Category: Short Pieces
Word count metrics update
| August 29, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Shadow of the Rook, Short Pieces |
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I’ve been in another prolonged writing funk, which has been frustrating–so tonight I tried another round of throwing tiny bits of words at stuff. Got up to just over 200 by throwing small words at four different things, so I’ll take that!
So we’ve got 51 words into Chapter 4 of Shadow of the Rook, which is currently in the middle of an Enverly scene–his first since the events at the end of Lament of the Dove. Let’s just say Father Enverly has had his first actual religious experience, shall we?
Mirror’s Gate is still in Chapter 2, with Yevanya going to have a friendly little chat with her dead husband’s former teacher and colleague, which should set her up nicely to learn some disturbing things about what’s going on in the city of Istra. 57 words to that, and I gotta say, I rather like this fragment:
Genrek was a great hulk of a man, towering over her by many inches, and yet she had never found him anything but amiable in his gruff fashion. She always supposed it was not because he found her fragile and dainty; next to Genrek many things were, such as carriages, hills, and the smaller varieties of bear.
Over in Bone Walker, I’m still in Chapter 11, with Kendis and Christopher about to get hugely distracted from the question of whether Christopher can, in fact, cross Lake Washington. ‘Cause something is about to give them a disturbing little phone call. 52 words there.
And last but not least, in the still untitled Warder-universe story of Elizabeth and Ross, Elizabeth is realizing that she has no business snarking on a man who’s just told her his dead sister was the magical defender of the city. Not when she is, herself, a psychic. 67 words here.
So yeah. 227 words total. Not much overall, but something!
Yesterday's writing metrics
| June 27, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Child of Ocean Child of Stars, Mirror's Gate, Shadow of the Rook, Shards of Recollection, Short Pieces |
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I’ve hit another dry spell lately, which is annoying, so yesterday I decided to try to do something about that. Throwing small chunks of words at everything I have in progress seemed to help. I did at least over my usual desired target quota of 500, even if those 500 words were scattered across six works in progress. 
It all means no real major progress in any of it, but at least there was small pointer advancement! We’ll see what I can do today.
Written on Mirror’s Gate, Chapter 2: 157
Written on Bone Walker, Chapter 11: 174
Written on Shards of Recollection, Chapter 1: 150
Written on Child of Ocean, Child of Stars: 26
Written on Shadow of the Rook: 30
Written on Untitled story about Elizabeth, psychic chick of size, and Ross, brother of a dead Warder: 34
Total words written yesterday: 571
Meanwhile back on my still untitled story
| June 1, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
My Psychic Chick story is still germinating in my brain, and tonight its heroine, Elizabeth ‘Ealasaid’ Breckenridge, who hides actual psychic talent behind a seemingly sham psychic-and-Tarot business, demanded I give her more words. So I gave her 547 of them, enough to move her first scene far enough along that she has now discovered two things:
- The story’s male lead, Ross Taggart, knew the instant he triggered her into having a vision that she’s the real deal, and
- Something very, very wrong has happened in connection to him.
I’m still mulling what that actual something very wrong is, but as of tonight, I’m pretty sure it has to do with the murder of his sister, who was the last Warder of the city of Providence, Rhode Island. Ross isn’t an active Warder himself, but he’s shall we say Aware of the Lineage, and therefore aware of magical things in general. So he ain’t gonna bat an eye at a psychic chick. All of which is going to be quite the eye-opener to Elizabeth. Muahaha.
I have also figured out by way of character development that Elizabeth has had to vehemently refuse to undergo any weight-loss surgery, despite pressure from her family and particularly her mother to do so. When you’re psychic and your visions can be triggered on casual contact, undergoing a major medical procedure which involves all sorts of contact all over your body just spells all kinds of trouble. I strongly suspect traditional anesthesia doesn’t work very well on her.
Eventually, I’ll give this thing a title! But it’s good to know that it’s a Faerie Blood universe story, that it’s set in Providence, and that my two lead characters are starting to come to life.
That's all I got
| February 22, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces |
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When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.
Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615
Finally, some more words
| February 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Shadow of the Rook, Short Pieces |
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I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.
So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.
And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to and for their anthology.
Meanwhile, the word stats:
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302
Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500
Right then, holiday is over and the new year has begun
| January 3, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Drollerie Press, Short Pieces |
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I know I keep saying this, but let’s see if I can hold to it for a while now that the new year is under way, eh?
Back into Bone Walker tonight, with Chapter 7 underway. I’ve got me a Kendis with a head full of stuff she’d really rather not have to be dealing with all at the same time, and a bit about how the magic of Warding a city works, and a bit of Seattle geography all touched upon in the five hundred words I’ve written tonight. This felt good. Let’s see if I can do it again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in case y’all haven’t seen it yet, we’re handing out free downloads of my story “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen” right over here for the 11th day of Drollerie Christmas! I know, I’m already handing it out for free here, but said such nice things about the story that I really just sort of have to go “aw”. *^_^*;;
And oh yeah, did y’all see the new poll I have up in the sidebar? (Go here for those of you who are reading this from LJ or DW.)
Written tonight: 508
Chapter 7 total: 508
Bone Walker total (first draft): 17,242
First review in for Defiance!
| November 18, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Defiance, Short Pieces |
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Check it out you guys, Soleil Noir has some lovely things to say about Defiance over here.
About my story “The Blood of the Land” in particular, she says:
This is set in the world of Angela’s previous book “Faerie Blood”. A book I read and enjoyed. I have to say though, I actually liked this story more.
Go check out the review for the full text, and also what she has to say about and ‘s pieces as well!
Now taking requests for next FB-universe short story
| November 9, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Drollerie Press, Polls, Short Pieces |
My fellow Drollerie author has cordially invited me to submit something for the pair of anthologies he is editing along with , Trafficking in Magic and Magic in Trafficking. I will not be able to tackle writing something for them until after Nanowrimo is over, but December is looking potentially interesting! So all I need to do is figure out what exactly I’d like to write for them.
This is where you folks come in! I’m really rather liking the idea of using short stories to explore other glimpses of the Faerie Blood universe as I’ve already done with “The Blood of the Land”, but I’m not sure yet what sort of story might fit into the requirements for this pair of anthos. Want to help me decide? Then answer the following poll! (Readers on LJ or LJ-clones, please come on over to my WordPress site to vote!)
The Civil War anthology is OUT!
| November 9, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Defiance, Drollerie Press, Short Pieces |
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Ooh ooh ooh, the anthology I’m in with and has just come out, people! Now available for sale on Drollerie Press’s store is the Civil War anthology Defiance, featuring our three pieces set during that time frame, each with supernatural elements in it.
My story’s “The Blood of the Land”, in the same universe as Faerie Blood. The slave woman Dorcas, who is gifted with healing powers, is escaping along with her beloved Caleb and fleeing north to Canada. But when they reach their first stop on the Underground Railroad, a farm owned by the Warder Elias Sutherland, they find Elias’ wife has been murdered by the men hunting them–and Elias’ Warder wife Jenny is not taking her slaying kindly.
Laura Anne Gilman and Joely Sue Burkhart also have excellent stories in this release, y’all, so I highly encourage you to check it out!
Sneak anthology cover art peek
| September 27, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Drollerie Press, Short Pieces |
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Y’all know that anthology for which I wrote “The Blood of the Land”?
My editor has now posted a sneak preview of its cover art along with a sneak peek at other covers of upcoming Drollerie releases. Check it out over here! Click on the first thumbnail to see the anthology I’ll be in, along with and ! There’s a title for it and everything!
I’m quite excited to be part of something will be in, as I’ve been meaning to read her for forever!
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