Crawling toward the finish line

Science Fiction grandmaster James Gunn has died.

My career isn’t old enough for me to have met many of the old grandmasters of science fiction because most of them are no longer around. I did get to meet James Gunn at ConStellation in Lincoln, NE in 2017, where I was the Author Guest of Honor and he was the Grandmaster Guest of Honor. I also got to meet Dr. Ben Bova a few years ago when we did a panel at the Air Force Academy together with a few other writers. Dr. Bova died last month.

I know that numbers are completely arbitrary and that a new year on a calendar has no meaning except for symbolism, but I really am looking forward to seeing 2020 end. It seems like the constant onslaught of bad news and outrage has, as my agent put it, draped a blanket of cortisol over all of us. I am starting the last week of the year with novel edits that are due on the 31st, and finishing a novelette that I owe someone (and that is ridiculously overdue.) But it will all be done by the time the new year rolls around, and even if that number flipping is just a symbolic change, it’s as good a marker as any to hit the mental reset button and start to crawl out from under that cortisol blanket.

I hope you have a lovely holiday season. Stay safe, stay healthy, and let’s shank this year in the back with glee.