Works in Progress and New Releases and RWA stuff.

It’s been a busy week. Which is kind of odd to say, since…. well… (gestures in 2020).

Part of the busy was that we had a week between end of summer courses and starting the school schedule, so we hauled everything out of Teen’s room and deep-cleaned it. It took four days, because we broke it down into smaller chunks that still allowed for Minecraft. Priorities, right? (Seriously, he was in the middle of a major mapart project, which I’ve internalized as “My son is doing digital crossstitch. Far out!”)

School starts next week, so I’m anticipating another busy week, one full of tech support issues and screeching at laptops. Funtimes!

I still managed to get a decent amount of writing done. Not as much in Monstrous Town as I’d have liked, but the RWA Board meeting ate my weekend.  (More on that later.) I’ve hit one of the scenes I’ve been waiting for in Wings of Air, and I’m starting to wonder if this series might not actually be five books. There’s a LOT going on in this outline! I’ll make that decision later, once I see where the story is once we hit my word goal.

In other writing news, I got another short story up into KU.

Infernal Machines was originally published in Carnal Machines, under the name Elias A. St. James. It was released as a standalone story by Forbidden Fiction, and it came back to me when FF reverted my rights last month. It took me a little longer than the others to find a cover image that I liked, which is why it’s a week behind the other three.

This past weekend was the last RWA Board meeting of the interim board. Over the past five months, we did a job of work. But I’m pretty confident that we’ve set a firm foundation for RWA 2.0, and I’m running for reelection as DAL, so I’m ready to keep on working. Given the number of people of running (exactly twelve), it’s pretty much a given that I’ll be serving again — the only question is will I be serving for one year or two?

How much did we get done? Well, in five months, we redid the Code of Ethics so that it actually made sense and was enforcable. We revised the bylaws so that more people were eligible to run for office, and to cover contingencies and disasters such as the one we just went through. The Chapter Affiliation agreements have been reworked so that they’re more equitable to our chapters. We’ve shored up the financial side of the RWA. And, last but certainly not least, we built an entirely new contest from the ground up, one based on objective literary benchmarks, not on “didja like the book?” The inaugaral Vivian will launch in the Fall, I think (I don’t have the dates in front of me).  Having worked on that Task Force, I’m really kind of proud of the job that we did there, but the proof will come next year in Nashville, when the first Vivians are awarded.

(I hope this works!!!)

Last week I also recorded a panel for the RWA National Convention, which will be held virtually August 28th through the 30th. Authors to Know will be part of the Librarians Day slate of panels on Friday the 28th. For the record, my authors to know are Jen deLuca (Renn Faire Romance!), Janella Angeles, Martha Waters and Farah Heron (BARBERSHOP SINGING ROMANCE!!!!)

There’s not much on the schedule this week, which means absolutely nothing anymore. I can have a busy week without ever leaving the house! So I intend to make this week busy by writing all the words.

Stay safe, everyone.