Frequent auditors of this web log will recall that we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory live by our wits. By which I mean, we write for a living.
Just to make the game a smidge more challenging, we write fiction for a living. Science fiction. Shaken, not stirred.
The thing about living by your wits is that (1) you need always to have them about you — the wits, I mean — and (2) if you don’t write (and sometimes if you do), you don’t get paid.
There are also a lot of tasks that are . . . writing adjacent, though not remunerated, exactly, and which sometimes actively take away from the reason for the season, which for most of us is? Writing.
It doesn’t matter if a writer is trad, indie, or combo, all of us have to do promo for our work, which includes figuring out how to get heard, and! what will entice people to buy your book.
And then there’s the whole business of having a life outside of writing, because if the only people you talk to are the ones who live inside your head, you’re courting trouble.
None of this is news to anybody reading here, I’m sure. I’m just, yanno, reminding us all of Certain Realities.
Speaking of writing, yesterday saw some good progress in plotting the sequel to Ribbon Dance, and I hope to see more of the same today. On the Having A Life edge of things, I need to either write or not write a Yule letter to enclose with the holiday cards. Yeah, I know, but it’s a Tradition, and if we don’t send a letter, people will worry. I did draft a sort of Summary of the Year, and that may have to stand in for the more detailed letter this year.
One of the reasons I’m stressing the Yule letter is that I can See somewhat into the future, and at about 12.05 there’s a large boulder of Stuff blocking the timeline, including deadlines, copy edits, and rewrites on the writing side, and on the Real Life side, an appointment with a surgeon which will hopefully clarify for us the particulars of Steve’s upcoming (minor, we hope) surgery, including, so I devoutly hope, Real Time Recovery Information. Plus, there’s the Other big boulder which is the holidays. We don’t tend to party hearty, but we do like to take it a Little Easy.
What I guess I’m saying is that Scheduling may be a little haphazard, going forward, and things might take longer than they should, while the objects in the mirror, as always, are closer than they seem.
Today’s blog title brought to you by Jackson Browne, “The Load-Out/Stay.” Here’s your link.