Random and Assorted Book News

I'm making good progress on the last (for now) draft of book 4. It seems to take me forever to get around to starting to write, then when I get going, I really get going. I'm glad I took so much time between drafts, because that's letting me really see objectively the parts that need to be fixed, and I can tell more easily where to put all the things I came up with during my brainstorming week. I'm about midway through chapter eight right now (and yes, Mom, I'll get chapters to you today).

An alert reader has let me know that Damsel Under Stress is now available for pre-order from Amazon. There's no info on the page other than title, author and ISBN, and I can't imagine any benefit from pre-ordering this early. In fact, it seemed like some people who pre-ordered the last book didn't get it until days after the release date. But if you're obsessive, there it is.

Meanwhile, So Say We All, the Battlestar Galactica book, has a release date of October 28 posted, but the publisher said last weekend that it may be out in a couple of weeks. I've read some of the essays other than mine in the PDF I got for final proofreading, and it's definitely got some fodder for thinking and discussion. My season 2.5 DVDs should be arriving tomorrow, so that's incentive to finish this book so I can do a quick review before the next season starts next week.

For even more book-finishing incentive, I found out I'll be getting copy edits on Damsel in mid-October. If I don't finish book 4 soon, I won't get any vacation or break at all. I guess that means it's time to get to work, huh?

Finally, I leave you with photographic evidence of my fangirl dorkishness. Here I am gazing in awe and admiration at Alan Dean Foster. Though, actually, I think I was just listening attentively to his words of wisdom during our panel, considering that Jim Butcher is also listening attentively. (In case you couldn't tell, I'm the one in the middle.)