Off to WFC

…in San Jose tomorrow, though I’ve learned that thanks to flight changes it’ll be a 9 hour trip instead of 6 hours. Looking forward to that about as much as a root canal. But I will survive.

As a reminder to any who will be there and want to say hello, offer gifts, punch me in the nose (note, though: I punch back!), etc., the one event I’ll definitely be at is my own reading, currently scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday. Come hear the first 2 chapters of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms! (Note: those of you who came to the reading at Wiscon have already heard the first chapter.)

Aside from this my schedule’s pretty all over the place — I’ve got breakfast meetings lined up 2 mornings out of 3, dinner dates 3 evenings out of 4, one party I have to attend and another I really should… so I’ll be hard to catch up to. Worse, I seem to be flirting with a disease of some sort — a mild cold, but traveling tends to exacerbate anything I’ve got. I’m taking care of myself as best I can, but that might necessitate me dialing back on the social stuff while I’m at the con. I will try not to sneeze in anyone’s direction, and I will definitely cover my mouth (and then wash my hands). I’ve had a flu shot — though this doesn’t feel anything like the flu; it’s just a cold.

In writing news, have hit the 50,000 word mark in Book 3 — slowed down a bit so I could go back and rework some early bits, which involved adding a whole new chapter among other things. Once upon a time this would’ve been the halfway point for any novel of mine, since historically my novels have been 100-125K. This time it feels like I’m only maybe 1/3 of the way into it. -_- This isn’t surprising; I kind of suspected this one, as the finale of the series, would end up being a bit longer. Lots of fun stuff has to happen. And I’m generally a ruthless editor, so I’m not worried that it’ll turn into a doorstopper. But it is kind of weird-feeling to have written this much and realize this is still just the overture. The fat lady’s still hanging out in the dressing room, probably not even done with her warm-up. How do doorstopper-writers do this? At what point do the start feeling a sense of accomplishment? 150,000 words? 200,000? Yeesh.

Anyways, I’m ghost. And speaking of, Happy Hallowe’en to all!