Nope. As I worried yesterday, I did not quite have the oomph to keep going New Year’s Eve and finish up Jekyll and Hyde. I could have pushed through but I think it’ll be better if I rest. With today a holiday, I don’t think anyone was going to get started on it right away, anyway. It’ll be in tomorrow morning.
It’s disappointing considering how I’ve knocked myself out this month to get it done. But there were things that had to be done this week and I had to do some of them. And due to people who are not us screwing up, they took a couple of hours longer than anticipated. With that extra time, I might have pulled it off.
I’m also exhausted so that’s it for now. More discussion tomorrow when the book will be done.
Just the same Happy New Year. 2025 was a frustrating year in a lot of ways and often horrifying politically but there was also lots of good stuff. May 2026 be better for all of us.
Sunday, I was absolutely certain I would deliver my manuscript for Jekyll and Hyde before 2026. That is, today.
Monday, however, we had a boatload of stuff that had to be done and all of it took longer than it was supposed to (not our fault, for the record). Yesterday there was a whole bunch of little follow-up stuff that had to be taken care of. So now I’m like two chapters short of where I thought I’d be and way short of where I anticipated being on Sunday evening when I forecast the end of the year.
It’s not fatal if I’m late. I can definitely get it in this week and McFarland is flexible… but damn, I was looking forward to the satisfaction of making deadline.
As the year winds down, inevitably I think of two things: how this year went and how I want next year to go. That will be Wednesday’s and Thursday’s posts but today I wanted to touch on a couple of little frustrations with 2025.
Bicycling is one of them. We began bicycling weekly not long after I moved up here. By 2014, we were able to spend Sunday bicycling a total 28 miles to the American Tobacco Trail’s end in Raleigh and back.
Then we got dogs. Obviously we couldn’t leave new pets ready to pee anywhere alone for that long. I always figured we’d get back to it but we never did — bike problems, scheduling, dog needs, all got in the way. Not just of the big, long rides but even short regular rides.
I love bicycling and want to get back to doing it regularly. Every year I manage to do so for a while, then it falls apart. This year I bicycled regularly at least once a week through the fall, then something always got in the way. Part of the problem is that it’s Saturday or Sunday or nothing — during the week I’m usually busy with the dogs, or with writing or something else and it doesn’t happen.
I really want to overcome that in 2026.
The other thing? Money. I always went to end up the year with more money than I had at the start. I never do. This year, my income between Local Reporter and Social Security was better than it’s been many years of my life (the Destin Log, for instance). However the cost of dog drugs (my share of the household expenses includes those) constantly ramps up as they need more treatment and it canceled most of that out. Traveling to cons always costs more than it brings in, even though it’s deductible. Not that I’m hemorrhaging money or anything, or that I don’t have reserves (and I am part of a two-income family, though I take satisfaction in paying my share of the bills), but I’d like to see them grow more.
The options are the standard ones, cut spending or bring in more money. There’s not much unnecessary spending to cut and obviously I’d love that second option. Doing it as an indie author is easier said than done.
I will be putting both these things into my 2026 goals, even if I’m not sure yet how to pull them off.
Spectre cover by Jerry Grandenetti, all rights to image remain with current holders.
Not that I’m feeling Scrooge-ish or anything. As I said yesterday, it was a good December despite having to stint on my usual Christmas entertainment. But I was reflecting this week that Christmas season is one of the few big events in our calendar.
We don’t travel together (we don’t want to leave the dogs with someone else — at their age a health problem could happen any minute, and sometimes does). I don’t go to the Mensa national gathering regularly like I used to (it’s harder to justify spending the money without TYG there) and we haven’t gone to Dragoncon since the pandemic. There are no big regular family events for us to attend. That makes Christmas time that much more special, something to look forward to. That’s only possible because it ends, leaving us waiting (sort of) for next Christmas.
I’m happy to say goodbye for now. Only 11 months till we buy the next tree, whoo-hoo!
Christmas was low-key — us and the pets — and good. German apple pancake for breakfast, then presents, then naps, then, as always, A Christmas Story. Then a game I bought TYG for Christmas, The League of Lexicon. The naps were needed because TYG got up earlier than usual after Plushie fell off the bed. In a Christmas miracle, he didn’t wreck his leg or any other part of his body.
Gifts? From my friend Ross I got the movie Alias Nick Beale. From my bro, an Oberlin College t-shirt (he was in that area recently). From TYG McVitties digestive biscuits (mmmmm), a Cheescake Factory gift card (like League of Lexicon that’s an “us” gift) and a collection of the great German director Fritz Lang’s. Plus a book, The CIA Book Club.
Other than that, the week was spent working like a demon on finishing Jekyll and Hyde. It’s going slower than I hoped but not so slow I can’t finish it up Wednesday. Not guaranteed though, so we’ll see.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. Also Happy Holidays, Cool Yule, Kickin’ Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah and Fab Festivus.
Cover by Nick Cardy, all rights remain with current holder.
As long-time readers may recall, I usually immerse myself in Christmas classics and treacly Christmas movies throughout December. When I’m working on a film book, there’s a mix of book-related films and Christmas films. But I’ve never had a book wrapping up at the end of December before.
When I set that timeline last year, I was confident I’d have everything wrapped up by now and mostly be doing final edits and proofing. That didn’t work out. I should have known, because I don’t think I’ve ever done one that wasn’t a rush to finish. And I’m doing better than I did with The Aliens Are Here, where I had to ask McFarland for an extra month.
The rush to finish, plus all the extra pet care I’ve blogged about, means less social activity than I’d usually see in a month. No going out for tea, and our only party is my writer’s group Christmas party.
And yet it’s been a good Christmas season. I feel Christmassy.
We have a gorgeous tree.
I picked some great gifts for TYG. We have stuff to worry about (who doesn’t?) but no catastrophes. And I just feel very happy, really appreciative that I have an awesome wife, a home and our four adorable (if somewhat troublesome pets). That’s more than many people have at Christmas time (I have a colleague whose spouse died last Christmas).
Part of why I made a habit of so many Christmas movies was that I lived alone and spent a lot of Christmas mornings alone over the years. That’s no longer the case. I still enjoy flooding the zone, don’t get me wrong, but it seems I don’t need it.
Merry Christmas to me. And TYG. And our pets. And all you Whos out in Whoville. Contrary to Dr. Seuss, Christmas Day isn’t always in our grasp — but if it is, I hope you’ve been able to seize and enjoy it.
For the past three or four years I’ve tried setting a small number of broad goals for each year and getting more detailed in my monthly goals. For example, if I set a goal 300,000 words of fiction, each month I decide what fiction I want to work on.
This year, for whatever reason, I don’t feel like doing that. Maybe because I’m old and feel the need to get more stuff done. Maybe because after spending the last half-a-year working on Jekyll and Hyde, I feel a need to catch up and accomplish other projects. Or maybe something else. In the words of Zelazny’s Lord of Light, pick any of the above and you might be right.
As I turn 68 next year, I decided on a whim to make a list of 68 goals. That may change by the time before 2026 but it feels right. It’s not like they’re insane goals like publish 68 novels or travel to 68 countries. A lot of it is stuff like finishing up my Howard Hawks movie marathon (if you can have a marathon drawn out over a couple of years) and bicycling more.
I’m determined to be realistic about what I can accomplish (which is not to say I will accomplish everything). My writing goals, for instance, have to take into account that the galleys for Jekyll and Hyde will probably come back for proofing next year, followed by indexing. That’s going to take time. And I want very much to take a week off in 2026. I don’t think I’ve taken a week’s vacation since I visited my family and friends in Fort Walton Beach at the end of 2023.
To be clear, it’s not like I’m burning out. I love what I do. But I think a solid week of time off would be good. Maybe see my siblings for the first time since 2023 (see the above poster). Maybe just chill and watch the dogs while TYG works. Maybe something else. I’m rather leery about flying given the idiots running our airspace, but we’ll see.
So that’s one week out of 52 gone and maybe three weeks for Jekyll and Hyde. And perhaps I should make allowance for disaster, sick dogs and other possible problems.
That leaves a lot of time. How will I fill it? I’ll get into that New Years Day.
Cover by Paris Cullens, all rights to images remain with current holders.
As I wrote in 2017 if I lived in isolation it would be much easier to manage my time. I’d be more efficient but, of course, more miserable. You can trust me on this; I was single and pet-free for most of my life and married with pets is better.
This year I got even less isolated due to making Snowdrop an inside cat back in January. After the first week or so, it worked out well; Wisp slept downstairs with Snowdrop at night so I could wake up and do a half-hour of exercise and stretching without the cats deciding my body language was an invitation to snuggle. After a long stretch of doing that stuff irregularly (ever since we took Wisp in two-plus years ago) the improvement in how my body feels is marked (plus improvements in things like balance).
But the nature of living in a house with four pets and another person is that there’s never a permanent time-management solution. First we have Dudley’s injuries requiring added PT time. Then the past couple of months we’ve been going to bed later — not the occasional thing where I have a Zoom writers’ meeting or TYG has to work late but just shifting “normal” by a half-hour to an hour. No big, except that it means I get up later (assuming I’m sleeping well, and lately I have been) which throws off my schedule. I wind up skipping exercise or skipping the half-hour of tea and reading that follows it up, or I do both and start writing a lot later. Which is not good because with the PT and various other stuff, I don’t have any wriggle room to make it up later in the day. And in the evening, I’m not up for it.
(Plushie escaped recently when we neglected to lock his cage. Fortunately he didn’t do anything to harm his leg, just climbed up on the couch).
Another is that TYG’s been doing more work in the early morning before bringing Plushie down. That results in dog PT, walkies and my morning ablutions not getting done until around 9:30, about 90 minutes later than “normal.” Logically I should have 90 minutes extra before she comes down but frequently it doesn’t work that way. Perhaps because Trixie insists on coming down earlier and I spend extra time petting her? It doesn’t seem like that can be the whole thing, but …
This week part of the problem has been Dudley suddenly resisting eating his meds, no matter what tasty treats we wrap them in. He’ll eat them eventually but it can add a good ten minutes to the morning routine.
And part of it is that I bought us a Jacquie Lawson digital advent calendar, having had so much fun with one a friend got us last year. Checking out the day’s offerings in the morning eats time, but pleasantly. A couple of days ago, the game for the day was decorating a snowman. We went, perhaps, a little overboard.
I will muddle through this month and launch some sort of adjusted schedule with the New Year.
This week I accomplished one of the nuts-and-bolts of writing this book, going over the cast and behind the scenes credits for each entry and fleshing them out. Also rearranging some of the entries to make sure the chapters are even length; figuring out which chapters a couple of movies should go in (they don’t quite fit any of the chapter topics); and checking for movies I’d forgotten to enter in the book at all (there were a couple). I think I’m on track for an end of the year finish.
On a lighter note, I’ve been attending a Genre Book Club this year, an event sponsored by the Durham Library where the organizer picks a genre each month and we all read a book of our choice fitting the theme. At this week’s meeting, Elle, the moderator, gave regular attendees Christmas ornaments reflecting our choice of books through the year.
Very cool.
Simak cover by Richard Powers. All rights to images remain with current holders.
As I wrote last week, we had Thanksgiving, as always at Cafe Parizade in Durham. It’s a major vegan event and while we’re not vegan (lacto-ovo) the food is great. This year, for example, they introduced these filo triangles —
— tasty as hell. Ditto the desserts.
Well worth the money. My only regret is I only had room for one chocolate truffle. Ate a lot of those filo triangles though.
With three days of work this week, I poured myself into getting a first full draft of Jekyll and Hyde written. I pretty much succeeded.
(No relation to the topic, I just like showing photos of Wisp).
There’s still lots and lots of work to do and some of the later chapters need heavy revision. I’m not completely satisfied with the chapter breakdown (some chapters are too short, some have the wrong mix of movies). But getting to a milestone makes me feel I got something accomplished this month, despite all the vet appointments, errands and contractors that got in the way. It gets me excited to surge forward in December.
Other than that, nothing much written (but that’s enough, right?) as the Local Reporter had a week off. Over at Atomic Junk Shop I had two posts related to the Silver Age collections I reviewed Sunday. One looked at two good Superman stories dealing with Superman lookalikes —
— while the other looked at how DC’s science fiction anthologies in the early 1950s anticipated the Silver Age. For example giving us an early, if unsuccessful superhero in Captain Comet —
— and in one story pitting him against a prototype for Gorilla Grodd.
On the medical front, mixed news. My iridotomy was a success, which is good for my eyeballs. Trixie’s new medicine has improved her energy and reduced her cough. Even if she doesn’t look energetic in this photo, trust me she is.
Plushie’s surgeon, unfortunately, agrees with our vet that he’s not healing as well as we’d hoped. Worst case, more surgery and longer recovery; best case, he’s just healing slower than expected. We have another recheck next month. Prayers and positive thoughts appreciated.
Of course TYG and I also had Thanksgiving yesterday. A quiet, lazy day with a big lunch at Cafe Parizade, which hosts a massive vegan event every year. Awesome food; it was difficult but I stopped just short of discomfort.
All rights to images remain with current holders. Superman cover by Curt Swan, Strange Adventures by Murphy Anderson.
