What’s Been Happening Professionally

As you know, I prefer being busy, juggling as many balls as possible. It forces me to focus and work efficiently. Whenever I am at loose ends, I fritter away too much time and am sloppy with my work habits.The slow fall has driven me to distraction but these last two weeks have been much more as I like things.I spent much of the time researching and writing the first issue of my DC project, timing myself to see how much time each subsequent issue was likely to take so I could plan ahead. Meantime, the actual proposed outline continued to morph (as do so many things in the DCU it appears) resulting in my spending a delightful hour in Dan DiDio’s office on Monday. We went through my rebuttal notes, line by line, and Dan either agreed and reversed himself or argued for his point of view. I spent a few hours yesterday revising the final outline and that will require some additional writing but that’s fine, I’m getting paid for it.I also wrote a one-off script for a different DC title, and delivered it to my editor just before I took the train to the city. Once he approves the script, I can freely tell you what it is although it’s an inventory script so can’t tell you when you can read it.I additionally was asked to copy edit a manuscript for a media tie-in property. Now, copy editing is perhaps my weakest skill set, but the client felt I had the right understanding of the concepts to make certain what they produced was clear, concise and could be understood by others. I devoted hours each day over the last week reviewing it and completed the first pass yesterday. I will spend the three-day weekend giving it a second pass then deliver it on Monday, making my deadline.Meantime, I have continued to collect artwork for the Howard Chaykin Retrospective and signed my contract for the ghostwriting project.That leaves me just a handful of working days before Deb and I take an honest-to-goodness vacation. I’ll devote that time to beginning to research the ghost project, presuming I get the promised outline so I can focus on the necessary material. DC Project issue #2 will be my first task in 2010.Now, I’ve also been continuing to scout for other work since I know I will have free time coming up after the New Year. As a result, I was in full networking mode at the Science Fiction Writers of America annual holiday reception on Monday. It was a sheer delight seeing my old friends but also reconnecting with editors I know or meeting new ones. That’s always fun as the clusters of people come together and break apart with amazing regularity. First thing yesterday was writing numerous follow-up e-mails and with luck, the one editor who expressed interesting in something, will respond.And that’s pretty much what’s been going on at the home office.