I wish I was in Yokohama.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I made the logical, adult, sensible decision, and stayed home to work on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS and my myriad other projects. It wouldn’t have made much sense for me to fly to Japan just for the con, not with the trip being as grueling and expensive as it is, and I certainly couldn’t afford to take off the month or six weeks it would have required for me to do worldcon, and make promotional appearances in Japan, Korea, and China as well, as my various Asian publishers wanted. And no matter how long or short the trip was, the mails and emails and bills and deadlines would have piled up monstrously in my absence, and I would have returned to find myself buried, and it would have taken another two weeks just to dig myself out, and I can’t afford that time, I really can’t.

I know all that.

All the same, not being at worldcon is killing me. I was okay at first, when I just knew in a kind of abstract way that the con was going on, but now con reports and pictures are starting to show up on various blogs and listservs that I frequent, and every time I read one it bums me out a little more. Maybe if everyone was writing, “this is the worst damned convention in worldcon history,” and “Japan is unbearable,” I would feel a little better about staying home, but that’s not what they are writing at all.

Today the Hugo results came in, salt in the wound. Not only have I missed worldcon and the chance to visit Japan, but I have missed the Hugoes for the first time in twenty-one years.

And THEN I hear that Montreal has won the 2009 worldcon over Kansas City. Sucks.

Ah, what can I say…

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The release of the British edition of HUNTER’S RUN is imminent. Daniel, Gardner, and I have all received our author’s copies, some blog reviews have been popping up here and there, and there’s a long three-way interview with us just posted on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, at http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/ Check it out. We talk about a few other projects besides HUNTER’S RUN, and there’s some news there that might interest Dunk & Egg fans.

An American edition of HUNTER’S RUN is scheduled for January, and a deluxe, illustrated edition signed by the three of us will be offered by Subterranean Press… but for those who can’t wait, you can order the UK hardcover from Amazon.UK or any other online British bookshop.

The new Wild Cards book, INSIDE STRAIGHT, is also scheduled for January. One of our new Wild Card writers, Carrie Vaughn, will be attending DragonCon next weekend, so if you’re also going to be in Atlanta and can tear yourself away from the Bettie Page lookalike contest for a few moments, be sure to corner Carrie and ask her about Curveball and Earth Witch. Check out one of her “Kitty” books as well, they’re a lot of fun, as is Carrie.

Parris saw an orthopod about her knee. Torn miniscus, he says. She’s probably going to need surgery, though she’s going to get a second opinion before getting scoped. And thank god for the NFL, and all that sports medicine has taught us about knees.

Speaking of the NFL, the Jets played the Giants in their annual preseason match-up this weekend. Pretty good name; no one got hurt. Eli looked good, Chad not so much. Giants defense looked better than anticipated, but I am worried about the O-line on the Jets. Getting rid of Pete Kendall might not have been such a great idea. I watched the new Jets fullback, Darien Barnes, with special interest, since a couple of months ago I got an email from him. He said he was a fan of my books… and also an aspiring fantasy and comic book writer himself. (When he’s not opening holes for the Jets running backs). Of course, the internet being what it is, maybe it wasn’t really him at all, just someone pretending to be him. Lots of people pose as sports stars, after all. It would be cool if the letter was legit, though…

The announcers always go on about how the Jets and Giants annual preseason game is for “bragging rights.” Which gave me an idea. Gang Green and the G-Men are building a brand new state of the art stadium in the Meadowlands, which they will share. So I propose that in future, the winner of the annual preseason match-up should get to name the stadium for the season that follows. Giants Stadium one year, Jets Stadium the next, and so on. Talk about bragging rights. That would add some real spice to the games.

(Of course, given the corrupt nature of the age we live in, the stadium will probably be named Chase Manhattan Field or something similar, but one can dream)

Oh, and Jim of Dark Sword tells me that so many of you guys visited his website to check out the new Ice & Fire miniatures that he exceeded his monthly traffic allowance for the first time ever, and got shut down by his ISP. He has now upgraded to unlimited usage. The response at GenCon was also very enthusiastic, I’m told. Keep it up!

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I’ve been juggling lots of balls this past week, but making good progress on a number of fronts.

All of the art is finally in for Subterranean Press’s limited edition of FEVRE DREAM, and we’ve been going over the page proofs and placing the illustrations. Justin Sweet has done some truly spectacular work for this one — a great moody cover, three stunning full color plates, and a bunch of beautiful black and white interiors. If you like illustrated books, this will be one you’ll want to have, even if you’ve read FEVRE DREAM before.

Also been doing a lot of WILD CARDS work. The first drafts of the stories for BUSTED FLUSH, the second of the new volumes, have been pouring in, and I’ve been reading them all and sending out notes to the writers for their rewrites. With a project like WILD CARDS, the first draft is never the final one. There’s always a lot of revision required so the tales will fit together. We’re well on the way, however, and I think the book will be a strong one when it’s done.

And I’ve been working on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS too. Just finished revising the prologue a few hours ago. As I mentioned last post, after reading it at the Indianapolis convention, there were aspects of it that I was not happy with. The new version is a page shorter and much stronger, I think, with a better flow and crisper transitions. I also punched up one element that somehow had gotten lost before… but it was an important element, I believe, so I’m pleased that I was able to strengthen it.

Tomorrow is Parris’s birthday, and we’re off to the Bull Ring for some of Santa Fe’s best steaks. Phipps will find a lobster too, I’m sure. She’s going to be turning 29!

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I’m back home again after a weekend in Indianapolis, where I was the Guest of Honor at InConjunction. The good folks of the Circle of Janus were most hospitable, the hotel was nice enough, the parties were lively (until some high school baseball players in the hotel complained about the noise and shut us down), and I got to see some old friends and make some new ones. A small contingent from the Brotherhood Without Banners was on hand, as lively as ever. It was great to see Trebla looking much happier and healthier with his new bionic spine, to hang out with Pedicab Kate (well, she’s really a student, but as I explained to her, I know hundreds of students, but only one pedicabbie). My GOH liaison, the lovely Laura, came to the con with a cage of bats, which was pretty cool as well, and I met a couple of readers from Bulgaria who told me that in my Bulgarian editions, “battering ram” is translated with the word for a male sheep. I keep picturing the scene at the Wall, where the wildlings try to knock through the gate with… ah… sheep under their arms… the Bulgarians must think I’m very imaginative.

I had a reading at the convention, and decided to read the newly-completed prologue from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. I’ve been struggling with this particular chapter off and on for years (not continuously, of course, when a chapter gives me as much trouble as this one has, I tend to put it aside, move on and write something else, and come back to it later with fresh eyes), writing and rewriting it, moving chunks of it around, trying different structures. There’s a lot of flashbacks in the chapter — not just one flashback, but more like four, each to a different time in the viewpoint character’s life — and integrating those with each other and with the present action has proved to be a bitch and a half. I finally did manage to get the ducks all in a row, however, so I thought I’d see how it went over.

FWIW, I have always found convention readings to be very valuable, especially when I’m doing a chapter than I’ve never read before. No matter how many times you go over your work on a computer screen, somehow mistakes still slip past you… but when you’re reading aloud, they leap right up into your face, screaming and spraying spittle. Typos, missing words, double words, tortured syntax, clunky dialogue, you name it. I always try to keep a pen on hand, so I can mark up my reading copy as I go.

And sometimes you see bigger problems too, as I did in this case. The audience seemed to like the chapter well enough, which pleased me. I talked to some of the BWB about it afterward, and was glad to hear that it mostly worked. There are still problems, though. A couple of awkward transitions, a false step and double beat in the middle, maybe too much repetition. Yes, I have reshuffled certain sections of the prologue half a dozen times already, but at the reading it became clear to that I need to look at the sequencing of the flashbacks yet again. I may be close, but I’m not there year. So that’s one of the things I’ve been doing since returning home: polishing, trimming, and restructuring the bloody prologue one more time. For the last time, I hope… but really, who knows?

This, by the way, is the quandary that every writer faces on every book. When is a chapter really done? When is it good enough? We all walk tightropes there. On one side are those who just pound out first drafts, publish them, and move on to the next book. On the other side is poor souls like the character from THE PLAGUE, endlessly revising one sentence over and over in search of some illusory perfection. The best work, I believe, comes from those who stay up the tightrope, leaning this way and that, but never falling off to either side. That’s what I try to do… and yes, that’s one big reason why the books take so long.

Anyway, I had a great time in Indiana, but now I’m home again, and I have a prologue to revise. Ciao.

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If the old gods, the new gods, and American Airlines all cooperate, Parris should be returning to Santa Fe this evening. Hoorah! I hear she had a great time in Ireland, but she’s been sorely missed on this side of the water.

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