After the war we said we’d fight together

Posted on | 4 days, 14 hours ago, in the early afternoon | No Comments

Here’s today’s progress on my fin de siecle gothic epistolary about Lizzie Borden fighting Cthulhu with her trusty axe, now with Bonus! ghosts, guilt, arcane science, and an accidental villain who’s losing his mind and his humanity in tandem:


    Project: Maplecroft
    Deadline: October 15, 2013
    New words written: 1700
    Present total word count: 98,659 words



    Things accomplished in fiction: Reassessment of the situation. Change in strategy before it’s too late. In case it’s not too late.

    Next up: A science experiment.

    Things accomplished in real life: Daily jaunt around the neighborhood with the dog; hosted a mini dog-park party in my yard (w/Jolly and a new adoptee named “Ian”); minimal yardwork (still watering down all the new stuff); exchanged some useful emails with important people; cooked lunch and then supper; crashed because I’m exhausted today.

    Other: As previously mentioned – The Button Man and the Murder Tree is live at Tor.com and free for the reading! Click! Read! Get your killer mutant noir on!

    Number of fiction words so far this year: 94,521

Category: misc

The Button Man and the Murder Tree (Chicago, 1971)

Posted on | 4 days, 20 hours ago, in the morning | No Comments

Ladies, gents, and the otherwise affiliated – over at Tor.com you will now find my short story The Button Man and the Murder Tree, a Wild Cards project that I’ve been keeping under my hat for a few months. Free for the reading!

It’s a story about a fellow I introduced in Fort Freak – Raul Esposito … back when he was a button man for the mob in Chicago, and long before he became a genteel (if somewhat creepy) restaurateur in NYC. Raul’s in a race against time, the mafia, and his own body. One of them will betray him before the week is out.

As a bonus, this story is accompanied by some truly kickass art by the inimitable John Picacio, so you should seriously click through just to get a look at THAT. Even if you’re not so sure about a joker hit man with an awkward case and a hard-to-hide secret that could get him killed.

SO. Kindly go give it a read! Dip a toe into the Wild Cards universe. I hope you enjoy what you find.

Category: misc

The girl with the curls and the sweet pink ribbon in her hair

Posted on | 5 days, 15 hours ago, around lunchtime | No Comments

Here’s recent progress on my fin de siecle gothic epistolary about Lizzie Borden fighting Cthulhu with her trusty axe, now with Bonus! ghosts, guilt, arcane science, and an accidental villain who’s losing his mind and his humanity in tandem:


    Project: Maplecroft
    Deadline: October 15, 2013
    New words written: 2491 (meh for a multi-day total)
    Present total word count: 96,959 words



    Things accomplished in fiction: A swim, a swear, and a lungful of air.

    Next up: A crash course in talking to homicidal maniacs.

    Things accomplished in real life: Daily jaunt around the neighborhood with the dog; paid several visits to our neighbors’ batch of 5-week-old puppies; did a whole lotta yardwork; made a few shopping trips for various assorted sundries; made a few lunch breaks; took a little downtime, but only a little.

    Other: Finally got the go-ahead to announce the ROGUES anthology! I mean, I’m IN it. I’m not the person in charge of it or anything – that’s GRRM and Gardner Dozois. And holy crap, you guys – click the link and go check out the table of contents. I am in some magnificent company on this one.

    Bonus! other: BBC Radio 4 is very kind to my Clockwork Century books. I am told that the relevant section starts at 12:12 – with me-specific material cropping up around the 18-minute mark. Huzzah!

    House other: Because I promised to make note of this here,these are the folks who did our roof rebuild: Sprout Roofing. Again, I’m very happy with the job they did; and I’m planning to use them in the near future, to handle some siding and trim repairs. (As you can see at the link, they do more than just roofs.) Two thumbs up!

    Et cetera: Let’s see if I can get Maplecroft wrapped up in Draft Zero form before Phoenix Comic Con, in another week and a half. Maybe? I think it’s doable, but we’ll see. The best laid plans, yada yada yada.

    Number of fiction words so far this year: 92,821

Category: misc
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