Once upon a time, before the rain began...

Before I get to the word metrics, I must admit I've been hideously remiss about blogging for the past week or so. In my defense, it was a very busy week - chock full of Halloween preparations, Halloween execution, and then (first thing the next morning) a jaunt over to Nashville for the Geek Media Expo ... from which I only just returned on Sunday night.

The event was nifty, and best of all I got to hang with some fabulous friends who I don't get to see nearly often enough. PLUS I got to meet an awesome pair of cat/dog besties. AND ALSO I got to snorgle the divine little Miss B, who you may recall from her super-adorable adventures with Greyson this past January.

All in all, a wonderful trip.

As for Halloween itself, we went whole-hog: fog machine, black lights, strobe, purple LEDs, UV-reactive spiders and jack-o-lanterns, and so forth and so on. I was a witch. A cute one, if I do say so myself. My cousin Chelsea came over to help dole out candy, but she kept scaring off little kids for some reason; and our friends Mike and Laura also came over to man the special effects and help us drink all our grown-up candy. Ahem.

Seriously, you guys. Deep down yes, I KNEW that having a cute little Victorian house was going to be hella-awesome for Halloween shenanigans, but I mean it was DEEPLY HELLA AWESOME. We blew through almost 25 pounds of candy in about 2-1/2 hours. So, you know. Word's getting around.*

Hm. What else?

Oh yes. In other news of the superlatively grand variety, over the weekend I became an auntie to someone new! World, meet Claudia, new baby sister to my nephew Luke. Hooray for Bonus! small people to spoil at holidays!

[:: flings confetti ::]
[:: fires tee-shirt cannon ::]
[:: commences bootyshakes ::]

But now - all delights of the last few days aside - real life must resume, and that means the deathmarch continues.

So with that kind-of weak transition to start us off, here’s recent progress on my modern pseudo-noir young-adult mystery with murder, medical blackmail, pop culture myth-making, missing persons, and a digital Hail Mary that's become an international sensation:
Project: Princess X
Deadline: January 1, 2014
New words written: 4876 (over the last few days.)
Present total word count: 48,056 words



Things accomplished in fiction: Dungeon-crawling. Mud-sloshing. Trust issues. Surprises in castles.

Things accomplished in real life: Daily jaunt around the neighborhood with the dog; trip to post office; visit with nice cable man about adding a new jack or two and some internet/etc.; finished unpacking from weekend trip to GMX; finished laundry; mostly just writing.

Other: Got about 3000 of those words done today. Would've done more, but got a late start late to cable adjustment/installation interruption. (Long story.)

Four-legged Other: Greyson is finally comfortable leaving the house with both of us. The last time or two we've gone walking together, he hasn't dragged us past the car at all - in fact, yesterday he sat patiently beside the vehicle while my husband brought in the recycling containers and whatnot. Nary a fidget. Next step: getting him to hang out inside the car without freaking out. Maybe we can start that later this week. Definitely next week, if not.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 153,541


* We live in one of those neighborhoods that's a "Halloween destination" for a number of area kids. Parents carpool them in by the pack; churches bus them in by the score. We may kind of have a rep for being All About This Shit when it comes to holiday partytimes.