Hmmmm...I know there was an August around here somewhere.

Not as much writing progress as I would've liked, as there's been plenty to do on other fronts. As noted in the previous entry, we're "on the clock" waiting for Baby Ward to make her grand entrance.

Anyway, here's the rundown, even though a lot of it is a rerun of last month:

• Summon the Thunder - I completed a set of annotations for the book, which you can read and mock to your heart's content. They contain spoilers for STT as well as Harbinger and our S.C.E. e-Book Distant Early Warning, so watch out!
  
  
• Things Fall Apart - Mere Anarchy: Book 1 - Everything on our part is done, and editor Keith DeCandido, says it should be available in most e-Book formats any time now. I also created a guide page for the entire mini-series.
  
  
• "First, Do No Harm" - for the Constellations anthology. The book is reportedly beginning to show up in some stores and is shipping from online retailers like Amazon.com. I also received my box of contributor's copies yesterday. Kevin and I are very proud to be associated with the list of authors who contributed to this anthology, and the book itself is a sight to behold. Have I mentioned lately how much I love that cover? Editor Marco Palmieri definitely outdid himself this time.
  
  We're also pleased to shout out from all rooftops - vacant or otherwise - that "First, Do No Harm" also appears in its entirety as a special addition to Shinsei Shinsei, the first Star Trek Manga from TokyoPop. The Manga itself is an intriguing new take on Captain Kirk and Company, so give it a gander if you're so inclined.
  
  
• Corps of Engineers #1: Turn the Page - Manuscript delivered to the editor on June 19th. Received editorial feedback and revisions were completed, and now we're awaiting licensor approval.
  
  
• Age of the Empress: The Rise of Sato I - for Star Trek: Mirror Universe - Glass Empires. A novel of approximately 50,000 words, with Kevin and I assisting former Enterprise staff writer/producer Mike Sussman with the writing. Received the copyedited manuscript from editor Margaret Clark on August 24th, and we're in the process of reviewing it so that we can get our changes back to her by September 8th. We're also happy to report that Margaret received feedback from CBS Licensing with my favorite phrase: "Approved; no changes required." Sweet!
  
  Cover art is also available for your viewing pleasure on the book's page. The novel will share space with a TOS story by Dave Mack and a TNG tale by Greg Cox. If you want to check out the cover for the other Mirror Universe book, Obsidian Alliances, check out Keith DeCandido's blog entry.
  
  
• Original SF short story - For an open-call anthology. Story sent to editor on January 23rd. Waiting to see if it's accepted or rejected.
  
  
• Original SF short story - For an open-call anthology. Story sent to editor on July 30th. Waiting to see if it's accepted or rejected.
  
  
• Original short story - For an open-call anthology/writing contest. Story sent to editors on August 14th. Waiting to see if it's accepted or rejected.
  
  
• Original short story - Outlined and a partial draft is complete. The next item on my list of things to do. Probably not going to finish this before the baby arrives, but perhaps it's something I can work on here and there in the coming weeks.
  
  (HAH!)
  
  
• Original SF short story - I've outlined the first short story based in the "universe" of The Last World War. This is one is second on my aforementioned list. More info to come as I move forward on it.
  
  
• Counterstrike: The Last World War, Book II - Proposal is still in limbo.
  
  
• Trek novel solo project - Doesn't look like this one's going to happen in the near future. Editor's interested, but the book itself doesn't fit with the current/near-term plans for the line. We may revisit this one sometime down the road, but I'm sure I'll find something else to do in the meantime.
  
  
• Trek novel project with Kevin - Awaiting editor feedback on proposal.
  
  
• Trek novel project with Kevin - Only the barest of discussions with the editor have been held at this point. Probably won't even try writing a proposal until we've had more time to talk with the editor.
  
  
• Tie-in project with Kevin - After four attempts at writing a proposal, Kevin and I finally decided our basic approach sucked. We're going back to the drawing board and starting over from scratch. The only time table on this one (at present) is us getting our heads and butts correctly wired before wasting an editor's time with it. However, this one's liable to take a backseat as we move on to....
  
  
• Tie-in project with Kevin - A new project that's come along since the last update. This one does have a time table, so we're brainstorming the proposal right F-ing now. Tentative due date for turning in a manuscript would be February 1, 2007. More on this as it's appropriate to divulge details.
  
  
• Trek tie-in project - Nothing much more than a hare-brained idea at this point, I've nevertheless written a five-page proposal for it. Not sure if it ever will see the light of day, but I figure it's good for giving the editor a laugh.
  
  
• Two articles for Star Trek Communicator magazine with Kevin - These are still on hold pending word on direction of the magazine. Last word I got was that it would be late 2006 or early 2007 before anything would happen.
  
  
• Non-fiction/non-genre article (or series of articles) for local/regional magazine or newspaper - Still hanging in limbo. No market for it, so the fire's not really there to write it at the moment.
  
  

And that's pretty much it.

Well, it's here. The Due Date.

And so, the waiting officially begins. Don't worry; I've got my game face on.

Forwarded to me by my wife:






Nice job, but that per-word rate is gonna suck....

The poor kid isn't even born yet, but I've made sure that she takes her first shaky steps into fandom dressed in style....





Worry not, though: I've already started setting money aside for the anticipated therapy sessions.

Don't get me wrong; I love having a deadline. For one thing, a writing deadline often means that somebody's either waiting to pay you for your work, or else they've already paid you and they're simply waiting for you to hold up your end of the deal. Deadlines are great, but it's nice not to have one once in a while.

This weekend was like that. No deadlines. No appointments. No place I had to be. Just me, a few chores to do, and a couple of "Hey, wouldn't this be fun?" type writing projects. I was able to turn my time, attention and energy toward a few projects that I've been putting off. One was a mess of subtle, behind the scenes updates to the website. Lots of links had to be updated, which took a bit, but it's the kind of work you can do while you're catching up on all the crap you have stored on your TiVo.

Another was cutting the grass. Considering the heat wave we've been having, that one didn't seem like such a priority.

Oh, by the way, did I mention yet that football season is here, and the Bucs won? Sure, it was only a preseason game, but they keep score for a reason, damn it.

Anyway....

I mentioned in an earlier entry that there are a handful of short story ideas I've had for a bit now, which kept getting pushed back due to various other writing deadlines. A few of them were for open call anthologies, each of which had their own deadline for submission, so naturally I prioritized accordingly. It was nice to finish the last one on that list today. It's all prepped and sealed in its envelope, and waiting for me to drop it off at the post office tomorrow.

So, where does that leave me for August? One more short story I'd like to write, purely for the fun of it. I have no idea what I'll do with it once I'm finished...it's really a silly little thing I've had bouncing around in my head for a while. More than anything, I want to write it so I can stop thinking about it, but if it turns out decent enough, I might try to pitch it to somebody. I've also got an outline for a media tie-in project that Kevin and I keep talking about. That's also on my list of stuff to finish before the baby gets here.

Oh yeah, the baby. The doctor moved up the due date to August 31st. I asked Michi to see if she could hold off until at least Labor Day so I could have the joke. Better yet, after Labor Day, so it doesn't count against my two weeks paternity leave from the office.

As expected, she failed to see the humor in those remarks. My scar's healing nicely. Thanks for asking.

Anyway, in addition to that story and the outline, Kevin and I also have to start applying some brain power to another outline for something we've been asked to write. Can't say much about either pitch right now, of course, but I'll be happy to leak details once I's are dotted, T's are crossed, and blessings conferred.

But, for now, I can close out the day knowing it was productive, and perhaps read something just for fun before settling down for one of my last remaining opportunities at seven or eight hours of sleep until...oh...2024 or so.

Kevin and I were checking out a local comic shop today, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of Star Trek: Shinsei Shinsei, the knew Manga project from TokyoPop. A bit larger than a regular paperback, the book contains five new stories featuring Captain Kirk and Company from the original Enterprise, including one by Mike W. Barr, veteran comics writer who -- among many other things -- wrote for DC Comics' first Star Trek series back in the late 80s and who also is contributing the second installment of the forthcoming Mere Anarchy e-Book mini-series.

Though we'd heard that the volume would also feature an excerpt of our short story from the forthcoming Star Trek: Constellations anthology, "First, Do No Harm," we were happy to see that in fact the entire story was included. Sweet!

Anyway, never mind that. If you're a Trek fan and/or a comics fan, give this one a look and check out what's been put together by Mike and writers Chris Dows, Jim Alexander, Rob Tokar, and Josh Ortega along with the artistic stylings of Makoto Nakatsuka, Michael Shelfer, Jeong Mo Yang, EJ Su, and Gregory Giovanni Johnson and check out what happens when Trek gets a Manga makeover.

Passed on by a friend. Anyone who works in Corporate America has figured this out already:

-----

What Makes 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

And look how far ass kissing will take you:
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.

-----

Here endeth the lesson.

In response to Therin of Andor, who "tagged" me in comments to an earlier entry:

Follow these instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your Blog/Live Journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.


My responses:

In addition to the /g modifier, substitutions may use the /i, /x, and /s modifiers that you saw in ordinary pattern matching. The order of modifiers isn't significant.

s#wilma#Wilma#gi; # replace every WiLmA or WILMA with Wilma
s{__END__.*}{}s; # chop off the end marker and all following lines

From Learning Perl by Randall L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix & brian d foy - O'Reilly Media, Inc. - 2005

(Hey, I'm at work when I post this. Take what you can get.)

----

I hereby tag the following:

Psiqueue
RedJack
Kiran Kalyan
Mark Lopa
Andrew Timson

And if you're not one of those people and are reading this anyway...well...consider yourself tagged. I know, I know...it upsets the chi of the blogosphere, but call me a rebel.

Finally, I've gotten around to posting a set of annotations for Summon the Thunder. There, you'll find notes about various continuity references we dropped in, as well as explanations for assorted in-jokes and other nonsense sprinkled throughout the book.

It goes without saying that the page contains spoilers for the book, as well as for Distant Early Warning and the first Vanguard book, Harbinger. If you've not read the books and wish to keep some surprises unrevealed until you've done so, tread carefully. You've been warned.