Life is Good

Tonight, I finished the last exam of the last course for the certificate program I was taking. I am finished.

I come home, and there is Cold Magics, fresh off the presses, just waiting for the book launch at Ad Astra.

I am relaxing, sipping Scotch and wondering what to do with all the free time...

Life is good.

Interesting Thoughts on Writing from Other Authors... And Life Getting in the Way of My Art. Again. Dammit.

It has been one of those years, and we're not even 1/4 of the way through. I should be working hard on marketing Cold Magics right now. Looking for events and booking interviews, trying to capture the ever elusive market share by pressing the flesh and pushing out the social media. So what am I doing?

Studying.

For a mid-term. In Communicating Financial Information.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is a good course, taught by an excellent teacher, with good information. Unfortunately, the timing is lousy. My course runs until the end of March. And that plus little things going on in my life (like selling our house) are really putting a damper on my marketing plans. Most aggravating.

But enough of my whining for the moment.

Over at his journal Neil Gaiman posted links to two articles from The Guardian:

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction, Part 1 and Part 2.

Both are insightful, thoughtful, and give you some ideas of how writers who make their living at it think about their craft. Good reading.

And now, I must put my mind around my studies. Again.

Another Late Night

I am once more burning the midnight oil, and unfortunately, not writing while I'm doing it. This has been a pattern for the last few months as I take classes and try to stay ahead of them.

Unfortunately, it isnt happening.

Right now I'm wired on caffeine to stay awake, struggling to get finished what I need to get finished (which is neither writing nor classwork but some old business which should have been resolved months ago), and hoping that once this is out of the way, I can get focused on the things I need to focus on to get caught up and maybe, with luck, even ahead.

On the bright side, I'm booked to go to two conventions this summer, and have to book myself into a third (that one in Montreal - expensive, but the publisher will be there).

Anyway, back to the grind. I want to get to sleep before midnight.

Classwork

I'm taking a corporate communications certificate right now. Lots of fun and lots of good PR information (gee, why would I want that? Hmmm)

Part of my assignments for one class is to put together a survey for people to take. It's part of an imaginary PR campaign for a mental health charity.

It is anonymous and does not record IP addresses. So if you have a minute or two to spare and would like to help, go here and fill it out:

Click Here to take survey

Thanks everyone.