The author, overworked

[rolanni]

It's being one of those days where all the things I must do, Real Life, have gotten in the way of the other things that I must do, Writing Life, and my mood is none the better for it.

One of the things that I must do is make the SRM accounting and other related office-type work less of a time-sink. Much less of a time-sink. Steve and I are pretty evenly divided in our strengths and weaknesses, and I'm strong -- by training, if not necessarily by inclination -- in Stupid Office Stuff: bookkeeping, filing, and the never-ending etcetera.

Silly as it is, Office Stuff takes time, so I've spent a couple hours this morning trying to figure out how to streamline some of the tasks I've been doing by hand -- which was fine when we were a little company, mailing out maybe 200 chapbooks of a Yule season. The same system is Not So Good when we're mailing upwards of 1100 preordered chapbooks.

The good news here is that I'm within ames-ace (yes, I know, but my grandmother used to use it to mean "reallyREALLY close;" it stuck, and I can't get rid of it. It's a Family Thing.) of figuring out how to streamline the whole order-recording system so that I can get receipts and labels out the other end with a minimum of hassle and pain.

After that's well and truly nailed down, we can move on to figuring out how to make the order fulfillment process less of a nightmare for Steve.

The bad news is that the things I Must do, Writing Life, have not Done Themselves while I've been screwing around with spreadsheet systems.

Those things include:

*Finalize Fledgling: due at Baen September 15
*Finish writing my story for Eidolon: due on October 15
*Go over the CE for Longeye: sometime around November, I'm guessing
*Finalize Saltation: due at Baen December 15
*Write The Book With No Name: due at Baen June 1

Then there's the day-job.

Oh, and I hear that other people have lives, too. Can anyone speak to that? Truth? Falsehood? Pernicious Rumor?

After lunch, I'm back to the Fledgling rewrite. Sigh.

Pretty day out... Too bad about that.

Comments

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

Life? Life? What's that? Well, I have to admit that I do make time to go to SCA events once or twice a month every month or so when I can carve out the time with a machete. But this is because my mental health is as important as my physical health. meh. I've found over the years that if I don't make time for my mental health that my physical health goes seriously down-hill. Sometimes you have to take at least a 15-30 minute break (and some days as much as an hour depending on What Is Going On) due to stress levels. Any doctor will tell you that stress levels can kill you. And last time I heard, dying is a Bad Thing(tm).

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I find that Job(s) and Passion(s) can interfere with having a Life (outside of those things). Heck, my passions are jousting it out over my time, let alone the job.

And right now, for me, having the opportunity (and taking it) to have both job and one of my passions to be one and the same, it is costing me the Saturday/Sunday weekend AND about 3 hours a day (granted, I do also get about 20% more take home and I am happier) over the work I would otherwise be doing. Taking that time and energy out of my week, of course, impacts any number of other things...

But...life outside of my passions and obsessions? Not so much.

[growlycub.livejournal.com]

I hope the stress level goes down soon! I wish I could take over your office stuff, since I have no outside job right now and am climbing the walls (the fact that I'm still sick a full 3 weeks after coming home does not make me more positively inclined to view life with favor. I hope you guys are fully recovered!).

From the above deadline list I see 'Saltation' is due this year? Wow, talk about stress! Even if there are not many more chapters (since I'm still waiting for the action to start I hope that's not the case, grin), that puts first draft finished some time in the next two months, which will leave very little time for rewrites! Especially compared to 'Fledgling' for which you had about a year, if I remember right. Is this self-imposed or Baen required?

I'm all for having more from my favorite authors and it's occasionally frustrating when new stuff is not forthcoming as fast as one would wish, but I'd much rather have sane authors who can write 1 book a year than one who's burned out and stops writing altogether.

Good vibes.

P.S. I finally got the Paypal thing under way, but forgot to add 'Sasha' to the payment so you'd know it's me! Brain still being sneezed and coughed out, obviously!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I hope the stress level goes down soon! I wish I could take over your office stuff, since I have no outside job right now and am climbing the walls (the fact that I'm still sick a full 3 weeks after coming home does not make me more positively inclined to view life with favor. I hope you guys are fully recovered!).

Boy, I wish you could, too! Feel better soon; my cold is Just About, Almost Entirely gone, but it did hang around much longer than was strictly necessary.


Especially compared to 'Fledgling' for which you had about a year, if I remember right. Is this self-imposed or Baen required?

Well...no, not exactly. What we've been doing since Fledgling was declared a draft was finishing Duainfey and writing Longeye. Then we traveled, bad authors. So, Fledgling...not a year in the remaking, no.

The deadlines are Baen's. Fledgling will be out next September and they want Saltation to follow as quickly as possible.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

*Finalize Saltation: due at Baen December 15

I'm really, really sorry that's become a Thing With A Deadline too. Not fair.

No life over here; getting eldest ready to return to college, and she's spent half the weekend in a last-time sleepover with her friends, thus requiring chauffeuring and cutting into shopping time. Also 5 quarts + 3 lbs of fresh-tomato puree.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm really, really sorry that's become a Thing With A Deadline too.

Me, too. On the other hand, good to have a publisher interested.

Also 5 quarts + 3 lbs of fresh-tomato puree.

Yum... Our tomatoes are of good size, but still green. Now it's a race with the frost.

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

That's OK, if the frost wins, make green tomato pickles. YUM. I could send you a recipe...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Duainfey spotted in the Wild -- Beechwood, Ohio Borders . . .

the know it all speaks

[muehe.livejournal.com]

Good luck.

I do not know what software you are using. But I had a thought. If you are trying to tie your packing slip (invoice) to your mailing label add a line to the top that ties them together.
The post office is used to funny looking stuff before the actual address; Steve can use those to make sure he is getting the right packslip with the right label. Maybe incorporate how many copies are supposed to go in the package?
Of course what you really need is a packslip with a peel off label. But that cost money. I looked those up on the internet – just because I was curious. It looks like it would cost you about $90, just to do the 1100 chapbooks. That assumes you got the whole thing to work with minimum hassle. Here is the link in case you need a visual on what I am talking about.
http://www.mavericklabel.com/products/integrated-labels-individual.php?label=1243878

God I hate giving advice. Make me feel like I am trying to act like a know it all. You probably know more about the whole thing than me. :-)

New Friend

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned you on filkertom's LJ; now that I know you're here, I have added you to my Friends list.

I greatly enjoyed the Liaden novels and some of your other writing. I look forward to seeing more.

As for life ... *laugh* I was actually in here writing while my friends and partner played that game for several hours. Had to cram in the last of the Llewellyn annuals writing assignments at top speed because the deadlines got scrambled.