"How are you" was always a stumper anyway

My friends don't say hello now. They say, "How's the book coming along?" I think possibly they mean: Are you really just sitting around reading recaps of House and trying to figure out if your office chair is more comfortable if you sit in it backwards?

Here's what I'm doing for my first book:

1. This blog. And a new e-mail newsletter to the folks who have bought my book. Why? Let's not be coy. I have cases of books up to the ceiling. I want to sell them. To sell anything, you have to do a certain amount of jumping around and waving your arms. You might as well make it your wacko joyful dance.


2. A new free book mailing campaign: This one goes out to all you local hospital wellness program administrators. Look for your copy in time for the holidays.

And here's what I'm doing for the new book:

1. Writing. It's a lot of little random scenes and several competency-hearing-worthy longer passages. The next long scene I'm working on takes place at the Graylyn swimming pool (yup, you Winston-Salem folks, that's you).
   
2. Organizing. Besides my pile of written scraps, I've collected a fair amount of research aimed at my characters. I'm outlining, thinking through, and researching all four volumes (God save the Federal Reserve and my immune system) at once. It's becoming quite untidy. I'm going to put it in a tiddlywiki so I'll have it at hand but won't waste too much time dithering over the organization itself. Cool, huh?
   
3. Researching. Need to get back to reading newspapers and magazines from the early 1970s. Since many of my characters' lives center on music, I've been listening more carefully to music that has been in my peripheral memory. Never before have I thought: "I really need to get my hands on some Black Sabbath." So yay! for expanding horizons.