So What Am I Doing Next Year?

Okay-- so I wanted to post something adorable for Halloween, and what can I say?  There is NOTHING more adorable than the guys from Little Vampires.   And then I WENT THERE for the link to the site, and saw the post that Rebecca put up for Halloween.  GO!  GO NOW!  YOU WILL BE HOPELESSLY CUTED OUT!   Because even though Rebecca gave me permission to post one of her comics on my blog, I loved the picture SO MUCH that I want people to FLOCK THERE, wander around the store, read the web comics from beginning to end-- fall in love.  (I gave James and Rebecca mention in the book Shiny! which will be out in March sometime-- they're some of my favorite con-people EVER.  Go visit their site and find out why.)

Anyway, so I saw the above webcomic, and then this picture in my phone, and I had to wonder... who zapped THAT guy?

Seriously-- this whole "planning ahead next year" is blowing my mind.  I mean, I've always sort of had a knack for it.  I always felt like I was pulling a semester out of the seat of my pants, but the fact was, i always had a long term assessment in mind, and we were always working toward it.  But to sit down with Mary and say, "Okay, if I agree to do this one thing, where is it going to fit in?" and have her play with my writing queue so that I can write a story NEXT YEAR-- well that's sort of boggling.

I know that the industry has changed since my first go at it-- I submitted If I Must at the end of August and found out September 1st that I would be published on December 1st.  I submitted Keeping Promise Rock in mid-October, and it was out on January 19th.  Dreamspinner can't afford to do that anymore, and, honestly, they shouldn't try.  There's a lot to be said for an extended production time-- better quality product for another, and a chance to promote and get the word out as well.  But it's more than that-- it's that old Hollywood thing.  Mate and I used to see an actor from one venue in another venue or a commercial, or hear that they were on Broadway, and we'd say, "Hooray!  They're working!"  And since I've begun to make my own living with my art, I've come to really appreciate that idea.  Once your financial needs are met, the thing with writing (or acting or painting or singing, I suspect) is that working is really all you ever wanted to do in the first place.  The opportunity to work at this thing that you love-- that's huge.  So, well, yeah.  It's blowing my mind.

In a year I'll be working collaboratively on the current Riptide project, Bluewater Bay.  It feels sort of delicious, and I'll be excited to do it, but, folks, that's an outline for what I'll be doing in a year.  

From someone who can't tell you what she's having for dinner tonight.  Just the knowing that I'll be working in a year is pretty fucking delicious.

And speaking of delicious-- see that cover in RT Book Reviews?  Yup.  Riptide Gives Back- the charity bundle that includes Christmas Kitsch gets cover mention on RT.  I'm sort of doing the pee-pee dance about this.  I hope we raise a whole lot of money for homeless LGBT charities.  Rusty and Oliver are good spokesboys for how much kids really just need a hand up-- and love.


And speaking of love-- this sign here that Zoomboy is holding is an act of love.  That thing lived in our house for a year before Mate got it all together, but there it is, lighting up ARCO Arena.  Mate was so proud-- and honestly, I'm pretty proud too.  That there's my family, y'all, and if they have a love affair with the underdog, well, so do I.  We're well matched.  Go Kings!

And, uhm, *snicker*  This was making the rounds on the ethernet, and I thought it would give the Halloween Psycho Killer motif a nice little update.  Because, you know, there's never a swamp when you need one.

And the Rainbow Barf Gnome-- this is Chicken's universal signal for "Mom, you're grossing me out with all this talk of love and the way you have unconditional faith in me.  Stop it.  Say something snarky immediately."  Alas, I am poor at taking hints, so I get this a lot in my texting.

And that's it-- I know what I'll be doing next year, and I can definitely tell you what I'm doing tonight.

I'm going Trick-or-Treating with Darth Vader, a Ninja Bunny, and a Chiwhowhat in my shirt!