Issue #66 of Cemetery Dance magazine is at the printer and will ship in April. In addition to my usual column, I wrote the feature review of The Wind Through the Keyhole. The review got top billing on the magazine cover. Not my name, though. Never my name!
Douglas Adams once said that he loved deadlines, especially the sound they make when they go zooming by. His editors used to kidnap him to a hotel and sit with him while he finished his books. Otherwise something would catch his attention and he’d go off to the South Pacific to swim with the dolphins.
My book deadline is April 1. No fooling. Am I going to make it? Of course I’m going to make it. I would never miss a deadline. Could I have used another week? Sure, but I could always use another week. The trick with certain projects is in deciding when they’re done. Deadlines tell me that quite clearly: you’re done. Of course, to dredge up an old analogy, turning in a manuscript is like sending your kid off to college. They always come back, sometimes bringing their dirty laundry with them in the form or rewrites, revisions and the various stages of proofing.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when I get up to work in the morning next week. I’ve been living with this book for several months. Well, actually I do know what I’m going to do when I get up—move on to the next project, which I already have lined up.
A few days ago, I received the back cover copy for the book I’m about to turn in, which will be out in April 2013. I had a chance to suggest some changes to it, but I’m glad I didn’t have to write it from scratch. Writing back cover copy is harder than writing a synopsis.
I haven’t had any spare time to watch TV lately. I’m behind on Mad Men, Alcatraz, NCIS, Once Upon a Time and Justified. I did speed watch Survivor this morning while I was having breakfast. They make it look like finding an immunity idol is easy, but according to Jeff Probst it isn’t as easy as it appears. I think that the clues (remember when people used to use clues to find idols?) were more confusing then helpful most of the time. I was surprised by a few things in this week’s show. First of all, I was impressed by the way Kat performed in the immunity challenge. You could tell she was concentrating hard. It was almost a zen thing, and she finished in second place. Then, the tribal council was a blood bath. Jonas was a little desperate, with not much to lose, so he ruffled some feathers. What was even more surprising was that after all that they still voted him out. I was sure they would go after Tarzan. What were they thinking? I liked Jonas’s parting shot, though. He’s a funny dude.
