Bears, Royalties, and Tetra Poetry

[lydamorehouse]

Well, unless I completely botched the interview with Elizabeth Bear, IROSF will likely pick it up. When I emailed their non-fiction editor to see if he might be interested in it, he emailed me back within a couple of hours. Turns out, they’re planning on doing a review of CARNIVAL for their up-coming issue. I’m pleased because I think that Elizabeth and I had a fun discussion. I’ll post a notice here when/if it goes “live.”

Thanks to various tricks I’ve been playing with myself, I’ve written nearly 7,000 words in the past week. That’s only 1,000 words a day, but I actually took Monday off, and my entire family (other than me) came down with a cold. I’m that much closer to another episode of Lost.

I was talking to fellow writer Sean M. Murphy on the phone last night, and, besides ending up in a who-can-write-the-most-words competition with him, I confessed that this particular Tate book has been strange for me. Not only did it take me forever to get a beginning I liked, but also, after all that fussing around, I haven’t gone back to make a single correction or revision. That’s unheard of for me. Usually, the evening after a Wyrdsmiths meeting, I tackle all the revisions large and small. For this book, I’ve been letting them pile up. It’s weird, and I don’t quite know what that’s about.

In other writing news, I can’t complain about money any more. (Of course, I still will, but…) Not only did my first bit of the British money come in (holy crap!), but I also got money I wasn’t expecting. Tall, Dark & Dead earned out; I made royalties.

I was stunned. I knew the book was doing pretty well (it actually made a couple of bestseller lists, and stayed there for almost two months), but, because of a decision made by my previous agent, we’d joint accounted the contract that included TDD with Messiah Node and Apocalypse Array, neither of which earned out.. or did very well. So basically, I had to make up the money that hadn’t been recouped on the advances of two other books before I saw anything for TDD.

I never thought it would happen.

So, that’s cool. It snowed again briefly. Mason is still suffering from his cold, and now mommy got it too. I, with my Constitution 18/+2, have not been hit by it (yet.) One more of the tetras bit it (Gucci, Gucci!) so their school is down to four. Shawn and I have been making up little ghastly rhymes like:

Six little tetras
Swimming in a tank
One of them got sick
And then it sank

Five little tetras
Dashing all about
Now another is dead
Of that there is no doubt

We’re very sick people. Aren’t you glad we’re raising children?

Comments

Sick People

[holy-toledo.livejournal.com]

Heck, you're not sick. My mother and I made up an entire universe for a red-neck family and told most of their history in rhyme for an ENTIRE day on a weekend once. Old Great-Uncle Earl, who was prone to flatulence, unfortunately bit it around 3PM when blind cousin Jeb wandered into the barn with a lit candle and accidently set the haystack Earl was sleeping on on fire. I doubt the methane in the barn helped.

And if Mason ends up like you all, it'll be a blessing for the world. I just got the packages today, and I nearly cried when I saw the galley. Thanks so much!!!!

-Mel