Whenever I find myself between writing projects, I try to tend to small bits of business, catch up with people, etc. So it is this week.

I pulled an all-nighter from Tuesday into Wednesday finishing the copy edits on my first original novel, The Calling. Normally, I enjoy this part of the process; this time, however, it was made tedious by my decision to enter all the text corrections into my electronic copy of the manuscript, so that I would have as accurate a copy of the work as possible for reference when page proofs arrive. (In theory, one should have the copy edited ms. available for review while checking first pages, but that hasn’t been my experience on my last few books and I’m tired of getting burned.)

On Wednesday afternoon, after getting 2.5 hours of sleep, I met some friends for lunch, then went to the Simon & Schuster office to return my copy edited ms. for The Calling to its editor, then I stopped to bothered editor Margaret Clark for awhile. Then I went home and took a much-needed nap. In the evening after dinner, I spent some time tinkering with the proposal for a new series of original novels that might or might not ever see the light of day.

Today I sat down in the afternoon with my friend Keith DeCandido to record an audio interview that will be podcast through The Chronic Rift, a new website Keith runs with some of his friends. Check out their site; I’ll post again when the podcast goes live. More tinkering with my original project followed. I just added a quote from (and a link to) a review of my short story “For Want of a Nail” in the new Star Trek Mirror Universe anthology, Shards and Shadows.

My plans for tomorrow (Friday) include meeting for lunch with a guy I used to know at one of my first full-time jobs in New York, and who I have not seen in nearly 16 years. After that, I predict I will go on tinkering with my new project proposal. I might or might not go on meddling with said project over the weekend, depending on how much time I have available.

At some point I need to start getting my tax paperwork together for fiscal 2008, so that I can be ready to schedule an appointment with my lawyer in early February.

But come Monday, I start work on the manuscript of my new Star Trek Vanguard novel, Precipice. Back to the final frontier, kids!