Now that Kong has fallen, all the smaller monkeys who were hiding in his fur have come out and began to howl and chatter and beat me about the head and shoulders.

I got one off my back yesterday (though not one that most of you will care much about): my bloody taxes. At least, I got them to my accountant, so he can file my returns by the June 15 deadline. I had to take an extension back in April, since I was deep in the throes of wrestling Kong and did not have the time to deal with all those little bits of paper. I try not to bitch about taxes too much, mind you. As a good liberal, I don’t actually mind paying taxes. (And I pay a LOT of taxes). I know taxes are the price of a civilized society. That being said, I hate DOING taxes. It has gotten easier in recent years, with Ty doing a lot of the prep work and my accountant doing the final prep and filing the return… but somehow it still always seems to come down to me at three in the morning, zonked on coffee and staring at a faded receipt for $8.17 and trying to figure out what it is, where it’s from, and whether it’s deductible.

Anyway, that’s done. For one more year, at least.

Which is not to say that my back is without monkeys.

Here’s the stuff I am dealing with right now:
— reviewing pitch proposals and putting together the overplot for the new Wild Cards mosaic novel, LOWBALL,
— writing the first draft of my script for episode nine of season two of the HBO series GAME OF THRONES, “Blackwater,” and damn, but this one is a bitch of an adaptation, the original author made the damn battle way too big and too expensive,
— working on a Nicholas van Rijn story for the Poul Anderson tribute anthology Gardner Dozois and Greg Bear are editing (an especially noisy monkey, since the deadline was today and the story is a long way from being done),
— getting back into THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE, the long-promised concordance I am doing with Elio and Linda, which is almost three years late at this point, and needs to be finished and delivered by year’s end,
— roughing out the next Dunk and Egg novella, the next story in the queue after I finished the “Blackwater” script and the Poul Anderson story,
— planning for a long summer of travel: the visit to Poland and Slovenia, the book tour, San Diego comicon, worldcon in Reno, Bubonicon, and maybe another trip overseas in the fall for the HBO show, depending,
— working on a complete redesign of my website, much needed and long potsponed,
— supervising and reviewing and approving materials for the games, the cards, the video games, the comic books, the replica swords, the miniatures, etc, etc.

I am exhausted just typing about it.

And behind all that, of course, lurks Son of Kong: the WINDS OF WINTER.

Why am I writing this damned post??? I need to get to WORK!

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