1k on Gin & Tonic #4. Not stellar wordage, but good enough. Decided to stay home and make a healthy dinner instead of meeting Industry People for drinks, which proves that we're in the rat's ass of winter, where we've gone past cabin fever and into cabin coma.

I've also started getting wistful about my bike. Clearly, it's time for winter to pack up and go. Don't you hear Australia calling?

Today I need More Words, and also to polish up my lesson plans for this Saturday, when I'll be Imparting Wisdom (and some Foolishness) at the first IConSF writers workshop.  *rubs hands in evil kindly glee*

And, for your amusement:  

WASHINGTON -- The next time someone accuses you of interrupting, you might want to explain that you are not being rude: You're actually engaging

This did not surprise me in the slightest, but I am going to pull it out and use it next time someone pulls the "you're so rude" comment about New Yorkers (or mid-East Coasters in general).  Because  nope, it's just we're not adhering to your cultural norms.  And that's fine - because you're not adhering to ours, either.

(c'mon, people!  if you're into the conversation, get into it!  Lean forward!  Move your hands!  Jump on my comment with a "no, but wait!"  This isn't a spectator sport, you know... *g*)

So that was Tuesday....

Today, as predicted, was not as productive. Unless you consider a "half hour lay down until the pain meds kick in" nap turning into a three hour snooze, productive. On the other hand, I did have a rather bizarre dream involving college, some kind of street carnival-slash-greenmarket with a little ethnic food faire on the side in a wooden maze-like roadhouse, and a Very Pressing Need to get back to campus except I'd misplaced my bag with my sneakers in it and when I got to the front where I was supposed to be leaving with people there was only an unmarked mini-van like bus pulling away on the city streets, none of my cohort and not the campus bus I was looking for.

Oh, and I was wearing a beige trench coat and had the vague sense of being Vastly Confused by Everyone, so my dream had me cosplaying Castiel? (the fictional character, not the cat)  Brain, you're weird.

So yeah, not a productive afternoon - although I did get chapter ten revised and fix a point one of my beta-readers caught. The rest of the day was given over to a 45 minute phone call to hash out a potential misunderstanding, a 30 minute vet stop (plus 15 minutes travel time), and back and forth emails with agent and editor dealing with DOGHOUSE (Gn & Tonic #3).

So, basically, today was my Saturday - a little work, a few chores, and a lot of napping.  And now I'm going to spend most of the evening watching tv and griping chatting with friends online about that tv.

I can mix one glass of wine with naproxin, right?

proof of work, and unwork.

Killed any number of little darlings today.

He’d thought the brim would shade her face enough, the crown suitable to a woman. He hadn’t thought much more than that. He hadn’t thought, once her face was half-shaded, the dark brown felt matching the dun of her jacket and the dust on her boots, that the Isobel of the saloon would begin to disappear.

and

One of the faro dealers had developed a case of nerves that made him imagine spiders on his arms when he was falling asleep.  He’d sworn off drinking and moved south to take up farming, instead.  But Izzy hadn’t had a drop to drink, and quitting wasn’t an option for her.

Still ended up adding 3k new words.  Oops.  Chapter 8 is with betas. Chapter 9 and 10 revised.  Chapter 20 rough-drafted.


In other projects, we're 4,000 words into Gin & Tonic #4. The opening line: Going sixty miles an hour was no time to feel someone licking the side of your face.

So that's 7,000 words on the day.  God, bring me that pizza, and a drink.

And two new freelance stories just landed for editing.  Better make that drink a double.

State of the Meerkat, Monday Edition

March did not exactly start off with a bang - Saturday was reasonably busy, but then I got nailed with serious insomnia Sunday morning (not a thing I am normally prone to, thankfully) and the rest of the day my brain felt much like wet taffy. I can no longer function on 4 hours of sleep.  Oh hell, I never could. Six, yes. Four, no.  Managed to get some editing and pre-editorial reading done, but not so much with the writing.

On the other hand, I did manage to clear out and sort my email, so that the Actual In Box (as opposed to the side subject folders) is easily scannable, and nothing will get lost.  For at least a week, anyway.  However, in the process some settings got wonked (I touched nothing, I swear!) and now Thunderbird will only d/l email from the Gmail account, but not SEND anything, and ignores the sff.net account entirely.  I have access to mail, I just have to interact with it via the web portals, which I HATE. Have sent out the usual cries for help to the usual suspects.

This week, I'll be doing the final pass on DOGHOUSE (Gin & Tonic #3) page proofs, working on a client manuscript edit, starting work on the Kickstarter bonus projects, and continuing work on SILVER ON THE ROAD (The Devil's West 1) and TAGGED (Gin & Tonic #4).  Oh, and there's that short story I started, too.  Should go poke at that some more.

Slide a pizza under the door, willya?

Meanwhile, there's a nice review of PACK OF LIES here, from Musings And Ramblings. It's always good to see older books getting discovered/loved. :-D