The end of the beginning

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: September 15, 2012 (LOOK WHO ISN'T PANICKING)
New words written: 7865 (ye gods this is awful)
Present total word count: 21,510 words





Things accomplished in fiction: All the players are in place, conspiracies are established, allies aren't always friends - and the reverse.

Things accomplished in real life: Finished up travel, sent all houseguests home, and then invited a four-footed one to come stay on a permanent basis. BUT NOW, NO FOR SERIOUS - STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT - I am on the daily writing pony (his name is Fred) and you can expect decent metrics henceforth, because baby, it is death-march time.

In My Defense: I am very, very happy with what I have so far. I've spent the last couple of work-days revisiting the first few chapters and making sure everything works - fixing what doesn't, re-jiggering a few characters, and sorting out what people's actual motivations are, as opposed to their apparent ones. The last couple of projects I've gotten underway ... I didn't do this to a sufficient degree, and my drafts suffered for them. This time, I really do feel like I'm building the novel on a solid-ass bedrock of Plot That Makes Sense.

Other: I bet you thought Plot That Makes Sense was like, step one or something. HA. That is step If I Get Around To it, also known as, step My Editor Will Kill Me If I Don't Fix This Before She Sees It.

Bride of Other: As for the cat and dog, slowly but surely they are making peace. Or collaborating on my demise. Hard to tell. If you want more regular dog updates and pictures - by which I mean, if you want to get absolutely sick of dog updates and pictures - keep an eye on my Twitter account.

Son of Other: Look, I tried to restrain myself from posting a puppy video but I think we all know what my self-control is like these days, so here you go.