With the materials now shipped off for Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between, I’ve got a little extra time on my hands. It will require discipline for me to use this time wisely.

Specifically, I need to focus my efforts so that I can get lots of work done during the day, and then NOT DO ANY WORK DURING THE EVENING.

Today went pretty well. I got a late start, but by 4:30pm I had scripted and pencilled a week. So far this evening I’ve spent time with the family, grilled a nice burger for myself, rented a couple of movies, and made plans to play video games for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow I’ll color a week of comics and ink a different week. I expect to be done by 5:00, so I can have play-time in the evening.

Wednesday and Thursday should be spent in the same way, and then Friday I can take a couple of days all the way off for the symposium at Swarthmore College.

In particular, I make me giggle when I come up with utterly disgusting phrases like “refreshing sports energy syrup.“

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/09/14/bionic.arm.ap/index.html

I’ve been expecting this for 20 years. Not that I need it, mind you.

Man, science goes so SLOW!

Kudos to Sandra, who tackled the job of proof-reading the printouts for Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between today. I reviewed those, found a few of my own, and then decided to stop, because at some point I have to decide NOT to re-write the entire book.

It’s going to be a great book.

I will be doing a promotional desktop background based on the cover art (which wraps around the book), and will make it available to everybody who pre-orders the book. Pre-orders will not open any sooner than September 27th, and we’ll probably wait until October 2nd.

If you’re hoping to get a sketch edition, I have good news — I’m planning on limiting them not by number (we sold 200 of them in about 14 hours on Book I) but by time period. They’ll be on sale for a full 24 hours, one per customer, so everybody gets a fair shake. And yes, I’ll let you know at least a week in advance when said 24-hour period begins and ends.

The book is 100 pages long (a full 25% longer than the first book) with 7 &1/2 pages of bonus story (87% longer than the bonus story in the first book), and the price is STILL just $15.00.