Monday, December 31, 2007

The Last Post... well for the year at least.

Here we are folks the year almost at an end, big projects up ahead: Lamplighter's release imminent, Book 3 to finish, further books to ponder and plan (see how Book 2 is received first, shall we...), get that Half-Continent map up and running at last - a bit of a theme with a couple of posts ago, things to do, planning ahead, getting my scattered brain in some appearance of order.

Might try rambling about something else.

Something I find is when I am not working on MBT and Half-Continent things I can get very excited about the prospect of my next session of labours, yet when it comes time to make good on all that enthusiasm I become suddenly all reluctant and gloomy and "won't-worky" - as my mother used to call it. Here I have been all enthusiastic and making short notes and getting ready to dive in deeper then when that time comes mope mope, is it all worth it? What am I doing, blah blah blah...

Anyone else go through this?

Anyways, may I just say HAPPY NEW YEAR; may this new one be most excellent for us all.

13 comments:

Sylvenger said...

I think in the creative process the "idea" is the easy part. Having to Pick up the chisel and sculpt it into something that other people will appreciate is bound to bring a certain amount of apprehension and self-doubt (perhaps a wee bit of faineance to boot... present company excepted, I'm sure).

As the reader, it's easy to forget that authors are only human and that a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into the stories we enjoy reading. I don't know of any sure way to defeat the vile "won't-workies", but I have every confidence that you will. Have you tried hanging up garlic?

Anyway, here's to a great 2008. I can't wait to get my paws on Lamplighter!

Femina said...

Hmmm... procrastination. If it were an Olympic sport I'd be a champion. In your case it seems like eventually your love of the HC and all its creatures does overtake the won't-workies, so perhaps it's just like a 24-hour flu thing... annoying and temporarily debilitating but not permanent.

And happy new year to you and the lovely Mrs DMC.

Anonymous said...

Merry New Year, DM. :)

Drew said...

Happy New Year, DM!
My review is up here!

Anonymous said...

happy new year
oh and do theye celeberate cristmas / newyear in hc?
what does it involve?
and what are some hc jokes?

D.M. Cornish said...

Thank you indeed, Sylvenger, femina, I shall soldier on.

I am most very very happy with your review, Drew, that's one for the poolroom! (an Aussie in-joke: see the Aussie movie The Castle for relevence) I am glad you liked it so much, for you then I have achieved exactly my aim: to give you a good reading time.

I received another review in the post this morning, sent via my UK publisher, Random House. The fellow in it liked MBT too (thank you, sir) but he had the small complaint that he felt the character illos spoilt his own vision of the characters. :/ There is always something I suppose. Makes me think that future non-MBT books (if there are ever any) might not have pictures of people in them.

As to Christmas in the Hc, giantfan, there is not. They do have Thisgivingday - an obscure day of gift exchanging whose origins people have entirely forgot yet continue to do slavishly anyway.

Happy New Thing to you all!

Anonymous said...

Good evening, DM!
Glad you liked the review- I thought FOUNDLING was very enjoyable and really liked the illos (so much for what that other reviewer thinks!).
We would love to see an advance reading copy of LAMPLIGHTER to review it when it's ready-- please keep us in mind when the time is right.
all best!
Drew

Drew said...

Gah! I hadn't read your reply below so please forgive my harping.
Sorry-- it won't happen again!
Drew

Anonymous said...

DM, I just read Foundling on a whim and I have to say I absolutely loved it.

Just came across the blog here, so I'll keep up with that now, I'm sure.

I love the illos, and actually I was wondering if you had site or gallery or otherwise display of a wider variety of your art anywhere abouts?
As for the polls...as much as I love Europe and Fouracres...I would love most, actually, to read more about Licurius. Will we ever learn more about him? :D

Loved the sneak peek of Lamplighter and can't wait for it to come out!
~Rael

Rowan Dodds said...

Hey mate, it's certainly not just you who has that problem. I'm always fighting it myself. I guess I have the most fun coming up with the ideas and actually going through the process of bringing them to life sometimes seems redundant - after all I can already see the end result in my head, and i can hardly ever make the physical reality live up to what I imagined. Fear of failure is a strange thing, as the only way to guarantee failure is to never try.

Procrastination can be a real trap, but if I can force myself to sit down and start it's usually quite easy to continue. I find it helps a lot to create an environment and routine that encourages me to sit down and get to work - and stay there once I'm going. Deadlines can help a lot - I wouldn't achieve a fraction of what I do if I wasn't under the pump most of the time, thought the stress of working that way can certainly add up and create it's own problems.

Anyway, if you find a solution I'd love to hear it . . .

Rael said...

BTW, DM--how about an RSS feed for the blog? :D

D.M. Cornish said...

RaelNorth you will find a link to my online folio under the heading MISCELLANY on the long list of links at the right-hand side of the main page: www.daviddraws.com

Hope you like it.

And Drew where would said ARC of Lamplighter be sent then, sir? (I have a problem with the ARC in that the final, corrected manuscript is superior to the ARC in many subtle ways so you will not be getting the best reading - there are a lot of "translation" errors (shall we call them)in the ARC, too.)

As to an RSS feed, Rael, I'd love to but am unsure how to include one. Any help anyone?

It has been a little while since I have posted - about time I did, don't we think!

Drew said...

Good day, DM!
Whatever you would care to send would be perfect with us. It's likely your publisher's PR office has plans to get them out the door, but we aren't necessarily the first place they would think to look.
(Although they did send a copy of FOUNDLING to me...)

Our contact info for reviews is:
SFRevu c/o Gayle Surrette,
16440 Baden Westwood Road, Brandywine, MD 20613 USA

I understand about translation errors and so on. Although we are both part of the "English speaking world," there's a lot of variation under that umbrella definition!

Hope all is going great and that you're having a very Happy New Year!

all best,
Drew