Tuesday’s dead

Last night, I finished my second Zorro story. My first one, “Letter from Guadalajara,” was published in 2011 in More Tales of Zorro, edited by the late great Richard Dean Starr, and is one of my favorite works in my entire bibliography.

This second one is “A Lovely View,” and — assuming Zorro Productions approves what I wrote over the last few days — it will be published in Bold Venture Press‘s anthology of Zorro stories, tentatively titled Zorro’s Exploits, which will be out in June of this year. BVP has done a whole mess of Zorro stuff, and I hope this story will lead to more, as both the Fox and his foe Capitán Monastario are tremendous fun to write.

Finishing the story is the start of a very busy week for me. Shuseki Shihan is taking a one-week vacation, so teaching karate this week is primarily falling to Sensei Charles and I, as well as Kyoshi Gustavo. I’ll be assisting Sensei Charles tonight, tomorrow night, and Thursday night, and I’m on my own Monday. (Sensei Charles is on his own Saturday, as I’ll be at HELIOsphere…) This is on top of my afterschool program on Wednesday afternoon, not to mention three private lessons I’m teaching this week.

On the writing front, there’s my review of this week’s Picard, my overview of the fourth season of Discovery, I’ve gotta write some stuff for my Patreon, I have to revise a proposal, and I’ve got a bunch more short stories to write, and I need to pick one to start this week. Bleeeeeeeeeeeee….

Plus I’m doing a panel on Thursday — the next Quarantine Panel on Dragon Con’s American Sci-Fi Classics Track is about Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a movie that is thirty years old, believe it or not. Check it out live on the Tube of You or the Book of Face Thursday at 9pm Eastern time.

On the personal front, there’s been some medical craziness with my parents (they’re in their 70s, this happens), but so far it’s been in the not-as-bad-as-we-feared category. And Wrenn’s job has been absolutely bonkers, but there’s an endpoint to it — it’s a January-April gig — and she has had some really good interviews for a full-time position that would be amazing if it happens. She’s got a followup interview tomorrow, so please keep those fingers crossed, those prayer hamsters spinning, or whatever.

How’s your Tuesday?

Tuesday’s dead

Busy week. We’re in the home stretch of The Four ???? of the Apocalypse Kickstarter, and we’re 130% funded and hoping to add some nifty stretch goals, not the least of which is a story by Seanan McGuire.

Speaking of crowdfunds, I’m finally working on the second of the two stories I crowdfunded on Indie GoGo ages ago, “Ragnarok and a Hard Place,” which will also be the title of the second collection containing tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet.

Also on the docket this week is to finish a bible for a series of science fiction stories I’ll be doing as a sort-of game tie-in — more on this when it’s announced — and revisions on Pigman, my second collaboration with Dr. Munish K. Batra, which is a medical thriller not related to Animal. Plus there’s the rewatch of Voyager‘s “Spirit Folk,” an episode that is, um, not good.

There’s also medical stuff this week. Yesterday, I had a long overdue appointment with an orthopedist. My knees have sucked since — well, since forever. They were especially bad in my mid-thirties, but then I started doing karate, and they got better, but they were never good, exactly, and lately it’s been worse. X-rays showed no bone damage, so it isn’t that. The ortho told me that the next step would be either physical therapy — which seemed pointless, given that I do karate several times a week, so it probably won’t help much — or an MRI to see what that tells us.

I obviously chose the MRI. It’s my first, and everyone’s telling me that it’s loud and claustrophobic and full of clanking, so there’s that to look forward to……

Friday I get to see a urologist, a direct result of being a male in his 50s. Happy joy.

Wrenn and I have been rewatching Stargate Atlantis, watching a wonderful New Zealand cop show The Brokenwood Mysteries (it’s pretty much a Kiwi Columbo), enjoying the new half-season of Lucifer, and last night we watched the delightful film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play In the Heights. I plan to review Brokenwood, Lucifer, and In the Heights on Patreon this month.

How’s your week going?

Tuesday’s dead

This past weekend was a delight, if exhausting. Saturday was our annual Twelfth Night party, which was a huge success, despite a large number of people cancelling at the last minute due to illness. (This cold that’s going around is brutal. My parents have all had it, and Wrenn has it right now.) Even with that, though, we had thirty people over the course of the afternoon and evening, the party itself lasting about 11 hours all together. There was yummy food, good drinks, fantabulous desserts, and great conversation. Everyone had a great time.

The prep was tiring, though, as Wrenn, as I said above, has The Cold that’s going around, so most of the physical work of getting the house ready for company fell on me. But it was worth it. It was especially fun to see friends of ours from different aspects of our lives come together and meet and enjoy each others’ company.

Then Sunday morning was our dojo’s annual Kagami Biraki. I’ve talked about the traditional new year’s workout on this blog before, and this year’s was just as awesome, with about forty people once again, ranging from white belt to fifth-degree black belt, with people from ages 12 to 65. It was a good start to what should be an excellent year at the dojo, as (among other things) we’ve got a big international tournament happening at the end of June. I’ll be talking about that a bit more closer to the event.

Sunday afternoon, I was the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the U.S.S. Avenger Star Trek fan club. It was a small, but enthusiastic crowd, who asked really good questions and enjoyed my reading. (I read a bit from the 1969 portion of my Supernatural novel Heart of the Dragon.) I even sold a few books!

Monday was recovery, relaxation, and finishing the final great superhero movie rewatch piece, which is on Joker.

Today has been the prep for the world’s worst 50th birthday present: a colonoscopy! My first doctor’s appointment after I turned 50 last April included my GP telling me that it was time for this, and she gave me a referral. This was the earliest I could get, amazingly enough. (It was so long between setting it up and it happening that I’ve changed insurance in the interim…) I’ve spent the day subsisting on chicken broth, ginger ale, black coffee, and the gunk you have to drink to get, ah, cleaned out. I’m almost done with the latter as I type this, and man is it awful.

With luck, everything will come out okay (…sorry…) tomorrow, and all will be well.

See y’all on the other side!

 

Tuesday’s dead

It’s been a crazy week-and-a-bit, as we just finished a huge black-belt promotion, which included five people from our Italian branch, the head of our Chilean branch, and seven people from our dojo, including a new fifth-degree and four new fourth-degrees, plus the Italians included a new sixth-degree and two new fourth-degrees.

On top of that, I’ve been working on Mermaid Precinct, doing my stuff for Tor.com, and proofreading a book of essays. But today, Wrenn and I are going to the New York Botanical Gardens for a date day of looking at flowers and plants and outdoor sculpture thingies and also their Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit.

We need this, partly because I’ve been away from home a lot on dojo business, partly because I’m exhausted from all the work I’ve been doing, partly because Wrenn is also brain fried from all the work she’s been doing, and we need a mental health day and to just spend time together. Hence, the Botanical Gardens!

There are likely to be pictures on Facebook and/or Twitter and/or Instagram later today. Or maybe not, who knows? We’re taking it easy today…………..

 

Tuesday’s dead

I have just sent the revision of A Furnace Sealed off to my in-house editor as well as to an MD to check over the medical stuff to make sure I got it right. (I’m quite sure I didn’t.)

Tonight and tomorrow I’m going to put a dent in my Patreon backlog, doing at least the July vignette and a few of the TV reviews I’m horribly behind on, as well as at least one, maybe two movie reviews. Oh, and I have to proofread Without a License for the new eSpec Books edition.

Thursday is the great superhero movie rewatch of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Then Friday I officially start up on the manuscript for Mermaid Precinct. Boo yeah.

First, though, I’m’na go to the dojo. Need me a workout.

What are y’all up to?

 

Tuesday’s dead

So I finally finished the tie-in novel I’ve been jamming on. Still can’t say what it is, but I can say that it’s 70,000 words that I’m actually quite proud of, and it’s a novel that I think fans of the franchise it’s part of will enjoy immensely.

Today I plan to spend dead for tax purposes, as I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, and shoving a wick in the center for good measure. What with this novel deadline, spring camp, the L.A. trip, and my usual karate teaching duties and the great superhero movie rewatch, I feel like I’ve been going nonstop for about a year this past month.

This weekend is Balticon (check my schedule here),  and I plan to spend the few days between now and it doing very little, save for some laundry, maybe a karate class or two, and this week’s great superhero movie rewatch (which will be Catwoman with Halle Berry). And Wrenn and I may take a museum trip somewhere in there.

After the convention, I need to write the short story that will go in the back of the new edition of Gryphon Precinct, I have a pseudonymous novelette to finish, some follow-up work to do related to the L.A. trip, and my Release the Virgins! story to write. Then it’s finally time to write Mermaid Precinct (only a year late!).

Some of that may get started this week, but not today. Today, I veg, maybe catch up on a few things that are taking up too much room on the DVR.

 

Tuesday’s dead

What I Have Already Accomplished Today: With Wrenn, I did a bunch of necessary food shopping, and made a payment on her credit card. In addition, I have touched base with my editor on The Tie-In Project That Cannot Yet Be Named and also signed the contract for same and am waiting for instructions on how to send it back (hard copy in the mail or scanned PDF; the latter is far more common in this day and age, but some publishers prefer the paper version). It’ll probably be a couple months before I can say what this project is, but it’s going to be SO INCREDIBLY COOL…..

What I Still Need To Accomplish Today And Tomorrow): Go through more stuff in Dale’s room, write an essay for a Doctor Who charity essay anthology, revise a proposal, finish revisions on the collaborative thriller, write a piece for Tor.com on Discovery‘s tie-in fiction, revise a short nonfiction project, and write three things for Patreon: my review of Black Panther, my review of the first season of Mindhunter (so I need to finish watching that season), and this month’s vignette.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…………………………..

 

Tuesday’s dead

This past weekend was when we finally got up off our asses and started going through the stuff in Dale’s room. Zan and her new boyfriend Steve came up to help with that, and that was a huge kick in the butt that we really needed. We’ve still got a lot to do, but we made a good start, including getting rid of his futon, disassembling his futon frame, mucking out under his desk, and throwing out a bunch of things. And also going through various things.

We’re going to have a memorial service for Dale in early March here in da Bronx. Details to come within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, deadlines continue apace. I have a tie-in project that has been verbally approved by the licensor, and I’m just waiting for their notes. This is going to be an extremely cool project and I’m eagerly looking forward to it for several reasons. I’m trying to finish A Furnace Sealed so I can get to the tie-in book and Mermaid Precinct and To Hell and Regroup, plus I’ve got several essays I need to get written, not to mention my weekly superhero movie rewatch, my reviews of Star Trek Discovery, and weekly TV reviews and monthly movie reviews for Patreon. Oh, and teaching four karate classes per week.

SLEEP IS FOR WIMPS!

Happy, well-adjusted, non-cranky wimps, mind you….

My Facebook memories picked up this picture from two years ago. Meredith had come up to visit for our Twelfth Night party, and she joined me, Wrenn, and Dale at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. It was a lovely night.

We miss you, Dale. *sigh*

 

 

Tuesday’s dead

After three days of promotion, and then one final workout class, and then revelry at the local Japanese place — I’m totally fucking dead. *laughs*

But today it’s back to regular existence as usual. I have to do some work at the dojo (for this semester only, I’m working the front desk on Tuesdays, as our front-desk person is a college student who has a class she has to take on Tuesday afternoons), and tonight is also when the dojo does the “class photo,” whereby as many students as show up cram into the dojo and get our picture taken. That’s always fun, and there’s also a black-belt photo, which will have four new people in it, plus my first time on the sandan line.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to dive back into A Furnace Sealed and finish up the Great Superhero Movie Rewatch for this week (have written the intro, watched and written up The Incredible Hulk Returns and The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, but still have to finish watching The Death of the Incredible Hulk, write that up, then write the review segment). And I’ve got some revisions on another project that need to get done. And after that, I’ve got Mermaid Precinct and the third 18th Race book to write. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!