Book Day Minus One

I'm staring down a few daunting, crazy weeks, and I'm sure I'll prevail, but I'm looking forward to having one or two fewer things hanging over my head. It's like the run up to finals in college, where you've forgotten what it feels like to have that nagging feeling that there's something you're supposed to be doing.

So, there's the book that comes out tomorrow, though I'm getting reports of people having found it in stores already. That means I need to finish reworking the web site today. That will be priority #1.

I also need to be doing promo stuff this week, online and in person. It's been a while since I had a bookstore book, and I really should make the rounds of local stores, meeting the staff and signing copies. There are a lot fewer stores now than there were the last time I did this, with Borders going under and B&N closing a lot of stores. I will also likely have a lot of tweets and e-mails to deal with, and I'll need to remember to actually promote myself in various relevant venues.

Meanwhile, there's other promo-related stuff. While I watch TV, I'm alternating between signing hundreds of bookplates for a special mailing the publisher arranged and putting together some swag items to hand out.

And then there's the book I have to have complete by August 1. I'm about a third of the way through revising it, and I'll need to make at least two more passes. I also need to get things going with the cover artist.

Not to mention the convention planning meeting this weekend and the convention the weekend after that. I may be signing bookplates during the meeting, and I may be holing up in my room and writing when I'm not on programming during the con.

Oh, and the people who have read the new book are already demanding a sequel and tagging the publisher in their tweets, so I suppose I need to get that proposal written.

In perhaps my last bit of true leisure time for a while, I saw the Minions movie on Saturday, and it was so much fun. I should probably be alarmed that as soon as the movie ended, all my friends said, "Shanna, you need to get a red dress." So apparently they saw a lot of me in Scarlet Overkill. But if I'm wearing that dress, it must have the nuclear armaments built in.

Oh, and if you see it, stay to the end of the credits or you're missing a lot of the fun.