By Sarah Hoyt

When I got in this business – by which I mean, when I actually sold – I was so scared of deadlines that I tried to finish books three to six months ahead of time.

This is relatively easy when you have one book a year, or even two.  Because I write every day – or everyday there isn’t some crisis going on.  Um… okay, half the days – I was always early with books and developed a reputation for it.

Then came a time when I had to take three/four contracts a year.  And I started slipping a little.  Yes, I write very fast.  Yes, given a quiet day and eight hours, I can do twenty thousand a words.  But a novel is not twenty thousand words and cap it.  A novel is coherence, an idea that forms before hand, and in my case, SF or historical or even “just” fantasy there’s research and worldbuilding.

Some of this overlaps writing the last book, but it’s difficult.  Say, you’re in the twenty fourth century and reading everything about Tudor England.  Language leaks in, if nothing else.

Also, I always wondered if Misty Lackey was talking about writing when she came up with the magic for Valdemar.  Trust me, when you write books back to back without down time, or – worse – using the downtime to catch up on editing and shorts and stuff, you get the sense that your “channels” have been “stripped.”

When you are, as I’ve been for most of the last five years (yes, yes, you don’t know, because a lot of those are closed pen names or other type of work) on six books a year, well…  All it takes is one cold, and it pushes everything else forward, and suddenly you’re two years behind on a series (Noah’s Boy for the Shifter’s series) and wondering how the hell you got there.

Because, you see, this writing thing is not just writing.  At least not for traditional press work (though I’ve found also not Indie.  I’ll explain later.)  You write, then send it out, then it comes back, usually, with an editorial letter of some sort.  Then it goes back and comes back with copyedits.  Then it goes back and comes back as page proofs.

Each one of these is GUARANTEED to come when you’re in the middle of the trance on another book – the part of the book where you’re eating, breathing and sleeping the characters and the situation.  It stops work on the new book AND makes it difficult to “tune in” to the book under revision.  Oh, and if it’s a messy revision requirement, it’s bound to come with “ASAP” stamped on it.  Did I mention you have no control over these, which go at the house’s pace?  Yeah.  Once, I decided to go to the front room of our house to get something as the taxi that would take us to the airport and for a two week vacation in Portugal pulled up.  While picking up whatever it was (I THINK a book) there was the “thunk” of a package on the front porch.  Fedex.  Revisions and mark upon one of the musketeer’s books, which had then to be accommodated in the suitcases.  (Let alone if it had been five minutes later, it would have had to wait two weeks, which it couldn’t, by house schedule.)

Now that is one part where I can see Indie helping.  Yeah, I know, I’ll still have edits and “revisits” to the book, but since it’s on my schedule, it’s easier to control.  And maybe I can get a handle on this.  OTOH as I’ve pointed out, for the foreseeable future I’m living in two worlds.  (When I was little, I saw this act in a circus where a pretty girl stood with a foot on each horse, galloping side by side.  I still have no idea HOW she did it, but I guess I’ll have to learn.)

What this means in practical terms is that on top of the madness above (and I have three books due at traditional presses this year – two overdue, which IS a full schedule for most authors, as well as a book overdue at Naked Reader and two more novels with them (Orphan kittens which already has cover, and a fantasy one and a collaboration with Amanda Green [Rye Crisp – a paranormal mystery]) and a few short stories too and a few books I want to finish for Goldport.) I also have to keep on top of software and the changes in platform at various retailers.  And I have to SOMEHOW redesign my web site.  And, oh, yeah, a bunch of the short stories I have set aside for Goldport Press need a rewrite.  And, oh, yeah, the Marlowe mysteries short stories are doing well for me, and I’d like to finish the novel and give it a chance, but – as with the Red Baron one – this almost requires my going away and hiding so I can immerse myself in the time period.

And through all this, rewrites requests will continue to come, and requests for submissions, and page proofs and…  And my health seems to be even more … uh… amusing than it’s been for years.

Who, complain, me?  Did I ever say I didn’t want to live in interesting times?

If you need me, I’ll be under my desk, braiding my hair and studying a rewrite letter.  Then this afternoon, I’ll be working on one of the late books.  I have a nervous breakdown penciled in for 2020, and I intend to enjoy it thoroughly when the time comes.

It might be the only way to get some rest around here.