This Is Me Procrastinating...

So, my husband has taken the kids away for the weekend so I can finally get cracking on Finding Lost: Season 6. I have to admit, I haven't been as present in the comments on my blog recently, and for that I apologize. I'm working on an incredibly heavy fall of TV books, and they always come in late (due to the scheduling of the season) and have to be edited, proofread, typeset, with all photos and captions in place in about a month. Usually that process is more like 8-10 months. So with four of these books in place for fall (FOUR!) I'm dying here.

The first is on True Blood, and with the show starting again on June 13, we have to have that book in stores by June 1, so it's been a mad dash. When I was in the UK, it's all I was working on, during the plane ride there and back, and in my hotel room. The second is on Glee, and that one is coming to me in about two weeks, the same day as a book on The Vampire Diaries (I'll be talking about each of these in more detail when they're out). I'm also editing a book on the music of the Louisiana bayou and a novel by a first-time writer that is incredibly hilarious and awesome.

Then there's my book. The one I haven't actually STARTED. Yes, I admit it. That said, I work best under pressure. I didn't start working on FLS5 until April, and I didn't start writing the episode guides until after the season had finished... and still had the entire thing handed in on July 1. I think things through a LOT before I begin typing, and then once I begin, I'm good to go.

I've been reading some books in preparation for it. One of them is The Stand, a book I'm sure most of you have read already, but despite being a Stephen King nut when I was a teenager (I devoured so many of his books it was insane) I have to admit I'd never read this one. It's taking me FOREVER and I adore every word of it (he is a master, folks... a MASTER) but I just have to find the time to read it on top of everything else.

Funny story: I was on the plane to the UK last week and I had the book with me and was reading while other people were still boarding. I was sitting on the aisle of the middle row of three (I was like Rose, but on the opposite end of that section) and so far no one else had sat in the two seats beside me. Would they stay empty? I thought excitedly to myself. And... they TOTALLY did. I was Thrilled! I spread out my work later when we were in the sky on the seat and tray beside me, keeping my immediate space open for the editing work I was doing. It was glorious. But anyway, then this flight attendant comes walking through saying to someone that there are tons of empty seats, and they need four people to move to the back. I thought, "Right, because those four people will be the difference between taking off normally or the plane trying to go up in the air but the nose is scraping along the ground because of the unbalance." ;)

Anyway, AS he's saying this, I'm reading The Stand and -- no word of a lie -- come to this section where a guy is going on about this statistic on plane crashes (open purse, grab sticky note, pop one on this page for Lost reference) and he says that we all have this innate psychic ability to detect when something terrible is going to happen, and this guy had done stats on plane crashes and realized that every plane crash happened to a plane that was 80% full or less. It's like people woke up and their bodies made them sick so they wouldn't get on that plane, telling them it was going to crash and they didn't want to be on it when it did. So, he says, if you're on a plane and it's not full, hold on tight because that has a much higher risk of being the one to crash. I looked up, looked around me, saw a ton of empty seats and seriously burst into laughter. I couldn't stop giggling. It was so freakin perfect. Oh Stephen King, I love you. You should be required reading on all flights. :)

I didn't tell you guys this, but a reporter from the New York Times called to interview me the other day!! I don't know if anything I said will end up in the story, but my fingers are tightly crossed that it will.

And finally, Damon Lindelof tweeted yesterday that as of the end of this weekend, he and Carlton are putting the final period at the end of the final script of Lost. This is it... by Monday, the last words will have been written, and the actual writing on the show is done. I read that and was filled with a crazy excitement. Other people were more morose and upset and, "Oh MAN that depresses me to no end" but I'm really really excited. This is what we've been waiting for, and why does everyone think the discussion ENDS when Lost does? That's when it BEGINS for me!!

So, in the spirit of Darlton finishing Lost this weekend, I'm going to begin writing the last of my Finding Lost books. Sad, yes. As sad as the thought of no more Benjamin Linus on my TV week after week? No.

OK, SERIOUSLY Nikki, you're already one hour behind on your schedule today and haven't begun. Get OFF the damn blog and start writing!!!

Oh no! My angry interior voice has begun. Sigh. About a month earlier than it usually shows up. Gotta go.