I am still hacking away at the final book in the Forensics series, which happens also to be my final piece of overdue work. At this point, very overdue. No one is bugging me for it, as my publisher’s schedule has slowed a bit and my editor on that series hasn’t yet finished processing the four mss. I turned in earlier this year, but still. I need to finish. I want not to have to be writing it any longer.

Who would have thought that a 45-page ms. on a straightforward topic would be so difficult to finish? But I’ve now written nine books for this series and am burned out on the subject, and I have other things I’d rather be writing, so my level of engagement is low. I just have to push ahead and do my best not to let my attitude permeate the ms. Fortunately I have had a lot of practice at this.

Every book has what I call the hump, the point at which the process shifts from drilling forward to gliding toward the end. At the hump more of the terrain I must cover is lying behind me than is stretching ahead. Not just page or word count–the hump comes at different points in different books. Even in two books of the same length for the same series, there may be a difference. I am starting to think that in this book the hump is going to come waaay late. Say, the penultimate page.

Looking forward–desperately so–to turning in this ms. in the next couple of days. I can then turn to more interesting matters:

* developing proposals for a couple of new nonfic series that I am excited about

* the unfinished draft of my Nano novel

* some other stuff.

Now back to work. On the bright side, I am meeting a friend for “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” this evening. Hoping to love it.