Ah, the Internet, I just spent half an hour tracking down what the phase of the moon would be in Spain to have it a couple of hours above the eastern horizon at 2 AM.

This is one of the loveliest posts on writing I've ever read: [link]

xpost natter

Thats amazing, Allyson. Thank you for posting it.

if there's extra acceptance/sale~ma lying around GWW, I would be very grateful for it. Signed, Yes, I will happily send you more but would you please BUY at least one of them?

In other news, first draft of this other monster project is nearing completion. I think. Wooo.

So very cool, Typo! Congratulations!

sales ~ma for Sox.

Wonderful news about the website and the book, Gar! And thank you!

Well, I'm on a drive to be ready to submit my novel (sure wish I'd get something back on the short stories, I feel like I've launched them into black hole. OTOH, it is the holidays). My query in progress is looking like this:

Thirteen year old Cog has no intention of marrying a count, no matter what her long-absent mother wants. She figures countesses don’t get their hands greasy fixing steam wagons, and that simply won’t do. Instead, she stows away on an airship destined for the crown city and forges a name onto a list of the queen’s new apprentices—a boy’s name. If pretending to be male wasn’t enough to worry about, she overhears a plot to assassinate the queen and throw the kingdom into war.

While fixing everything from vitality concentration meters to checkers-playing automata, Cog tries to unravel the conspiracy. But between a kleptomaniac gremlin who knows her secrets and a best friend with a crush on her alter ego, her false identity is breaking down faster than an ungreased computation engine. Worst of all, as the time until the assassination clicks away, she learns one of her friends is slated for an unwilling and fatal role. Whether it's sabotaging a royal airship or marching alone into a cursed forest, Cog will do whatever it takes to save the day.

Stopping a war and saving her friends isn’t the same as fixing an auto-mechanical potion mixer, but she has a set of precision screwdrivers and isn’t afraid to use them.

COG is a YA steampunk fantasy novel complete at 85,000 words.

I like the line "as the time until the assassination clicks away", very clockworky and mechanical.

It certainly sounds like something I'd like to read.

I am, however, unable to stop noodling with other people's prose:

Thirteen-year-old Cog has no intention of marrying a count, no matter what her long-absent mother wants. What Cog wants is to keep her hands on the workings of steam wagons. She stows away on an airship destined for the crown city and forges a new identity as a queen’s apprentice. Pretending to be a boy is challenging enough, but then she overhears a plot to assassinate the queen and throw the kingdom into war.

While fixing everything from vitality concentration meters to checkers-playing automata, Cog tries to unravel the conspiracy. But between a kleptomaniac gremlin who knows her secrets and a best friend with a crush on her alter ego, her false identity is breaking down faster than an ungreased computation engine. Worst of all, as the time until the assassination clicks away, she learns one of her friends will forced into a fatal role in the plot. Whether it's sabotaging a royal airship or facing a cursed forest, Cog will do whatever it takes to save the day.