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I did an amazing, even by my standards, 27 pages today. Oddly, I did the same number last Sunday, but in two writing sessions instead of the one massive one I did today. Apparently, I write very productively on Sundays. Early in the book, any book, I have days when 4 to 8 pages is a very good day. I tend to pick up speed the closer I get to the end of a book. It’s just a natural rhythm that I’ve always done, but some books will have days of twenty plus pages and some books if I do over ten near the end I’m happy. Every book is a little different so has a different page count rhythm. The trick is to find that rhythm.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Atlanta on Tuesday the 2nd, but I must admit with the book, Bullet, going this well I am loathe to leave it. No matter how many notes, or even pages I do on the plane, it is not the same as being in my office, and even a day’s interruption can sometimes throw me out of the zone. My wise editor did offer that I do no events for Flirt, because of this well known fact for me, but that was weeks ago and I was feeling more optimistic. Now, half of me wishes I’d listened to my editor and didn’t have to interrupt Bullet, and the other half is looking forward to seeing Jennie Breeden of “Devil’s Panties” fame, and all of you at the signing. I’m always torn between going out and saying hey, and hibernating in my office so I can finish the current deadline. I naturally write very fast, but even for me so many sessions of near 30 pages is unusual. It gave me the delusion that I could finish before we get on that plane tomorrow, but alas, so not happening. I’m sad about that, but I’m still excited about the Atlanta signing and Flirt finally being in the stores. I’m very excited to have Jennie with us since I commissioned her to do the cartoons in the back of Flirt. I explain in the nonfiction piece in the back of the novel how we ended up with cartoons for one of my books. It all turned out even better than I could have hoped. I do love it when a plan comes together.

So tomorrow we get on a plane and Tuesday we will celebrate Flirt, the newest Anita Blake novel, plus cartoons from Jennie Breeden! I think this is the first time in years that I’ve been doing publicity for a new Anita book, while so close to the end of the next book. With Divine Misdemeanors coming out in December of 2009, this has been an insanely productive year even for me. So in celebration of that I am not going to feel bummed that I couldn’t finish Bullet before I go out to promote Flirt. I’m just going to be happy that I’m so close to the end of the book, and that we are doing the one event for Flirt, rather than a 26 city tour. I’ve done the 26 cities in 28 days tour before, and the thought we came away with was please, God, never again. I will be back to my desk within a couple of days. So I will count my blessings and not my chores. Funny how the two lists have so much crossover.