Meanwhile…

Well, my NaNoWriMo word count stands a little north of 10,000 words. While that’s bad for NaNo, it’s actually pretty good for me, for a month. I feel like it’s a solid start to the book I want to write. I’m starting to doubt, however, that what I’ve written will stand well by itself, so I probably haven’t ended up with a sellable short story (er, novella).

I doubt I’ll get much else written in the next few days. There’s the mess of Thanksgiving, of course, and I’ve taken on a freelance copyediting project that’s going to eat up some time as well. It’s a fun project, the contents of which I will only hint at!

However…I think I have made an unexpected and delightful breakthrough as concerning the Asta the Android story I was trying to write previously and got distracted from. The villain featured in this section of the NaNo piece is heavily tied to Asta. It’s simply later in his career than the point at which our android detective met (and subsequently incarcerated) him. Now that I’ve firmly cemented this guy in my mind (well, mostly – I still need a good name for him), I think writing the Asta story should go easier.

So I’m going to set myself a goal for December – write the origin story for Asta the Android. The tagline: Murder! Robots! Mad Scientists! Lesbians?

Great. Now I’ve set myself up for all the “robot lesbian” Google searches. My apologies if that’s what brought you here. Your unnatural but intriguing desires can only go unfulfilled.

I would really like to go all superhero in December. Look out for some superhero flash as well. I’ve been neglecting that urge for too long.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

If you don’t already have a subscription to Every Day Fiction, I’m not sure I can help you at this point.

But in case you need further prodding, check out the stories of the last two days:

First up is Ars Draconis, by Jens, a fairy tale with a funny twist. And a dragon!

Next is Oh, Woman of Easy Virtue, by KC, which delights in sin! Had I any scruples left I would blush!

Both have my highest recommendations.

 It appears I’ve been infected with a Bookworm Award from friend KC! It’s nice to take a break from the insanity of work, so here goes.

My task is thus: open the closest book to you (not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment) to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence as well as the next two or three sentences.

Technically, the closest book to me is this Ultimate Spider-Man collection, but I’ll stick with a prose book.

So instead I turn to Storm Front, by Jim Butcher (Book 1 of the Dresden Files, natch), which I actually just bought last night and haven’t even started on yet.

“You should have stayed around for the show,” she said. “It was pretty impressive.” She put her purse on the bar and slid up onto the stool beside me.

Riveting! Scandalous?

Just out of curiosity, I estimate page 56 of the Spider-Man Collection to put us around the middle of Issue 3, which gets us this exchange:

“No, man, for real.”

“And just–wham!”

“Wham?”

“Total wham!”

“Who was he?”

“Just this skinny dude in, like, a mask.”

Just so I don’t feel like I’m neglecting this place, a brief excerpt from some writing I did yesterday. The villains of my piece are starting to shape up a bit. Continue reading

Still plugging away at NaNo. Sorry I haven’t had much chance to post any exerpts. I’m waaaay behind on word count, and expect now that I’ll probably only have a couple of solid short stories as a result of this month’s efforts. But I’m happy with that.

We are working on putting together a signing/reading for the Every Day Fiction anthology. More details on that in the next few days, most likely.

Work is insanely busy. Bleh.

Finally broke down and picked up the first three issues of Pax Romana, a book about a group of Vatican soldiers sent back in time to ensure that the Holy Roman Empire doesn’t fall. It’s worth checking out, though I’m wondering if it should have been told through another medium, perhaps a series of novels. Then again, Hickman may not have been looking to tell that sort of story. I’m rambling now because I’m still not sure what I think of it. I’ll definitely be picking up the last issue.

Oh, almost forgot, my robotic librarian story received a very nice rejection just a day or two ago. It was kind of a long-shot market, so to get a very friendly and encouraging rejection from them was an unexpected treat. They just didn’t like the ending.

Anyway, off to a lunch write-in.

Friend Stephanie has a new flash piece up over at Every Day Fiction. Check it out!

Hmm, seems to be kind of a wedding theme here lately.

Just a quick note that I haven’t fallen out. Last night I made something of a breakthrough, so my pace should be picking up shortly. I don’t have my laptop handy, but my current wordcount is around 3,000, far short of what it should be, but I’m hoping to make it up. I think I’m past the initial hump.

I having a little trouble writing kids, and I think that’s probably what’s slowing me up. Kids are basically everything you don’t want in a protagonist, as they are, for the most part, victims of circumstance and helpless to affect the world around them. But I think I’ve managed to find a way to use them as observers, so I can get through it. We’ll see.

Write-in tonight! I should be able to post another exciting but hastily written exerpt late this evening!

Just discovered today (thanks for the head’s up, KC!) that “Aftershocks” has been selected for The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008, a print anthology due out by the end of the year. Awesome! Only 100 stories were chosen, so this is a real honor. It’s going to be a fantastic book. Several friends and friends of the blog have been included (some of them several times over).

Once it becomes available for purchase I’ll let you guys know.

Bit of a rocky start today. I’m having some trouble with pacing and, well, exactly what I’m doing. I made several large changes. I churned out almost 1,300 words today. Not a terrible start, but not what it should have been. Brief excerpt after the jump. Continue reading