Stressssssssssss

Generally, this has not been one of my better writing periods. The last six weeks have seen several upheavals in my personal life that have contributed to an overal feeling of unease and stress. While many artists find inspiration in such malaise, I have grown accustomed to having a nice, at-least-partially ordered universe around me as I sit down to do some writing.

Granted, I haven't been doing any "actual" writing in quite some time; my last two story ideas fizzled out, dying languishing deaths only a few handwritten pages in. Those pages have, of course, been put aside just in case. After all, the first book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series languished incomplete for years before he picked up the thread again.

The last several months have seen me working on transcribing Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind into the computer, followed by doing the same to The Darkness and the Stars. Well, perhaps I should ammend that statement by saying I began the process of transcribing The Darkness and the Stars into the computer...it decided to rewrite large portions of itself while I transcribed it, the result being it has lagged in limbo between the handwritten pages of the Fleshworld and the digital reality of ones and zeroes that make up the hard drive of my computer and various CDRWs.

When this happened I (metaphorically speaking) dusted off Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind and started a rewrite of that story. The result has been the sale of the e-book distribution rights for Nevermind to an e-publication that will be launching within a few days.

However, I've been bouncing back and forth between the two projects, and last week I quit both altogether to focus on playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City instead of doing anything remotely resembling creative work.

Now, as mentioned previously in this journal, I sent in everything I needed to send, to Publish America several weeks ago and haven't yet heard back from them. So I emailed them a while ago and have been waiting to hear back from them.

Well all this pre-production anxiety led to the following brief email exchange between me and Roby Ward, AKA TerishD:

>>>From Me<<<

Hey Roby.

So, I’m getting a little concerned.

It’s been a couple of months since I sent everything along to PA and I haven’t gotten my proofs yet. Likewise I emailed Pre Production last week to follow up and haven’t heard back from them yet.

I’m getting nervous…

>>>From Roby<<<

Patience, friend. They do a number of books. The funny thing is once they get to you it moves rather fast.

You will get options on how to proceed. Yeah, I know:
"I've waited all this time and they are just now asking me about editing options?" Trust me, they read it (at least, a solid scan). They just are not going to waste time with you if not necessary. If it passes their read, and you want to rush ahead, they will let you. I suggest the two week option. Take two weeks and read/edit the manuscript one more time. Don't get cocky, read/edit one more time.

It will take about 4-6 weeks, then you will get actual proofs. This one is supposed to be clean, but read/edit one more time. If you catch anything, let them know. Also, pay attention to the fonts. I had them change the title page font. They will send you new proofs after each change.

Once you approve the proof, then you wait a few weeks before getting the cover. Once you approve a cover, the book is basically ready to be printed. You are basically waiting for the print files to be sent to the printer, for your author copy to be printed, then for the books to be mailed to you. Once you verified that you received the copies, and approved, you are good.

Roby

>>>From Me<<<

Makes me feel better…

But this is just one of several issues contributing to my current writer’s block.

Tonight, I actually managed to get a whole page and a half of re-writing done, for Darkness and the Stars. Quite an accomplishment, to be honest. Unfortunately, then I lost the thread. In mid-sentence, no less.

...Which brings us here. Frustrated I turned to my "non-writing" writing outlet, this weblog.

The circle is complete.

And now, I'm off to bed.