October 28, 2008

Posted on | 3 years, 3 months ago, in the early evening | No Comments

So our internet has been deeply iffy for the last couple of days, and God knows why, but it seems to be back up and more or less steady — knock on wood — if rather slow. This has been aggravating, as you might imagine, and it’s made writing slow-going. For this first chunk of The Clementine, I needed to know some things about hydrogen and dirigibles, Gatling guns, and the western edge of the American Civil War; and while I know something about these things, yes … there were gaps in my knowledge that would have prevented me from writing credibly about them.

What did people do before the internet?
I swear, sometimes I wonder.

Anyway. I regret to admit that I can scarcely report a thousand words of progress, but I’m okay with that, for now. I’m taking my time with these first sections (this one, and the next — which will introduce my Confederate spy), because (a). there’s no rush, and (b). I want to make sure I get it right. But here goes.

Today’s progress on my steampunk novella about a runaway-slave- turned-air-pirate and his lost Confederate war dirigible, a mysterious doomsday weapon, and a disenfranchised southern spy who’s gone to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency — now with Bonus! military intrigue and a gentle mad scientist who’s slowly losing his mind:

Project: The Clementine
New Words Written Today: 1105
Present Total Word Count: 2742
Goal: 45,000 words (approx.)





Fiction Things Accomplished: Spotted the stolen ship; high-tailed it towards the thieves; revealed presence and planned deployment of “the Rattler” — a junior version of a Gatling Gun that can, at least hypothetically, be hand-held and operated by one man (given that the man has shoulders like an ox).

Real Life Things Accomplished: Went to the drug store and nabbed a few things; went to the grocery store and got Wheat Thins, butter, and cereal — because these are the things I forgot when I went shopping yesterday; cleaned the kitchen; laundered all our bedding; looked up recipes for London Broil Roast, which I plan to make for supper tonight (and nosh on for a few days, probably) since I found a really great cut of meat on the cheap at Trader Joe’s.

Reason for Stopping: Hit a good stopping point, and since I spent the afternoon collecting research nuggets for future use, I figured, “Oh well.” And then I decided I’d catch up a bit on my surfing.

Suspected Upcoming Problems: I’m relishing this a little too much — taking a little too much time, with it, maybe. I’m just so happy to be working on another steampunk project set in this world, and since this is my last contracted novel (at the moment), I’m feeling a bit of clingy attachment towards it. If I don’t speed up as part of my natural processes in a week or two, I’ll have to flog myself into something more like a respectable word count.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 277,591

Category: misc

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