During my morning circuit of the post office, the eyeglasses shop (to get mine tightened up), the drug store, and the pet store … I ran into Psynde — which was delightful, as always. We hung around and chatted for awhile, and then I came home to clean the apartment from top to bottom except for the floors — which I simply couldn’t be bothered with. Even Howard got a thorough tank cleaning to go with his spanky new plants.

Right now, the handy-dandy thermometer mounted above my desk says it’s 77 degrees. All the windows are open, and the cat is whoring herself out to a sunbeam. All things considered, life could be worse.

I’ve posted pictures after the following word count statistics. Click the jump to see Spain the Cat belly-up and toasty, and Howard the Fish checking out his new, freshly scrubbed digs.

But first, 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: 2418 (in a very brief period of time this afternoon, so this is good)
Present Total Word Count: 129,987 words
Goal: 135,000 words by July 1st.





Observations: I know, I know. I keep saying, “Maybe it’ll be just a little bit longer than projected — and yes, I’m about to say that again. But this time, I mean it. I only have a scene and a half left to write, and I honestly think I can make it happen in less than 5000 words. I love this story so much that it almost pains me to finish composing its content. I won’t say it pains me to “finish it” because that’s not what I mean; once it’s a Draft Zero, it’s all trimming, polishing, and fine-tuning from there. It doesn’t remotely mean that anything is “finished.” But Draft Zero does mean that the story has been fully told.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Everything you see above in the first couple of paragraphs, plus I sat down with Zeke’s parallel storyline and shuffled it into Briar’s narrative. I think I split it up/arranged it/organized it fairly well. Of course, I might re-read this bad boy from start to finish and conclude that I’m crazy.

Reason for Stopping: Husband came home from work. Reached a good stopping place. It’s Friday afternoon and dammit, I deserve a little break.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 198,553
And now, click the link for pictures of Cat and Feesh.

Today the weather is beautiful, and it’s going to continue to be beautiful for another 3 or 4 days before the sky once again descends into its perennial suck. I have all the windows open, and the front door as well (save the screen). The cat is asleep beside me, lounging on the back of the couch and catching the first sunbeam she’s seen in weeks. It’s nice. When I finish this post, I think I’m going to make myself a snack. That will be nice, too.

But anyway, 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: 4293 (most of that today, so it’s pretty good)
Present Total Word Count: 127,560 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.





Observations: It’s going to be wicked trouble blending these two POVs, but I think it’ll be worth it. I finished Zeke’s perspective this afternoon — reaching the point at which his narrative and his mother’s narrative will reunite into one story. The end really is in sight. I just need to kill off one more guy and make an awkward getaway that may or may not be wholly successful. Then there’s just the wind-down, and the fat lady sings. Man. I can’t believe it. I love this project so much; I’m so proud of it — it’s the most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried to write, and I think it works.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Not much, honestly. Batted some email correspondence back and forth; received, signed, and sent back a contract for my employment at the Evil Empire (as I jokingly call it). This was a good thing. There’d been some paperwork tangles, and several invoices have logjammed to the point where I’m expecting several thousand dollars spread across several invoices, sometime in the next week or two. Ah, the life of a freelancer.

Reason for Stopping: Got to a good stopping spot. Getting munchy. Want to pry myself away from Twitter and go run around outside while it’s pretty enough for me to do so.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 196,135

I’m really enjoying these quiz nights, but this most recent installment of trivia and strife may have cost me a little faith in the process … even though I understand that the M.C. had no way of knowing that — lurking within the seething throngs of cheerfully drunk trivia aficionados — she had a small table that was populated with grammar pseudo dominatrices.

I say “pseudo” because it’s like this: having a well-versed and thorough understanding of correct grammar does not mean that any given one of us is (necessarily) likely to use it. We aren’t the sort of folks who go around with red pens, correcting the spelling inside bathroom stalls; and we aren’t even the kind of people who can remember, off the top of our heads, the rest of that whole “i” before “e” except after “c” rule.

Nay. We are the kind of dorks who find it damn near hilarious to talk out loud in LOLCAT. So let it not be said that we are Accuracy Nazis when it comes to English language usage.

HOWEVER. As we learned last night, if you sufficiently liquor up a woman with a master’s degree in that subject who furthermore writes for a living, and then you try to dock her team points over a correctly deduced apostrophe misfire, then by God you’d better be prepared to run faster and climb higher than a drunkenly irate author with a belly full of hard cider and jalepeno poppers.

It was not my finest hour.
But. For the record.

Correct: The trivia question and its potential answers were unclear at best.
Incorrect: Cherie chewed on the M.C.’s microphone and it’s stand.

Correct: This is about honor. It’s not about inebriated indignation.
Incorrect: Well, I got this question off an English website so its right.

Correct: Use that excuse all you want, but it’s not going to cut it at the MLA.
Incorrect: But its just a trivia question. Its no big deal!

Correct: Of course it’s a big deal! There are free tee-shirts at stake!
Incorrect: Fine. I guess its a bad question and we’ll throw it out.

Cherie: Wiktory!
M.C.: (mutters) Jesus H. Christ in a chicken bucket …

Project: The Boneshaker
New Words: 3510 (pretty good!)
Present Total Word Count: 123,267 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.





Observations: Steampunk is fun to write. It is also complicated, and reaching the end of this book has started to feel like a sisyphean undertaking. But if nothing happens to eat my life during the rest of this week, I might be able to cough up a Draft Zero by Friday afternoon. Then again, I might be an overly optimistic liar. Stay tuned.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Two loads of laundry, including bedding; sent off book review; corresponded extensively with distant friends and colleagues; learned my way around my twitter account a little better; determined that I might be far too boring to maintain this twitter account; decided that maybe I’d just use it as a link dump or something, but I don’t want to ditch it yet; spent a downright silly amount of time chatting in gmail with my college roommate and a fashion-fixated Australian woman.

Reason for Stopping: Came to the end of my chapter. Also, it’s Tuesday night — and that means that The Helvetica Quartet shall ride again … or at least, we shall drink and giggle and participate in a pub quiz over in West Seattle. Ergo, I ought to brush my hair or throw on some respectable clothes or something. Also [:: glances out the window ::] I need to drag out my rain boots. The weather is sucking ass.*

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 191,842

(2). Because I am a procrastinating dork, I spent a frankly ridiculous amount of time today noodling with my livejournal’s settings and appearance. Now, I think, its color scheme and general mood is more in tune with my formal webpage. Erm. Sorta.

(3). I have succumbed to peer pressure and started a Twitter account. I’m not sure how useful I’ll find it, or how often I’ll use it, but here it is, if you’re interested. Feel free to add me. I’m sure it’ll become less of a mystery to me over the next few days.

(4). 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: 1879 (meh)
Present Total Word Count: 119,757 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.

119,757 / 130,000 (92.1%)

Observations: I’m almost to the point where Zeke and Briar’s narratives will knit back together again. This is trickier to navigate than I expected, but I think it’ll work out all right. I’ve started making lists of the things that need to occur in this chaotic pre-reunion scene — who lives, who dies, who gets eaten by zombies … etc.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: I spent the weekend preoccupied with freelance work and Emerald City Comic Con [see previous post], but today I got Draft Zero accomplished on all outgoing independent projects.

Reason for Stopping: I’d like to see Draft One accomplished on two of the three projects by this evening. Also, I’m trying to upload a video of Spain the Cat licking cheese off the couch, because it is gently hilarious. In the event that YouTube ever agrees to host the damn thing, I’ll post it here this evening.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 188,332

Yes, I’m blogging instead. I know.

So yesterday was damn-near perfect. I arrived at the convention floor fairly early, and immediately commenced Internet Bingo … which involved a series of text messages back and forth between the pre-approved Yeah Let’s Totally Meet Up or Something crew and standing in a few lines. In this manner, I was able to visit briefly with Ed, a man with a most excellent hat, and Joanne, who had promised to grievously abuse my phone number.

I roamed around with Joanne and her boyfriend Mark for awhile, including a jaunt through a line to see Jamie Barber; but it cost $25 to have him sign his name on anything, so I bowed out of that queue. Unless he was signing his name on a check made out to me for $25, I couldn’t see the point.*

Likewise, Julie Bentz was in attendance, and I felt like a total dumbass when I realized that she was both Rita on Dexter and Darla on Buffy/Angel. How I never made that connection (since I’m a fan of both franchises) I have no earthly idea. I saw her when she was pretty much alone, and I kind of wanted to approach her and do a little “OH HAI! You’re really great!” … but I got the impression that maybe she wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t want to bother her.

And, of course, I waited my turn to chat up Wil. He and I have a few friends in common, and we’d exchanged a brief comment or two here and there online, so I figured it wouldn’t be the weirdest of all possible things if I just waited through the crowds and said something awkward like, “Erm, I believe we’ve met on the internets.” And then I assumed he’d make a politely confused face and say, “Oh yes. Miss …um … well, it’s quite nice to meet you. Gosh, look at that line. Well, moving right along … ”

But instead, I got a marvelous warm welcome that revealed he knew who I was(?!) he’d read my books(!?!) and Jesus H. Christ in a little red hat, he’s been known to read this blog(!?!?!). Only sheer astonishment prevented me from doing a little bootydance right there in front of God and everybody. And as if these revelations weren’t enough to make my afternoon, he was warm and friendly and funny, too.

I hope he doesn’t read this and conclude that he’s narrowly escaped from a fangirlish freak-out or anything. It’s not like that; I was just so thoroughly charmed to learn that he was every bit as pleasant as I’d been promised. It really did make my day.**

Following this delightful development, I left the premises in search of lunch. I moseyed over to Pacific Place (because it was close and I am lazy), and there I visited with Psynde — who was rocking out in the Barnes & Noble. She made me sign books on my day off, that tricky little tyrant! But she was so much fun to chat with that I’m prepared to forgive her, just this once. And maybe next time. We shall see.***

Later, my husband appeared and together the pair of us wandered the convention floor in search of schwag and toys. This incarnation of ECCC was much bigger than the year before last — which was the last time I attended — and I was pleased with the offerings. But eventually we called the convention “Done” and went back home, where we ate chips and salsa, goofed off on the internet, watched TV, and awaited further instruction from the out-of-towners.

Further instruction came around 6:30 when Wil called about drinks and supper. Down at the Tap House we met up with him, and Joanna and Mark again, plus Bill and Henrietta. The Tap House was crowded and loud, but posh in an odd way that included Wheel of Fortune being played on very expensive TVs over a glorious glass-and-brass bar … which is to say, it was peculiarly swank. I dug it. The beer selection featured an assortment of tasty flavored ciders (SCORE), and the food was good and reasonably quick.

It would be no exaggeration to say that copious geekery did fill the next few hours.

In case I haven’t said so lately, sometimes I feel like I really am the luckiest girl in the world. I love these events, and I feel deeply privileged to be even the most minor, peripheral part of this convention community. The weekends may wear me out, but they make me so ridiculously damn happy that Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll be attending ’till I’m old and gray.

It took me long enough, but I finally found my tribe; and all omens to the contrary, it turns out that we’re all right after all.