I have been working on my MONK novel MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT under the mistaken belief that it's due November 30. Well, I happened to glance at my contract yesterday to double-check when the outline for the next MONK book is due…and discovered the outline for Book #11 is due November 30…and that CLEANED OUT is due November 1. I have four less weeks to write the book than I thought I did. Yikes. My editor is great, she's got no problem with me turning the book when I thought it was due, but I am a stickler for deadlines and I am going to do my best to turn it in on time.
But what really bothers me is how I could have made such a dumb mistake to start with. What happened to my brain? What was I thinking? Or, better yet, why wasn't I thinking?
Meanwhile, this has been, and continues to be, a busy week. I've had lots of pitches, meetings, and non-career stuff to attend to. This Sunday, Oct 4, I'm speaking and signing at the West Hollywood Book Festival and then doing an interactive webcast at 6 p.m to promote MR. MONK IN TROUBLE and the DVD release of my movie FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS. I am really excited about the live, interactive webcast, which is the first event of its kind (at least as far as we know). I'm sure there will be glitches…it's inevitable when you are doing something brand new, relying on all kinds of technology, sites and services working together in-sync, but it's bound to be fun and interesting for me (and I hope for you) no matter what.
I've also received tons of weird, unusual, and idiotic emails this week…at some point, I will get around to sharing some of them with you.
I share your deadline obsession, and figured I got mine from working in broadcasting. If a show goes on the air Wednesday at 3pm, it WILL go on the air Wednesday at 3pm. I have the same attitude towards the deadlines stipulated in my publishing contracts. Writing non-fiction, there are more factors in play than keyboard time and brain power. A city attorney can “take their time” releasing documents requested under public disclosure laws, for example, or in my worst example, the Spokane homicide task force withheld crime scene photographs for ten months when Pierce County pulled out of the plea bargain deal for serial killer Robert Lee Yates. These are things beyond the author’s control, and can throw a publisher’s schedule into chaos. Recently, for similar reasons, my final ms of FATAL BEAUTY, due August, didn’t land on my editor’s desk until late September. And you know, what? Even when the final ms is out the door, I still think, “I could have done more.”
It’s just old age.