Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

I'm a couple of days late, due to that whole "I was in San Diego on the 15th, trying not to be engulfed by the crowd and cast into the sea," but this is the July 2012 current projects post, because we are using this year up like cheap single-ply toilet paper. It's distressing. Anyway, this is the post in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Ashes of Honor, Midnight Blue-Light Special, Parasite). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. Please don't ask.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out! )

Words: 14,505.
Total words: 25,647.
Reason for stopping: ...uh. I think my brain just ran out my ears.
The cats: All three, eating. Mom fed them to make them stop circling my ankles.
Music: random shuffle, mostly Glee MP3s and modern country.

Um. I appear to have just written more than 14,000 words in a single day, with a break in the middle to walk to the grocery store (and another break to eat dinner, a lovely salmon and nectarine salad). I just what I don't even what. I feel like this book got tired of living inside my head and decided to get out with a jackhammer, if that was what it took.

I also feel, sadly, like this is me finally finding equilibrium with being home all day (I had the memorial service, and then I had two sick days, when my body simply said "okay, that's it, we're done" and shut down). So I have hit my groove, I have found my sweet spot...and I get to go back to work on Monday. Which is going to reset things all over again.

But in the end, that's okay, because I added the equivalent of two full short stories to this book today. And I'm going to try to do the same, or close to the same, tomorrow, allowing me to spend Monday night working on actual short stories while the Machete Squad recoils in terror from their inboxes.

Bed now.

Bed FOREVER.

Words: 4,059.
Total words: 8,138.
Reason for stopping: I finished chapter two! It's time for food.
The cats: Lilly, bed; Alice and Thomas, flopped over in the hallway.
Music: the soundtrack to Syfy's Monster Island, disturbingly enough.

4,000 words and a chapter—now that's more like it! The shape of the plot is starting to become apparent, and while we're not in the thick of things just yet, it's increasingly clear that yes, we're going to get there, whether we want to or not. (I want to, Toby, as you can probably guess, is not quite so enthusiastic about the idea. Poor Toby. She really never has nearly as easy a time of things as she wants to. If it were up to her, I would write an entire book where the most exciting thing that happened would be Quentin forgetting to put the toilet seat down.)

I think I'm really going to enjoy writing this book, now that I'm starting to get my claws into it properly. Better yet, I've finished some of the pending short fiction that was taking up space on my mental shelves, and that means my normal rotation (Toby, then InCryptid, then a third book) is reasserting itself. Life is good.

Also, this icon is my placeholder for books that don't have icons of their own yet, and I'm really excited to know that soon, I'll be able to swap it off of all my Ashes of Honor posts. Because I am that much of a nerd.

Words: 1,878.
Total words: 1,878.
Reason for stopping: it's time for bed.
Music: the Rock of Ages soundtrack.
The cats: Alice, bed; Thomas, bed; Lilly, cat tree.

It's official: as of tonight, Chimes at Midnight is properly and officially started. I've hammered through most of chapter one, I've established the initial conflict that kicks everything else off, and I've remembered why I am so damn in love with this world and the people that it contains. I know some people are frustrated by the fact that I've gone down to one Toby book a year to make room for InCryptid, and while I desperately hope that someday I'll be able to be full-time and write three urban fantasies a year, there's a beautiful homecoming aspect after having taken this long of a break that's just plain magical. It's like...this is where I wanted to be, and I barely even knew it. It's amazing.

Tomorrow night, I'll knock out another thousand or so words of the Rose Marshall story I'm working on (it's for an anthology), and then I'll finish chapter one of Chimes at Midnight. And then I'll probably cry, because here we go again.

Here we go again.

And now, the May 2012 current projects post, which makes me a little sad, because I made the April post from Cat's place in Maine, and I am not in Maine now. Oh, well. This is the post in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

Not everything on this list has been sold. I will not discuss the sale status of anything which has not been publicly announced. Please don't ask.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out! )

Beware the Ides of March! Beware the March 2012 current projects post, in which I tell you what I'm working on, and you finally understand why I don't have time for tea. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer—although this month, thanks to a vast spate of "THE END," it actually got shorter. It'll grow again soon. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out! )

Welcome to the first current projects post of 2012. That's...daunting. Anyway, these posts are made because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Blackout, Ashes of Honor). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out! )

Welcome to the November 2011 list of current projects, because I am the gift that keeps on giving, and time is the gift that keeps on taking. To quote myself, being too harried to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that all books currently in print are off the list, as are those that have been turned in but not yet printed (Blackout). The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have horror movies and terrible things from the swamp to keep me company.

( What's Seanan working on now? Click to find out! )