A confluence of ongoing projects swirled around me this week, challenging my multiprocessing ability:

•  Brian Herbert delivered his final edit of the HELLHOLE manuscript to me, and I’m going over the 679 pages one last time (up to p 375, as of today).  This is the ninth draft, and all the pieces are fitting together very well.  When I’m finished, Rebecca will go over the prose, line by line, to make as polished as possible before it goes into production.

•  Rebecca finished STAR CHALLENGERS #1, and I read it a final time before sending it to June Scobee Rodgers and to the publisher.  We also wrote up a rough outline for STAR CHALLENGERS #2.

•  Completed all the figure captions for nearly 500 photos for the Writers of the Future 25th anniversary book, wrote all the winner spotlights (93 successful authors over the course of the contest), then sifted through 400 covers of books published by the past winners so that I could cull out the best ones to feature in the book.

• Received the copy-edited manuscript for BLOOD LITE 2 for approval of all editorial changes.

•  Finished a proposal with Gregory Benford for a new ecological thriller.

And grandbaby Harrison came over for a visit, and we’re prepping for Mother’s Day tomorrow.  Maybe next week, I’ll find a chance to go out for a hike…and brainstorm a new outline.