Goals for 2009

Posted by Colin Harvey Jan 6, 2009

1. Most important of all -- get used to working with an agent. I've had three years of working alone. Suddenly I'm not on my own any longer, and I have to relinquish control, and trust Jenny's judgement implicitly. That's a big leap, but she clearly knows what she's doing, so I simply have to do the mental equivalent of closing my eyes and leaning backwards, allow myself to fall out of the plane. And hope she's remembered the parachutes...

2. Deliver Damaged --the next novel-- by October 5th.

3. Deliver the Displacement collection next week --commencing the 12th. The two reprint stories are OK, but two other original stories need polishing. And maybe on re-reading I'll need to polish the novella as well.

4. Reviews --this week's job. Reduce the Book Mountain that's climbing above my bed, currently at around 20 books.

i)Finish Frozen Blood

ii) Read Asimovs, and Interzone -- when it arrives

iv) Gareth's book for IRSF

5. Start blogging the Future Bristol anthology; find a symapthetic dealer who'll sell it at Eastercon. Write to the con committee for Gareth, Chris & me to do a reading -- if Chris wants to

6. Get a new website sorted out. The current one is creaking under the strain of so many links and bolt-ons.

7. Find the money (somehow) for Microcon, P-Con & Eastercon. And Worldcon? Follow-up the Arts Council application, when I hear back from them.

8. Update my Facebook, Myspace and Bookread pages.

9. Find the time to write some short stories. More likely this just means finding the time to tinker with the most saleable of them; a last polish of "The Ghost Station" and revising "House of Shadows" and maybe one other.

10. That last item can be done for Milford, if I can get to it this year. The other (non-con) priority is the astronomy course in Wyoming, if it's happening and I can get on it.