The weekend before last, some of my more industrious Clarion West classmates did a weekened "write-in." I signed on, thinking, hey, no problem. I didn't have anything ongoing I could use it to finish up, but I'd written entire stories in 24-hour periods enough times over the summer, what was the difference?

Right?

Well....

On the Saturday of that weekend, I was off in Ft. Lauderdale for a SFSFS meeting. And, naturally, I spent most of the Sunday literally or metaphorically staring at the bank screen, engaging in important pre-writing tasks like doing laundry and IM'ing friends to whine about not being able to come up with anything. I finally did come up with something, but I was only 1300 words in when the write-in was over.

Now, just nine days late (about ten minutes EST shy of being ten days late), I finally finished the damn thing. Which, less than impressive as it is deadline-wise, feels really good in general.

Coming in at 7600 words, it's a piece of steampunkish fantasy western silliness, entitled "Five Against the Darkness."

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A short preview:

For three straight nights, a pack of seven demons laid seige to the village of New Tezath.

From a peephole in his family's cellar, Daniel caught glimpses of shining red eyes and giant, bat-like wings fluttering in the night.

[....]

A token effort had already been made to contact the commander of the nearest detachment of the Imperial guard. The reply was as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun.

The good people of New Tezath were politely reminded that the last demon in the Empire was exterminated twenty five years ago, some thousand miles away from the Pale of Settlement....