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My muse has fled to warmer climates. We just got back from walking the dogs and I needed ear muffs, or at least a hat. I didn’t have either. The wind was that kind of cold that just goes right through you. According to James Herriot it was a lazy wind. So lazy that it went through you, instead of around you.
We spent yesterday going over contracts for various foreign publishers, and such. Lot’s of comic stuff to look at; everything from new script, to checking new art with old script, and colors. I have to say that the comic stuff piles up faster than anything else. It clamours for attention like the proverbial squeaky wheel. We have to keep perspective between the immediate demands and the long term goals.
There was a lot of busy work to catch up on.
Long term means novels, for the most part. Today, I’m hoping to type up the notes from the trip, or begin to type up. The next Merry book is also moving liquid in my head, and I typed up more on the plane coming in, so I think I may actually start with that in the morning, and the Anita rewrite in the afternoon. Of course, I still have a half dozen phone calls to make. We have allergy shots. If we miss them we’ll be back to having to go every week for awhile instead of every five weeks once. So, no skipping those. Darn it. So, I may not get to both Merry and Anita today. We’ll see how quickly everything goes.
The to do list looks something like this:
1. phone calls, at least five. I’ll list them and prioritize. Either by time sensitivity, emergency level, or pleasure level. Do I want to talk to this person. Hey, it can be a deciding factor.
2. rewrite of Blood Noir to incorporate research trip.
3. rewrite of Blood Noir to incorporate notes from my editor and me. Just stuff I knew would need fixing.
4. notes from research trip to type up and organize for the new Anita book.
5. new Anita book, either short or long, that needs to be out there before the out of town book that we got inspiration for from our trip. I want to at least begin organizing notes for that.
6. New Merry book, need to organize notes for that, and at least make a start.
7. Fan club newsletter essay. I have no idea what to write.
There, I think that covers it. There’s probably more that I’ve forgotten, or the list just looked long enough. I’ll never get to all of it today. The allergy shots will sink a lot of time. But somethings are just necessary.
I’m off for a second cup of tea. I don’t want to go back out into the cold until my ears warm up. I think living in St. Louis for the last twenty years has thinned my blood out. When I lived in Northern Indiana I’d have shrugged off today as merely pleasantly brisk. I’m becoming a weather wimp, oh no.