It’s winter. Officially. Stuff is falling from the sky, sticking to things, and it’s cold.
A couple of things of recent note. This past weekend, one of my coworkers at Left Bank Books got married. She held it in the bookstore, after closing on Sunday, and another coworker officiated. I shot photographs. It was wonderful.
That morning, I went to the gym and had a surprisingly good workout. Last year, I was aiming at doing a thousand pounds on the leg press. I reached 930 lbs before my little abominal abdominal incident put me right back down in the whimpy weights. Sunday I did 900 lbs. I don’t think I’ll make a thousand by years’ end, but I feel not at all bad about this.
I have a few more stories to edit for my short story collection, which now has a (tentative) release date—May 10th, 2014. I’ve seen the cover art already and it ranks with my favorite covers, done by a local artist named John Kaufman, who deserves a look. I am delighted that the collection will be sporting such a cool cover.
My friend Nicola Griffith‘s new novel, Hild, was release in November—11-12-13—and is doing very well. I myself have sold half a dozen copies already and it’s on my Christmas Season hand-picked list at the store. Go check it out, your brain will thank you.
I have been working for the last several weeks on the third volume of my alternate history trilogy, the Oxun Trilogy, and I have run headlong into a number of problems (one of which is that I’m trying to get a novel started during Christmas season when time is at a premium). I’ve written the first two or three chapters now four times. I am poring over my research, poking at it, trying to find a way in. Finally, I had a breakthrough and realized that I’ve been starting the damn thing in the wrong place. Note to aspiring writers: this is often the problem with stories that will not advance beyond a certain point. Not the only problem, but a big one.
Of course, this realization has necessitated acquiring a whole slew of new books specifically about—Napoleon in Egypt! If anyone out there reading this has a suggestion for a fairly detailed history of specifically the scientific mission, I would appreciate it.
Given the above, I’m doing something with this novel that I almost never do—outlining. I don’t think I have the time to wing it and correct it all later. I need to know very well where I’m going and when.
Earlier conceptions of the book required an outline of a different sort, and that is still there, but this is different.
Christmas at Left Bank Books is generally a time of insanity, madness, massive customer presence, and long hours. Which means I may not be making many posts till next year. I thought I’d let anyone interested know what’s going on.
If I don’t get to say it later, Have A Happy Holiday!