oncoming

I'm sitting here, staring at the veritable mesa of pages, the Murder of Angels CEM and galleys, that have to be read in the next week or so. Typeset, Murder of Angels comes out just slightly longer than Low Red Moon (340 pp. vs. 338 pp.). We're going to get through the prologue and Chapter One ("Dark in Day") this afternoon. We have to do at least a chapter a day to make the May 20th deadline. Fortunately, it's a flexible deadline.

Bill Schafer (Subterranean Press) called yesterday afternoon to congratulate me on the sale of Daughter of Hounds, and we talked about various upcoming projects — To Charles Fort, With Love; the "Alabaster" chapbook; the sf novella I'm writing for him this fall and the possibility of a short sf novel next year; the Dancy Flammarion collection. A lot of stuff. More than it seemed like yesterday. I have all of that in the next year, plus short stories I've agreed to do (and will agree to do), plus The Daughter of Hounds. It's a good thing I'm getting all the work on Murder of Angels out of the way this spring.

books what stay

A few books I never read still manage to earn their keep. Best example, Bears of the World by Terry Domico (Facts on File, 1988). I've had this book since just about the time it was first published. I'm sure I must have read it cover to cover when it was new (bears rock), but what will spare it in the coming book purge shall be its utility as a lap desk. The 9.5"x12" format makes it perfect for the task. Why waste money on a lap desk when I have Bears of the World? I have proofed the galleys of all my books on Bears of the World. So, it gets to stay. Besides, there's a grizzly on the front cover and a polar bear on the back.

This morning's entry seemed so brief and dry I thought I should tack a little something on. I don't wish to be perceived as brief and dry. I'd rather be perceived as damp and long-winded.

I'm trying hard to make reading-for-pleasure time, but Jak II keeps getting in the way. I did read a good bit of the latest Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology yesterday, including two papers on sauropod dinosaurs — "An articulated specimen of the titanosaurian (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) Epachthosaurus sciuttoi from the early Late Cretaceous Bajo Barreal Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina" and "The skull of Rapetosaurus krausei (Sauropoda: Titanosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar." Then, when we finally dragged our sorry asses off to bed, Spooky read me the prologue to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes (perfect prose poetry), as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (who speaks for the trees).