stillsostrange

Yesterday brought doubled good news. "Red", my not-exactly-a-zombie-romance featuring goth bicycle gangs in post-apocalyptic Austin, has sold to Brave New Love, a dystopian YA anthology edited by Paula Guran. (For those of you who followed the Wicked Pretty Things debacle, yes, there was a change of editors. I've worked with Paula before, and am very happy that she took over the anthology.)

Shortly after that, I learned that "Bone Garden"--or Boywhores vs. Oracular Demons--was accepted by its anthology as well. I don't have the all-clear to share details yet, but I'm very happy to be accepted by this publisher.

The CEM for Kingdoms went back to my editor today, leaving me with with a surprising fondness for the book, and the restless itch to write The Bitter Road, aka the unsold fourth Necromancer Chronicle. Not to mention The Poison Court.

That leaves the to-do list looking like this:

Finish Kingdoms of Dust
Write "Bone Garden"
Eurocon
Write dystopian YA story
Kingdoms CEM
Revise "Bone Garden"
Revise "Red"
Write synop & 3 for Oracle of Plagues
WorldCon
Armadillocon
Kingdoms page proofs
Pitch option novel
Poke "Flood" with a sharp stick
Poke "Birthgrave" (Isyllt's origin story) with a sharp stick

Project Valkyrie and Operation: Badger Reduction continue apace. Several of my shirts are becoming less like sausage casings, but I seem to have lost all my swimming stamina since last summer.

Now I guess I'll start looking for awesome stuff to pack into Oracle. Any suggestions?

Today is a dayjobless day, and I really out to continue marching this book, but the dreaded Other Chores have piled up too much to ignore. So instead, today I have to:

Clean the catboxes.
Finish a crit novel. (I can finish this tomorrow morning if I have to, but crit group meets tomorrow night.)
Answer a set of interview questions.
Do dishes.

We'll see how many of these things happen. The catboxes are a must, though.

So far today I've written 1600 words, and mostly connected the narrative to the Next Big Thing. Now I have to figure out the next Next Big Thing and get there. Somewhere in between all of the following:

• Climbing tonight and at least one other night in the next week, so as not to be a large and moving Torb at WFC, or in general


• One (1) signing tomorrow night


• Three (3) concerts over the next week (KMFDM, the Pogues, and a local band I like)


• One (1) dentist appointment


• One (1) hair appointment


• One or more shopping expeditions so as not to look like a bum at WFC (when I'm not wearing my new jacket, that is)


• One or more shopping expeditions so as not to look like a bum on Halloween


• Sixty-four (64) hours of work between now and next Wednesday


• One (1) World Fantasy Convention

You will note that cleaning the house appears nowhere on this list. That is not because it's already clean, I assure you.

I'll be keening and rocking in the corner if you need me.