Guess what? I've got an advance copy of Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second Locke Lamora book by Scott Lynch. I'm a happy boy. Though reading it is so fun it made me want to write, as good books invariably do, so last night I committed another couple thousand words on Dead Reign, introducing the revivified mummy of that racist murdering asshat John Wilkes Booth. (Writing Booth's dialogue is easier than I'd expected. I mean, the guy had a tendency to quote (and misquote) Shakespeare at the least provocation, and the Bard's complete works are online as searchable text, so.) All together I wrote about 8,000 words on the novel this week. If I can be that productive every week, these deadlines will be a breeze! (Note: I do not expect to be that productive every week.)

My method of plotting novels might generously be called "Tossing a lot of balls in the air and trying to juggle most of them." I figure, if I set up a lot of stuff at the beginning, I'll have a lot of options for complications and re-complications later on. And things that become crazy loose ends can be snipped out in revisions. (Actually, this seldom happens. Most of the ideas get used.) Here's a list of some Cool or Interesting Stuff I want to include in Dead Reign:

• The Cotard delusion.

• Valets. (Yeah. Like Jeeves. Only, well, a bit not like Jeeves, in this case.)

• Pump-action shotguns. (I used one in the Bridge novel, but hey, there can never be too many shotguns. In fiction.)

• Fancy-dress balls, with a bit of the Masque of the Red Death thrown in for color.

• The phrase "and hell rode with him."

• Armed revolution.

• A sword that can cut through abstract concepts.

• Weddings among the gods.

• Supernatural teen angst.

• The mummy of John Wilkes Booth.

• Subway trains to the underworld. (A perennial favorite, I know, I know.)

• Class warfare.

• Generational warfare.

• Sworn enemies teaming up temporarily to achieve a common goal.

There's other stuff, too. But that's the main shortlist.

I'm off to read and talk and party at Borderlands Books at 3 p.m. today, for the launch of the new Tiptree Awards anthology from Tachyon Publications. Doing a panel on gender and sexuality and such with John Varley and Pat Murphy. Should be neat. Swing by if you're local. (Or have a really fast jet.)