Quiet? Not So Much.
Reference Notebook, Recorder, Leather Tag
I should really give up planning on quiet weeks. That’s what I intended for last week. Quiet artistic meditation so I could mentally sort through the details as I moved into the final stages of Wolf’s Soul, the sequel to July’s new Firekeeper novel, Wolf’s Search. The week didn’t work out that way. Mind you, why it didn’t work out wasn’t bad…
I knew in advance Monday would be busy. Not only did I have my usual Monday Chaos, Scot Noel and I were interviewed by the Sci Fi Saturday Night podcast. We talk about a lot of things, including DreamForge magazine, projects to come, and my life in the desert. It was a lot of fun. You can tune in at http://scifisaturdaynight.com. You’ll want talkcast 423. Bonus: You can see a great older photo of me…
Tuesday I turned the tables and interviewed Hugo Award-winning artist Elizabeth Leggett over coffee, chocolate, and cats at my house. The reason for the interview is that I’m writing her program bio for MileHiCon. However, there was so much great stuff that I couldn’t fit into the program piece, I decided to transcribe the whole thing. Since we talked for an hour and a half, the transcribing took a while.
By Wednesday, though, I had enough material to write the MileHiCon piece, which I did because…
Thursday, Jim and I had promised ourselves a full day at the State Fair. We did and had a wonderful time seeing more animals, more art, and eating a weird variety of food not good for you. We hit one of our favorites—the “Home Arts” aka “Hobby Building”—after the schoolkids had gone home. This led to my having made for me the magnificent leather tag you see in the picture.
The tag was made by artist Paul Q. Starke. Before you sniff and say “So what? I did leather stamping in grammar school!” let me tell you that just the wolf took at least twenty really hard strikes with the mallet to create that deep impression. Lots of the lines—including the moon—were drawn freehand with hammer and chisel. I was absolutely awed.
Thursday we also ended up having an impromptu dinner with our friends Yvonne and Mike, which got us home rather later than planned. And in the mailbox what should I find but…
A big fat envelope containing the contracts for three new Star Kingdom books featuring Honor Harrington’s ancestor, Stephanie Harrington, a lot of treecats, intrigue and adventure. For those of you who don’t know, there are already three books in the series: A Beautiful Friendship (written by Weber solo, but with me in the background as consultant), Fire Season, and Treecat Wars.
The new novels don’t have titles yet, but we’ll be picking up with Stephanie at sixteen, shortly after the events in my yet unpublished short story, “Deception on Gryphon.”
Would you be surprised if I told you I was so keyed up I had trouble sleeping that night?
So, instead of Friday being a quiet day to meditate and maybe do some crafts, I ended up reviewing and signing contracts, then sending Weber e-mails to continue the discussion we’ve been having on and off these last few months.
This week I’m not even going to pretend is going to be quiet. I have that interview to finish transcribing. I have another interview to get started. Doubtless Weber and I will refine details on Stephanie’s next adventure.
And, no, I haven’t forgotten. I need to finish writing Wolf’s Soul, so that you can dive into the complicated tale of exploration and intrigue begun in Wolf’s Search.
I’d better get to it!
