Pies and Plans and an Update

I finished reviewing galleys for the second Dabir and Asim book yesterday, The Bones of the Old Ones, drove them over to the post office, and sent them away. When next I see these words they’ll be bound in a sort of “preview edition” or advanced reader copy (ARC). But I’m not sure when I will actually READ it again.

After I sent those galleys away I had trouble switching gears from reviewing to rough draft mode, but I still managed, just barely, to draft two thousand words of the third novel of Dabir and Asim. The rest of the week I hope to get at least three thousand words in a day.

A few of you have written in to ask about my birthday. It was very nice, thank you. Apart from some practical matters like some shirts, I received two graphic novels, Conan Volume 11: The Road of Kings, and Fatale Volume 1: Death Chases Me. I enjoyed both of them very much. I haven’t been that big of a fan of the recent Dark Horse Conan comics because most of the time the writers don’t get Conan right (for those of you who aren’t in the know, Conan’s a lot more complex than he might seem in the cinema), but Roy Thomas did it properly, and pleased me mightily. John C. Hocking tells me that the second half of the new Roy Thomas run is even better, and I’m now looking forward to reading it when it’s collected later this year. Fatale is a kind of noir/supernatural/detective/adventure story that’s compelling and captivating and I can hardly wait to read the next story arc.

Alas, there was no good cherry pie to be found, which is too bad, because there was no birthday cake, either. The Grand Travers Pie Company was closed, and while I first felt sorry for myself that there would be no pie on my birthday, I then realized that the building wasn’t just closed temporarily, but that EVERYONE at the restaurant no longer had a job. I don’t know how that happened, or why, because the place always seemed busy, and the food was quite good. Across town, The Pie Pan had no cherry pie either, and a store-bought cherry pie just wouldn’t do the trick. Ah well. God knows worse things have happened in the history of the world than a man not getting a cherry pie on his birthday.

In other news my knee prognosis is good. Therapy continues and I’m back to my normal swift-paced walk. I still can’t quite bend down as easily as someone who didn’t have their ligament torn, but I may get there eventually. I can almost run, and maybe someday I’ll be able to resume karate training. Not for competition, though — just to stay in shape, and to get that second degree black belt.

Come mid August I’ll be traveling briefly to Indianapolis to attend GenCon for one day and sit on a few panels and at the Paizo booth, but otherwise for the rest of the year I’ll be writing rough drafts. If progress continues smoothly I’ll finish the first draft of the third Dabir and Asim novel by the end of August. Even if I don’t, I’ll then need to switch writing gears and charge into a draft of the second Paizo Pathfinder adventure, a sequel to Plague of Shadows.