The ghost of Joe Pitt is behind me.

The last book isn’t published and already the fucker is haunting me. On this occasion his spirit has taken the form of copy edit pages that I need to review.

Curse you!

The accelerated pace of putting MY DEAD BODY together continues unabated. The good/bad news is that this is it. After I review these pages, make whatever slight tweeks I think they may need, the manuscript will travel downriver to a bend that takes it out of my hands.

Better or worse, this fucker is all but done and I can’t do a fucking thing about it.

I am, it is fair to say, emotionally conflicted.

In any case, that’s what’s on the front burner.

The SLEEPLESS manuscript for next year’s crime novel is now off the burner. I did my copy edits, looked at some design pages today (layouts and typefaces, the look of the book on paper), but really all I’ll be doing from here out is checking out cover art, cover copy, some ad copy, and hoping for the best.

I’m through four scripts on my unannounced Marvel project. This thing doesn’t have an artists yet, so I’m way ahead of deadlines. For that matter, it doesn’t even have a publication schedule. Twelve issues starting sometime late this year, I think. I’m going as far over the top as the character will allow. Less thinking, more fun. Could easily suck.

In the last couple weeks I’ve done a total of three short stories for various Marvel anthologies. Not sure how that got started, but there it is. Characters I’ve either nover worked with before barely touched in. Good times, but that’s about all I can handle for the moment.

My Marvel mini has five issues of art in the can now. They have to announce that thing some time soon.

I’m giving myself a break before starting my next novel. Nothing luxurious, just a couple months. I’ll need to start fairly soon, but it’s been nice hacking at other things. Most of my focus is on comics. They are actually, in many ways, a bit harder for me than novels, but it’s still a good change of pace.

I keep thinking about fantasy. A pure adventure story. My roots as a childhood reader. It’s largely a time thing. Some gigs I know will pay bills, others I have no clue. How much time can you devote to the gig that may not cover the rent? Not a life or death struggle for me, especially as how the paying gigs are plenty of fun on their own. But it’s been awhile since I wrote something I wasn’t being paid to write, and I’m curious to find out what will happen if I’m writing a story that doesn’t already have a price tag on it. More anxiety? Less? More freedom? Less? Some days I just want to spit it on the page and see what color it is.

-c