Flotsam & Jetsam Friday

An end of the week post to capture the flosam and jetsam of my writing week … and whatever Real Life bits I've managed to sneak in.

First, a quick reminder everyone I'll be at the Readers&Ritas event tonight – and, indeed, all weekend – here in Allen, Texas. Scroll down to yesterday's post to see a list of the attending authors, but I'm sure some of your favorites are on there. I know I'm looking forward to it.

Speaking of getting to see your favorite authors – I attended a 'Conversation with Stephen King' last night here in Dallas to celebrate (rather than promote; he is Stephen King, after all) the release of his new book 11/22/63. I've already started it, but it's a behemoth, so I'm going to order it for my e-reader as well, and finish it in a couple of weeks …probably on the exact date of the title (if forty-eight years later).

I suppose you could say the evening was inspiring, but somehow even that word isn't enough to describe seeing King in person. He's so culturally iconic it was like being in a room with, I don't know, the President or someone you grew up feeling like you know, yet never really thought of them as a real person. Stephen King is a real person though. I know this because I sat there and listened to him talk about Superman's poop.

Yeah, I'll leave you with that.

I shot off the pass pages that I've been working on to my editor today. They were pretty clean, which was gratifying for me because that's not always the case. Pass pages are the first time you see the book as it will appear in print. Here's a snapshot of them:

These have been formatted and typeset for trade paperback, so each page is printed by itself, but in mass market you'll see the pages as they appear in the book, side by side. That's how my first six books appeared, so this was a treat.

Technically speaking, it's a huge expense for the publisher to make any great changes at this point, so that's why I'm pleased that there wasn't a lot that needed altering at this point – just typos, formatting issues, and echos. Not a biggie. All the drafting work is starting to fade from my mind, and all I see is story – including cover art, and (soon) back copy – which has really come together. I'm starting to itch for it to get out there now that it's done. It's like having a baby. You forget the labor and just want to dress the little thing up in its finery and show it to the world.

Soon.

In today's final news, I am a supreme klutz. Anyone ever have days where it'd be much better for everyone, not to mention safer, if you just crawled back into bed (preferably one with lots of cushions, placed in a room with padded walls)? I am literally the walking, talking, living embodiment of butterfingers. I can't even type properly. Not a good day to be driving a rental car.

Poor Readers&Ritas.