Yes, more boring word metrics, ahoy. Because apart from my day job work, this is pretty much all I’m doing right now. And anyway, this is how books happen — a little bit at a time. They don’t magically appear; they just sort of accumulate.

So here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 3809 (go me!)
Present Total Word Count: 50,237 words
Goal: 120,000 words (revised goal)

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Got Mercy away from the cadaverous drug addicts who tried to eat her fingers; made it out to the port at Memphis and found a boat whose captain hails from the Republic of Texas … which is a bit of a calculated move, to be explained in-story.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job reading, and not much else.

Reason for Stopping: Time to haul out the page proofs for Boneshaker (which, I believe I mentioned already, arrived a couple of days ago). It’s a big fat book that’ll take some time to adequately peruse. Any and all changes are due back by the 9th of June, so I’m trying to devote an hour or two each day to its progress — specifically the hour or two before my husband gets home from work.