Friday Filler! Tell Everyone You Know

Last night I was supposed to take a last look at the laid-out Variations on a Theme anthology and tell Michelle if I saw anything she'd need to tweak. Yes, the book is in its final round of page proofs! And no, Michelle, I didn't see anything, once I finally got around to actually looking at the file. I admit that for the first half hour (or longer) of my dedicated "proofing" time, I was actually watching youTube videos of the great English punk band, the Stranglers. If you don't know the Stranglers, you don't know great English punk music. Gosh, they were fabulous. Now I feel old and nostalgic. Well. Anyway.

So the Variations anthology is coming soon, and I know you're all excited to buy a dozen copies each, and I know you'll forgive us if it doesn't actually make it to the virtual shelves on the 15th as promised. It might be a few days late. I warned you, I really did, so no complaints. Don't make me turn this car around.

I've been sort of half-looking at the MS for my book The Astrologer (previously titled Killing Hamlet), which someone foolishly wants to publish. I'm gearing up to go through the whole thing once or twice more because I keep seeing things that I'd write differently today and since I have the opportunity to spruce up the prose, I'm taking it. Mighty Reader warns me that that way lies madness, as I am liable to rewrite the whole damned thing once again, which is unnecessary and would, you know, only add to my growing writerly madness. So I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum. Besides, I have a new book I'm writing, don't I? Yes, I do.

I've also been gathering examples of book covers I like, to send to the cover artist who'll do my book. There'll be a cover by this summer, I'm told. Which is soon, you know. I confess that I'd thought I'd be insouciant, blase, laid back as it were, about this publications process: "Oh, cover art? Whatever, I don't care. Just spell my name right." And so on. Turns out I was wrong, and the process is pretty cool and fun and, dare I say it, exciting. I am also telling everyone I know that they have to buy my book when it comes out. That sort of thing gets easier to say each time you say it; you just have to start. If you've got a book, or you've got one coming out, start telling everyone you know to buy it. This means you. And if, say, you were the author of a story in a certain anthology that comes out next week or so, I'd also tell everyone I know to buy a copy of the anthology. This means you.