Status Check # 2...And Other Stuff

So it's the beginning of April (and my birthday is nearly here) and it seems like time for another status check. Because I'm self-absorbed like that.

My status is pretty much the same as it was the last time I looked, at least when it comes to m/m work under the name Alexi Silversmith. All that's changed really is that I've edited, proof-read and approved the 'galley proofs' (this makes me laugh a little, because galley proofs for a print book are such a big deal - this huge packet of pages arrives recorded post and you have to mark up the whole thing and send it back ASAP, but the ebook version was just a PDF file in which I made three corrections, easy-peasy) for And Is Never Shaken. Still no word on the pub date for that.

Side Note: DSP's proofers changed the capitalization of the title so it reads 'And Is Never Shaken' instead of 'And is Never Shaken'. Is this an American thing? Hmm...

Anyway, I haven't finished any other new m/m stories. I haven't started work on the two stories I've sold to Torquere Press yet, nor have I heard back about the short story I submitted to them. So, it's pretty quiet on the m/m front. Just like any writer, I'm sitting around waiting for publishers to get back to me.

In other news, I promised Wave (from Reviews by Jessewave) that I'd try to read the notorious m/m novel Bareback by Chris Owen this week. And now I'm scared, because although I really like Chris Owen's work, I do NOT like cheating in my books. This book is famous because one of the leads is unfaithful to the other, and the book shows the aftermath of this, and how they struggle to repair their relationship. I have avoided this novel for a long time for that very reason.

This might seem ridiculously wimpy. In a way, it is. Afterall, it's just a book, right? It's not real, and I can chose to stop reading at any point. My problem is that I suffer from clinical depression, and although I have various coping strategies in place which ensure that my mood is even a lot of the time, there are always periods when I can feel myself teetering on the edge of another episode. When I get that unbalanced feeling, I know it won't take much to tip me over the edge. And I'm teetering now.

Which means that if this book is as good as Wave said it is, and you end it feeling uplifted and convinced of the romantic relationship between the characters, then I'll probably be fine. But if I react to it in a different way, if I'm not convinced by the relationship, then I'll probably end up dealing with a seriously black mood which could last for up to a month. Do I really want to take the risk? Well, I'm off on a long train journey today, so I'll take the book and see how I feel. I'll just have to hope that if I can't face it, Wave won't beat me up...