{"id":2026,"date":"2010-02-26T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-27T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2010-03-02T11:24:56","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T19:24:56","slug":"postpartum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/26\/postpartum\/","title":{"rendered":"Postpartum"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finished writing Jim and the Flims <\/em>this week and sent it off to my agent. I think it turned out quite well\u2014this fall I was feeling a little uncertain, but I think I pulled the book together very nicely over the last few months. I’d even go so far as to say that Jim and the Flims <\/em> rocks.<\/p>\n

In any case, I\u2019m done with it for awhile. Eventually, as it moves towards publication, I\u2019ll be going over it again, at least for copy editing, but right now I\u2019m off duty.<\/p>\n


\n[The photos today are from my new Canon S90.]<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always bittersweet to finish working on a novel. I get to love the characters and their world, and I\u2019m sorry to leave them. When I\u2019m working on a novel, I have something to do all the time, something to think about. This latest trek took me a year and two months.<\/p>\n

When I start, the finish seems mythical, imaginary, a dream. And I\u2019ve heard novelists say that there\u2019s a period in the middle when it\u2019s like you\u2019re rowing across a vast sea or lake\u2014you can no longer see the starting point, and the ending isn\u2019t in sight. And then, as the months wear on, I become desperate to finish, bent on bringing down my quarry. Putting it differently, carrying the weight of the incubating novel becomes unendurable. I long for deliverance. And then, in a rush, it comes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For distraction I\u2019ve been painting again. And I have my new Canon S90 to play with. It just arrived day before yesterday, and I haven\u2019t really used it out in great shooting conditions, mostly I\u2019ve been shooting in semi-darkness around the house. The image quality seems pretty decent, and the thing fits in my pocket. I’m still just barely learning how to tweak the thing for optimum image quality, so don’t judge the camera too harshly on the basis of today’s so-so pix.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been doing a little business as well. It looks like my memoir Nested Scrolls <\/em> will come out in a collector\u2019s edition from the high-quality PS Publishing in England late in 2010 or early in 2011. And the Tor\/Forge will probably publish an edition in the US in the fall of 2011.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been straightening out my ebook contracts and editions, too. I dug out all my old book contracts and figured out who I\u2019ve assigned e-rights to, and so on. And my agent and I are getting some of the contract clauses straightened out. <\/p>\n

Even though ebooks probably accounted for less than 5% of publishers\u2019 sales last year, writers, agents and publishers are getting the feeling that the e-wave is finally starting to rise\u2014so we\u2019re all paddling like mad to get into place. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been raining pretty much this week, but the papers don\u2019t seem to mention it. My theory is that the all-bad-news media only likes to report on rain:
\n (a) If they can say, \u201cWell, we\u2019re still having a drought, and this rain isn\u2019t enough,\u201d\u009d
\n (b) If they can report some hideous accident or power outage, or
\n(c) They can say, \u201cWe\u2019ve had too much rain, and mudslides are imminent.\u201d\u009d
\nRight now we\u2019re getting just enough of the rain we need, everything is green and growing, and spring is inching forward\u2014and it may not be news, but it\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So now what do with myself with my novel done? For sure I\u2019m not going to dive into another novel right away. In the immediate future, I\u2019ll be putting together issue #9 of my webzine FLURB<\/a><\/em>. And then maybe I’ll write some articles and stories.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Or just relax and take it easy for a month or two. Walk in the woods, go to the beach, visit San Francisco, like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I finished writing Jim and the Flims this week and sent it off to my agent. I think it turned out quite well\u2014this fall I was feeling a little uncertain, but I think I pulled the book together very nicely over the last few months. I’d even go so far as to say that Jim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2026"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}