04 December, 2010

December, eek! (+ Yellowcake full cover)

I have a thumping great deadline (on the novel revision) on 31 December. I had another thumping great deadline then, which I've managed to push back a month (along with three smaller deadlines *nervous laugh*). I have no choice but to meet the TGD, and I think I probably have paced the revisions okay and won't need to pull any caffeine-fuelled all-nighters to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Reading:
  • Griffith Review annual fiction issue
  • The Museum of Mary Child, by Cassandra Golds

The day-job is kind of up in the air for next year. At this stage it would actually be nice (and financially not too disastrous) to have January off and deal with TGD2, so you can bet your bottom dollar they'll get the funding to keep me on.

My collection Yellowcake proceeds apace; I've just corrected the final proofs of the last (most changed) story and the end-matter, and Allen & Unwin will send it to the printer this week. And the full cover is done—check it out. A dazzling assortment of quotes on the back!



I can recommend the mostly-reprint collection as a low-stress way to put out a book; most of the revision work gets done bitsily, to small deadlines, over a matter of years, with just this little flurry at the end. All three of my other collections have been sets of 10 originals; their production, while not quite novel-like in its complexity, involved a concentrated editorial period, as well as several last-minute substitutions when stories spontaneously combusted under pressure. Reprints are easier. She says with a sigh of relief.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's nothing quite so ominous as a steadily approaching deadline.

05 December, 2010 09:51  
Blogger Keith Stevenson said...

Or as Douglas Adams said, 'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Possibly not an option for you however :)
K

13 December, 2010 11:07  
Blogger Among Amid While said...

Anonymous: Well, perhaps a steadily approaching TANK. But a deadline can make your heart sink too, that's for sure.

Keith: I'm well acquainted with the sound of whooshing deadlines, but no, not really an option with this one. Plus, it'll be so GOOD to have it done by the New Year!

13 December, 2010 13:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Douglas Adams quote is a classic yet when it comes to deadlines, I'm reminded of Jerome K. Jerome's quip, "I'm fascinated by work- I can sit and stare at it for hours."

17 December, 2010 09:58  

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