Haven't I done the all-the-books-I've-written meme before? Seems familiar, but perhaps t'was only in my head... Anyway, it's going around, so here we go. (Now with bonus unfinished juvenilia.)

1. The Weirdo Zone, which I thought was a novel when I was in fourth grade, upon reflection, is a novelette at best. Oh, well. I was nine, what do you expect? (It had an unfinished sequel, The Time Lords , which is funny, since I never even heard of Doctor Who until years later). Still, it was my first "book," filling a wide-ruled yellow spiral-bound composition book.

2. The Squad. I wrote probably 50,000 words of this in junior high, and it was, improbably, a war novel. I have no idea what possessed me to do such a thing, but I remember researching (read: looking at encyclopedia articles) about asymmetrical warfare and guerilla fighters (and watching John Wayne WWII movies on TV). It was about a Suicide Squad-esque group of misfits, special forces soldiers with severe mental problems -- MPD, psychogenic fugues, schizophrenia, pathological lying, etc. I think I was trying to write a version of the A-Team that consisted entirely of Howling Mad Murdocks.

3. Shannon's God (1997). I took a hiatus of several years after junior high, focusing on short stories instead. The summer after my sophomore year in college I wrote Shannon's God, a contemporary fantasy about a college student who starts seeing monsters in her town and falls into a feud between two sorcerers (one of whom has delusions of grandeur and thinks he's actually God -- and he's the good wizard). Featured an assassin character named Walker who I'm rather fond of, though I pretty much rolled his best characteristics into my character Mr. Zealand from "Life in Stone" and Poison Sleep. Unsold, though I might recast the book as a young adult novel at some point, though it'll require a page one rewrite. The plot is pretty solid, and I like the antagonist and her toadies a lot.

4. Raveling (1998). The summer after junior year I wrote this contemporary fantasy, a long, multiple-viewpoint novel about the daughters of a crazy god -- or, at least, a powerful entity from another universe which may as well be a god. He fathered half-human daughters, who have weird problems and fucked-up personal lives, and he wants to use them to take over the world. Some of his daughters are down with this. Some are opposed. Unsold, and it's written badly and the plot is a wreck, but I love the characters, and always think I'll return to the book sometime. We'll see.

5. Infants and Tyrants (1998/99). Written over Christmas break in my senior year, it was a superhero novel, and the villain was a six-month old telekinetic genius (incredible intelligence, but the utter self-centeredness of an infant). His mother, a third-rate superheroine, has to stop him. It's wacky. The novel took place in the world of my story "Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters," but set about fifty years earlier. I decided it's better as backstory than as a book of its own.

6. The Genius of Deceit (1999). Contemporary fantasy with a basis in Hindu mythology. I wrote it in the fall after my senior year, right after Clarion, mostly to dispel any chance of a post-Clarion writing slump. Currently being rewritten as a young adult novel, which is going amazingly well, though I'm throwing out pretty much all the original words, of course.

7. Ferocious Dreamers (2000). My first attempt at a novel about Marla Mason. Went completely off the rails about 55,000 words in. Unfinished, never will be finished.

8. The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl (2001/02). I moved to Santa Cruz, fell in love with the place, and wrote a book about it. Also about cowboys, comics, art, and friendship. My first sold novel.

9. Blood Engines (2003/04). The first Marla Mason urban fantasy novel, and the second novel I sold.

10. The Light of a Better World (2005/06). Contemporary fantasy about bridges, suicidal ideation, cars, obsession, despair, bears, and the quest for transcendence. Unsold -- but, for various contractual reasons, I haven't tried to sell it yet. Hoping to place it this year.

11. Poison Sleep (2006). Sequel to Blood Engines. I took all the good ideas from Ferocious Dreamers and put them into this book -- which amounted to, um, about three ideas. Ah, well. Third novel I sold, first book I ever sold on the basis of an outline and sample chapters (as opposed to a finished manuscript).

12. Dead Reign (2007). Fourth novel I sold, sold on just an outline. Third in the Marla Mason series. Movie-style tagline: Marla vs. Death! Coming this November.

13. Grift Sense (2007/08). Fifth novel sold. Marla's con artist brother comes to town. Coming in less than a year.

There you have it. 13 books, only not really, since the first was not even remotely a book, and a couple of the others were never finished, so it's 10 books actually completed, five of them sold so far.

Next project is.... unknown. If I sell the Genius of Deceit YA, I'll write that. If I sell more Marla books, I'll write those. If I don't sell anything, I'll write short stories, or another spec book. So we'll see.