|
Jun
27 2012 | ||
Today’s guest is the wonderful and fabulous Thea Harrison! Please, everyone say hello
First, thank you, Lauren, for inviting me to visit on your blog. I’m delighted to be here! And while I’m visiting here with Lauren, she’s kindly agreed to visit on my blog too.
Periodically I like to ask on Twitter what people would be interested in reading, because the blogs are, after all, for the readers. I got lots of great suggestions, but the one that stood out for me was the tweet that I am now using as a blog title: “Why the hell I never remember what I went into the kitchen for.”
The life of a professional full-time writer can get, like any other job, quite complicated. At the moment I have four projects that are in various stages of completion.
• I just finished revisions on LORD’S FALL, which is scheduled for a November 6th release. This tight of a turnaround means that very soon, I can expect copyedits—this is the stage where one goes through for content, continuity, word choices, etc. Directly after that, I can expect the typeset proofs—this is where one goes through the story one final time for grammar and last minute content conflicts. Very soon I also expect to start work on the blog tour for this release.
• I’m writing book six, Aryal’s story, with a deadline on August 15th. Sorry, I have a title under submission with my editor, but I don’t know if she’s approved it or not, so I can’t tell you what this book will be called yet.
• I have a third full length novel (thankfully with the same editor as the first two projects!) that will need revisions, and I expect to hear details of that—along with another deadline—within the next couple of weeks. Sorry, no agreed-upon title for this one yet either, although I do expect one soon. The projected release date for this is April 2, 2013.
• I have a novella under submission with my Samhain editor, Elder Races #4 HUNTING SEASON, and I expect a variety of things after that is accepted (which we all believe will happen, although it hasn’t happened yet). The projected release date for this is September 18th. There will be finalizing cover art, copyedits, and a blog tour for this one.
This feels like a lot of irons in the fire to me. Not only do I have four different storylines floating around in my head, along with the main and secondary characters, and I have two different created universes, with different timelines, magic structures and events, I also have OTHER projects—upcoming stories that are percolating in their own little pots. I have one strong idea for a contemporary, and another baby idea not yet ready to hatch. In the Elder Races universe, I have three strong ideas ready for me to work on once I get past Aryal’s story. This is all exciting and fun and positive, but what does it all really mean?
It means my head is very busy. It means I am often at a place where I forget “real life” things. I have actually been known to put the salt and pepper in the fridge before. And when I work a seven day work week, it’s entirely possible—in fact probable—that I might forget what day it is.
And what did I actually go into the kitchen for?
I forget.
~~~
Readers, do you have busy times in your life when you misplace your keys and forget to take out the trash?
Comment for a chance to the ebook of your choice from my Samhain backlist! If you already have the three novellas on my backlist, you can always give your prize to a friend!
Thea Harrison
Twitter @TheaHarrison
www.facebook.com|TheaHarrison
June 27th, 2012 at 5:57 am · Link
I’m really bad at forgetting things. I’ll go to get something and then I’ll be distracted by something else and totally forget the thing I wanted in the first place.
June 27th, 2012 at 7:01 am · Link
If someone interupts me it’s over. And I forget everything I was going to say. So I am in the same place
June 27th, 2012 at 7:17 am · Link
Oh yes. It happens to me all the time. When it does, I usually stand still and look around to see if anything will trigger my memory. If not I retrace my steps and hope something comes to me.
June 27th, 2012 at 7:20 am · Link
It’s funny I’ll just stand there looking around as if it will hit me in the face; then I turn to my hubby and ask the obvious: do you know what I wanted? To which he looks confused and worried!!! 😕
June 27th, 2012 at 7:38 am · Link
that happens to me all the time.. especially at work.!! My boss likes to tease me when he catches me doing stuff like that
June 27th, 2012 at 7:46 am · Link
Hi Thea. I love your books. I am always going into a room and forgetting what I went there for. If I don’t make lists, I never remember anything. 🙂
June 27th, 2012 at 8:09 am · Link
It happens to me more than I like to admit. I am just glad to have someone around who seems to catch the things I tend to miss and always remind me “You were supposed to bring out the ice cream” lol.
Love your books Thea – looking forward to reading Natural Evil.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:17 am · Link
Hi folks!
Lauren, thanks so much for having me on your blog today!
@Danni and Christine – we’re obviously kindred spirits on the absentmindedness.
@Amanda – retracing my steps is a good jog for the memory. I’m surprised at how often that works!
@ Diane – your hubby sounds delightful.
@ Melanie – how nice that your boss has a sense of humor!
@ Cyrstal and MaggieK – Thanks so much! I’m delighted you’re enjoying the stories. 🙂
At least most of the time when I forget something, I remember some time later what I was supposed to be doing. But that feeling of KNOWING you’ve forgotten something can be very frustrating! 🙄
Thea
June 27th, 2012 at 8:22 am · Link
Oh, and I had to laugh yesterday, because I met with a tax consultant, and she gave me several very good tips. While she was talking about one particular point, I told her, “My brain doesn’t work that way.”
She said, “I guess you’re not very detail oriented, are you?” (She wasn’t being mean.)
I laughed and told her, “I’m extremely detail oriented. The world building for my stories demands it. These are just not my kind of details.”
June 27th, 2012 at 9:06 am · Link
I think the worst part is remembering and realizing you just burned more time you don’t have to spare! So you walk in the kitchen do something different than what you came for, walk out, and then have to come back to do the original thing. It always makes me laugh at myself.
June 27th, 2012 at 11:39 am · Link
Hi Emily,
I think it’s important to have a sense of humor about absent mindedness–getting mad or frustrated just makes it worse. 🙂
Thea
June 27th, 2012 at 12:07 pm · Link
I’ve had that problem for years. Isn’t funny how we backtrack and somehow we remember? But you know, after I remember I head back to the kitchen and forget again ;).
June 27th, 2012 at 4:36 pm · Link
I definitely forget to do things sometimes like take out the trash or forget where I placed my keys. I also hate it when I go into the kitchen or room to do or get something but I forget when I get there.
June 27th, 2012 at 5:03 pm · Link
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has this problem! I’m forever forgetting what I was about to do, or misplacing things. Once I was about to start the process to have my birth certificate replaced because I couldn’t find it anywhere, when I discovered it in my makeup drawer. Why was it in my makeup drawer you ask? I’m still not sure.
June 27th, 2012 at 5:11 pm · Link
I have to be sure and put my car keys in my purse, not only so I will be able to find them when I need them but also my hubby has a bad habit of grabbing them even though he isn’t driving my car. He’ll put them in his pocket and leave the house in his car and then I’m stuck!
June 27th, 2012 at 5:15 pm · Link
I am not entering the contest because I have them all :). But YES I am on week I forgot of doing that. I really need to slow things down soon because I think I would lose my head if it was physically attached.
June 27th, 2012 at 7:51 pm · Link
I work retail and Back to School starts in 10 days. Plus my surrugate grandpa died this week. So, I am at the point where if I don’t take notes I don’t get things done.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:18 pm · Link
It’s really nice to read that I’m not the only one that gets absentminded!
@Susan, my heartfelt condolences for your loss. Grief and stress can definitely make it hard to remember the details of real life.
@E, you just moved, didn’t you? That will DEFINITELY cause enough stress to make one forgetful!
@Blanche, how funny and awful that your husband might take your keys by mistake and leave you stranded at home!
@Jill, your birth certificate in your makeup drawer? LOL. That’s a great one!
@Jeanette, it can certainly be frustrating!
@Viki, I picture you walking back and forth in your house, trying to remember what it is you were doing…
~~ My latest silliness. I was CONVINCED I had lost my light summer bathrobe when I moved, because I could. Not. Find. It anywhere. *cough* I just found it in my gym bag. I forgot I’d packed my gym bag with clothes.
Ah well. 😆
Thea
June 27th, 2012 at 9:52 pm · Link
My kids have taken to reminding me to lock the truck when we go shopping as well as what I went the store to get. No list for me I just keep telling the kids, don’t forget to remind Mom to get…It’s sad really. Do you ever dream your books or characters are chasing you in your dreams. When I am overwhelmed with work I usually end up dreaming about it to so I feel like I get no rest at all.
June 27th, 2012 at 10:08 pm · Link
First I love the Elder series and have just started looking to your Samhain titles – but as for absentmindedness – well Im not so much, but my husband loses his keys at least once a week 🙂 So I do understand it.
June 27th, 2012 at 10:45 pm · Link
I have a very bad recurring case of CRS, otherwise known as Can’t Remember Sh*t. If my head had as many different things going at once as you do, I probably wouldn’t remember to get out of bed in the morning 😉
June 28th, 2012 at 4:44 am · Link
I have the novellas but enjoyed them. Just got the most recent one on Tuesday night and plowed through it. Enjoyed Serrie’s story! Really looking forward to Lord’s Fall so thanks for all the stuff you manage in your head! 😀 I hope that it’s coming out in audio because I’ve enjoyed listening to all the books in the series so far.
June 28th, 2012 at 11:21 am · Link
Books sound great 🙂 I often find myself in the kitchen wondering how I got there or why… But the best question in my house is always… Why is the remote control in the fridge and who left it there? Lol
June 28th, 2012 at 11:55 am · Link
Hi Thea,
My classic was putting away the groceries and leaving my keys in the freezer and my wallet in the vegetable bin. Man, it took me hours to retrace my steps, which of course, my hubby thought was hilarious, and no help, whatsoever, lol.
June 28th, 2012 at 4:51 pm · Link
I forget things all the time, I have to stop and think “what was I going to do?” and then suddenly I have that “aha” moment. lol. I’ve caught myself putting the bread in the fridge and putting the ham in the bread box. Way to much distraction and not enough sleep. 🙂
I love your books Thea!!
June 28th, 2012 at 5:02 pm · Link
Hi again!!
@Marc–great question! It’s funny, I never realized before that I DON’T actually dream about my characters. I do think about them as I go to sleep and just after I’ve woken up, though.
@Kerry–I’m so delighted you’re enjoying the series! The Samhain titles are novellas. They’re in the Elder Races world, but they follow their own story arc. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
@Pamiam–LOL, I love CRS! I’ll have to remember that term.
@Vic–thanks so much, I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed them! Yes, LORD’S FALL is coming out in audio!
@Saibra–the remote in the fridge! I’ve never done that one…yet
@Cathy–while your husband was laughing, did he at least help you look for the stuff??? 😉
@Ericka–thank you!!
Fun conversation!
Thea
June 28th, 2012 at 6:18 pm · Link
Sometimes I get distracted and forget what I’m looking for.
June 28th, 2012 at 6:53 pm · Link
Oh, how many times have I misplaced something or forgotten why I went into a room. I just recently had to retrace my steps and I never did remember what I needed to do. jepebATverizonDOTnet
June 28th, 2012 at 7:03 pm · Link
Hi Thea-Thanks for making me feel better, LOL! Story of my life lately. I need lists or I forget and I wonder around sometime, stop and ask myself, why was I going in here?