With all you thought you knew, coming undone

I swear I am not dead. I've just been busy, as I believe I warned in the last post or two. Several big deadlines have jammed up against each other, due to the vagaries of publishing schedules, unexpected changes, and my own tendency to overcommit myself against my better judgment. I am - in no uncertain terms - eyeballs deep. This will change, but not for another few weeks at soonest.

At present, I'm trying to pull together a rewrite for my Wild Cards story (it needs a new direction), attempting to wrap up the also somewhat extensive Brimstone rewrites (due at the end of this month), figure out when and how I'm going to manage my contribution to an altogether different mosaic project, and then move on to the first round of Agony House rewrites (due end of July). Following that, I need to finish a draft of The Toll by November.

I thought about compiling a list of all the fiddly things I've otherwise successfully juggled in the last few weeks, but decided against it. Lists are boring, and making one won't make me feel any more accomplished or less overwhelmed.

The only way out, is through.

* * *
Compounding my difficulties with excessive obligation ... I'm getting a new fence. This new fence will begin to happen early next week (probably) and it's going to be a really crazypants undertaking. Let me explain: Our back yard is enclosed by a 4-foot chain link fence, parts of which are at least 30 years old. These parts have two tress growing through them, in addition to decades of English Ivy, Persian Ivy, birdfoot ivy, morning glory vines, and a massive hedge of dying privets that's about 7 feet tall and maybe thirty or forty feet long.

All of this. Growing THROUGH the fence.

One of the trees is going to have to come down; the other we can save, and we plan to. (The losing tree is a hackberry - basically a garbage tree that's menacing our neighbors and we need to do something about it anyway. Two birds/one stone/etc.)

The fence contractor is a guy who's done work in our neighborhood before, and he knows about the tricky terrain/difficulties; bless him, he's taking out the hackberry and extracting/removing/carrying away all the chain link + attending privets - that part was written into the quote - but there are some things we need to take care of before he arrives. For example, we have a row of roses and a massive red quince that need to be drastically cut back to make room for the work. I have to take care of that stuff, and I have to do that some time this week.

In my copious free time.

The fence will take about a week, between the excavation/tree removal/other crap on this jacked-up lot ... but when it's done, we'll have the proper wood six-foot semi-privacy fence that we've been hoping to make happen for the last few years. It's just going to be a hell of a week.

* * *

You locals might've seen me on TV a couple of weeks ago, when I did the ABC affiliate's show "This 'N That" as part of Barnes & Noble's B-Fest for young readers. It was a good time. I had a good hair day. Later, I did a signing with Meredith Russo, and that was good, too.







Big ups to Kelly, the gent in two of those photos with me. He's the B&N media guy who kicked ass all day; and big ups to the girl who showed up in the Princess X tee shirt and a pair of red Chucks that she wanted me to sign. It made my afternoon!

* * *
Heads up - the awesome folks at Badali Jewelry are working up some killer bling based on my Lizzie Borden books (Maplecroft and Chapelwood). I got the prototypes in the mail the other day, and I am merrily wearing them all over the place.



I'll let you know when they're available for sale.

* * *

The household menagerie remains excessively fluffy and adorable, as predicted. Greyson and KittenZilla are still BFFs, the ElderCat is still fussy but tolerant, and everybody is hanging near the AC vents because it's been pretty hot here, lately.





And that's a nice note to end on, isn't it?
Let's do that, then - because I've run out of steam.

Thanks for reading, everyone.