Meth Monday: Catching Up

Hello Readers Mine, and thanks for your patience as I wrapped up school and this blog got a bit neglected! Season 5B of Breaking Bad will start on August 11, 2013, which means we still have months to go before we find out what happens to Walt, Jesse, Skyler, Jr., Hank, Marie, and Saul. I'll try and keep things interesting around here, but I think for the summer, "Meth Monday" will be going to an every-other-week schedule. Today's the 20th, so look for the next post on June 9. In the meantime, I'll be putting up some other stuff here now and again, so I promise to keep it entertaining. Meanwhile, don't forget Dale's blog, Unfettered Brilliance, because she is WAY better than I am at blog posts, and she's smarter than I am too. In any event - onward!

Here Lies Heisenberg. Fan art by Glenn Brogan

So there's lots of stuff going on with the book lately. First, as of today we completed the first round of copy-edits for seasons 1 - 5A, including sidebars. As you may remember, we had a big push in March to get the line edits for all of this complete, which meant that we were sending drafts, corrections, and comments back and forth between me, Dale, and our wonderful editor, Jen Hale. After that, the final result went to Emily Schultz, our incredible copy-editor, (and one hell of a writer in her own right!) who's job it is to find and fix all of our spelling, grammar, and style errors, and who not only did that (and let me tell you, for my parts of the book, that's a pretty big job!) but also caught several other things that really helped to make the manuscript stronger. I'm pretty sure we owe her dinner and drinks big time next time we're in Toronto. Emily is a fan of Breaking Bad too, and so our comments back and forth have more than a bit of fan-squee about them. Our team at ECW Press is tremendous: talented, passionate, smart, funny, and as committed as Dale and I are to making Wanna Cook a success. We couldn't do it without them all.

A case in point is Erin Creasey, ECW's Director of Sales and Marketing, whose team created a fantastic set of promotional business cards for us on very short notice so we could plug the book this weekend at the Alabama Phoenix Festival, where Dale and I will be joining Paul Smith and others to talk about all things Joss Whedon. (See what I did there? For more info follow the festival on Twitter as @PhoenixFest.) So we'll be giving out these little gems in Birmingham:

Promo card, front and back. Not the greatest pic, but you get the gist.

Next up on the book are the long extras, which are due into our editor by July 1st. These pieces will take a closer look at some of the major themes in and around Breaking Bad, from the violence in the series, to fan responses to Skyler and Marie, to the use of place and space in the show. Then in September and early November, we write like crazy to finish up season 5B and the whole thing then goes to ECW for proofing and publication in the spring of 2014. In the meantime, we bite our nails and wait to see what Gilligan & Co. will bring us in season 5B.

That's it for this week, folks. Join me back here on June 3 for the next "Meth Monday," and for all the latest news about Breaking Bad follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Until next time, Readers Mine, be well!