And . . . Done

55,075 words and the first draft of Dark Stranger is done. Now I'll set it aside for a while to work on editing the latest Nic Silver book, and to finish writing Reindeer Girl.

More Words

Dark Stranger is now at 52,943 words. It has exceeded the first draft of Milk Sister by about 600 words or so, and I'm not quite done. I think there's just the final scene to write, but I'll find out tomorrow (or possibly later today, depending on what else I get done).

Words, Words, Words

So apparently my villain talks a lot. I suspect this may be the principle defect of many villains, and the reason so many of them fail. They want to take over the world but mostly because they like the sound of their own voice and when you rule the world no one can tell you to shut the hell up.

Anyway. Dark Stranger is at 50,839 words as of a few minutes ago, and I think it's getting very close to the end. I had originally worked out my daily word quota to hit 70,000 words by my birthday, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be that long. Milk Sister was a slender 52,370 words or thereabouts (that was my word count before editing), so Dark Stranger should be around the same.

Another writing morning like this one (2603 words, or about 1000 words more than my daily goal) and I might very well have reached the end. For now. Because there are certainly things that won't be resolved when the last page is done.

A Quick Writing Update

So, it seems to have been ages since I last posted here. Oops. But I found a big stash of old articles I wrote when I was the "Guide" at About Creative Writing for Teens. The site no longer exists, so I can use the articles however I like. So I think I'm going to start posting them here. I'll edit them some, probably, because my views on some things have changed over the years.

But, the reason I started this post was to say something about the writing I'm doing now. When I first started this blog, it was a way to keep track of what I was working on publicly, with the idea that if people could see when I was being lazy, I'd be less likely to be lazy. So I'm going to try to start doing that again. This could mean lots of very short posts like back in the old days, so be warned.

Anyway. Right now, I am just about to start on today's word count on Dark Stranger, the sequel to Milk Sister. It's coming along very well, at 44, 234 words, and I think it's just about to head full speed into the finale. But I also seem to be leaving a lot of unanswered questions, so there's going to be a third book, most likely. Milk Sister was Maddy's tale, Dark Stranger is Dubhghall's, and untitled book 3 will be their story together. Or something. Then again, I did introduce a pair of interesting new characters in this book, who also have a story...

Other writing news... Reindeer Girl (aka White Foxes, Full Moon) is being serialized at JukePop Serials. Soon I'm going to reach the end of the bits I've written and start writing new stuff. Fortunately, I know more-or-less where it's heading. Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective, by alter-ego Calliope Strange, which was formerly serialized at Doctor Fantastique's is now also being serialized at JukePop. It's been finished for some time, so it will appear a chapter at a time until the end (14 installments). After that, I plan to write the next chapter in Aeryn's story. Especially if the current book proves popular.

And finally, now that this update has already gone on longer than I meant it to, Kentaurs. I had a reader (a fan? Do I have a fan?) ask if/when there would be a sequel to A Madness of Kentaurs. The answer is, this summer, if all goes well with finishing up the projects listed above. It'll be called Melanippe's Odyssey, and though it's not a direct sequel (Octavian and Ixion probably won't be in it, except maybe at the end), it will tie into the larger story.

So, there. That's what I'm up to. Now I need to go get Dubhghall a little closer to finding Maddy and figuring out how to escape his destiny.

(PS. I will come back to this later and add links. I'm on my iPad right now and the Blogger app is a bit of a pain for doing much other than text. Edit: JukePop links added (and pictures, too!))