Because March is a month of madness, tomorrow morning I’ll be dashing off to Portland with Team Seattle. This is because our fine associates Mark Henry and Mario Acevedo will be signing at the Beaverton Powell’s location at 7:00 p.m., and we intend to wave our pom-poms in support.

So if you want to catch me and the crew down at the big-ass bookstore, then come on down. Now you know how to find us.

In other news, I’m back on the composition pony and my word count has resumed. I’m absolutely delighted to get back to The Boneshaker; though while I was in the process of reacquainting myself with the story, I trimmed about fifteen hundred words out of it. At present, I’m back up to just barely over where the word count was when I left it.

Project: The Boneshaker (hurrah, it’s back!)
New Words: About two thousand, but it’s tough to gauge
Present Total Word Count: 46,746 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Got myself re-immersed in the storyline and advanced it into greater peril. Briar Wilkes is trapped in a subterranean tavern while rotters (read: zombies) try to bust their way in from two directions at once. Big action scene ensues, wherein Briar receives back-up support from tricked-out mercenary Jeremiah Swakhammer and his friend Lucy O’Gunning, the one-armed barkeep with a mechanical hand.

Darling du Jour: “Swakhammer pulled a pair of gigantic pistols out of his holsters and spun the cylinders to make sure they were loaded. Lucy reached under the bar and retrieved a modified crossbow. She flipped a latch and the contraption opened; she placed it upside down on the counter and slammed her mechanical arm upon it, and the weapon affixed itself to her wrist with a hard click. Even white-haired Varney with his fragile-looking limbs was bracing himself for trouble. He lifted up the piano’s lid and retrieved a pair of shotguns, which he held ready — one under each armpit.”

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Unpacked and settled self from Norwescon; changed Howard’s tank; did dishes; cleaned house (except for vacuuming); re-read last thirty pages of Boneshaker in order to prime self for further work; emailed invoice for freelance work; contacted more interviewable parties about upcoming freelance assignment.

Reason for Stopping: Good stopping point (on the cusp of escape) — and before long, Aric will be home from work, so I suppose we’ll go get supper or something. Also, I need to start getting my act together for tomorrow’s little road trip. We’ll only be gone overnight, so this won’t be a huge excursion with massive packing needs; but I do need to be concise, as I only intend to bring one backpack.

I very likely will not get any fiction written tomorrow or Wednesday; but I will use that time on the road to sketch out the P.O.V. for Ezekiel Wilkes, who will join the narrative from his own vantage point before terribly long. Zeke is Briar’s runaway son, and he’s in far more trouble than he thinks he is. Hell, he’s even in more trouble than his mother thinks he is, and she’s very, very good at imagining the worst.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 115,346*