Guest Blogger: Mark Teppo

(cover by Chris McGrath)

I was asked the other day if I was the type of writer who likes to Have Written, and I said that I actually prefer to be the guy who Is Writing. Having written means that you are finished with a project, and alas, being done allows for the Ennui of Being Done. While John's been off being all patriotic and separated from the Internet, I've been lazy. Indolent in the state of Having Written.

Frankly, I can feel my brain turning to mush.

Also, the other problem with Having Written is that you are now eligible to Be Read, and suddenly the thrill of Writing is complicated by the fear of Oh Shit, What If It Is Crap? When we are not caught up in the thrill of Writing (wherein we are invincible and smart and sexy and able to do math and don't really NEED Google for research, but it's nice to have it there to "verify" things), we are nothing more than a quivering mass of paranoia, fear, and self-doubt.

See? It's safer to be lost in a project. Less chance of noticing the world around you. Less chance of noticing if the world is noticing you. My first novel, , is out in the stores now (well, most of them), and it's been a long, long road to publication for this book. The sequel, Heartland, is on track for publication in January of next year. By all measures, things are pretty good right now. However, I can't stop wandering around on the 'tubes, wondering if anyone has read the book yet.

Yeah, this is the road to madness. I'm in the rickety cart; the lame donkey who normally pulls this thing is sitting next to me, and his weight is giving us all sorts of momentum as we hurtle straight down to the palace of insanity. I need to get out of this cart.

So, back to work. I've finished Protoype last night, which was fun for the first few hours and then got hard, and then "hard" became "annoying," which turned into "I am going to finish this fucking thing only because I'm two missions from the end, but OMG! the AI is uneven and the targeting system is really, really annoying." Watching the first season of Leverage, which is exceptionally smart and funny and the scripts are very, very tight.

I'm not surprised, really, but it's still a treat to find my expectations met. Reading Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars, which is equal parts sugar fairy goodness and riffs on Shakespearian characters, kind of like a literary madeleine cookie. Plotting Angel Tongue (Book 3 of the Codex) and noodling around in the early chapters of a Sekrit Book Projekt.

Dusting off the brain.