Hiatus

This is something I’ve been thinking hard about lately. Here’s the situation.

Angry Robot Books and their precocious & spry child company, Strange Chemistry, are opening their doors to authors in late April. I’d love to send them a finished novel, and the work with the best chance, Citizen in the Wilds, is in the middle of a major rewrite. Between work and my other interests it’s been difficult to find the time to give the novel the attention that it needs, and I’ve been making lots of lame excuses to myself.

I’m gonna nip that in the bud right now.

I’m putting IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! on hiatus for the foreseeable future. It’s had a decent run, but it’s a bit time-consuming to put together every week considering how little difference it makes in my overall impact at the moment. And besides, the plan’s always been to become a novelist, and insightful if occasionally cranky podcast movie reviews may be fun but they really don’t contribute to that.

I’ve been brewing something else to do on Fridays, something more in line with my overall goals, but that too will have to wait. What I will probably do between now and April 30th, the day the aforementioned doors close, is keep track of how many words I’ve written/copied from the old draft, how far along I am in the overall plot of the novel, and share inspiration or frustrations I’ve encountered in the course of the rewrite.

This also means that my Cold Iron efforts are somewhat on hold. I’ve gotten great feedback from a couple of my test readers and I’m excited to work on the cover for the novella, but to keep working on that would, again, take time away from Citizen. To make sure I meet my deadline I’ve had to flip those priorities, so I’ll be back to writing about the pursuit of supernatural nastiness Law & Order style sometime in April or May.

Finally, I’m going to have to force myself to not log into my games. Chuck would tell you that writers need to carve their time in bloody chunks out of other parts of the day, and sometimes you need to stick the gore-dripping knife in the well-meaning face of your distractions and say “No.” This is one of those times.

So that’s it. To everyone who’s supported ICFN with your comments, suggestions, and criticisms, thank you. I’m in your debt. I’m glad my work in that particular experiment has entertained and amused, and am especially grateful to those of you who supported me with direct donations. I’ll update the archive page over the weekend so you can always find the old entries, filled with spotty audio, derivative commentary, plenty of would-be intellectual musing, and the occasional cuss-filled rant.

Just be sure to hit the lights on your way out.