Of Ninjas and Aliens

As previously threatened, I've gone back to work on the YA novel that's making the rounds. (Partial manuscript with proposal, natch.) It's a dandy distraction while I'm waiting for other shoes to drop.

I revisited my sample chapters, ultimately cleaning them up a bit further (yeah, yeah, I know) and tweaking them a smidge - and now I've added another 4K or so. It's my goal to do about 2K a day, not burning myself out, but setting a healthy pace.*

So here's recent progress on my comic/sci-fi young adult project where a girl becomes a ninja and fights aliens with much ass-kicking and many LOLs but not a whole lot of kissing (or any kissing, to be frank) plus BONUS Bruce Lee's ghost, a vintage Thunderbird, zenlightenment on the fly, and fat stacks of Cool Ranch Doritos.
Project: Ninja Planet
Deadline: Sooner or Later
New words written: Today? About 2000
Present total word count: 23,156 words





Things accomplished in fiction: Fight with mom, making it onto national television via grainy cell phone video, nearly getting run over by a horse cop.

Things accomplished in real life: Printed off some contract amendments/signed them/took them to the post office, dishes, laundry, negotiated a signing (off site, while I'm out of town for an upcoming event), chatted with the Tucson Festival of Books people, ultimately achieved the fabled Inbox Zero can I get a what-what? In other news, I sent off that short story to the editor. I hope he likes it. I'm worried about it, though. I don't write a lot of short material; I don't think it's my strong suit. I always feel like it needs to be longer, or paced differently, or something. Live and learn, I guess.

Hm. What else?

I gave up on Once Upon A Time. Just couldn't make myself care about it anymore; but I'm still clinging to Grimm - and though I see a lot of "meh" chatter online about last week's episode, I liked it fairly well. I can't help it, that captain fellow just melts my butter. Lawful Evil FTW.

Still watching The River too. So far, so good. Alcatraz - ditto, more or less. It's not blowing me away, but I like the characters and I'm hoping that with time, it'll stretch its narrative legs a bit. Still love Castle. Hard to believe, I know.

In a different media vein, the husband and I started the game Alan Wake, which is older, yes - but only recently ported to PC. I heard many good reviews and hearty recommendations, but God bless, it was just about the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The husband and I only got a couple of chapters deep before our eyes rolled so hard that we were forced seek medical attention.

We followed that one up with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and it is vastly better, so far. Speaking of - I require Megan Reed's jacket. STAT. But maybe in black. I'm too clumsy for ivory; that bad-boy would be covered in ketchup and Coke Zero stains in under an hour. Yes, well. This is my curse. This, and flat feet.

Anyway, just do me a favor and pretend I wrapped up this post with something tidy and rational. Don't assume I got sleepy and needed to go make a cup of tea, lest I faceplant into the keyboard or sakjldfaso;i reftakw4eW'PAle



* I'm noodling on this as a place-holder activity while I try to play catch-up on other things - knowing that editorial work on two other projects could land at any time. I'm also preparing for yet another out-of-state trip for personal business. The husband and I leave Saturday, and will be back Wednesday night. So. Kind of busy over here, for all that I have precious little to blog about.