Okay, taking a little field trip this morning, two trips actually. The first to the world of Killaster, and the second to Wannoshay. For the first, I finally had the time and energy to continue the storyline of the collaboration Jay and I are working on. And it's getting good! We've got some good surprises, plot twists, and traitorous actions going on, along with some fun fight scenes.

And then I dove back into the Wannoshay novel, revamping the outline some more, and then ending up writing a bit more on a scene that needed a couple more crucial things to happen. I have a couple more tweaks to do to the outline, and then, starting tomorrow, just step back, 'cause the words are going to start flowing like mad. At least, that's what we're hoping 'round here. Looking forward to the final section, which takes place in good ol' Iowa City!

It's interesting, working on these two projects at the same time, because they both have a very distinct feel to them. The collab with Jay has been a great stretch for me, writing-wise, because it has a much more decadent feel to it, with characters that are not as immediately likeable and friendly as the characters in the Wannoshay novel. And the language we're using in the collab is a bit more elaborate, which is fun for me to attempt, because I tend to be more minimalistic and not use "fancy words" so much.

I think they'll both turn out quite nicely, once they're all done. You can do a little comparing and contrasting of the two styles in the short extracts, below (no, there won't be a pop quiz tomorrow). If you're into that kinda thing.

Me, I gotta go donate blood now, then pick up the copies of Intracities hot off the press (okay, the copiers!), and do some tree clean-up when I get back home. Have a good one.

Now Playing:
"Riviera," Big Head Todd & the Monsters

Now Reading:
The Ivory and the Horn, Charles de Lint

Stories out to Publishers:
16

Today's Words:
1,800

Words for '03:
120,000

Today's Quote (1):
"Falloe." I had but whispered, yet all of the men -- soon-dead and Rego -- turned to me. "I return your oath price. It was found lacking."

I threw the coin at Falloe, aiming for his belly for a slow wound, but the coin turned almost the instant it left my smoking, burnt hand.

With a dull clink it was pulled as if by magnetics onto my sky steel blade. The blade cut the copper in half as if it were dead flesh, and the pieces dropped to the immaculate floor below me, still sizzling with tiny fragments of my own skin. A child scampered up and rolled under Astrid, trapping the two pieces of copper with his wire brush and shit-scuttle and running off again, never slowing.


Today's Quote (2):
The world spun away when she touched the thick, corded hair and the cold, strangely supple metal, and for an instant Shontera was back in the ship from her vision earlier that day, rushing up and over the horizon of a frozen ocean and a dying blue sun. Then the scene changed, and she was looking away from the ground below, up at the black sky rushing toward her. Blotting out the unfamiliar stars were other ships, moving together in groups of four, warping the air in their wake. The roaring of the engines of her own ship, mixed with a strange keening sound like the wailing of mourners at a funeral, was so loud she couldn't breathe. The sound grew as the star-littered void of space rushed past and enveloped her and the other ships.

Shontera didn't know when she spun around, but suddenly she was running back to the car, both hands gripping their strange, alien materials, nearly tripping and falling over the ruts in the ground. She couldn't catch her breath, and she felt like she was choking again.

"Oyallohawna," she said as soon as her lungs would cooperate with her. She stuffed the hair and the piece of metal -- now curved into a half-circle from her panicked grip in it -- into her coat pockets with numb hands. "Nonami's name is Oyallohawna."