1500 or so words on "The Tricks of London" today and tonight, with a couple of intermittent breaks to do things like cook some meatloaf. It feels like a long time since I've had a respectable wordcount, and okay, you know, we muddle through even when the juice isn't flowing; that's part of what the job is about. Sure, the world is full of writers for whom six pages is a couple hours' work. But I am not usually one of them.

Still, it's nice to get some formal work done. Nothing else really feels like work the way getting words on paper does. Even though rather a lot of it is work.

So now I have about 2/7 of this story, give or take, and I guess that means I really have to figure out what it's got going for it, other than a starstruck Detective Sergeant and a transparent Jack the Ripper riff. Which means back-burnering it to cook a little. But it's started, and started is better than not started, and I admit I really like DS Cuan a lot. But that's, well, not a plot. Silly plots.

It was also weird not climbing tonight. We'll see how the Week Off goes. I should try to drag myself out of bed early enough to get a run in tomorrow, which means I should be in bed now.

Yeah, I can see that's working out well.

Okay, allez-oop. Come on, little stories. Gestate in my brain, dears. You need to hurry and get big so I can write you and make you real.

And until that happens, back to the regime of packing my brain with interesting source material. Even if I am feeling rather some guilt at how few words I've gotten on paper this calender year, the fact of the matter is that creative work requires fallow periods and recovery time, if one is going to amount to anything in the long run.

Or at least, the climactic space battle. 779 words on Seven for a Secret since 7 am this morning. Nothing like a three-page discourse on the architecture of medieval cathedrals to build word count.

I will try to hit a thousand, and then break for a shower and some breakfast and some tea or maybe coffee that was not left over in the vacuum carafe from last night.

And then it is back to the coal mine. The book dies today.

Watch this space for further updates.

Russell Letson liked Dust. Go team Russell!

Now I must shower and dress and feed this cat (who brought me a glitterball last night; I guess all is forgiven?) and start working on Seven for a Secret  until the farmer's market opens at (the civilized hour of) 9, because I need to buy lettuce. Lettuce should be in, don't you think? I want good BLTs for dinner tonight, you see, and I made bread yesterday.

And then, I come home and deathmarch again. I got about 1200 words yesterday and about 1000 the day before, which is pretty good both days considering how much erranding and catwaxing and necessary maintenance (Oh, my god, this kitchen is gross!) were a part of both days.

Today and tomorrow are all about the deathmarch. I am within striking distance of the end, and I want to finish this thing.

And I know perfectly well that I'm not going to get a lick of work done after 8 pm tonight, when the final part of Refining Fire goes live, because I will be having way too much fun watching the reactions. Yes, for those of you who have gamed with me, I am wearing my evil GM grin right now.

God, I love my job.

---

I'm the darkness in your daughter
I'm the spot beneath the skin
I'm the scarlet on the pavement
I am the broken heart within

I won't take a train to nowhere
I will not touch just anyone
Ask a stranger why I'm waiting
In the chamber of a gun

John Gorka - Raven in the Storm

1704 words on Seven for a Secret tonight. We have found the plot, and it is progressing. I'm still not sure exactly how it plays out, but Sebastien is the Scarlet Pimpernel.

17,000 / 30,000 (56.7%)

If there weren't this damned convention mucking up my week, I could have this done by next Monday.

*falls over in front of the television*

1750 words on Seven for a Secret tonight, to a total of 11,811 (or, if you prefer, 13,750 standard manuscript format.)

13,750 / 30,000 (45.8%)

You know, I might actually finish this thing on time.

1525 words on Seven for a Secret today, which gets me just over 10K Word count, or 11750 SMF. Pretty good for a day when I woke up with no idea what the next scene would be. I was going to stop after 1300, but realized that I could break 10K with just a little more work, so I pushed on into the next scene and wound up finishing it. (Short scene, yes.)

Same-sex couples make pronouns complicated. This may be the secret reason behind much heteronormativity.

[11:42] matociquala: I like this sentence:
[11:42] matociquala: "Sebastien. Tell me you didn't know any Vikings in the ninth century."
[11:42] matociquala: Abby Irene FTW.
[11:42] jmeadows: hee
[11:42] cristalia: hee
[11:42] matociquala: She's 88 years old and not taking his vampire nonsense any more.
[11:42] matociquala: By god.

All right. 2026 words on Seven for a Secret yesterday, and 2254 today. If I can keep producing like this, I will have a manuscript sooner rather than later, as it stands at 10,250 words manuscript count, which is a little more than a third of the contracted length.

And I think I figured out the Master Plan today, which makes me happy.

Her love is like a candle. You light it up at night.
Her heart is like a pack of cards. One chance at guessing right.

Progress notes for 9 April 2008

Seven for a Secret:

New words: 2003
Microsoft wordcount: 2155
Manuscript wordcount: 2750
Deadline: July 1
Mammalian assistance: The cat is cold. The cat does not want to be covered. She just wants to bitch at me about being cold. 
Reason for stopping: Quota, and I have some reading I need to do.




Darling du jour:

He didn't believe his own lies anymore. He hadn't for decades. His artifices had grown shallow, without structure or craft.

He could no longer inhabit them. Not the way these girls, a medium-blonde and a paler blonde, inhabited their uniforms and the tissue of lies that constructed them.

Tyop du jour: They interred no stores.

Thank you, brain, but that's not the right word that sounds sort of like that.

Jury-rigging: Everything seems to be firing smoothly so far. I suspect I need an antagonist.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Somebody is dissociating.

Today's words Word don't know:  wampyr, flyte
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: n/a
Sustenance: coffee, chamomile tea, leftovers, bagel chips, pistachios, cereal. I am about to order a pizza.
Mean Things: invalidism, Nazis.
Other writing-related work: about to go start critiquing a novel. did a whole bunch of research.

Exercise: none. I am in pain. (Okay, there was archery yesterday. I guess that counts.)
Miles to Lothlorien: 174.9
Guitar practice: no, because I suck.
Mail: nomail
The Internet is Full of Things: via rachelmanija, Green Porno. (Not worksafe, if you didn't get that from the title. But oh, so cool. I want to have Isabella Rossellini's babies.)

Well, there you go.

The trade paperback edition of New Amsterdam is available now.

Friday night, I signed contracts with Subterranean to do a second book about Sebastien and Abby Irene.

It will be a long novella (~30,000 words) and as with New Amsterdam, there will be a standard edition and then a limited edition with attached chapbook. I hve no idea what the planned publication date is yet, but I would guess early 2009.

Title when I know what it is, because I don't, yet. I hear a rumor we might get the amazing Patrick Arrasmith for the cover again.

Merry Solstice!

And now, back to Bone & Jewel Creatures. Slog, slog.

There have been requests for a discussion/question thread on New Amsterdam.

So here it is.

Ask anything! HERE BE SPOILERS! BE WARNED, DAVID PEGG!

And in the first comment, below, I'm going to answer a question regarding my choices about the ending of the book.

Item the first: I am home and alive and so forth.

Item the second: WisCon was just as I expect it to be, which means it is still the best con.

Item the third: Bill from SubPress just pinged me to say that he expects the hardcover of New Amsterdam to sell out within the next 2-3 weeks.

Item the fourth: I have A Companion to Wolves ARCS, and lots of them. I am considering running a reader contest.... also, whoever it was that I talked to at WisCon, please remind me?

Item the fifth: I also have the editorial letter and returned marked up manuscript for Dust. Guess that's what I'm doing at Sycamore Hill.

Item the sixth: I also have a short story to write before said writing workshop. For which I leave on the 5th. Oops.

Item the seventh: And a copy of Doris Lessing's new book to review.

Item the eighth: Book Report #43: Jessica Snyder Sachs, Corpse:

Much, much better than Mary Roach's Stiff. This book focuses on the centuries-long struggle to find ways to pinpoint time of death, in broad overview.

Item the ninth: tomorrow I need to go to UPS and buy cat food. Even though the Presumptuous Cat hates me a lot.

Item the tenth: After WisCon, I may never eat again.

Item the eleventh: If my Criminal Minds pimping has interested you at all, the Emmy-submitted second-season episodes may be viewed here.

Item the twelfth: If you want me know anything for the remainder of the summer, better come tell me, for I won't find it out on my own.

Item the thirteenth: truepenny and I drew a rough map of the Iskryne (the world in A Companion to Wolves) and sooner or later I need to convert it to a pretty one....

Item the fourteenth: It's kind of hot and sticky here. Do not want.

Item the fifteenth: I destroyed two pairs of jeans at WisCon, which is some kind of personal best....

It looks as if an ebook version of New Amsterdam will be available from Baen/Subterranean in the relatively near future.

Also, Bill mentioned at Penguicon (while I was signing and signing and signing the really pretty front pages for the special edition) that the dead tree book should be back from the printer in the next fortnight.

Also, New Amsterdam is, eventually, going to be one of the first books from Subpress's as-yet-unnamed new trade imprint, but that won't be until 2008 or something.

Further information as it becomes available. ;-)

Okay. Having a peak moment.

So, yanno, I'm a huge embarrassing Grimjack fangirl. Yes, I am. Somewhere in a storage unit in Nevada, actually, I believe I have a complete run of the book, unless the gnomes have gotten it. And I was always awfully fond of Jonah Hex, too. (There's a Jonah Hex joke in one of the Jenny stories somewhere, unless I wound up cutting that scene. But it did get written at one point.)

Anyway.

I have Tim Truman cover art.

Yes. Me.

You can touch me, but it will cost you a quarter.

Issue #5 of Subterranean, You can order it here. Complete cast list:

"Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card
"Doc Savage and the Cult of the Blue God" by Philip Jose Farmer
"Being Intimately Aware of the Past: An Interview With Alan Moore" by Dorman T. Shindler
"The Plot" by Stephen Gallagher
"Getting Dark" by Neal Barrett, Jr.
"Lucifugous" by Elizabeth Bear
"Some Thoughts Re: DARK DESTRUCTOR" by Tad Williams
"Wendy" by Jim Grimsley
"On Books" by Dorman T. Shindler

---

yendi says nice things about Blood & Iron here.


*

There are a bunch of new people around, and truepenny just reminded me of the existence of such a thing, so I thought I'd mention that the_red_shoes moderates an unofficial Elizabeth Bear discussion forum on livejournal over at worldwire.

I do drop by occasionally, but if anybody wants to, you know, talk about stuff without feeling like I'm breathing down their neck, that would be a great place to do it.

---

In other news, I'm pleased to be able to announce that one of the sekrit projects has come to fruition...or at least set blossom, and I have permission to talk about it now.

Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press will be editing a collection of my New Amsterdam shorts. There will be a trade hadcover, and a slipcased signed limited edition, which will come with a bonus chapbook story.

The ToC will be as follows (in order by story chronology rather than publication date):

"Lucifugous," originally appearing in the (forthcoming) Subterranean 5, a novella (I'm promised Tim Truman illustrations for this--it involves Sebastien, and a murder mystery aboard a dirigible. I can barely wait to see what it looks like.)
"Wax," originally appearing in Interzone 201, a novelette
"Wane," originally appearing in Interzone 203, a novelette
"Limerent" (which is probably going to be the final title of the story I've been calling "Paddareen"), currently unpublished (and only partially written), a novelette
"Chatoyant," currently unpublished (and unwritten), a novelette
"Lumière," (which is probably going to be the final title of the story I've been calling "Les Innocents")currently unpublished (and unwritten), a novella

The chapbook story will be a previously unpublished short called "Almost True," which features Abby Irene's first appearance.

I'm supposed to deliver those last three stories by the end of the year. No rest for the wicked! The whole thing actually bears a striking resemblance to a fix-up novel, as there is a complete unifying external arc.

Working title for the collection is New Amsterdam, unless/until we come up with something better.

This, conveniently, gives me another excuse to pimp Subterranean 4, which contains not only my short story, "The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe," but fiction and opinion by new and established, nay, award-winning (dare I even say New York Times best-selling?) authors and editors such as:

Rachel Swirsky
Charles Coleman Finlay and James Allison
John Joseph Adams
Stuart MacBride
Scott Westerfeld
Gillian Polack
Ann Leckie
Jo Walton
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Allen M. Steele
Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick
Bruce Arthurs
Dean Cochrane
Ron Hogan
Nick Sagan
Chris Roberson
David Klecha
John Scalzi


***

Courtesy of Google Alerts, a review roundup. Private citizens have opinions, too. (this post mostly for the purpose of saving it to my memories as a roundup, but I left it public in case anybody wants to go spoiler herself.)

I have a fan at MIT: Jake Beal reviews Hammered and Scardown, very charitably. He's probably right about the datelines. I had my reasons for doing it that way, but I suspect in hindsight I could have done better. And the book design does make them kind of hard to read.

Susan Stepney of the University of York liked them, too.

On Sunpig.com, a not-half-bad and a better-than-not-half-bad.

The Deipnosophist loved Worldwired to death. Full disclosure; David's an acquaintance of mine. As the picture of me on the entry would tend to indicate.

ellarian has two sentences on Worldwired here. Spoiler.

"Reader" reviews Worldwired here, and likes it. Spoilers. You know the drill.

M. Dionne liked Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger better than the first two Jenny books. And I can't say I blame anybody for liking Elizabeth Moon, frankly.

Also, Jvstin reviews Worldwired. So does tryslora, and Scardown too. (More disclaimers, these are meatspace friends of mine of loooong standing.)

eukarya (who we see around here every once in a while) liked Scardown much better than Hammered. Go me.

"Prettier Than Napoleon" (thus provoking the icon) liked Hammered pretty well.

Whatta Fiasco liked Worldwired with reservations, but liked Scardown better (though found it maybe a bit on the shallow side), and liked Hammered. For bonus points, s/he liked Melusine, too.

Elizabeth wasn't too unhappy with Hammered. And Lisa at "Entertaining the Alien" liked it.

rsadelle is disappointed by book three.

AND! stillsostrange sent fanart! Look, it's Abby Irene!

And I think that's the roundup. If I missed you, let me know. *g*

The artist, Ian Simmons, has posted the art for "Wax" and "Wane" (appearing in Interzone) online.

Caveat: my inner Abby Irene looks a lot more like the fifty-something Helen Mirren. Warning: images contain spoilers. Descriptive copy is overly flattering to Bears.

Page 55 of Carnival revisions, final pass (the Hard Stuff revision). I've passed through "thrashing" and into "resignation." This is the part where one has to rely on craft to carry one through, because passion and inspiration, not so much.

Hours of fun. For the whole family.

Also, it looks like "Wax" will be in the next Interzone, which is #201.