My first thought was that I had finally slipped into the calm that's supposed to come before the storm simply because I've gotten through the initial squall of, "Holy shit, Blood Blade is actually on the shelves and being read". The last several weeks have been spent reading a lot of reviews and checking all the sales figures I could find about Blood Blade, even though I knew there wasn't much more I could do about them no matter what they said. I needed to get back to work, but then I kept browsing and finding more stuff to obsess about. Well, I'm past that.
Ok...I'm past it just enough to stop the stomach cramps.
Blood Blade is out and about, doing well enough for a new series written by a new author that has nothing to do with love-stricken teens. There's still work to be done and I've been doing it. Skinners 2 is in the shop (being edited by someone other than me) and it's almost time to really dig in to Skinners 3. I've fired a few opening shots, written a few scenes, but mostly I've been working out the plot/character stuff that I need to know before maiming anyone too important. Heh. This early stage is what I like to call "the fun stuff".
I get to come up with all the things I'd like to see in a monster series, all the characters I'd like to meet and all the fights I'd like to witness. Then, I get to say, "This is MY series! I get to do ALL of this!!!" That lasts for a little while until I realize I can't do all of it and really shouldn't do some of it EVER. Still, the Fun Stuff outweighs all the long hours and meager pay. I get to make up my own monsters, create Skinners to hunt them and chronicle the ensuing fireworks. Apart from Glitter-Applicator at a high end "gentleman's club", I can't think of a cooler job than that.
I won't lie, though. I still fuss about Blood Blade and probably always will. Just the other day, I moved a copy or two from a bookstore's new release table to the horror section...cover facing out, of course.
