Frank has built and lost his creature

Here's recent progress on my young adult haunted house story about a long-lost adventure pulp comic manuscript that's guarded by a good ghost and a bad ghost; now with Bonus! gentrifying drama, golden-age mystery, Hollywood intrigue, fallout from The Storm, and an agent who's just trying to do the right thing, goddammit:

Project: The Agony House
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 4139 (all today!)
Present total word count: 48,335



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Made a cute new friend and dodged a bullet; walked home with a weirdo; read some more of the comic and wondered if there were goblins in the house because hell, why not?

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; trips to bank; trips to grocery store; trips to Walgreens; cleaned house; attended a kickass Rocky Horror Picture Show event; had a massive and marvelous Halloween party; handed out 28 pounds of candy in that one fine night; oh, there's more I'm sure - but I can't think of it right now.

Book Other: I've been given the go-ahead to announce - my awesome editor has agreed to a name-change for this project! I'd been calling it The Agony House in my head since I started working up the outline, and when I ran it past the editor, she agreed: This should be our title! I'm so tickled - it's so perfect :)

Other: I realize I glossed over the RHPS event and Halloween, and believe me - I'd love to give them each their own post, for they were both outstanding beyond measure. A very good time was had by all, in every regard ... but due to the distraction, I got basically ZERO writing done last week. It's no one's fault but my own. However, this means that I now have ten days to finish a draft of The Agony House, and there's still lots of work to be done. I can do it, mind you. AND SO I SHALL. But it means you'll get little from me content-wise except word metrics for the next week and a half. My apologies.

Bonus Other: My Halloween costume was pretty awesome, though . I accidentally scared away a few kids. Oops. (My Magenta get-up wasn't half-bad either, if I do say so myself.)

Critter Other: Quinn is back to her old self, tearing through the house with such abandon that we've started announcing, "TAKE COVER! INCOMING QUINNADO!" when she starts her laps. Greyson is doing good. Spainy is doing good. Basically, all the four-footed things are good. And yes, sometimes Quinn and Spain sleep like this...usually when Quinn conks out while playing with Spain's tail.



Number of fiction words so far this year: 104,323