Books are no longer "culture" but a "sub-culture."

Worked yesterday, and was completely exhausted at the end of the day.  How was it that I used to work seven days a week for years?  Did I walk around in a besieged fog?

Probably.  I know that it was wearing and stressful.

Had Paul come in and give me some praise for the two vampire books he's read.  He read Faerylander for me, and while he still liked the vampire books better, he said it was mostly good -- "except for some slow spots just before the final battle."

Anyway, I think the book is getting closer and closer to what I want it to be -- and it seemed to me for a long time as if I would never get there.

I took the week off from writing.  Gave my eyes a rest, and they have mostly recovered, which tells me that it was eyestrain that was causing the problems.  I read a year's worth of N.Y.T. Book Reviews.  My takeaway -- that the literary world is as insular as any other sub-culture.  Because that's what it is in today's world, for good or ill -- not the "culture" but a "sub-culture."  They still think they are of primary importance, but I think it's a bit of a delusion.

The publisher seems to be moving forward on Death of an Immortal and Rule of Vampire.  He wanted the name of my copy-editor and I asked him not to "steal" her.  He 'lol'ed and said, no, he just wanted to give her credit.  He also is talking to Andy about designing -- which is pretty cool.  He wanted my bio, and I gave him a bunch of stuff that he transformed into a reasonable sounding description.

Lara is just a couple days from finishing the copy-editing on Led to the Slaughter.   She says that all the changes and additions were an "improvement," which is reassuring.  As soon as it gets back, I will spend a couple of days accepting or rejecting her changes -- (mostly accepting) -- and then send it off to the publisher.

Then I'm going to spend the next few days giving Blood of Gold one last brush-up.  Both Death of an Immortal and Rule of Vampire came out pretty much fully developed.  Blood of Gold was a bit more unwieldy (wrapping up three books worth of storylines) but pretty much there.  Just maybe an extra polish is needed.  It's no mistake that I chose these vampire books as the first books I was willing to show the world.

The pressure is off.  I can take my time getting my Lander books the way I want them.  I want to write a whole series about Cobb and company, and it was always the problems with the first book that concerned me.  Now I can move forward.

Faerylander is an example of a problem book that by working on it over and over again, and taking lots of times between drafts, is finally shaping up.  3 years.  Which for me is forever.

Whether I'm a better writer or the same writer or a worse writer than 30 years ago, I can say this -- I've handled the process in a much more mature and professional manner.  It's the difference of an immature 30 year old versus a seasoned 60 year old businessman.  Heh.

So I'm hoping I'll have everything squared away with the publisher by the end of the month or so, and I can get back to creating new material.  Which is the funnist part.