This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

I'm not supposed to have insomnia this week. What's up with that?

Yesterday, I mailed review copies. I did laundry. I made a to-do list. I had an email discussion with my editor about cover ideas for The Duke and the Pirate Queen. No, I don't actually have any decision-making power, but they asked me about something and I gave my opinion. I also ordered a copy of my French translation, to see if it would arrive before my official copies. The official copies come from Somewhere in France. I don't have a contact there, so the time of their arrival is very mysterious, much like the origins of the translation itself. I asked about my copy of my audiobook for The Duchess etc.. I'm not sure I can make myself listen to it, but I do want my copy for the sake of completeness.

Georgette Heyer Starter Kit at the pro blog. For which I have many of you to thank, back in the day - a bunch of you recced me your favorites, many of which are now my favorites.

I have author copies of The Moonlight Mistress!!!

*is happy*

For some reason, I keep thinking today is Friday. I even put my choir folder in my bag last night, because Friday night is dress rehearsal. I remembered this morning, but still have to keep correcting myself. Weird.

My author copies of Moonlight Mistress are apparently here but I cannot get them, because it is concert week and I am never home when the courier wants to deliver. So I am having them delivered to day job tomorrow (which is FRIDAY, right?).

I want them now. I want to see that all the stuff I didn't see before is correct, and that they made my requested changes on the back flap.

I also have to figure out if I'm going to do some kind of giveaway. I plan to send at least a couple of review copies out, not sure if I'll do more than that.

It's concert week, so I predict much sleep-deprivation in my future. I went to the gym on Sunday afternoon after writing, and am hoping to get a little more writing done today during my lunch hour, after which exhaustion and a brain full of music will likely preclude further attempts until the two concerts and all their associated rehearsals are over.

Bought a new necklace this weekend. It is a tiny brass spyglass that opens and closes, and is pleasingly heavy (the chain is robust). Alas, it is not a real spyglass, just clear glass. But Elder Tot was most amused by it and played with it twice in one evening. I probably won't wear it around her too much. It is irresistably tempting, and should be saved for special occasions. I'm wearing it today.

I'm in the very early stages of discussing a book trailer. I am somewhat excited, even though I've never really cared about book trailers before.

Put together a links post for the pro blog: in which I name-check the OTW in response to an article I found about "soon, everyone will publish." Like, duh.

Blagh, only 300 words written since Saturday. Those words were working in some foreshadowing for a plot element I'd been missing, though, so it's good in the overall sense despite me being disappointed with the wordcount process. The draft is now just past 61K for The Duke and The Pirate Queen, which I think is actually going to be the real title because no one has told me otherwise.

I am eagerly awaiting my October royalty statement, which I think will better reflect how the duchess book did than the April statement, which wasn't really showing returns yet. From the April one, I think I did all right, by the way - I knew that anyway, because they gave me another contract, but I like seeing the actual numbers on paper, kind of like it pleases me to track my wordcount progress.

Last night we ran Macmillan's "Child's Prayer" and spent the rest of the evening on the Dueling O Bone Jesus, one by Macmillan and one by Carver. The Macmillan is tricky at first glance but it has many basic Macmillan molecules in its composition, so it's coming together fast.

The Carver was still an engine that badly needed oil - I forget that it seems easier to me because I listen to a lot (a lot) of Renaissance music, but in fact getting the feel of it is difficult if you're more familiar with more modern music. I recall this happening a bit also when we first started singing a lot of Bach. Some people could feel Baroque style. Some had to learn it. The Carver was starting to smooth out by the end of rehearsal as people got into the feel of it more, and also were worrying less about a few tricky bits. My own weakness is that sometimes I lost the pulse, if I'm not paying attention in a certain highly focused way, and I have to catch up at the next downbeat. This is a very weird feeling, since normally that consciousness of the beat is completely unconscious, if that makes any sense. I think I get those tiny bumps when my (unconscious?) attention gets snagged by a neat bit someone else is singing, or a realization (again, perhaps unconscious) of how some parts fit together that I hadn't noticed before. The Carver "O bone Jesu" has nineteen parts, so there's a lot going on.

Gym blathering:
My muscles were so stiff by the time I got to choir rehearsal last night, from my Monday evening session, that I seriously thought I would have to skip this morning's weights. Also, my thumbs were really stiff and I dropped my music a couple of times. I took ibuprofren at break, borrowed from a fellow alto, since after rooting through my entire choir bag, I concluded I'd removed the bottle at the end of last season. That helped a lot with my hands and a little with the stiffness. However, when I woke up this morning, I felt much better, no real pain, so I went to the gym and lifted and did fifteen minutes of cardio, which wasn't really enough, but I was going to be late for work. Going to try and do the drop-in chair massage this afternoon.

I am pondering whether or not I should attend the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, Ohio next year. The cost is less of an issue to me than the fact that if I go, I will miss my choir's final concert of the season unless I skipped half the convention. We'd be doing Bach, the Easter and Ascension Oratorios.

I could, of course, still sing the pieces by preparing with the rest of the choir. I just wouldn't sing them in the final form with orchestra.

By April, I will have two novels out and have turned in the first iteration of the third. Several other authors who write for Spice are attending. I would, hopefully, get to talk to some readers, if not of my own books, then readers who like erotica.

It seems a simple decision, but for me it's really difficult. Writing is very important to me, and I can't stop doing it, even if I'm not getting paid. Singing is very important to me, and I can't stop doing it, and I never get paid (well, sometimes my choir as a whole gets paid).

But...this is a career thing. And I've been thinking, a little, about that "career" thing, and what I might want to do when this contract is finished. I would like to do a different sort of book, if I can find the courage. And...*flails*.

Input welcome.

1100 words yesterday; then I went home and discovered it was Money Day, i.e., my signing check had arrived along with a copy of my contract with all signatures.

Money Day is a lovely thing.

I am not much of interest right now because I am obsessed with paragraphing in Moonlight Mistress. That seems to be the thing that stops me short most often in my reading. Should I have broken that paragraph earlier? Do those sentences really belong together? Is it too long? If I added a break, would it be too short?

Mostly, I've decided that if I ponder it too long, I have to leave it as is. The typesetter people will be grateful, I hope.

I'm making a lot fewer changes than I did on my Author Alterations for The Duchess etc. A couple of times I've changed words so I wouldn't use the same distinctive word in too close proximity (well, a few pages proximity).  Otherwise...only four small errors so far that I've seen, one of those a capitalization thing that would have been okay even if I hadn't noticed it.  I'm into the second hundred pages now, of 381.

I'm doing the final readthrough on Moonlight Mistress. Last night, I read the first twenty-five pages aloud, though not really loudly...probably can't keep that up for the whole 381 pages, but it's really helpful.

The first part is easiest, because it's most polished. There are many, many pages to go that I might only have passed over once with serious intent (I don't count quick scans for typographical errors).

It's due July 27th.

Don't expect much of me in the interim, okay?

My RWA report, part one at the pro blog.

Ummmm...I went over my line edits for Moonlight Mistress, which were pretty brief, but of course I plan to spend a lot more time making final changes of my own once the manuscript arrives, hopefully today.

I will have a houseguest unexpectedly this weekend, but she's okay with me virtually abandoning her while I work. I need to send the manuscript back next week.

I also sent off a blurb I'd promised someone. I think they wanted it sooner than they got it, but, well, I was busy. And it's now done, so I don't have to ponder it any more, and can go back to my own novel.

I don't plan to work on the pirate novel at the same time as I'm doing final changes on Moonlight Mistress, but I had some new thoughts while I was at WisCon that should help, mostly about the secondary characters.

I was finally at home last night, but did not write. However, yesterday I mostly unpacked from my weekend at Arisia, did a load of laundry, opened mail, looked up and printed some receipts for tax purposes, and updated my page on one of the social/reading networking sites (Shelfari).

This morning, I bought a new warm fleece pullover (thanks, nifwitch, for the heads up!) and a replacement for my faded and stretched black cotton cardigan, confirmed a couple of dates for guestblogging gigs at Romance Junkies, and did a big update on the "appearances" section of my website where you can see what I'll be up to. (Look! I did a link and everything!)

I made notes on a couple of minor but meaningful things I want to include in my Moonlight Mistress revision.

Go me. Especially since I really only feel like going on a long walk with my MP3 player, and perhaps eating baked goods.

Sunday afternoon/evening I attended shvetufae's writing group. I decided on a question and answer format rather than simply reading, and I think that was the right choice. I was able to answer questions about what it's like dealing with professional editors (for instance, I shared my revision letter for the current novel), my opinion on full-time writing versus having a day job, the conventions I like best and why, my experiences so far with sfwa and rwa, and networking strategies, such as making sure to spill something on the editor so they will remember you. Not!

And a bunch of other questions, too. I don't remember them all. I invited them to pick my brain, and so they did. It was loads of fun, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Also, it was great to meet some new folks and renew acquaintance with some I'd met briefly before. (If you're out there, feel free to email/say hi/whatever, any time!)

Pay it forward!

Today, I am touring the free wireless hotspots of my fair city, and tr ying to catch up on quite a lot of internet stuff. Arisia schedules are out, and I can look at mine once I find my password. Need to make a hotel reservation for that. I also filled out the Montreal Worldcon questionnaire, which I think I did already, but I did it again just in case. I have to start looking into hotels for that, and see if my potential roomie is definitely interested.

At the end of this month, it will be time to register for RWA National, so I also have to bother my potential roomie for that, to make sure we get a room in the main hotel--they hand out too many free books for anything else to be really convenient. It's in D.C. this year, much easier for me to get to than last year's.

And, hopefully this weekend, I need to tidily assemble all my tax stuff which I hope is deductible--this netbook for one, and various research books (romance, erotica, and historical research). My last payment on the current contract will be in 2009, and presumably the audio book payment.

Done:
--Set up reading/release party
--Sent out "save the date" emails
--Emailed Harlequin publicity about materials for reading/release party
--Accepted blogging gig for mid-December
--Set up reading with Erotica Salon for February 17, 2009
--Accepted gig doing workshop for an RWA mailing list 8/31/09-9/11/09
--Filled out program info for Arisia
--Filled out program info for Philcon

To Do:
--Finish workshop critique
--Finish Spice Briefs submission, which involves sitting down to write
--Email different group of folks about reading/release party
--Request publicity materials for Erotica Salon
--Confirm NYRSF reading for April
--Query re: erotica reading series in NYC
--Query re: Philly Fantastic reading
--Write blog entries for December gig
--Write mailing list workshop posts
--Confirm RWA judging gig
--Online forum workshop proposal?
--Second proposal for Spice, now I have an idea for it
--Oh, yeah, writing some stuff

Next week, I'm reading at an "erotic literary salon" a new monthly event hosted by clinical sexologist Susanna Mayer; she's a friend of someone I knew from choir, which is how we got in touch. I'm supposed to read a selection of "erotic science fiction," so I chose "Camera." This morning, I took one of my cover flats to the copy shop and had it laminated, so I can pass it around without getting it all bent like the first one I carried all over the place and handed around.

I also hope to bring a few booklets with an excerpt from the duchess book, experimental ones. plasticsturgeon is working on a drawing for me to use for a nicer booklet that I'm going to try and put together as an RWA National handout. I don't want to do too many; I plan to hand them out personally rather than leave them on a freebie table.

The duchess novel revision notes are supposed to arrive by the first week of May, with the deadline for changes the second week of June or so.

I must drive ahead with the WWI novel, and hope that taking that break doesn't stonewall me.

Happy Money Day!

I found my signing check awaiting me when I returned home last night, from visiting Mademoiselle Infant and her mother. Mademoiselle has thick, silky black hair that is quite glamorous. Also little cute baby fingers, toes, ears, etc.. Also a good set of lungs when she realizes she's been handed over to a complete stranger.

I haven't decided how to celebrate Money Day yet. Perhaps the three days I just took off from writing will have to serve. And the excitement of putting the money away where I cannot touch it until after taxes.

1. Got haircut.

2. Did load of laundry and hung it to dry.

3. Read synopses posted by various people and got depressed about own synopsis-in-progress.

4. Worked on synopsis, adding character list with their roles, ages, and distinctive personality traits.

5. Got email from agent. Money Day is nigh!

6. Emailed editor to see what format she preferred for synopses. Should have done this before, but didn't. Hopefully, won't have to change current format too much. If so, my own fault.

7. Mailed SFWA election ballot.

Spent last night going over my synopsis draft, making notes on the page, and then making changes in the computer document. The subtler things tend to happen while I'm in the computer file. I think it's better now. I tied in more of the thematic things, I think, and added some rough dates to certain events, since my editor won't necessarily know names of battles and when they happened.