Summer is off to a busy start. I spent this past week working on three major projects. My steampunk novel Lightning Wolves is due at the publisher’s by the end of July, so I set myself a pace of writing 2000 words a day when I’m not at my “day” job at Kitt Peak National Observatory. So far, I’ve been able to keep up that pace and I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be getting the first part off to beta readers in early July while I wrap up the ending.
In the meantime, I’ve been working with the Science Fiction Poetry Association to get their annual Rhysling Anthology to press. The Rhysling Award is the award for best speculative poem published in the previous year. There are two categories. One is for poems under 50 lines. The other is for poems 50 lines and over. This year’s Rhysling Chair is John C. Mannone. I designed the cover using a wonderful photo of the Bubble Nebula taken at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Thanks to the National Observatory for letting SFPA use such a cool image. It kind of reminds me of the vortex at the opening of Doctor Who.
As I write this, I’m at the end of a two-year term as SFPA’s vice president. It’s been my honor to serve and I wrestled long and hard with the question of whether I was going to run for re-election, but I decided that I had so many commitments on my plate, it was better to step aside and let someone else help run the organization. Nevertheless, it will be my great honor to announce the Rhysling Awards at WorldCon in San Antonio later this summer.
Earlier this year, I mentioned that I was canceling Tales of the Talisman’s summer reading to allow us to catch up with the magazine’s production schedule. Sure enough, that’s the third big project I’ve been working on this week. I’ve been editing stories for the summer issue and getting them ready to send them to the art director so she can make illustration assignments. I would have finished editing stories for the issue this week, but it turns out I’ve been called in to work at Kitt Peak a night earlier than I was expecting, so edits will get finished during my next break.
As if that weren’t enough, our water heater decided to die this week. At least it waited until summer!
David Lee Summers' Web Journal 