June 6, 2011

I don't want to blow anybody's mind on a Monday or anything, but I actually got a little bit of writing done today.* Between 10 weeks of aggressive out-of-state travel and the new day-job … it's been awhile since I've been able to work on Inexplicables in any serious fashion; but today I broke the dry spell and hit a couple of milestones. (1). I sort of finished Chapter 3. (2). I cracked 20,000 words.

Both of these things are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but that won't prevent me from feeling good about them all the same.

I'd like to hang around and start Chapter 4, but tonight I have an event over at the University Book Store with Jay Lake and Libby Bulloff – re: The Steampunk Bible – and I believe this will require me to do some dressing up. I think I'm going to overdo it. Why? Because even the most frivolous of reasons is an excuse to get dressed up. However, this takes time, and it will also take a little bit of planning, and oh yes, I'd like to nab a bite to eat before heading out to the store around 6:00.**

So, yeah. I'm posting this and logging off.

Anyway! Here's today's progress on my fifth Clockwork Century novel – a book about teenage juvenile delinquents, hypothetical ghosts, and gangland mayhem within the walled city of Seattle … now with Bonus! zombie Sasquatch and the return of everyone's favorite elderly cross-dressing Native American princess:



Project: Inexplicables

Deadline: September 15, 2011

New words written: 1061 (not good, but better than nothing.)

Present total word count: 20,517words

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work; daily run/climb (back underway now that the weather permits it again); answered important emails; sent important emails; composed and sent off the acknowledgments/thanks/dedication for Ganymede (which I had totally forgotten).

Things accomplished since last "real" blog post: Bought a new (to us) car and it is rocking our world. No, I won't tell you what it is. Suffice it to say, is verra nice. I have named him "The Phantom," because something about the cut of his jib reminded me of the old radio show logo. Anyway, one word for you: SUNROOF. That's one word, right? Not two? Not a hyphen? I shall resist the urge to go look it up.

Things accomplished in fiction: REALLY should've listened to the unseen someone, who was only trying to be helpful.

Next up: Find out if a ghost is real, and try to convince everyone that we're not crazy hallucinating drug addicts. This will be tricky, as we are, in fact, crazy hallucinating drug addicts. But we did see something remarkable, dammit.

Total word count for 2011: 20,517 words





* That is, writing that was not part of the day-job. I'v been writing like a mofo on day-job stuff, but since I can't talk about it, much less report it here, it doesn't get counted. Unfair, yes I know.

** I like to arrive early, for one thing. For another, it takes either ten minutes or 45 minutes to make it over the hill and into the University District, depending on traffic. And I'll be leaving at rush hour.

[Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]