Pimping my friends in an attempt to feel better

It's late, and I'm tired and grumpy, so just a little something to make this actually count as a blog entry.

Actually, I think something that will make me feel better is to tell you about something one of my friends has done. Jenn Brissett has written a novel that is getting all kinds of amazing notice. Elysium is a new and notable book at Locus Magazine, it's been well reviewed at places like Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and i09. And. AND it's nominated for a Philip K Dick award. I haven't yet had the chance to read it, but it's on my short-list, and I've heard from a few people I truly respect that it's nothing shot of amazing. Jenn and I went to Stonecoast together and she was one of those folks who were ahead of me that I wanted to keep an eye on. And with good reason. On top of having written a great book, she's also super nice.

You should all check out her book, and tell her that I told you to do it, okay?

There. I do feel better.

Here are tonight's numbers:

Daily word count: 1,466

Novel word count: 53,143

Old music and writing, plus numbers

I've been having good writing days lately. I contribute a good bit of this to my strict lack of writing rituals. I've written briefly about this before. I used to ritualize the act of writing, and I've cut out all of that nonsense. Well, almost. If I have anything like a ritual anymore, it centers around the music I listen to while I'm writing. I can waste a good few hours coming up with the perfect playlist to listen to. Spotify has made this task both easier and more difficult. Easier in that I can find some many great songs so easily. Difficult in the I have so many more songs at my fingertips -- it makes choosing difficult sometimes.

Lately I've been listening to older stuff, stuff that I remember listening to 20 or 30 years ago. You know, when I was a baby. Not sure why this is. I usually crave new music. Maybe it's a phase >shrugs shoulders<. For now I'm just rolling with it.

Here's one song that's been in heavy rotation on my current writing playlist (entitled, imaginatively, Writing II) on Spotify. Supergrass were a British alternative band in the early '90s. This song, "Alright," is the only one I remember from them. I think it's in a commercial for something right now. That may be where I heard it and decided I needed it in a playlist. Or maybe it's in a movie the boys have watched lately. Kids' movies seem full of oddly inappropriate music cues nowadays, thought that probably hasn't changed much since I was a kid. Anyway, here's the video for the song, which seems like a classic of the let's-grab-a-camera-and-shoot-a-video-to-promote-our-hit-single variety. This sort of thing would never fly today...



That video really makes me want a plain white tee with "ADAM" printed across the front in Futura black.

Here are today's numbers:
Daily word count: 1,641
Novel word count: 51,677

50,000 and a late announcement

My latest work-in-progress is a fantasy novel titled Sowing Serpent's Teeth. I just hit 50,000 words, so I'd guess I'm about 50% through this beast. This seems like a good time to start recording my progress on the book.

This is something I did with Zomburbia when I was writing it, though I started tracking that book much later in the process. I'm doing this for a couple of reason. 1) I want to hold myself accountable in a public way. I had a hard time with the beginning of this novel and I want to give myself as few reasons as possible to miss a day of writing. If I think someone somewhere might notice me letting a day slide, then I'm all the less likely to do it. 2) Tracking the numbers forces me to write other things in this space as well since I don't want to write about just the numbers. I've long been neglecting this blog and that needs to change. So, numbers it is if that'll help.

Here's something I should have written about last week and didn't, because I've been slacking off, you see. 

In case you didn't catch it, my novel, Zombified, the sequel to Zomburbia, was released last week. It's available from a number of online retailers, of course (and this link will take you to my publisher's page where you can find links to the book on many of those sites), but it would be great if you decided to buy it from an independent bookseller in your area. One indie book store you may want to consider buying it from is The Book Bin in my hometown of Salem, Oregon. If you get it through them, you can ask to have me sign or personalize your copy; something I'm more than happy to do. 

There have been a few other things going on with me and my writing, but I'll save those for upcoming numbers round-ups. 

That's all there is to say for now, I suppose, except I want to thank you for checking out my blog. Thanks for sticking around during the fallow period if you've been reading for a while, and hello if you're new to the place.

And now, here are the numbers:

Daily word count: 1,386

Novel word count: 50,036