Productivity or Bust

I’ll let you in on a secret (well, not really a secret): Gen Con is amazing for my brain. The people in my professional and personal life? Even more amazing. The feeling of slipping just a little out of a long-term depression? Indescribable.

I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning so that she could go out to Colorado for the funeral. I survived rush hour and airport traffic on less than 2 hours of sleep, but when a stoplight started me thinking about surveillance states, Machiavellian philosophy, and human nature, I decided I needed more sleep to function today. Other than that, it’s been a pretty productive day.

But now the dogs and I have the house to ourselves for a weekend. No appointments, no imminent deadlines (that I can’t put off a bit longer), nowhere to be. Moreover, most of my colleagues are either recovering from Gen Con/LonCon, or at a con, or getting ready for Dragon Con, so my inboxes are empty and it would be cruel to send too much work out. And it’s been a long, long time since that was the case, so I’m taking the weekend to binge.

No, not on alcohol, or pizza, or whatever. The last couple of years have been draining, creatively, without any real chance to refill the coffers. My writing has suffered, my personal life definitely suffered, and I’ve been a bear to deal with. With a completely commitment-free weekend, I can indulge myself a little.

I finished my first real collection of mixed-media paintings today. Ken Scholes is cracking the whip on a new collaborative story, which is spurring my solo writing, too. Minerva laid out a new plan of attack for the PR book. Genius Loci needs about 2 more days of work before the Kickstarter launches, which will be after Dragon Con. My SFWA work is outlined and on other people’s desks. The new editorial projects are in limbo while people recover from Gen Con, but they are already getting me excited.

All that adds up to a lot of energy that doesn’t really have anywhere to go. So this weekend is about books, movies, alllll the tea, music, creating, writing, organizing, and generally making my spaces happy again.

It’s going to be fun, and I’ll be exhausted by the end of it, I hope, and ready to be a juggernaut again.

Fuel: Ginger-chocolate bourbon black tea lattes; coffee with cardamom, cinnamon and rose; lavender-lemon gin and tonics; Glenmorangie scotch

Playlist: Soundtracks from The Fountain, Pacific Rim, LOTR, Bollywood, Nine Inch Nails, the usual weirdness.

Watchlist: A-Team, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hero, Ink, Dragon Hunters, Gamer, Riddick, Matrix, Lawrence of Arabia, Hellboy: The Golden Army, Cirque du Soliel, Mirrormask, Expendables, Jodhaa Akbar

Reading list: Bennett’s “City of Stairs”, David Orban’s papers, Michio Kaku’s “Parallel World”, Agha Shahid Ali’s “The Veiled Suite”, Charles de Lint’s Svaha, Eclipse Phase (work and oh god so pretty), Exalted setting brush-up.

Writing list: “Age of Kali” (Bollywood cyberpunk), Ken’s collab, setting references.

Gaming: well, if the fucking page will ever load, I have a Pillars of Eternity account to get going, and DiabloIII.

Yes, all in almost exactly 48 hours. Who knows, I may even go see a movie on Sunday. And this is a shadow of what a healthy Jaym looks like.