Our friend Denny crashed with us last night. He was only passing through; so alas, we didn’t have much time for shenanigans. But at least we made it to the Needle!
Bye sweetie! Have a happy birthday tomorrow, and a marvelous remainder of your vacation.
Yes, I know about the Macmillan thing. Thanks for all the emailed heads ups. No, there’s nothing I can do about it. You can just chalk this up under “one more thing authors don’t control.”
John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow have beaten me to the thoughtful breakdowns, so I won’t go into that here.
Suffice it to say, there’s still a great deal of speculation — but it looks like Macmillan and Amazon are bickering over how much Macmillan is allowed to charge for its ebooks. In short: Macmillan wants to charge fifteen bucks a pop for [some new-release] ebooks, and Amazon thinks the price should stay at ten bucks so that people will keep buying the Kindle. So Amazon has quit selling all the Macmillan titles.
Tor is a Macmillan company, so yes, that means they’ve stopped selling those books of mine which are published through Tor.*
My reaction to this is pretty straightforward: I think it’s dumb and it sucks.
But at the end of the day, there are lots of other places selling books. In fact, if you go to IndieBound I bet you can find a number of fine, upstanding, book-selling establishments in your own neighborhood. Or if online ordering is your pleasure, Barnes & Noble has a great selection and pretty good prices (for example, right now Boneshaker is available at the member’s price of $11.51). And you can find a listing of all my books available through B&N right here, easy peasy. Don’t forget, you can also order signed copies (at no extra cost, and from anywhere in the country) through the University Book Store here in Seattle.
So I took a few minutes this morning and changed all the Amazon book-selling links on my website and livejournal; and later today I’ll get around to yanking them off the Clockwork Century too. Just as I’m sure Amazon’s decision to quit listing my books is not, shall we say, personal … so too my decision to link potential buyers elsewhere is only business.
I’m inclined to blame Mark Henry. He’s the only man who could inspire me to turn my petite, hard-scrabble 19th century single mom into a drag queen.
It kind of rocks, though.
I mean, from a certain angle …
It’s Bartitsu time! You know, Bartitsu — the 19th century “gentlemanly art of self-defense,” AKA Victorian stick-fighting … coming to Seattle via seminar on March 6, at the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. Behold, a link: Bartitsu In Seattle.
The seminar’s presenters are creating a documentary on this subject, called Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes. For lots of information and fun old photos (plus great period fashion, including that of 19th-century women martial artists) take a peek at this trailer.*
For the record, I have no affiliation with these people and I don’t know any of them, either. I only thought it sounded neat. And yes, this information is more-or-less cross-posted over on LiveJournal’s SteamFashion community.
This morning I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning — my last before our bullet-proof Amazon.com insurance benefits go away at the end of this month. I’d been having a little sensitivity with one particular tooth; so while I was there, I asked about it. The doc did some tests. He poked and prodded. And it soon became quite evident that I have a 20-year-old silver filling essentially rotting out. I also have a teeeeny cavity. When I say “teeny” I mean “the doc said if he knew for sure I was coming back in six months he’d say to forget about it for awhile.” That’s how teeny.
So. This means I can either go back tomorrow and spend $275 while it’s Kind Of Uncomfortable But Not Dire … or wait until the thing fails altogether and then try to scrape up $900 for the same set of fixes without insurance.
Ergo, I’m sucking it up and going back tomorrow around lunchtime, which kind of makes me want to throw darts at babies.
Before anyone pipes up with, “Why don’t you just keep your benefits with COBRA?” let me tell you something about our COBRA plan — which, I’ll have you to know, we are on right this moment: It costs us over $800 a month. And although it gives me a bit of a thrill to imagine the COBRA Commander bickering with Destro over our prescription plan and out-of-pocket deductible, we simply can’t afford to maintain this much longer. We’re downgrading to a much crappier plan because it’s all we can swing with both of us now being effectively self-employed; and no, this crappier plan does not come with dental or vision coverage.
To sum up: After tomorrow, our eyes and teeth are on their own. So I’m fixing these stupid teeth while I can still afford to, and praying that I meet no more pirates in Portland.*
Yeah, anyway. This sucks. It’s not the end of the world, obviously — I mean, being hideously underinsured isn’t as bad as being completely uninsured, as I ought to know. I spent much of my early adulthood uninsured, and I survived, didn’t I? Of course, I had pneumonia twice and ended up putting almost $8,000 on credit cards that I only finally paid off this year; and I went ten years without seeing a dentist, but you know, hey. At least my healthcare isn’t paid for by COMMUNISTS.
[:: eyeroll ::]
I’ve been asked this question several times over the last few days, so apparently I ought to make a statement on the matter: Yes, if you order the trade paperback version of Fathom (available Feb. 2) from the University Book Store here in Seattle, I will totally sign it and personalize it for you. All you have to do is follow the directions available here, same as before.
This is true of any book I have in print. It would seem that I’ve been insufficiently clear on this point; but I hope this straightens things out.
No writing on “Far-Fetched” today, because I spent all my writing time sweating over a proposal for a follow-up to Dreadnought (about 2000 words). Just now, after fretting and typing and driving myself bananas for several hours, I hit “send” to all the important folks who need to see it.
WIKTORY.
Also, a bit of exhaustion.
I’d been struggling with the set-up for this book for weeks, and sitting down to make it sound (a). interesting, (b). reasonable, and (c). write-able in four or five pages of pitching … well, that was something that really needed to happen, but it was frankly difficult. Sometimes the things in my head make perfect sense up there; but the moment I try to put this stuff on paper it all goes to hell.
But I think (hope?) I pulled it together in the end, and everything makes sense. Now that I’ve laid it all out, I honestly look forward to the prospect of writing this book.
Today I received my author copies for the trade paperback edition of Fathom. Soon (Feb. 2, if not sooner at your local bookstore) you’ll be able to own one of your very own, nipple-slip cover and everything! Nice how they kept that.
To refresh your memory with regards to this project, I shall reach back into the mists of time and retrieve a pitch summary I wrote long ago:
But between the cracks hide forgotten old things. Ignored–but far from powerless–they claim a hero of their own. The soul they salvage was destined for a watery grave, but the timing is right and the lingering elementals have better ideas.
Now the End of Days is challenged by a strange and powerful new creature, distilled from stone by a servant of the earth who refuses to surrender his green fields and muddy plains. Not yet.
Add to his arsenal a hapless insurance inspector and the irate priest of a fire god, and suddenly rural Florida doesn’t seem quite so sleepy anymore.
Anyway! Now for the usual stuff.
Here are the recent stats on the Clockwork Century story, “Far-Fetched” — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland:
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work in the morning; had a laughable conversation with Capital One; dealt with health insurance changes by phone and it worked out okay; nabbed lunch from Subway; cleaned apartment somewhat; reapplied Frontline to the cat and did some more flea-spraying (we didn’t seem to catch the whole problem the first time); did laundry.
Other: You know, I think I rather like this little story. Even so, I’m going to spend the rest of the evening working on other things. Projects/proposals are backing up over here, and the week is going to be a little packed with two rounds of out-of-towners, another interview, and a dentist appointment. I mean, besides the usual.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 15,043 words
Not a lot of writing happened this weekend, and I undid half what made it to the page — leaving me with a very small net word count. But such is life, and it’s been a good couple of days anyway.
On Friday night I went to the g0thbar with Elaine and Ellen; yesterday Aric and I did lunch and spent the afternoon with Chrissy and Jon; and today I did virtually nothing but lounge, clean house, and catch up on some of last week’s day-job work.*
In other news (WOCKA WOCKA) I’d like to thank Mary Ann Gwinn at the Seattle Times, for she has been very, very kind. She has also dubbed me the “high priestess of steampunk,” which is a little hilarious. Ah, the punny-riffic joys of having a common noun for a name :)
Anyway. Here are the recent stats on the Clockwork Century story, “Far-Fetched” — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland:
Things Accomplished in Real Life: See above.
Other: “High Priestess of Steampunk.” I could totally put that on a business card.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 14,032 words
Here are today’s stats on the Clockwork Century story, “Far-Fetched” — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland:
Project: “Far-Fetched”
Deadline: February 20, 2010
New Words Written: 649
Present Total Word Count: 1320
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Finished the beginning and set-up; let the adventuring begin.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work in the morning; went to lunch with husband; cleaned the apartment (except the floors, oh well); spent most of the afternoon filling out EPIC publicity questionnaire from Penguin re: BLOODSHOT; wrote this wee little bit on the story.
Other: Going to the g0thbar tonight with Ellen and Elaine. Ergo, I need to go figure out what to wear…
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 13,457 words
Yesterday I got some work done on Hellbent, and today I started a new short story, “Far-Fetched.” It’s for a YA anthology about which I won’t talk until I have the contracts; but to give you all the information pertinent to its metrics: I have less than a month to write it. But the project is hot and I’m very excited, and this is going to be a great little piece.
Set in the Clockwork Century, “Far-Fetched” is the story of a teenage apprentice airship engineer named Huojin — or more precisely, it’s one of his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling as he learns his way around the craft. Yes, he’s a minor character from Boneshaker and yes, a couple others from that book will be present as well. Time for a new status bar:
Project: “Far-Fetched”
Deadline: February 20, 2010
New Words Written: 671
Present Total Word Count: 671
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Finally coughed up the beginning. The beginning is always the hardest part. For me, personally. More often than not.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work in the morning; interview with a woman from the Seattle Times regarding steampunk and all steampunk-type things in the afternoon; likewise an interview with Weird Tales re: Boneshaker; spent forever tearing my hair out trying to start this story.
Other: As of today, you can buy coffee from Fremont Coffee and Tea right here online. You should try some. My husband roasts it and it’s quite good. In other link news, I’ll be swinging by Portland in March to sit in with Oregon Public Radio’s marvelous show Northwest Passages. Click that link for details.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 12,808 words
(Including 492 words on HELLBENT yesterday)
A week or so ago, an author friend gave me the heads-up regarding a brief-but-nasty review of Boneshaker (as well as this author’s own works) composed by someone who was irate over Amazon.com’s georestrictions. In short, because this man could not download our books to a Kindle (edited to add: Or otherwise acquire them, apparently) in Australia, he thought he’d take out his frustration on us.
This isn’t altogether shocking, since we-the-authors are arguably the most public face of the publishing process; and, in the reviewer’s defense, when he was asked nicely to remove the reviews, he did so. Of course, his parting shot informed me that my books were available for free in “all the usual places” so he could always just download them anyway. Eh. One step forward, two steps back, I guess.
But this brings up a couple of things that I’ve seen discussed a lot lately: (1). e-piracy and (2). authorial control, and I wanted to clear up a few of the more prevalent misconceptions on these subjects.
Actually, I don’t have much to say about piracy because Nicole Peeler has already produced a pretty good run-down on the subject. However, when I linked her post on Twitter, I received some follow up questions regarding libraries, used book stores, and friend-sharing — so I’d like to take a moment to address them.
In short, of course authors would love it if everyone could buy brand new copies of their books. But the next best thing is borrowing books from a friend or library; and no, most of the authors I know don’t have problems with used book stores, either. The reasons are primarily twofold: (1). original purchase, and (2). scale.
(2) If your friend has a copy of a book and loans it to you, that’s awesome. If you enjoy the book, maybe you’ll even go buy some other books by the author. However, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you likely won’t pass that book around to a few thousand of your closest friends. Due to the restrictions of the space-time continuum, a physical object is unlikely to find itself enjoyed by more than a handful of people. The same principle applies to used bookstores. Really, at the end of the day, a used bookstore is just a borrowing service that comes with a fee.
Things Authors Mostly Control
The words. Yes, we are subject to editorial review, revision, and rewriting. Absolutely — and sometimes, quite a lot of it. But we are responsible for the content, and we usually have some negotiating room with regards to how it is handled.
How we present ourselves to the audience. What we wear, the language we use, and the level of accessibility we offer — both online and in person — these are things within our purview.
Things Authors May Influence in Some Measure
The book’s title. Titles get changed all the time, usually with the author’s input — but sometimes without it. Occasionally a title is too similar to another book (in the same genre and/or by the same publisher in the same season), sometimes marketing hates it, sometimes … heaven knows what.
Who gets review copies of books. Though most publishers have a list of which reviewers in what venues get Advance Readers Copies (ARCs), if someone approaches an author and asks for one, the author can pass the request on to a publicist or editor. These requests are honored or ignored at the publicist/editor’s discretion, based on any number of factors. But more often than not (in my experience) they tend to be granted.
Visibility: Part One. A savvy writer can — if he or she has enough free time and/or disposable cash — attend conferences and conventions, manage websites regarding his/her books, and network with other authors, readers, booksellers, librarians, and reviewers. It is also up to the writer whether or not to accept interview requests and the like.
Visibility: Part Two. BUT. The vast bulk of the writers I know do not have the free time or disposable cash to pick up and jaunt to every convention in every city, much less send themselves on tour. Obviously authors who have reached a certain level of profitability will be invited around (expenses paid), but more often than not these things are paid for out of the author’s pocket.* And keep in mind that most of us have day jobs and/or families to juggle.
Things Over Which Authors Have Virtually No Say
The cover. When it comes to covers, the majority of authors are treated like modern royalty: We enjoy the right to be consulted, then ignored. Cover art and design is handled by the art department with the overriding input of marketing and sales. Sometimes if something is glaringly wrong or bad, authors can request changes; but there’s no guarantee anyone will listen.**
The book’s cost. Not up to us. Not even remotely. This is (partially) related to the issue of size and format. See below.
Size and format. You’d rather read a hardback? Or a mass market edition (aka, pocketbook paperback)? Sorry. We typically neither (a). control the initial release format, nor (b). decide when it’s re-released or how. This is one more thing determined by sales and marketing.
Distribution. Distribution is something so far outside your average author’s sphere of influence that it may as well be handled by hobbits on Mars. If your local bookstore doesn’t have a book you want, the situation’s remedy is in your hands: Almost any bookstore will order titles on your behalf.
Quality control. If your copy of a book is missing pages due to a printer error; if it is not printed on paper you like; if the ink is a funny color; if the font gives you a headache. I mean, obviously authors are sorry about these things — but we had nothing to do with the decisions that created the issues … nor can we do anything to fix them for you.
Digital availability. Most contracts keep digital rights for the publisher, and if an author can wrestle them away, then awesome. Most of us can’t. Therefore, we have no control over what format the digital versions may take, or how they may appear.
Schedule. The calculations publishers use to determine release dates for books are arcane and mysterious. So although sometimes a book’s release is delayed due to authorial issues (handed in late due to failure to back-up files and whoops hard drive asplodey, or whatever), generally speaking we don’t have any say over when the book comes out.
Foreign availability. Sometimes foreign publishers want to translate and produce an author’s book. Sometimes they don’t. The end.
Foreign availability in other same-language countries. In the case of my books, which are written in English, it may appear that there’s no good reason countries like Canada and England shouldn’t have these books on demand. I agree. But see above re: Distribution.
Turning the book into a movie. Sometimes Hollywood producers are interested in turning a book into a movie. Sometimes they aren’t. The end.
In Conclusion
Okay! Well, that’s just the stuff I could pull off the top of my head. If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments here or on LJ, or email me — and I’ll do my best to answer them and/or amend this post to include those answers. (See also: If any of you industry pros want to correct me or add your own two cents, feel free.)
Thanks for reading, everyone, and I hope this clears up some of the confusion.
~Cherie
Here are recent stats on my second urban fantasy adventure — this time with my neurotic undead thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 1248
Present Total Word Count: 11,645
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Pissed and moaned; packed for an adventure; compared luggage components to X-Men.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work in the mornings; brainstorming and reading for pitch information in the afternoons; two podcast interviews (one with BookBanter and one with GeeksGalaxy); finally claimed my Goodreads author account and spent some time cleaning it up (feel free to add me — I add everybody back); stuck the cute little Goodreads widget on my main webpage (scroll down); went shopping with Caitlin and yea verily, I did acquire new jeans.
Other: These stats are positively embarrassing. That’s a 3-day count, right there — and my only defense is that I removed probably 800-900 words in the process of cleaning up what had come before (and doing a little restructuring). Still, freakin’ feeble.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 11,645 words
It’s been a day of good news over here, though I have yet to get any writing done this evening - so no metrics again today. I suspect this will come as a relief to some of you; I know it’s dull, scrolling down the page and seeing that goofy little bar graphic over, and over, and over again. But people ask me all the time what it’s like, being a writer; so there you go. Yesterday you worked. Today you are working. Tomorrow you will work again. It’s a constant chipping away at a big thing, whittling it down until it’ll fit between two covers. It happens slowly.
I imagine it’s kind of like golf: Fun and fulfilling for the participant, but excessively tedious for the spectator.
Anyway. On to the good news. First up, as of this morning … Clementine is officially available for preorder! If you click that link you’ll go to the listing at Subterranean; and my only regret is that we don’t have a cover up yet. I, for one, cannot wait to get a gander at the finished cover — because I’ve been lucky enough to peek at the in-process artwork (which I can’t share here, I’m afraid) from the marvelous Myke Amend.
To clear up a few of the questions I received when I posted this news on Twitter/Facebook, please take note of the following: Clementine is a kind-of-sequel to Boneshaker produced by Subterranean Press. It’s a shorter work — a novella — and it will be available in both a trade and limited edition. Without lapsing into spoilers, I will say this much about its story: At the end of Boneshaker, the air pirate Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey loses something that is very important to him. Clementine is the story of how he goes and gets it back.
Clementine will become available at the end of May. But if you’re interested in picking up a limited edition (signed, with the “Tanglefoot” chapbook) you may want to order sooner rather than later. Subterranean is only printing 200 of them.
Likewise, there will also be a Boneshaker follow-up from Tor later this year. This will be a full-length novel called Dreadnought, to be released in trade paperback sometime in the fall. Again, without resorting to spoilers: The Underground welcome wagon, Jeremiah Swakhammer, has a daughter living back east, working as a nurse in a Civil War hospital; Dreadnought is the story of her westward trek to join him — across battlegrounds and rivers, carried by a Union war engine called the Dreadnought. Along the way there are spies, battle mechs, a steampunk Texas Ranger, and (of course) some rotters.
For more information, visit The Clockwork Century and poke around. There, you’ll find lots of (nonspoilery) information on this universe and the projects that are slated to appear therein. If, after poking around, you still have questions — feel free to leave them here in the comments or email me.
But the Clementine preorder availability wasn’t the only good news! According to Locus magazine, Boneshaker is this month’s best-selling science fiction/fantasy trade paperback. Holy crap, I say! Though I admit, I don’t know what else to say to this news, except thank you — to everyone who’s taken a chance on this weird little book. Thanks so much for the word-of-mouth, the blog posts, the Amazon and B&N reviews, and everything else. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I made that deadline, I’ll have you to know. Nearly drove myself bananas doing it, and ultimately rewrote 14,000 words of a 35,000-word project, in addition to the other changes. Now, of course, the weight is lifted and I’ve been going nuts catching up on all the little things that I let slide while my days were otherwise occupied.
Since Friday I’ve done laundry, cleaned house, seen a movie, gone grocery shopping, written some important correspondence, arranged several more appearances, two more radio/podcast interviews, answered a whole lot of email that had been sitting around in ye old in-box, and gone to lunch with a couple of friends (followed by some much-needed retail therapy). In short, I’m still playing catch-up, a bit.
I’m still writing on Hellbent too, though I doubled back and reorganized/removed some words, leaving me with a net total of only a few hundred — not enough to document, in my opinion. I’ll wait until I have at least a thousand to report. Less that that feels like the waste of a good graphic.
Tonight I’ll sit around with it and noodle. But not right now. Right now, my secret weakness is coming on TV (America’s Funniest Videos yes I know shaddup shaddup shaddup) and I’m going to grab a glass of wine and indulge … with a notepad beside me, in case I figure out exactly how to pitch my next Clockwork Century project. Hey, sometimes I find puppy videos and clips of pinata-whackers gone awry to be inspiring.
Here are tonight’s stats on my second urban fantasy adventure — this time with my neurotic undead thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 937
Present Total Word Count: 10,397
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Gave some background on the kids, as well as the rest of the household regulars.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work this morning; got my hair done over lunch; drove out to the U-district to sign stuff for Duane at the University Book Store; had a moment of furious panic when the car’s engine began blowing smoke; came back down to earth when this proved to be an easy (free) fix; came home and worked on my Fort Freak rewrites.
Other: I confess, I don’t really want to be working on this project right now. I’d rather wait until I have feedback from the editor on Bloodshot (since this is its sequel); but Hellbent is the only thing to which I am contracted at the moment, so we work on the work, is what we do. It’s fun — definitely lighter than my usual fare (excepting Bloodshot, of course) — and I’m treating it like a “break” from the hardboiled near-noir of Fort Freak. Which is due tomorrow. That due date is both horrifying and a great relief … horrifying because I still have work to do on it, but a relief because hey, after tomorrow I’m finished (for awhile).
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 10,397 words
(Just so you don’t think I’ve been skipping out on my resolution or anything…) Here are recent stats on my second urban fantasy adventure — this time with my neurotic undead thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 1897
Present Total Word Count: 9460
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Raylene brought home a drag queen of her very own to play dress-up with.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Over the last few days? Mostly I’ve just done day-job work (in the mornings) and worked on my Fort Freak segments in the afternoons. No, literally. That’s almost all I’ve done. (Though Sunday afternoon I went over to Ellen’s, where we were joined by Caitlin and Suezie and we totally had a girls’ night with Bruce Campbell which was EXACTLY as cool as it sounds.) Still averaging about 500 words a day which isn’t much, but will add up to much if I can keep it steady.
Other: I’m four segments down in Fort Freak, with thirteen more to go before Friday. I’ve completed one major first pass, answering all the editor’s notes; and I’ve now gone back and answered all my own notes, and added all the content I think I was supposed to add. Now I’m on the final pass to make sure it hangs together, but it is a VERY THOROUGH final pass. Thus my horror at the fact it needs to go by Friday afternoon.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 9460 words
I have been assured (to the point of being badgered) that I ought to do this, so here goes: I realize that the Hugo and Nebula awards are in their recommendation phases right now, so here’s what I had published in 2009 that might be eligible.
Because someone asked yesterday — the truth is, I’ve written about eleven thousand words in the last week, but it was all rewriting on my Fort Freak contribution. Long story short, about a third of it needed/needs to be essentially scrapped and redone. However, since this falls under my personal heading of “Stuff I’m Retreading” rather than “New Material,” I’m not counting it. It feels like cheating.
So. Last night I didn’t get much new fiction done at all — only a few hundred words, not even enough to count — but tonight I sat down for an hour and coughed up another thousand. Good enough to note, I say.
Ergo, here are today’s stats (combined with yesterday’s) on my second urban fantasy adventure — this time with my neurotic undead thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 1297
Present Total Word Count: 7563
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Took the gig; went to the gaybar.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Took a stack of books down to Half Price Books and sold them; only bought a small handful to replace them; fixed one section of my Fort Freak contribution and wrote a new one from scratch.
Other: I picked up my second-ever book by Sarah Vowell (Assassination Vacation). I really like her style; she’s a history nerd like me, and she isn’t afraid to get a little silly with the things which were, quite frankly, silly. I have a lot of respect and fondness for someone who gets her facts straight, gives them context, and makes them laughable when they’re funny — and poignant when they aren’t. I also nabbed an illustrated collection of letters home from a sailor on the U.S.S. Monitor — and if you know what I’m working on next you can guess why this might be useful.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 7563 words
Here are today’s stats on my second urban fantasy adventure — this time with my neurotic undead thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 845
Present Total Word Count: 6266
Things Accomplished in Fiction: More lower-bodily fixated humor which is not terribly mature; the gig is presented and Raylene waffles over taking it; it looks too easy, and she isn’t stupid.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Started new day-job project; had lunch at Mexican place with the husband (who hung around the house doing his own freelance stuff today for awhile); worked on my FORT FREAK segments until my eyes bled; chatted extensively with Justine, who is awesome.
Other: No, it isn’t very many words. I’m not shooting for volume; I’m just trying to keep my toes dangling in the creative writing pond while I’m up to my ass in editorial on these other projects. And the fact is, I wrote another three thousand words on my FORT FREAK segments, putting me well over the line for what I’m allowed — and I’m only halfway through, but oh well. I can fix it later.
Total Official Word Count of 2010: 6266 words
I’m still working like crazy, but still clinging to that New Year’s Resolution and writing every day. Sometimes it’s only a few hundred words, but I’m hanging in there. It’ll be a lot easier (and I’ll be a lot more prolific) when I’m out from under these Fort Freak edits. They are EPIC. And a little frightening. But they’re going to make for a huge improvement.
So! I think now’s the time to go ahead and debut the first word-metrics of the year, with regards to Hellbent — since that’s the only fiction project for which I’m composing new words at this time.* Ergo, voila. Here are this year’s stats on my second vampire adventure — this time with my neurotic thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:
Project: Hellbent
Deadline: August 9, 2010
New Words Written: 5421
Present Total Word Count: 5421
Darling duJour: “The busker leaned into the lyrics of ‘Yellow’ like each word was a hook to be extracted from his eyelids.”
Things Accomplished in Fiction: Introduction; some recap from previous book; introduction of the weaselly but hilarious little agent; a rather alarming number of dick jokes.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Wrapped up a day-job project and received another one to replace it; did my usual run/exercise — at which I am seriously no good whatsoever, but I’m working on it; spent all afternoon plowing through “Remember the Rathole” on which I wrote one full new section and seriously amended two others; regretfully declined my fifth invitation to blurb a book this year - which is mostly notable because I don’t think I even got five requests last year (and usually I try to say “yes,” but I’m totally swamped right now); that’s pretty much it.
And because every time I start posting these stats again, a dozen people pipe up wanting to know where I got my word-stat bar — here you go. Get one of your very own, and tally away.
In other news, I suppose I shall leave you with a links round-up before taking a few minutes to just sit on the couch and drink cheap red wine for an hour or two because I BELIEVE I DESERVE IT. Ahem.
Four days into the New Year, and so far, so good. I’m smack in the middle of a killer editorial deadline for Fort Freak, so I’m eyeballs-deep in THAT*; but I’ve stuck to my resolution to write some fiction every day, even if it’s only a few hundred words. At the moment, I’m writing on Hellbent, sequel to Bloodshot. It’s not due for awhile, but it’s nice to have a jump on it — and besides, I’m not quite ready to dedicate myself to a wholly new project yet (even in pitch or proposal form).**
Anyway! I now present unto you some bulleted points, because it’s easier than thinking of things like transitions. And I’m very tired, even though it’s only suppertime. I beg your indulgence on this matter.
Spain the Cat went to the vet today, not out of any terror for her life or anything, but because she’d been acting very uncomfortable and scratchy ever since I got back from Kentucky. I caught her chewing at a couple of skin-tag-thingies (which we already knew about), and they seemed to have grown; so off to ye old doc’s office she went as a precautionary measure.
I tweeted about this, and people had questions, so here’s the rundown. For starters, she has fleas. And for finishers, her skin-tag-thingies have become a tiny bit suspicious, so we opted to get them aspirated for testing. They’re probably fine, but better safe than sorry — and better to find out in case of problems while those problems are still small, that’s what I say. (We’ll have Spainy’s skin test results either tonight or Wednesday.)
Three hundred bucks later (*ouch*) we’re home with some Frontline and some hardcore mega-killah flea spray. She was given a special flea-killin’ pill before we left the office, but it only works for about 24 hours so I have to log off and start washing every damn bit of fabric in the entire apartment. And then I’ll be spraying the ever-living hell out of everything that won’t fit in the washer/dryer. This place is going to smell like ass, but by sundown I fully expect it to be 100% flea-free. Goddammit.
Edit: The vet called with Spainy’s results — they were inconclusive, but mostly good. She’s about 95% sure that everything is normal, but a little blood contamination and a near-iffy set of cells keeps her from giving the total all-clear. The plan is to keep an eye on the suspicious nodule and address it again at the kitty’s annual checkup in a few months, perhaps for biopsy (though sooner of course if it starts to go weird on us). Anyway, there you go.
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