Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 27

Time casts a spell on you, but you won't forget me

I took another weekend off. So sue me. I needed it, I tell you...though I might have hypothetically taken Friday off, as well.

In my defense, I performed a lot more maintenance-style yardwork, and accomplished some boring-type shopping. (Target run for household necessities, etc.) Basically, it was a day of catching-up on regular-life things, rather than writing-life and/or writing-business things. Once in awhile, I need one of those.

That said, Friday was a mixed bag. I was productive, yes - but I also got some paperwork in the mail that I passed along to our accountant...who informs me that (to sum up) I under-reported my income by exactly $666. WHICH IS TOTALLY NOT OMINOUS AT ALL. Because I prefer to view it from another angle: The universe is clearly endorsing my return to horror fiction, after my recent years in steampunk and urban fantasy. It's not the tax amendment of the damned - no, it's a blessing!

Here's hoping, I mean.

* * *

Hey Chattanooga-area folks:
Here's one hell of a dog, looking for a forever home.



"Kirkland" is a handsome, friendly pit-mix fellow who loves kittens, kids, and other dogs. (Note: Provided they're mid-size to large dogs...small dogs worry him, for some reason.) A neighbor of mine pulled him off the street late last year, after she found him wandering injured and hungry on Kirkland Avenue. She's gotten him vetted up, and she's been fostering him ever since - but Kirk would really love a proper home of his very own.

For more details, click over to this Facebook page - and be sure to run through the photos, because (a). they're adorable, and (b). there's some Official Type Info available therein.

Feel free to spread the love around on this one, eh? This pooch is perfect for someone/some family, somewhere.

* * *

So here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 2052
Present total word count: 59,262



Things accomplished in fiction: Recap and summing up of who's on what team, in a short but somewhat pivotal scene at the tail-end of the courtroom drama.

Next up: We return to our axe-murderer, who's about to have a very big problem. Bigger than being an axe-murderer, I mean.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunts with dog; Target run; grocery store run; bank run; saw Captain America and enjoyed it; went to bed early like a boring person but apparently I needed it, so, like, no regrets.

Other: This week, my goal is at least 1500 words a day. We'll see how it goes, but I'd love to crack 100k for the year by Friday. On principle, I mean.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 92,655

Each gentle sunny spring when they came back again

Yesterday was kind of a wash, I admit. I didn't sleep well, due to a combination of a cranky little old lady cat wailing through the night - and my husband's early rising to go try out for jury duty, as mandated by Official Summons. I'm kind of a hot-house orchid when it comes to sleep. If I don't get 6-7 hours bare minimum, I'm worthless all damn day.

Which is just a long way of saying that no, I didn't get any writing done.

That said, I did manage to keep a hair appointment and get myself some lunch; and then, because I lacked the brain power for anything too "thinky," I took the edge trimmer and went around the yard whacking weeds. It was satisfying and productive, if not exactly something upon which any deadline depended. And now my shoulders hurt.

In other yard news, there is no other yard news. Not right now. But when I finish up with this post, I'm going to make a phone call or two - and see about getting some quotes re: some retaining wall repairs and a patio...which might actually be the most boring and grown-up sentence I've ever typed.

But such is life.



And despite yesterday's failure on a fiction front, I rallied this afternoon - and there's wordcount to report.

So here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 2065 (not terrible)
Present total word count: 57,210



Things accomplished in fiction: Nasty little buttons that say nasty little things; chess pieces reveal sinister plays, and the game looks lost before it's begun; but our heroes aren't quite alone, not yet.

Next up: A little more courtroom drama; then perhaps a little murder or two.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; went to the grocery store; ate a burrito. (Not in that order.)

Other: I sat down last night with my handy-dandy legal pad, and made myself a loose timeline for the second half of the book. It's not an outline per se (I hate outlines)...but I need to remind myself of the beats I need to hit, and when I need to hit them. I don't always stick to these timelines with any great precision, but I find them useful for when I get stuck.

More other: The husband successfully deferred jury duty until September. In case you were wondering, for some reason.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 90,603

The darkest need the slowest speed

Today was a day for errands and whatnot, including such thrilling activities as going to the post office and bank, and getting our annual termite inspection. No worries, we aced it. [:: gold star ::]

I still managed to get some writing done, too - as previously vowed.

So here's recent progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 2710
Present total word count: 55,145



Things accomplished in fiction: Finished giving testimony, and formed a little island of sanity with a few other reasonable people in a sea of crazypants.

Next up: Ruth learns why Lizzie had such sympathy for her; a stalwart friend strives to be helpful.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; went to the post office; went to the bank; dealt with termite inspector dude; got lunch; did laundry.

Other: I actually wrote about a thousand of those words in bits and pieces, over the last couple of weeks. But a good 1700 of them came from today. I add them to my yearly total with pride! But no, I'm not tallying up the added words to Princess X. I'm not sure how many I added, with any real precision; and that total will shift over the next few drafts. Call it an executive decision.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 88,538

* * *

Back in 2006, my grandfather (a minister) performed my wedding. A handful of months later, he died. Today would have been his 86th birthday. With that in mind, here's a picture of him and Grandma in 1948 - because it's lovely, that's why.




* * *

And that's all for now.

The birds of leaving call to us

So I took a weekend off, and it was good. On Saturday I slept in a bit, went to lunch with the husband, and did some shopping before coming home to laze around and watch TV. Sunday was likewise pleasant, for we got a visit from an old friend of mine here in town - and her little dog Fiona.

Fiona and Greyson hit it off immediately and frolicking did ensue, despite the size difference between them; Greyson's about 85 pounds, Fiona is maybe a third of that. It really was adorable, the way they were instant friends - and after several hours (including a 2-mile walk around the neighborhood), both pups were happily pooped.

And, of course, Fiona's person and I got to catch up - which was half the fun.



* * *

In yard news, I'm still mostly doing cleanup - digging out dead things, pulling weeds, and tidying the old herb garden, or what remains of it. I used to have an herb garden, see. Now I have a truly outstanding dirt hole with a handful of salvageable items miraculously unmolested by a merry dog. I'll save what I can.

Since a couple of people have asked - no, I won't be planting a vegetable garden this year. It was worth trying for a couple of spring/summers, but the undertaking ultimately proved to be a lot of work for not a lot of return (in the grand scheme of things).

Frankly, I just don't have the time or interest for it anymore. Therefore it is with a renewed respect for farmers everywhere that I'm going to put a patio over that bad-boy, just as soon as I get my next paycheck of any substance.

We will get a lot more use out of a patio.
That's the long and short of it.

Besides, we have a concrete landing at the rear of the house that's starting to crack and sink. It was poured in 1930 when the house was extended, so it's had a good run - but it really needs to be repaired/replaced, and the companies I'm investigating should have no trouble taking care of that plus the landscaping tweaks. Might as well do it all in one loud, disruptive go, I say.

* * *

In work news, I spent the day rereading my progress thus far on Chapelwood. On the one hand it felt like a waste of a perfectly good day of productivity; on the other, I hadn't so much as opened the file in a couple of weeks and I'd really lost track of what I was doing.

In my defense, it features half a dozen POV narratives threaded together, one of which was brand new (written separately) and slotted into place without further inspection ... and I'm juggling three major [interlocking] plot lines between the POVs.

I had about 53,000 words to work through, which works out to probably a couple hundred pages of print. And, since I can't read without editing, the reading was slow. But I got myself all caught up, and tomorrow I'm diving back in.

So stay tuned for continued word metrics.
I hope...

That mass production profile

I'm back! More or less! Which is to say, I'm systematically scraping things off my to-do list, and clawing my way back toward only working on One Thing At A Time.

To wit - in the last week or so since last I posted, I both (a). successfully finished my review of/fiddling with Maplecroft's copyedits, and (b). wrapped up my first major round of rewrites on Princess X.

That's not to say I'm "finished" with either one of them, but for the moment I can at least pretend that Maplecroft is done; and with the heavy lifting squared away on Princess X, all that one needs is a finishing pass before I send version 2.0 back to the editor. I'm going to make that happen, but not until later this month - because the deadline is May 16th, and the longer I can let it "cool off" before I give it that final polish, the better the end result will be.

(Your mileage will undoubtedly vary, but I've found that simple distance between finishing a draft and polishing it up is the number one thing that most improves the final product.)

Anyway, I'm quite happy with how Princess X has shaped up with this round. I didn't make any great secret of the fact that I struggled with it at times, but with input from my editor and agent, I've finally managed to fix the fundamentally broken bits - and make it a lot better overall.

To give you some frame of reference, Draft One was about 63,400 words when I handed it in. In order to create Draft Two, I ultimately removed about 10,000 words...and then added another 16,000 - for a present total of almost 69,000 words. It was no minor undertaking, I assure you. And although Draft One was apparently well received, I think/hope/cross my fingers that Draft Two will really hit it out of the park.

Long story short, I'm now temporarily free to get back to work on Chapelwood. I think.

I'll return to that one come Monday. Why Monday? Because I'm utterly exhausted, and my brain needs a little break. I almost never give myself a weekend proper, but the weather will be clearing up so I can veg out, noodle around in the yard, and maybe catch a movie with my husband or something.

I'm not gonna lie: I find the idea of two whole days without doing any work ... kind of liberating? But mostly confusing. What on earth am I supposed to do?

* * *

The yard continues to explode with spring, and I continue to approach it like a lion tamer with a chair and a whip.

The front shrubbery and whatnot is looking a tad scraggly, but that's semi-deliberate; as previously mentioned, we had a bad winter - and not everything took it well. We've cut out quite a lot of dead material, added some good plant food, and left them alone to recover for the last week. Judging by the new sprouts and increased fluffiness, I'd say it's working.

Likewise, the hatchet-job I performed upon HedgeHenge is starting to pay off. The side hedges are just ordinary old privets, but they're quite old and established privets - and when they get out of control, they get SO FAR out of control that all you can really do is cut them down to waist-high nubs. They've looked pretty sad and naked for the last month, but they're starting to fill out again.

The warm, wet weather has been good for everything.
Except (to paraphrase GLaDOS) the things that are dead.

At present, I think the final tally of Things Lost to Winter stands thusly: One confederate star jasmine, two hydrangeas, one rhododendron, a couple of irises, some of the hostas, and a few lilies.

But almost all of the old stuff, and much of the new stuff added last year (after the big push to reboot the overgrown jungle this house had to call a yard) has survived. Among the newbies that are sticking around: the lilac bush, golden forsythia, the red rhododendron (the pink one died), three batches of yellow clematis, the white flowering quince, most of the new lilies and irises, all of the roses, and the Japanese maple.

All in all, it definitely could've been worse.

* * *

In animal-related news, the cat has figured out that she's more likely to get treats if she brings the dog to beg with her. You see, as part of the introduction/socialization thing, we would give them each treats at the same time, in the same place; and now when the kitty wants some crunchies...she's learned that "no" might not be the final answer.

So she disappears, and reappears with Greyson in tow a few minutes later, that they may beg in tandem. Together, they sit side-by-side and alternately stare at the counter where the cookie jars are - and make sad eyes at me. Because they know a sucker when they see one, that's why.

And speaking of critters - on Sunday afternoon, an old friend of mine is coming over with her sweet little pooch named Fiona. If it all works out, it should be a hoot; Greyson likes other dogs, and he's always happy to meet a new one. I will take pictures, I promise.

* * *

Speaking of pictures, I took this one last night. In case you were wondering, the toll to enter the den so you can watch TV is one vigorous - yet tender - tummy rub. And perhaps a smooch. If you are so inclined.

Have I doubt when I'm alone

So basically I'm full of crap, in case you hadn't figured that out already. It's become abundantly clear that I'm incapable of working on multiple projects at once, that's what I mean - even though I keep vowing that this time, things will be different.

This time, things are not different. This week I found myself badly tangled up between Chapelwood and Princess X, just like I said would totally not happen; so it's time for a change in tactics.

REVISED PLAN OF ATTACK:

(1). Go all-in, and finish major Princess X rewrites by mid-April, (2). set that manuscript aside for a couple of weeks and go back to working on Chapelwood, (3). return to Princess X for a finishing/sanity-check pass, (4). get back to work on Chapelwood so I can finish a draft by July and therefore (5). get started on Godbothering which is due at the end of the year.

And oh yeah, I have to shoehorn the Maplecroft copyedits in there someplace. (To be honest, I don't think they'll take more than a couple of days to manage. Knock on wood. I'll tackle them this weekend.)

Don't get me wrong - I can do this. I just need to do it better, faster, and more efficiently than I've been doing it so far. NO PRESSURE, right?

If I must convert this mayhem into a Learning Experience, I guess I've learned that I'm better off buckling down and charging through one thing at a time on overdrive...than trying to layer-cake it, even if that looks (on the surface) like the more sensible option.

To that end, I suppose I'll report my progress on Princess X thusly: I'm 4/5ths of the way through rewriting this draft, but this last chunk is the worst of it. Today alone I scrapped 2500 words and wrote over 4000 words, not including the usual tweaks, fidgets, and rearranging; tomorrow I expect to be roughly the same.

* * *

In other news, the yardwork continues apace - but not in any interesting fashion, really. I'm still weeding and pruning, but next week I hope to buy some new plants to replace the things that didn't survive the winter.

The cat and dog remain fuzzy and spoiled.

On Tuesday, I spent a chunk of my day hanging out with a dear old friend I hadn't seen in twenty years. She was passing through with her husband and kids, and I've got to tell you, it was an excellent excuse to have exactly nothing productive accomplished, work-wise :)

* * *

Not much else to report, really. Except for that Tuesday interlude, I've just been keeping my head down and concentrating on all this work. I'm barely tweeting, and FB won't show most of you anything I post anyway (anymore), so I'm starting to feel like the internet has all but forgotten me.

It's a weird sensation - on the one hand, liberating. On the other hand, I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun stuff.

But there will be more fun stuff later.

So please pardon the continued semi-silence, because I've got to beat this pile of paperwork into submission. I'll be back around when I can kick at least some of it off my plate, but until then ... have a most excellent week yourselves, and I'll catch up to you on the flip-side.

Loving my discards just to confuse me

I can neither claim to have taken the weekend "off" nor to have gotten much work done. But such is life.

No new writing on Chapelwood until today (and not much at that), but there was useful progress on the Princess X edits; and - because why the hell not? - the Maplecroft copyedits just landed in my lap.

I have until April 7 to turn those around, which shouldn't be a problem, I hope. I think I'll save them for this coming weekend, and just barrel through them in one long go. It'll be a slog, but it won't be quite so frenetic as trying to juggle three ongoing big projects on a daily basis. Or so logic would seem to dictate.

* * *

In yardwork news, I've now tackled the enormous holly hedgerow; performed some heavy thinning/pruning/etc. on the giant front hedges; weeded the side beds (including the row of knockout roses along the fence); weeded under the front hedges; and cleaned out the climbing hydrangea, reinforcing it for its continued trek up the corner of our house.

I'm awfully fond of that weird plant, and very proud of its progress. I didn't know what it was until my husband's aunt clued me in last year, because it just looked like a gnarled 2-foot shrubby-type thing that had (at some distant point in the past) eaten the stake to which it'd been tied. As it turned out, the poor thing had been planted and staked, and then completely forgotten about for years - during which time, it had collapsed upon itself.

Armed with new information, I began to disentangle that bad-boy...and found that once I'd pulled all the vines out of it, pruned off the dead stuff, and gently stretched out the main set of tendrils - in fact I had a 5-ft. tall flowering vine that very shortly clamped itself to the side of the house, and is now almost 6 feet tall. I'm very pleased with its progress, but because it was planted just a smidge too far from the house, I've been bolstering it with tomato stakes and providing lines of twine to help guide it on its path. Next year at this time, it ought to be firmly anchored enough that I can do away with all that.

Pardon me for being nerdy about it. When I realized what it was, and what it was going to become - given another few years of care and encouragement - I sort of fell in love with it. It is going to look awesome on this house when it's mature.

* * *

In pet news, all is likewise well. The other day we were reminded that Greyson is basically a mother hen in a 90-pound dog suit, when a mourning dove flew into our den window. He immediately ran to her, barked wildly to alert and summon me, and stood guard until I could get there - then whined anxiously for me to do something about it.

The little dove was only stunned. I picked her up and put her in a box, because Greyson's barking wasn't exactly calming her nerves - and besides, we have a crap-ton of cats in the neighborhood, most of whom are 100% comfortable wandering into our yard to see what the dog is barking about.

In a few minutes, she had gathered her wits again. I opened the box and she flew off. All's well that ends well, and I might actually have the world's sweetest dog. Just sayin'.

* * *

Here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 1074 (oof.)
Present total word count: 52,435



Things accomplished in fiction: Got called to the witness stand, but didn't throw up or anything, which was cool.

Next up: More testimony, most of which does not go particularly well. I'd predict further, but it's been slow going as of late, so I'd better not.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; some of what's mentioned above; quite a good chunk of work on the Princess X rewrites.

Other: Thus far, I estimate that I've removed about 2000 words from Princess X in the course of my edits, but I've added about 4000 - for a net win, yes. I still have quite a ways to go, and when all's said and done, I suspect this one is going to grow by another 4000-5000 words or more. Maybe? I don't know, we'll see. I'm pretty happy with the improvements so far; I actually feel like I'm fixing this thing.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 85,828

If you've got the inclination, I have got the crime

I'm trying this thing where I somewhat strictly compartmentalize my days - and therefore organize my time better, since I've got so much going on at the moment. To wit: morning (after dog-walking/etc.) goes to Chapelwood and/or writer business; break for lunch around 11:00 or noon; work on the Princess X edits until about 4:00, then spend an hour or two doing yardwork.

The yardwork thing is important. For one thing, it's good to get out of my office for a bit after concentrating on a computer screen all day; and for another, the weather is nice enough to keep it from being truly odious, so I might as well get it started now. Trust me, in another month our yard will be completely out of control if we don't - because that's half the fun of a 100+ year old house in the south ... the place goes feral in the blink of an eye. But if you can get ahead of it and do a little bit every day - you can save yourself a major horticultural marathon in the 3-digit heat later on.

Or so I learned last year. Ahem.

Anyway, today I pruned back some huge old butterfly bushes that had been damaged in our last ice/snow storm; pared the red quince back down to a sane size (that thing is a MONSTER that would eat that entire bed if I'd let it); cut and dug out a bunch of stuff that didn't survive the winter, including a rhododendron that made me sad (though another one pulled through, and is thriving); excavated the camellias, which survived not just the winter but Greyson stomping through them repeatedly; and performed some minor weeding.

Up next: I need to weed the ever-living hell out of the newer roses, prune back the old rose tree before it makes for the power lines again, clean the dead stuff out of the flower boxes at the front of the house, and tackle the hedges (hollies and front hedges, not the mighty Hedge Henge - which is still recovering nicely from its major pruning a couple of weeks ago). Once I get all that stuff done, THEN and only THEN am I allowed to go shopping for more plants to replace the dead things.

Right.
So. Until then.

Here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 1581 (not bad)
Present total word count: 51,361



Things accomplished in fiction: Finished one final back-fill segment, wherein we catch up to our axe-murderer and he figures out a thing or two about the new players in the weird situation.

Next up: The priest-killer's trial begins.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; all the stuff mentioned above; two chapters of Princess X preliminary edits.

Other: I'm shooting for 2 chapters of preliminary edits per day on Princess X, to good results so far. The idea is to massage in all the secondary stuff now that I've managed some restructuring, then go back and compose the new scenes I need to cement (and build upon) that restructuring in the next pass. Finally, I'll give it one last go-over before handing it back to the editor as (what is to be hoped) a Damn Fine Draft Two. Can I get this done in two months, along with everything else? STAY TUNED.

Other, and then some: I know it looks like that's maybe not the most jam-packed of all possible schedules, but everyone's capacity for creative output is different ... and I know my limits. I can absolutely pull longer days if I have to - but not for very long, and then I tend to have a pretty bad crash and burn. It's like I've said before, I just have to pace myself. My output is better (and ultimately more copious) this way, and I am saner. For a relative value of such things, natch.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 84,754

A strange hunger haunted me

Princess X revisions: Officially underway. Some bits will go faster than others, but I'm pretty happy with the heavy lifting accomplished on the first couple of chapters - and tomorrow, I start breaking things open, then putting in placeholders for new scenes.

I'd say something like, "So far, so good," but I don't want to jinx myself. Knowing how I intend to fix a problem is not the same thing as easily doing so.

Anyway. Here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 1337 (heh)
Present total word count: 49,780



Things accomplished in fiction: Wrapped up the most recent axe murder, in a sufficiently messy fashion.

Next up: All caught up, and back into the fray. I haven't decided which POV to pick up next, though. Still juggling a couple of options. Hm...

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; precious little else. Been feeling a bit "off" today - but at least I got some writing done, in addition to the Princess X revisions.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 83,173

These dead men walk on water

I did not actually begin my rewrites on Princess X today - at least, not in the sense of opening the file and diving in. The editorial letter and accompanying detail outline had given me a lot to think about, and I realized I needed to sit down first and (a). address some big logical leaps, (b). adjust some motives and their particulars, and (c). plug some holes.

Or rather, I realized I need to do some restructuring so the issues above are addressed at their foundation, and not merely patched. If that makes any sense.

So after I put in a couple of hours on Chapelwood, I sat down with a notebook and came up with a strategy for this restructuring; and I think I've laid the groundwork to really shine this bad-boy up. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and check the big picture, that's all I'm saying. It beats diving in and flailing around, anyway - and it gives me a chance to get it done right.

Actual rewrites begin tomorrow.
I bet.

Now...here's today's progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 1415
Present total word count: 48,443



Things accomplished in fiction: Got the most recent axe murder underway, by which I mean, we've discovered and begun to stalk the next victim.

Next up: Lots of blood, I expect.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; filled out some paperwork re: an upcoming convention; went to lunch; went to the grocery store; got myself down to inbox zero again.

Other: Someday, maybe I'll be in a position to work on just one book at a time. That would be nice. [:: sigh ::]

Number of fiction words so far this year: 81,836