GONE DADDY GONE

UPDATE: TONIGHT, MONDAY 11/20, I'll be doing a chat/interview over at the Lost-Damned Chat Room, starting at 10pm EST. Come one, come all. I'll answer any question. Any question at all. Oh yeah--and Shriek made the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Of-Year List.



This has been the busiest year of my entire life, in terms of amount of travel and number of projects. Over the past year, I have done the following, with Ann’s help, in addition to logging about 400 hours in the gym:

Creative
-Overseen the creation of a short film for Shriek (to be posted on the internet in January)
-Overseen publication of and written new material for the Secret Life Remix (Select Fire)
-Written a 10,000-word story for the Bantam spelling bee anthology
-Posted about 100 blog entries
-Written four VanderWorld e-newsletter reports
-Started monthly columns for Bookslut and SF Site
-Written reviews for Publishers Weekly
-Written nonfiction for Postscripts
-Written nonfiction for a book of nonfiction on folktales
-Shot and edited, with Ann’s help, 23 short videos (granted, I’m not very good yet)
-Finished up the Secret Lives book (out before the holidays)
-Started reading for the Pirate anthology (with Ann)
-Started reading for the Best American Fantasy anthology (with Ann)
-Started soliciting for a pair of new charity fiction anthologies (with Ann)
-Written 50,000 words of a new novel
-Consolidated and rewritten 30,000 words for a second, non-Ambergris novel
-Written miscellaneous introductions to three or four books

PR
-Done PR campaigns for both the UK and US release of Shriek
-Done a PR drive for the Bantam release of City of Saints
-Tallahassee Shriek book release party
-Overseen and done PR for twenty Shriek movie parties across the U.S.

Travel
-Odyssey instructor
-World Fantasy Award Judge
-AWP Conference participant
-Turkey City Workshop guest
-World Fantasy Convention attendee
-SIBA Conference guest
-NYC KGB reading
-Five-week European book tour (seven countries) in support of books released overseas
-Finncon Guest of Honor, Helsinki
-BookPeople reading (twice)
-Countless other readings/signings in the U.S.

…all while maintaining a forty-hour-a-week day job and reading a ton of other books. And there’s tons of tangential shit I’ve left off of that list above.

In short, I am well-pleased with what I’ve accomplished, but I am now weary and I need a break. So for the next five to six weeks, this blog is going to go dim. If something really momentous comes up, I’ll add it as an update to the top of entry.

In the coming weeks, you can expect an announcement about me being crazy enough to become a judge for another award in the next few weeks. You can also expect another Bookslut column for December as well as another Dispatch for SF Site. In addition, my long story Errata for Argosy may finally come up in December. And when I come back to the blog, I’ll have new videos done about our travels in the Czech Republic and Romania.

What’s coming up next year?

-More foreign sales.
-The Shriek mass market in the UK in January, John Klima’s spelling bee antho in May, Best American Fantasy in June, another anthology in September, and the pirate antho possibly in October of next year (although it may be moved back to 2008).
-The completion of my new novel and partial completion of a second.
-The internet release of the Shriek movie
-Yet another anthology Ann and I will be co-editing, to be announced by January.
-Travel to Orlando as one of the Trinity Prep School visiting writers.
-Travel to Ft. Lauderdale for ICFA.
-Travel to Atlanta for AWP.
-Travel to San Diego to teach at Clarion.
-Two glorious weeks driving around Vancouver Island
-Travel to NYC for World Fantasy
-Any number of cool and insane projects I can’t tell you about yet…

Ann and I are not traveling for Thanksgiving. Ann and I are not traveling for Christmas or New Year’s. We’re huddling up at home. All I’m gonna work on is the novel. Finch ‘n’ me are staying at home.

Finally, I have to say I couldn’t have enjoyed this year, let alone survived it, without Ann.

Have a great holidays and please note that this isn’t a plea to leave me alone, just that I’ll be checking email less frequently and whatnot.

Much love,

Jeff