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: 4037 (v. good)
Present Total Word Count: 117,878 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.





Observations: Behold, I waffle. Now that I look at where I am relative to where I’m going with the story, I think that 130,000 words is quite doable. My problem is that I keep distracting myself with the worldbuilding … and then suddenly I notice that I’ve gone five pages and nothing has really happened. I’m going to have to be careful with the way I handle that stuff in my revisions; I don’t want to strip the world-feel, but I need to keep the story rolling forward, too.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: More freelancery; minor grocery shopping; kitty pestering; researching. I’ve promised a certain fine independent press an air pirates novella set in my Boneshaker world, and since I’m fond of dragging historical characters through the fantasy mud, I’ve been hunting for one to play with. And … I think I’ve found somebody. No, I won’t tell you who. Not yet.

Reason for Stopping: My house is filthy, and it’s sort of a nice day outside. I think I’m going to open the windows and vacuum/dust the hell out of the premises. Maybe, if there’s time, I’ll even do a load of sheets/towels — for Maximum Springtime Freshness. Anyway, the sun is out and I don’t feel like sitting here on the couch typing anymore. I suppose it doesn’t really need to be any more complicated than that, does it?

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 186,453