I only came here to talk

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: October 1, 2012
New words written: 5552 (barely respectable - only a little better than 1k/day)
Present total word count: 61,841 words





Things accomplished in fiction: Shit: It has hit the fan.

Things accomplished in real life: Daily jogs with the dog before breakfast; found yet another fucking kitten and nearly had a nervous breakdown; canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone was missing him (no); found some friends who were willing to foster/adopt him, on the off chance anyone *does* come forward looking for him; God bless those friends, I tell you what; cleaned up three batches of mysterious dog puke but the dog seems to be fine; light housework; 2 loads of laundry including bedding, which always seems to take forever; ran to bank and Walgreens twice; struggled to keep the peace between a dog who JUST WANTS TO BE FRENDZ WITH THE NEW PUPPY THING and a 4-pound kitten who would LIKE TO BE FRENDZ with the dog but is intimidated by those giant heavy ham-paws and a 13-year-old cat who is pretty damn sure that we've lost our MINDS bringing another damn animal in here and why is that DOG still here, anyway?; so the kitten occupies the guest room until my pals can retrieve him tomorrow afternoon; sent off proposal for Schrodinger's Project; exchanged what is probably the final round of edits re: INEXPLICABLES with my editor.

Other: People keep asking, so no, I won't be at DragonCon or WorldCon this weekend. WorldCon because it's very far away and expensive, and I didn't get my guest app in on time, and anyway I have MEGA DEADLINE staring me in the face. DragonCon is a little more complicated, yet also less so: You see, several years ago they decided that I wasn't destined to be a guest anymore. I don't know why. No one ever told me. That having been said, it's a great event - but it's not one that's very practical for me if I'm not attending as a pro. It's very expensive, even without having my badge comped,* and now that I'm in the southeast again it's not my sole opportunity to see my friends in the region. Basically, if I'm not working the convention as a pro, then it's really just a very costly 4-day party ... which I frankly cannot justify at this time.

Other, Redux: If you want to see me at future DragonCons, you're welcome to tell them so, and if they'll ever reinstate my pro status, I'll be happy to return. Here's their contact form . But please don't contact or harass the track directors, if you know who they are and/or have their email. It isn't up to them, I'm afraid.


* When I was a guest, that was my only concession. I paid all my other expenses.