Two Four Six Eight I Think I'll Hyperventilate

I'm taking the day off from writing The Shade Of The Moon, which isn't the same as taking the day off from thinking about The Shade Of The Moon, which is what I really need.

I am definitely overinvolved. It's pretty much all I think about, and when I'm not writing it, I actually want to be writing it. Yesterday I wrote in the morning with every intention of taking the rest of the day off, and then in the evening I wrote a short transitional scene. After supper. When I had no business working.

The book is about 200 pages, the about being significant, because roughly 160 pages are the first 160 pages, and the other 40 pages are out of sequence waiting to be put in place (after some already decided upon revisions). I still don't know how long the book will end up being, but I'm determined to have the first draft completed by August 7, then take a week off, and then do the rewrites/revisions until they're finished (more than 10 minutes, probably fewer than 10 days).

One thing I realized yesterday was because I'm hyperinvolved and working like a maniac, I'm going to really crash when the book is finished and sent off. Not that there won't be other work to do on it, after my editor works her magic. But I'll still be leaving the world of post-moon society, and more to the point, I'll be leaving the world of writing 6 days a week and thinking 7 days a week, and obsessing 8 or 9 days a week (some weeks I take a day off).

I'd say I'll never ever agree to such a tight deadline again and/or never ever agree to spending an entire summer writing a book again, but after this one is done I am absolutely determined to be retired, and will never ever write another book again, so there's no reason to make such firm and decisive resolutions.

Write/Crash/Retire. Except for the Crash part, it sounds good to me.

Meanwhile, here's a lovely blog review of Blood Wounds.

Hmm... Blood Wounds comes out in September. Maybe it'll keep me from crashing!