Despite stolen trees and a week of heftier-than-usual freelance work, February has been mild, with warmer temperatures and even some rain. It's a good sign, the later it gets in the month, that winter will be somewhat more gentle on us. That we will not get huge amounts of snow, ice, or polar vortex kind of cold. Valentine's Day is next week, and we actually get to go out his year, so will be heading downtown for dinner and to see Drunk Shakespeare. The alternative was real Shakespeare in the form of Richard III, which we are still going to try to get tickets for during a discounted theater week, but which seemed a little stark and dark for a day devoted to romance.
I find myself craving chocolate during February, more than any other time of year, and perhaps it's just the association of the holiday, but also maybe my body is craving serotonin more than usual. Chocolate and tea. The latter of which I have plenty of, the former of which I find the apartment sadly bereft of and should remedy immediately. We ordered some paczi's a week early for Mardi Gras last week for a decadent breakfast, some of which were chocolate, though the lemon are by far my favorite, followed by the raspberry. Also croissants. My social feeds are full of colorful king cakes, which I've grown wary of after finding the baby and its promise of good luck in 2020, the luck of which turned out to be covid lockdowns a couple weeks later apparently. If the obligation to bring the following year's king cake to the staff meeting was mine, it was never filled. There never was another staff meeting or everyone in the same room again. Even still, I imagine they are meeting via Zoom monthly, and it's all the same old bullshit.
I am progressing slowly on the preparation of the final file for GRANATA, and am finishing up some image formatting tweaks. Hopefully, I can have a printed galley in hand in the next two weeks, though I never know how long to budget for print time (it can take a couple days, it can take up to three weeks.) It's looking good though, and I think we'll still be on schedule for early March. I have a whole bunch of dgp chaps in progress that will also soon be available after the final tweaks in the layouts are ironed out, and then more to catch up from the fall. I am still knee-deep in summer submissions, and if I have something of yours, you are still in the running at this point, with most first-round rejections having gone out and moving well into second-reads of things of interest. Unfortunately, it's about a 100 that I must narrow to under 30, so it's rough going. I hope to have decisions made and all responses sent by the end of March for books debuting late this year and early next.
This morning we spent lazily in bed, finishing off the final episodes of Game of Thrones, and once again I am still in agreement that Dani's character arc was inevitable, but do also think that final season was entirely too rushed in getting there. It seemed fitting that I posted a bit of VILLAINS yesterday that was inspired by the Dragon Queen just a little. Tonight is a double feature and pre-Valentines date night that will include Lisa Frankenstein, a stop for pizza at Pequods, and then a late night showing at the Logan of Bride of Chucky, two movies that seem to pair extraordinarily well.
