I was looking for something to post this morning and wanted something that wouldn’t sound too melancholy, so I thought I’d look through the backpages of this blog and see what I’d been saying and/or doing on (or as close as possible to) November 19 in previous years. This is what I found:
- In 2009, I posted my first and only blog post at Tor.com;
- In 2008, I delivered The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol. 3 to Night Shade;
- In 2007, I was working on the Locus recommended reading list and my mother was in hospital with heart trouble. I also was expressing my doubts about the 1st release of the Kindle. Hm. I might have been wrong about that (looks at own Kindle);
- In 2006, I was asking why the heck Microsoft called it the Zune, and expressed optimism about new books from Greg Egan and William Gibson;
- In 2005, I was reading reviews of the now sadly defunct Best Short Novels series, working on the 2006 volume, and pondering Bruce Holland Rogers email subscription service for his short stories; and
- In 2004, I was bothered about how anthologies should or shouldn’t be structured and being dismayed at the then new Australian government’s social policies.
Two things struck me re-reading those blog posts: I always seemed busy and I rarely seemed happy. I wonder if that’s telling.
Possibly that says something about NOVEMBER rather than specifically you… try the experiment again in February!
Are you being optmistic?
Well, I tried it for May, the first day in May specifically and:
1 May 2004: I was enjoying Scott Westerfeld’s Touching Darkness, a novel in his ‘Midnighters’ sequence.
1 May 2005: I was reporting on Paula Guran being unhappy with Locus’s approach to print-on-demand published books.
1 May 2006: I was having a panic attack over being late with my taxes. I was also loving Gwyneth Jones’ Bold as Love, and discussing John Scalzi’s novels.
1 May 2007: I was celebrating The New Space Opera getting a starred review in Publishers Weekly.
1 May 2008: I was allowing that I’m bad at celebrating achievements, given I’d just sold a book but was stressing over issues with another.
1 May 2009: I was feeling stressed and a bit overwhelmed at having worked on so many books since 2003.
1 May 2010: I was podcasting, which is harder to synopsise.
I think, on balance, it suggests I may be doing too much.
I think that is a fair assessment of your situation.
On the other hand… wouldn’t want to be bored :D