Good evening, all!
As of this writing, the very last version of the cover for ATTOH (known hereafter by its new title, Divided Worlds: An Alternate Cold War) is nearly finished, and the new material has been finished and added. If all goes as planned, the final final FINAL draft and cover will be ready for posting on Kindle by the weekend, latest...and maybe for hard copy release as well! In "celebration" of this, I present as this week's tune Rare Earth's I Just Want To Celebrate, from my Random Mix playlist. (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)
Technically, this song could also fall under the Soundtracks category, since the first memory I have of hearing it was in the opening scenes of the black comedy movie Three Kings, after which it was stuck in my head for days afterward. Since that time, this song has landed a decent spot amongst my other top writing music choices, not only giving me a brief energy boost when needed during a difficult project session, but helping me let loose after finishing a draft. It's also helped me to put many specific issues and life in general in better perspective, whenever either are getting me down ("Had my hand on the dollar bill / And the dollar bill flew away / But the sun is shining down on me / And it's here to stay."), and to keep up a cheery or at least content outlook on life even when doing so seems impossible ("Well, I can't be bothered with sorrow / And I can't be bothered with hate, no, no / I'm using up the time but feeling fine, every day.").
Right now, the "celebrate" part seems most appropriate. I'm messaging with the Divided Worlds cover designer right now, and everything points to a midweek finish, perhaps even tomorrow. After that, I'll be taking a break from new and restarted draft work, except for a little outline research on the next short story for my writing workshop class, and maybe another round of agent-hunting for Discarded. A major end-of-year history paper is also calling for attention; that'll probably seem like a vacation, after so long with fiction :). I'll still be posting news here and on my various pages; in the meantime, keep the comments, shares and reviews coming!