Book giveaways

Okay, 'tis the season, and I've been remarkable remiss in my "duty" to "promote" books. It's not that I don't like promoting (but if I ever send you an email with nothing but "I'm great, NOW BUY MY BOOK" - just shoot me, that's when I lose the remainder of my personal dignity), it's that I've been busy getting a new job and getting the magazine to print.

So. Giveaways. Amora/Amara over at her blog sponsors a giveaway of "Transit". I'm sponsoring a second copy, so there's the chance to win two. Just read the excerpt and answer the question.

Awesome.


That's it from me. (I'm still snowed in an can't get to work, but I'm working on the magazine, so a little busy right now. The worst will be over next week...).

More Moscow Thoughts

I've blogged over at Slash and Burn about my trip to Moscow.

Check it out here.

In other news, "First Blood" is out with Dreamspinner. It's the sequel to "Clean Slate", and you can get it in paper or e-book (because, yeah, it's a full-sized novel).

I now have to update websites and do a little bit of "promo" - and then I have to do the final editing pass of "Transit", at least for this stage. I already edited and approved the blurb.

I've taken Monday off. I need a little to recover from Moscow - and to write.

Mostly done

I spent the last days working nonstop, but it's paid off. The big technical feature is written. Tomorrow I'll do a some nip and tuck on it (okay, more than "some", I have to cut around 40%... but I already trimmed it by a third, so... yeah, I can do this), so heading off to work early again, but after that, the worst part is done.

I also finished the line-edit of "First Blood" and now have four days to do the fact checking about some details. Four days sounds like a *lot* after the amount of stuff I did recently.

I'm also flying out to Germany for a few days over bank holiday weekend, meeting friends and hopefully not working at all. While I've "done" it, and I think it's a good result and will be even better after the final cutting - I've learnt a lot about pacing myself and how much I can work on how little sleep. Getting there. I'm way more positive about the next bits and pieces. Boss seems happy, too. Overall, it's all looking good.

But right now, my brain's hurting from too much work. I'll enjoy sleeping for eight hours and relaxing, and tomorrow is the last "Kraftanstrengung" (which translates as "expenditure of strength", but the English expression isn't nearly as poignant) - stuff will be finished then, and I can book my flights.

Life's good, but pretty hard work.

Long weekend

I've done a huge pile of work-related work yesterday. Then I started editing "First Blood". Note to self - editing 10k a day is bad for your sanity.

Today I got up early (on a Sunday. I'm a hero), and edited 20k of "First Blood".

That means that not only has my sanity taken a major hit, I'm also halfway through "First Blood", which has 62k words. All this so I can manage the remaining edits during a completely crazy work week. Somehow. I'm not sure how Barbara powered through 160 pages of the text on one day...she's just that good. :)

The edits are 95% "fiddly shit" as I call it - pure line-editing and having found a better word in the meantime. The 5% percent is stuff that I could have discovered with more in-depth research. I guess one never stops learning.

Now I'll have to go back to "work work" and earn my keep there. Apart from those two, I read two books for Elisa Rolle's Rainbow Awards (and both were pretty good). I'm done there, so at least there won't be frantic activity on that count in the next couple weeks.

I'll see you soon on the flipside with more interesting musings than wordcounts.

Maybe one thing - I got a long, awesome email expressing gratitude for my writing, which is always amazing and does help with the moments where I go "can't be bothered, am going to bed."

Thanks guys, for your support. It makes a huge difference.

Now I'll grab a book and a nap on the couch - I'll have to do a load of work tonight, but late afternoon is my "dead zone" anyway, and nothing gets me through editing exhaustion like a book and 30 minutes shuteye.

Making stuff

I just started my day with putting together a cupboard. To get that thing delivered, I spent 2 hrs in a phone queue from hell, so no doubt this will become one of my most cherished pieces of furniture.

It's (fake) beech and fits neatly with my desk, giving me some of that coveted storage space for contracts and nicknacks. Also I could push my printer from my work desk and over to the cupboard. It's all still within reach, but frees up some space for planning and plotting to the side of the computer, so that makes for a much less crowded desk overall.

Now I have to decide what goes in there and how, but that's a question for another day. I've been coveting some acrylic stands and holders to complete the desk, but I'm also wary about crowding it up again. Authors can be funny about their work environment. Right now I have plenty of space to keep my couple piles of things mostly organised (usually, they are printed manuscripts and notes, where I "think"). Luxury worries if you have nothing else to worry about.

Meeting the estate agent last week was great. I'll have to do some financial planning on Thursday, but looks like all this house was an even better purchase than we thought. It's still something of an ongoing process, and with the economic data likely to get worse again (the "double dip" might just be here), we're moving very carefully indeed. People I'm talking to seem to expect things to get better in about 2-3 years... if China holds up and we don't see the real estate bubble in China explode (at the moment, my vote is, stay the hell away from China... but I'm not an economist).

The cool thing about my job is, I do get a great view on the global economy and get to talk to some seriously smart people (some of whom are scumbags). Which creates investment ideas. So I'll pretty soon start investing - the aim is to beat my pension pot in terms of performance, and the cash ISA and/or inflation at the very least. I reckon 5%/year should be doable without being a money whiz. Or doing nothing else.

And this weekend I'll work on TCaS. First steps will be to collate all the feedback I got, print out a fresh copy of the manuscript (one chapter at a time), put it all into folders, then go through it, pen in hand, identifying the things that need rewriting and improving the bits that are good.

Gritty groundwork. My least favourite bit. But the big goal is to finish this before "First Blood" comes back from Dreamspinner. Which might be very soon. Hopefully, it's all wrapped up by end of the month.

Cover art: First Blood

Aaaaand, the promised cover for "First Blood", the sequel to "Clean Slate". Red is the main topic here.

Cover again by the amazing Paul Richmond!

Post interview comedown

I've been told that crashing feeling of ebbing adrenaline can be called comedown, so that's what I had yesterday evening. Got home, chatted to my partner, was chatting a little with friends about the interview/job/magazine, and suddenly my energy level just went through the floor.

That's five days of stress crashing all at the same time. Woah. I went to bed, had 9 hrs of badly-needed sleep, and awoke, feeling much saner.

To recap yesterday, I went to the second interview and rocked it for about 90 minutes. I just had fun, really. The Publisher dude said "just in case if you don't get this, please keep applying for jobs here, because you're a perfect fit for the company as an editor", and if I shouldn't get that job, I'll give him a call and ask him for leads. It's a great company which offers really good opportunities. And the commute would be much faster, too. :)

So apparently I'm up against two others, one of whom seems to be weaker than me and the other person. It's a close race. Depending on the interview with the other person, they might offer at the beginning of next week, or they might do a third round of interviews, or, as they said "make you jump through another hoop". But they also kept asking about my notice period and "who will replace me." A good answer there: "I think they'll struggle."

I kinda want them to struggle. After the way they've demoralised, dismantled and plain abused my team, I want my old employer to struggle with replacing me. I want them to look at the mess they created with a feeling of "oh shit." Not that I seriously believe they'll learn from it, but at the very least, I want them to look at their utter failure and that they made thing worse, not better.

Call me vengeful, but after 4 months of this shit, I've had it.

So, after rocking that interview, I had to return to work, but I also had a sudden urge to get ice cream, so I got off at Leicester Square and went into the local Haagen Dasz shop. Then I realised that if I stroll into the office munching ice-cream, while my team holds the fort and does my work, too, I'd get likely crucified, so I bagged seven cups instead of one and went to the office, handing them out to the editorial team (leaving out research and sales - I have enemies there, and I'm not spending £40 instead of £20 on a whim... I'm not making that kinda money. Also didn't want to feed the fat bastard from research who backstabbed me by telling my boss about a "negative" remark I've made AFTER HOURS).

So, munching icecream, I checked my email and saw a contract offer for "First Blood" from Dreamspinner. I'll sign the contract and shoot it over to Barbara today or tomorrow. It'll likely be published in the third quarter of 2010, both print and ebook.

In other positive news - I did the line edits of "Lion of Kent" and now waiting for Kate to approve a name change.

Writing, job hunt, and house move are all on track. If I get the job, the writing may suffer a little, but I don't think so, but it'll be a *lot* easier paying off that house. It'll mean, in effect, that I can almost double my mortgage repayments. Every buck I make more than what I make now is disposable income, and I'd love a tight schedule to improve the house, insulate the roof, get fitted wardrobe and study furniture, the lot.

So. Whew. Much going on. I hope to be back to writing today. I'll also have to prepare my financial thriller for submission to a publisher, but I might do that next week rather than this weekend.