Projects Flying at My Head at High Speed

Another Friday arrives. There’s so much going on right now that whole weeks fly by. Work mounts up to the point where little actually gets done.

Updates: I’ve signed the contract for the professional cover illustration for The Norn Convergence. Hopefully I don’t die of squee, which feels like a distinct possibility. If I wasn’t hiding away the identity of the artist and the incredible quality of his work, this might be more understandable to observers. When people see the illustration, they will understand the terrible burden of carrying on with normal life while waiting to see this cover take form. :)

I’m trying to squeeze in writing time for several anthologies. Opportunities have been flying at my head like I’ve got a pitching machine aimed at me, and I’m reluctant not to at least try to catch them, no matter how they complicate my life.

I’m trying to commit myself to giving up the next two years of my life to really get into this self-publishing effort. By ‘give up’ I mean evenings and weekends and holidays and vacations, in the name of establishing myself under two names and in three genres. I know it sounds almost needlessly ambitious, but a number of the opportunities coming at me are from people who know me from my writing days in genres other than urban fantasy, genres that I always intended to go back to (though not this soon).

To avoid ending this post on a note of severe authorial distress and resignation, I thought I’d talk a little about the heroine of my current series. Those who have read “Dis" know her, Colbie Moss. I thought I’d give you all Seven Quick Facts About Colbie Moss.

#1. Colbie is used to handling the challenges of life all by herself, to the point that she is a bit of a control freak, a bit domineering, a bit distrustful that she can count on other people to help. This trait came into play in “Dis” and will play a significant role in both “City of Dis” and The Norn Convergence.

#2. Colbie is an assistant curator at a community art museum, where she specializes in exhibitions on the architectural and cultural history of the Ashborne area. She quite pointedly avoids working with local artists and modern art as it reminds her that she is herself a frustrated painter.

#3. Colbie’s father is affectionately known as the Saint of Camden Park (a lower middle class neighborhood in Ashborne where she grew up). Colbie would be the first to tell a person it’s not easy being the daughter of a saint.

#4. Colbie is the pretty daughter of a stunningly beautiful mother, a fact that has left its mark on her. She gets her love of designer clothing from her mother and feeds her addiction with regular trips to southern California for the sample sales and premium outlet malls.

#5. The tattoo on Colbie’s chest, visible in the cover of “Dis”, is covering up something else. Some of the details come out in “City of Dis”, but The Norn Convergence explains everything about how such a non-tattoo kind of girl ends up inked so dramatically.

#6. Colbie knows high-performance cars, drives too fast, watches boxing on television with her father, spars at the gym, and spends a lot of time distance running. She does the last of these to induce the frequent endorphin rushes necessary to manage the physical pain associated with her botched reanimation.

#7. Colbie is totally incapable of defending herself with a firearm (or any weapon involving the aiming of a projectile). She couldn’t ‘hit a bullet with the side of a barn’.

Hope that tides people over while I’m getting “City of Dis” and The Norn Convergence ready. And Happy Friday.

(photo courtesy of Paul Morse, Wikimedia Commons)