Oh crap what a busy, crazy day. I just spent way too much time revising my latest tech writing project. All the graphics came out looking bad in the finished version, so I had to go back in and tweak all of them. All 495 of them. Shit! How tedious is that? And of course it took much, much longer than I was expecting it to. As always.

So I haven't gotten near as much of my own stuff done this week as I was planning. I wanted to finish drafting a couple stories -- "Top of the Stacks" and a brand-new bug story aimed for the "Cock-roach-suckers" anthology being done by the Horror Writers Association.

I actually got a lot done on the latter story yesterday, drafting over half of it over a latte and a monstrous chocolate chip scone at Caribou Coffee while the Esquart was being serviced next door. It was awesome to sit down and write something new, and after re-reading it today, it's pretty good. Rough, but with some nice touches. Most of the story takes place in a three-foot-high crawlspace under a house in the country. See the Quote below for more... :)

I'm working feverishly to get all my miscellaneous tasks finished up so I can spend the rest of December jamming on my two novels, the SF and the paranormal romance. I'm pretty confident I can hit 150,000 words for the year, as I'm close to 140,000 already. The ultimate goal would be to hit 200k. That's Tim Pratt territory! I think I can do about 3k a day for the rest of the month, since I don't have Day Job stuff to worry about anymore (the plan is to get some more contract stuff lined up for the first of the year).

That's the plan at least. Right now I'm pretty frazzled with the non-stop working and running. But Elizabeth's done with classes and all her papers and tests, so we're gonna chill out for a while. Tonight we're going to watch "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (I'm still trying to convert Lizzie into a horror movie fan...). And tomorrow -- sleep in! Later.

Now Playing:
"Just Say Noel," various

Now Reading:
stories of all sorts

Stories out to Publishers:
20

Yesterday's Words:
1,700

Yesterday's Quote:
When you’re paralyzed and blinded by mutant cockroaches, you have a lot of time to think. Well, maybe I don’t have as much time as I’d like to think, but in any case, I couldn’t stop thinking.

I’m thinking about my people. It would hurt me to even say that, if I could feel anything at all, but I can’t not think of my customers on my route now as my people. How I’m gonna miss them when I’m dead and being digested in the bellies of the ugliest fucking bugs I’ve ever come across.

I don’t want to think these things, you know. But my brain is no longer cooperating with the rest of me, and my thoughts run down this road like a lost semi rolling downhill, picking up speed.