Well, for one thing, it's Bastille Day! Take that, fucking Monarchists!
Two days ago I finished going over the copyedits for my new book, Catchpenny. It has been so long between books for me. So long that the copyediting process has moved from paper and red pen to digital files.
I did not intend to be away from publishing long enough for there to be that much of a shift in the way the business gets done. But there I was, learning a new way to STET a comma that I didn't like the look of (Of which I didn't like the look?). Now I have copyeditor voice in my head.
That small and inevitable change from paper and pen to digital is emblematic, perhaps, of changes throughout publishing. It would be tedious to enumerate them, so I ask you to take me at my word. It's very different out there. Some of the changes are alienating, some are invigorating. I'm cool either way.
What I feel like is I took this bend in the road that led me into a place called TV Land (leaving that story for another day) and I wandered around there for a long time, learning the customs and traditions and ways of the doings of the business. Time took on some odd qualities and one day I looked up and it was ten years had passed and I barely knew what the fuck had happened. So I floated a message in a bottle in a creek that wandered to other places, and someone in Publishing Land found it and was like, "Sure, man, I'll publish your new book."
Way I figure it, with all that in mind, I should hold my tongue about anything and everything that might have changed in the publishing world and just be happy that anyone would imagine that anyone else would want to read a new book I wrote.
I am, for the record, super fucking excited about Catchpenny. I really love this book and I am incredibly happy that people will get to read it. It's still a long way off, spring of 2024, but I know that will pass in a flash.
What else is happening right now?
Well I still spend time in TV Land so I'm on strike (also a story for another day). Today is a day off the picket line for me. Yesterday SAG announced they are also striking. I can't describe how heartening that is. Being on strike is a mental struggle as well as a financial car crash. Doubts can breed. The picket line is as much about moral support as it is a signal of resolve. Having a sister union walk out and say, "Yeah, you guys are right, the AMPTP is fucked." is a major boost. But also, my wife is an actor, so now we're both on strike. Interesting times.
Is it weird that I wake up most days these days thinking that life is amazing and I'm happy to be living it?
I don't know how to explain that, really, Or I do know how to explain it, but not right now.
Hey, is there something you'd like to know about my writing? Send an email and I'll do my best to answer it here.
Catchpenny, by the way, is about Sidney Catchpenny, a thief who walks through mirrors to steal magical artifacts from a demimonde of secret sorceresses and warlocks who live just below our awareness in contemporary Los Angeles. It is also about suicide cults, a demonic video game, the debts of friendship, a missing kid, and rock-n-roll.
I'm Charlie, and I'm so glad to be writing to you.