throw another bear in the canoe

Day Seven: I actually begin to think it may be breaking, and the alien embryos may be about to fly free! I am coughing and sniffling more than I have been, but I no longer feel fevered and exhausted, and I actually managed to sleep last night. The aches and pains continue, but seem somehow less significant. Mostly now, I'm annoyed by the damned sneezing.

Also, happy Juneteenth!

Progress notes for 19 June 2005:

Whiskey & Water

New Words: 2,994
Total Words: 139,361 / 155,250
Notecards eviscerated/added/remaining: 4 / 1 / 9
Pages: 621. Yep, I'm going to hit probably 660 on this. Which is actually tidily close to the same length as B&I.

155,250 / 160,000 (97.0%)

Reason for stopping: Not so much stopping as taking a break to play with pens, and covet a shiny but unnecessary toy. *covet* Oo, it's marked down. And it comes in fine point. *covet* Bad Bear. No!
Mammalian Assistance: Marlowe was naggy earlier, and Paladin was mopey. It's like The Other Seven Dwarves
Stimulants: Third pot of tea. You?
Exercise: none
Mail: The nomailman finally finished with my Locus and handed it over. (Seals broken, as usual: you think I'm kidding!) and there's a v. nice blog review of Hammered over here by heatherkward. I'm not actually even certain the books quite that good, but I am certainly not going to complain. *g*
Today's words Word don't know: flensed, wistfulness, triskelion, dumbass
Tyop du jour: n/a
Darling du jour: n/a
Books in progress, but not at all quickly: Kristine Smith, Code of Conduct; Richard Overy, Russia's War: A History of the Soviet War Effort, 1941-1945
Interesting research tidbits of the day: n/a
Other writing-related work: n/a


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An amusing bit of synchronicity:

Today's Word of the Day from AskOxford: branks (a/k/a a scold's bridle) which object of torture is a fairly major plot point in The Stratford Man, I think it's not too spoilery to say.

slithytove talks about the Lester Dent school of plotting


***

I really want to read the new John Crowley novel. Maybe in November. *g* Yeah.

Chapter 29 is dead. Death and destruction ho!

mrissa on The Exposition Dwarf

truepenny on losing the reader. or not.

Progress notes for 19.5 June 2005:

Whiskey & Water

New Words: 1,200
Total Words: 140,560 / 156,500
Notecards burninated/added/remaining: 1 / 0 / 8
Pages: 626

156,500 / 165,000 (94.0%)

(Notice how subtly I snuck another 20 pages worth of space into the word meter? *g*)

Reason for stopping: Logistics. It just occured to me that if I stopped writing books where the climax takes place in three or five places simultaneously, I wouldn't have these logistical problems. Somehow it's taken me 13 novels to figure that out.

In other news, the only thing more boring than writing sex is writing pain.

God, pain is boring.

Mammalian Assistance: Marlowe came and sat on my hand for a while.
Stimulants: seltzer
Exercise: none
Mail: nomail
Today's words Word don't know: portoro, tigery, Byronesque
Words I'm surprised Word do know: alizarin
Tyop du jour: Matthew's sin was flexible
Darling du jour: Some of us are not meant to go through life unbranded.
Books in progress, but not at all quickly: Kristine Smith, Code of Conduct; Richard Overy, Russia's War: A History of the Soviet War Effort, 1941-1945
Interesting research tidbits of the day: portoro marble; Toronto public library gryphons; Patience and Fortitude restored
Other writing-related work: slush

***

Tonight's music selected in honor of the impending slaughter.

No music for the shameful scene
That night they said it had even shocked the Queen.