I had a good Christmas, did you? Minus the nasty head cold I got on the 23rd, that is. It still lingers, but I think it’s mostly out of my system now.

Sales for The Dead of Babylon have been decent, nothing to write home about (…inadvertent pun, I’m sorry) but solid enough for me to consider doing that again sometime in the future. Not sure about full-sized novels yet, but for short stories and novellas that don’t have homes, I think that Bad Moon Books is the way to go. On the plus side, I control all aspects of production. Editing, formatting, release, cover design, etc.

On the downside, I’m responsible for all the screw ups that happen in editing, formatting…

I’m moving in the new house this week, slowly. The problem is figuring out how to work around this winter storm that has descended upon the valley. It’s not “snowpocalypse OMG!” worthy, but I don’t want my books getting wet (I have a lot of books that are first editions and signed, and I’m… particular about keeping them in good shape). I’m also trying to figure out how to get my desk up the narrow staircase and into the bedroom I’m turning into my office. I’ve debated about setting up downstairs, but the “office” is, by far, the best room for this. It’s actually carpeted (the other rooms are hardwood which, while nice, would get scratched up by my chair rolling around all the time) and it’s on the north-facing side of the house, so it’ll stay colder (yay!). The bookcases will have no problem getting up there, but the poor desk… Now, when I built it, I didn’t “secure” it. I built it so that with a twist of two locking screws I can unlock the top hutch and carry that separately. I knew when I built it that I wasn’t going to stay in that old apartment forever, and wanted to be prepared. This’ll be the third move for this desk, and probably the last for a very long time (one can hope, at least).

As usual, the end of the year begins the long slog through award season when every single person will be pitching their book/short story/favorite author to vote for. I’m… not participating this year. It’s not because I don’t have anything eligible, quite the contrary. I just watched what happened to friends of mine who were nominated last year, and the absolute hell they endured in attacks from various parties, and decided “f*** it”.

Believe it or not, most awards aren’t important enough to deserve such an outpouring of effort people give to win one. An example: when a website uses an old format to try to establish nominations and voting, and it times out because the html is wonky and broken as hell, then why should an author or publisher put that much effort into “getting out the vote”? I mean, it’s obvious that the award committee could give two sh*ts less. I can tell this just by looking at the website and how it has not changed or been updated since 1998 (I kid you not).

On the other hand… well, no, there really isn’t an other hand here. I’d rather have a bestselling novel than a bunch of awards. I’ve been a finalist for a few awards and I didn’t notice an uptick in sales afterwards, so I can’t say that being a finalist for an award helps. I won’t say it hurts, however. Not yet. I need to see more numbers before I go off that deep end. Once upon a time I would suggest that (four or five years ago I was convinced that getting a Hugo or Nebula meant that your book wouldn’t sell for sh*t) but my opinion has changed slightly since then. Not entirely, mind you, but slightly.