I won't be around tonight, because I have An Engagement. However, there will be new Shadow Unit! A short novella by, um, me, entitled "Wind-Up Boogeyman."

It will also come with easter eggs and extras, of course.

Season 2 is more than halfway over!

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What is Shadow Unit? I say it's a collaborative interactive reader-supported serial hyperfiction.

Emma, who is better at clarity than I am, says:

Hey! There's new Shadow Unit!

On the way back from the Farmer's Market, spotted Chaz Villette in a crosswalk at 47th and Brooklyn wearing a green T-shirt that says "STAFF". 0.0

...And my first thought is, "I know where he's supposed to be right now, and it ain't Seattle."

New Shadow Unit. 

Including the promo for "Wind-Up Boogeyman."

Look! Shadow Unit! A double-sized extra to go with the double-length episode!

Today I took Ace The Wonder Dog up to Spencer, Massachusetts, for a herding instinct trial. Wherein he got to play with sheep.

The GRD totally lived up to his name. He learned the boundary, he followed voice commands, and he came home with extremely high praise from the instructor (who specifically mentioned his lack of ego and the way he carefully watched and figured stuff out) and with a great deal of petting and loff from everybody he met.

batwrangler and other friends were there, which means before too long there will be photos galore, including some of Ace with Booker, a gray-born gray (or "blue"--Ace is a black-born gray, a black dog who is going silver) which clearly show how dramatic the blue dog's coloring is.

I am so lucky to have this dog. Seriously. He is a prince among canines.

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Later tonight, of course, there will be new Shadow Unit. Specifically, "Getaway," written by our own Emma Bull.

New Shadow Unit. Fancy that!

And next Sunday, a full episode.

There's a very flattering blog entry on SFX regarding Shadow Unit.

And of course, it's only three more Sundays (two more weeks!) to the next episode, Emma Bull's "Getaway," and there will be extra content in the intervening weeks.

Sometime tonight--a little later than usual--there will be new Shadow Unit.

Project: A Reckoning of Men
New words: 1672. Got to the smut. (It's on page 37 of the manuscript. After the butchery.)
Total Words: 8,560
Deadline: Next June, I think, but will you catch me checking the contract?
Reason for stopping: End of chapter 2. Off it goes to truepenny!.


Tenth of a book! Tenth of a book! Tenth of a book!

I'm very, very happy. There was flow in that. It felt like old days. Can it possibly be that after two... four... whatever years of thrashing, I've gotten my groove back? Please, mother. I'll be good.

Stimulants:  coffee, whole wheat pasta with pesto. (Home made pesto is not like the other kind, You can taste all the individual things in it, like the basil and the walnuts and the garlic and the parmesan and the oil. Nom.)
Exercise: Threw the ball for the dog a bunch. About to go out to Pinnacle and climb some stuff in an hour or so.
Mammalian assistance: Dog in lap. Also, dog making his anteater fart.

Mail: A royalty check from Hammered. Thank you! (Now I just have to get some of these other books to sell through...)
Today's words Word don't know: woad
Words I'm surprised Word do know: --

Tyop du jour: --
Darling du jour: --
Mean Things: Angst. Winter. Sex. Bear grease. Quasistarvation. The usual.
Jury-rigging: Transitions. Hate 'em, Jake.

There's always one more quirk in the character: Vethulf has post-battle ennui. Who knew?
Other writing-related work: --
The Internets provide: Look! Shadow Unit fan art. Funny SU fan art, at that.

Books in progress: Kari Sperring, Living With Ghosts
The glamour!: Fairly glamour-free day, thank god.

Oh, lookie. It's Sunday night, and that means... new Shadow Unit!

Shadow Unit 2x03, "The Sin Eater," by Emma Bull, is alive!

(Don't forget to check for concealed goodies....)

Hey, look! Shadow Unit content!

That will have to distract me from how much I sucked climbing at Ragged Mountain today.

Ooo, look. New Shadow Unit content. eee!

Shadow Unit season two episode two, "Sugar" by Leah Bobet (our own cristalia) will be going live.

(We are aware that we are having some sort of intermittent rendering problem, which we have not yet diagnosed and fixed, but we're working on it. If you get ASCII junk or an unreadable page, try the view-->page style-->no style option as an interim quick and dirty fix.)

ETA: It's up! Don't forget to look for easter eggs!

Because we have the best fans anywhere, the Shadow Unit community has put together a master chronology for folks who want to catch up on the series from the beginning and understand what the hell is going on. (Apparently, they're also working on a guide to the character livejournals, as a certain amount of narrative happens over there, as well.)

So if you wanted to get involved, but you were feeling a little at a loss, this would be a great time. Especially since the second episode of the second season, Leah Bobet's "Sugar," debuts on Sunday.

For those of you who haven't yet heard about the whole Shadow Unit thing, it's an interactive online hyperfiction environment, of sorts. Or, more clearly, it's a long, collaborative, ongoing narrative, currently written by a cast of award-nominated-and-winning SFF authors including me, coffeeem, truepenny, cristalia, stillsostrange, and blackholly, licensed under creative commons, with an active fan community and a whole lot of fun.

It concerns the adventures of a group of unrealisticly sexy FBI agents as they attempt to hunt down a malignant force of unknown origin that grants supernatural powers--and supernatural malevolence--to certain individuals (and of course, some of those agents have been touched by this force as well). The narrative includes long stories, vignettes, character journals, art, and a whole lot of recipes.

Currently, it comprises about three novels worth of stuff.

And it's free! It's shareware, in fact: you have access to every bit of the content for the low, low price of nothing, and only throw us money if you think we've earned it.

It's sort of like Public Radio, only (sadly) without Carl Kasell.