Countdown to Crazy: Minus One

Probably when one is running as far behind as I am in preparing for an 11-day business trip, blogging is a dumb thing to do. But I never claimed to be smart.

Remaining on the to-do list:
• Pack Dragoncon suitcase
• Pack respectable-journalist suitcase
• Put checks in mail
• One last load of laundry
• Finish packing books and electronics
• Do itinerary for Jimmy
• Finish promotional flyer layout
• Finish Kindle programming and send
• Email publisher
• Email Mom
• Email Stephen
• File time card
• Find photo sites for post-DC shoot
• Reserve hotel for Nashville
• Tomorrow before leaving town: load car, pick up flyers, drop off Boy's prescription, drop Jimmy off at the college and return library book that will be screamingly late if I don't return it before I leave town.
• While on the drive: Call the reception site to find out when we get access to the space, so I'll know what time my wedding will be, so I can order my wedding invitations, so they'll be ready when I get back so I can frigging send them.
• When I arrive in Nashville: Pick up Gethsemane copies at the awesome and terrific J and J Printers as soon as I get in.

And then collapse, at the home of my dear friend Stephen. Early, though, because the next day begins the Dragoncon Merry-Go-Round. Weirdly, this might be my easiest round yet; while I will have some delightful fun riding about on MARTA, the amount of stuff I'm bringing is less complicated than ever. That's not actually a good thing; my inventory of books is so reduced that it fits in one rolling tote.

Fair warning, friends and neighbors: I will have copies of The Cold Ones, Blackfire, Setting Suns, Nocturne and Dreadmire. For the novellas, I have exactly two copies of Infinity left, plus the new one, Gethsemane. The only ones still in print are Setting Suns, Dreadmire and Gethsemane. That means once I sell out of the others, I'm out. If you were considering a purchase, I strongly suggest hopping to it. :) If I'm not going to see you in Atlanta or Nashville, go to LiteraryUnderworld.com and you can order any of the above.

As far as Gethsemane goes: The PDF edition is now available on Literary Underworld. The iBook version is in the pipeline, but has not gone live yet. The Kindle version is pending some programming nonsense. The print edition is pre-selling on Literary Underworld to ship on Sept. 8; I will have limited stock on hand, folks. I do not know if there will be a second print run, as Gethsemane has a different future ahead of it. (Vagueblogging is an art.)

Housekeeping note: For those of you who follow Twitter, I'll be tweeting through @edonald during my sojourn to Dragoncon. However, after discussions with my editors, we've determined it is best for me to launch a separate Twitter for journalism. I have shifted my journalism-related feed, including my work with the Society of Professional Journalists, to @BNDedonald. If you are interested in that sort of thing, follow me there. The original account will be refocused on fiction, photography, personal yammerings and other such nonsense. Feel free to stay.

The reasons? Frankly, more and more of you are getting your news through Twitter, and we need to be where the readers are. Twitter is unique; unlike Facebook, it is chronological and complete. There is no algorithm that decides what I want to see; I see the accounts I've followed, and in the order they posted. We're going to be using reporters' Twitter accounts more often, streaming them in various places online, and it seems appropriate to separate that content from the stuff none of the newspaper readers care to hear.

That's a long-ish way of saying that after Dragoncon, I'll be proceeding to the Excellence in Journalism convention, a combined gathering of the national Society of Professional Journalists and RTDNA, a.k.a. the Radio Television Digital News Association. Nothing will be misspelled in Nashville for a week, folks. If you're interested in the important work taking place there, follow @BNDedonald.

All right, those suitcases ain't gonna pack themselves. If I ever needed a reminder of how weirdly bifurcated my professional life is, I can just look at the suitcases. One full of creative, flowing, kinda bizarre writerclothes; the other full of sensible black pantsuits. AuthorLady vs. Lois Lane, each with her own Twitter account. Kinda funny, isn't it?

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