April 25, 2005
...a writer's work is never done.

Or at least it seems like it sometimes. Mondays can be like being buried in minutiae, but I'm not sure that applies today. It hasn't been spastic-busy, but I feel a bit more disjointed than usual.

The temps are in the 50s and the snow is melting. Still, the roads were a slush-fest, so I took the kids to school today, then ran off to the post office to mail out stuff for the journal I edit. Came back home, walked Frodo, then jumped in and wrote a book review (Denise Hamilton's "Savage Garden"). Then I worked on the novel for a bit, though I'm convinced that half of it is crap and will have to be re-written. It's a thriller, so it should move like the wind, and I was introducing the main character with two or three or four or five pages of backstory and I'm inclined to just having him doing something and fill in the holes later.

Then lunch, then walk the dog, then I jumped in and called PJ, the publicist, and her staff e-mailed me some paperwork to fill out. I called some software firms to set up interviews for an article I'm writing about electronic office records, then jumped in and wrote a draft of the article on Hepatitis C that I should have written last Friday.

Irene e-mailed to say the editor apparently liked Serpent's Kiss enough that she started reading it Friday at lunch because it was on her desk, then got caught up in the story and finished it on Saturday. All of which sounds promising, but she had a big BUT, and it was a point in the novel where she had a problem with one of the clues, did Irene think I would mind changing it. The answer is no, I wouldn't mind, and I actually agree that it probably should have been trickier, and I e-mailed Irene with 3 or 4 possibilities, then I asked her if she thought all these questions over what I feel are minor points are merely an excuse to not offer a contract. She said no, they really want it, so we'll see. Things moved a bit faster (for a change) on that front. Keep all digits crossed.

Filled out some of the paperwork for PJ, then worked on the Journal a bit, editing an article about Pick Nieman disease and chromosome 20. Ran out to check the mail--a plethora of junk mail--and am back here blogging. Next stop will either be to work some more on the journal or to send out a few queries.

Best,
Mark Terry