The Horror: They Always Come Back

(Neo and his favorite blankie: photo as stress relief.)The thing they don't tell beginning writers? The ghosts of books future come back to haunt you in horrible fashion---they just keep returning prior to publication. You write it or edit it, and that seems like a monumental task...but then the stages of pre-production leer out of the mist at you with precise if jagged teeth.If you have a lot of books out in a particular period, and you're working on creating more, this becomes particularly cruel. So while working on Weird and the Steampunk Bible, in come copy-edits on The Third Bear. Or, as now, Monstrous Creatures and Steampunk Reloaded return in spectre-like fashion just as final chapters and rewrites on Steampunk Bible must be done, along with intro, story notes, and whatnot on the Weird. O the horror. I'm not exactly complaining---having lots of books in the pipeline means you're getting lots of opportunities---but anyone who thinks their involvement with the book is done once they turn it in will be corrected in their thinking by rude visitations...