Books, books, books

The first pass at editing Book Two is … basically done. I may get some more feedback from Pat this weekend, and I may find some of it useful (there’s a strong possibility that I’ve already changed much of what she is going to suggest needs changing, as we discovered last night) and integrate it in the Pre-Release Edition of the book. Though at this point in the layout process, that’s annoying. But not impossible.

Heck, now that I think about it, I probably have half a dozen little things to change about Book One before I update its cover and contents this weekend.

Sigh.

It’s going to be a long weekend.

I’ve got to design the cover for Book Two from “scratch”, write copy for Book One, Book Two, and a modified version for the “Book One and Book Two” combined edition I’m also doing, plus do the cover design for that edition, plus the changes to Book One that I’m already aware of (I wish that even ONE of the over a dozen people who have read Book One already would have given me some sort of feedback on it. Sigh. Yes, Angela, you’re now acknowledged in both books. Your help is appreciated. What about the others, though? The “writing group”?) and anything else I notice that needs changing… and then getting it all uploaded to CafePress and set up in the store and added to my green field on Modern Evil and … and …

I guess it’s not TOO much.

It’s almost March, though, so I’ve nearly missed my own deadline. The ads in the books for Book Three all say “Available by Summer 2005” – I mean by the end of May, but it could be read as by the end of Summer, in case other things come up. I already know the bulk of this story (as opposed to Book Two, which I only knew the very end of at the beginning), so Book Three should go really fast, when I get to it. But I think I’m going to work on some other projects first. GWB. A totally different novel, with strong spiritual and philosophical themes, maybe. Or a graphic novel. Or … lots of things.

I don’t know.

My brain hurts right now. On the other hand, I wish ignorance was bliss. I haven’t figured out how to find out what I want to or need to know about literary agents yet to determine which ones I want to query, though … admittedly I haven’t been putting much effort into that yet. Mostly this February seems to be about … not feeling awful. I have a lot of days where if you asked me what I did all day, I can honestly say that I spent my time actively trying to not feel bad. Not necessarily to feel good, just … for example I’m on this new schedule where I don’t have to leave for work until a quarter after 11AM, giving me the whole morning to do whatever I want with, and … nearly every night before I go to bed I think of something I’ll try to do, and then nearly every morning I get up (or don’t get up) and realise that as long as I’m feeling mostly okay, my morning hasn’t been a waste. I’m not behind on stuff. Not even cleaning or laundry or ironing or anything. And yeah, the book is getting done on time. Just … I’m not overachieving this month.

I called in sick/late to work a few weeks ago, it’s considered an “unscheduled schedule deviation” and they gave me a “1/2 point” that will be mine until six months after the event occurred. Now, if I started missing days or being late more often, more points would be assigned, and at … seven points, I think, I’d get fired. Until I got that half-point, I’d never had any. Which earned me a $250 perfect attendence bonus for the last … quarter? Or something. They haven’t made an official announcement (or policy, as far as I can tell), but they paid me the bonus, so that was nice. In a little over five months I’ll be back to zero points, if all goes as expected, and then … sometime after that I’ll be eligible for the bonus again. Would you believe that when I called in “sick” that morning I knew that it would cost me at least $250, but that what had kept me from work I considered well worth the cost, and still do, and would take even more points and expense for it, if needed? I’m just mentioning it because they recently gave me my first “points” printout/update ever – I guess most everyone else in the company gets these every couple of weeks to show them where they’re at with points. And now I’m slightly more like “normal” there.

I should be sleeping. But tomorrow, probably cover designs. And maybe Cursed. Night.