This afternoon, I’m going to meet Elaine for a little bit of unexpected frivolity of the most fabulous kind. I mean, I wasn’t expecting to spend the evening at a quasi-burlesque comic cabaret dinner theater, but it was rather difficult to say “no” to such a kind and intriguing invitation.

Besides, I’ve had a most excellent workday thus far, and I don’t mind treating myself a tiny bit. Yes, it’s not nearly stopping time — but I’ve already logged a satisfactory word count, and it’s not filler count, either. Zeke’s parallel adventures continue apace, establishing a better, more rounded view of the world setting and introducing cool new characters left and right.

Ergo, here’s today’s progress on the west coast steampunk Victoriana book with zombies, air ships, toxic gas clouds, mad scientists, dead folk heroes, secret criminal societies, and Bonus! extended deleted scenes from the Civil War:

Project: The Boneshaker
New Words: 4300 (GLORIOUS!)
Present Total Word Count: 93,017 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Introduced the menacing -but -possibly- benevolent elderly Native American princess with a knife collection and a ray gun; witnessed a (very likely) needless murder; began to figure out that anybody who claims the middle name of “Mayhem” might be full of crap.

Other Observations: As you may have noticed above, I’ve reset my goal. There’s simply no way Draft Zero is going to come in under 130,000 words, though the finished product will likely be trimmed down to a more manageable size. Frankly, I suspect that I’m underestimating. I tend to overwrite anyway, and then trim my final product by about 15%. Hmm. We’ll see. I’ve sort of hit that point where my word count implies I ought to be entering the home stretch, but I keep finding more story to tell …

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did dishes; cleaned bedroom; finished unpacking from PenguiCon; tried and failed to catch up on the emails that accumulated while I was out of town.

Reason for Stopping: Must take shower and tart up for this thing tonight, after getting a little bit of reading/freelance work done.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 161,592