An intro of sorts

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm a  writer...that is my day job.  (And my night job, too often!)    Most of my stuff is SF or fantasy.   In my spare time (hollow laughs welcome) I wander around looking at various writing groups to see what other people are doing, when I should be working on revisions or copy edits or writing blog entries somewhere.  (In other words, it's not really my "spare" time--it's my goof-off time.  I tell myself that by hanging around writers' groups I'm really working.  Hasn't yet fooled any editors.

At the moment, I've just (last Saturday) finished the rough draft of the second volume in the current bunch of books and am now working on the structural revision.  This is when I find out that an entire chapter is two chapters out of place, grump!   I'm also waiting with increasing impatience for the copy edits, which I was supposed to have on June 23, and then June 26, and now it's July 3....and they told me the hard deadline for returning the copy edits was July 10.  Monday is the 6th. If they overnight them I might get them the 7th...and checking copy edits on an 800+ page ms in two days so I can overnight them back is...impossible.   ARGH! Whimper! 
I think (hope) I have experience that could be useful to those who have less--though there are genius beginners and I don't claim to be a genius old geezer.  But I do have 20+ books under my belt, and several dozen shorter things, so I have made nearly all the mistakes you can make, and have learned how to un-make them, work around them,  and find ways to make them decorative features, not ugly bugs.  I would bet there's not a problem I haven't already run into (twelve POV characters in one book, scattered through time and space?  EEEK.  Never again.  Painting self into corner with impossible plot dilemma?  Oh noes, not again,  I swore up and down I wouldn't do this again....oh, well, let's cut a hole in the corner and climb out...oh sure, there was always going to be a window in that corner...(quickly sands it, primes it, installs custom plot-trap-escape window and hangs curtain over it)....there, see.  I meant to do that.)

I don't read fantasy when I'm writing it (and don't read SF when I'm writing that)--as this keeps me from worrying about bleedover from anyone else's work.   So I'm useful more for technical questions/theoretical & practical problem-busting than as a reader.  I can't be here all the time, but think it would be fun to drop in now and then, if that's OK with the mod.   In order not to be accused of pimping my stuff, if-and-only-if you're interested, go to my profile, check out the website listed there; it has links to everything else.  Including (no, I HAVE to say this) my spiffy new cover for next year's releas--best cover I ever had.  (Hint: on that first website, bottom of the first page, there's a link to something called the Paksworld blog.  Cover picture.)

When commenting on others' questions/problems, I will do my best to be practical and direct.  

And now...back to fixing my own mistakes.