Okay, I'm onboard

I barely managed the act as a pace car the last time we did this, and probably won't do much better this time around, but what the heck?

I write a couple of novels a year, on average, but never seem to be in the middle of a longer project when we do one of these writing challenges. In the month of October I'm slated to do one comic script and one or two short stories, and even if I manage to get all of that done I doubt it would add up to as many words as Matt will likely do. But it's all about quality, folks! These will be some good darned words.

Octoberama!

I'm gearing up for the adventure that will be the writing challenge of October. See, I've got a lot to do between now and the end of the month, when I (along with a strong contingent of the CWSB gang) will be heading off to the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose. It would be very good (required, in fact) if I were to have the new novel The Office of Shadow completed before I leave, in addition to getting in all of my existing comic book work. The best way to do that is to do a writing challenge. This isn't a competition, but the "winner" will probably get dinner bought for him at World Fantasy. Not that it's a competition.

But it is.

Final Cover for The Office of Shadow

Here's the cover for my next novel, The Office of Shadow, the sequel to Midwinter. It continues the story of the struggle between the Seelie Kingdom of Queen Titania and the Empire of Mab. It's a story of high adventure and espionage in Faerie; if Midwinter was "The Dirty Dozen with elves," then this is "The Sandbaggers with Elves." That fellow on the cover is Silverdun, Mauritane's stalwart companion from Midwinter, and the young lady with him is Sela, a new character with an extremely weird and troubled past.

The beautiful cover artwork is by Chris McGrath, and the cover design is by Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger. (Click the image to embiggen.)

In other news, I've sold the German rights for both Midwinter and Office of Shadow to Verlagsgruppe Lübbe. Will I become the David Hasselhoff of fantasy literature? Only time will tell.

A MOVIE a day keeps the work away...

I've recently completed all of my real paying work except for a few rewrites on a big secret thing coming from IDW, so I'm going to look through the old projects to have something to work on in October. There are a couple of novels in mid-completion floating around on the laptop that I'll probably tackle. Its stuff I worked on during the February contest.

And because I live to taunt and I have a load of un-watched movies, I'll try to watch a movie a day and leave a few notes. I got a head start last night when I saw THE HURT LOCKER which was excellent.

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My three days of hell (well... heck at least)

Like Matt though, I have some tough days of writing ahead of me -- three of them. In order to get on the plane to Israel on Wednesday morning with a minimum of guilt, I have to complete the following:

Today, Sunday the 27th of September, I have to finish the script for the first issue of Backroads. As of this moment I have written 12 pages of it today. 10 pages to go. I also have to finish the script to Fables # 90. Yes, I am that far behind on Fables. I should be up to Fables # 93 or 94 by now. About 8 pages of the script are done (and already being drawn), with 14 more to go.

Also today I have written the foreword to the first collection of the marvelous The Unwritten comic book series, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. Why aren't you reading it yet? Don't let The Unwritten go unread a moment longer.

Tomorrow I have to write the complete script to Jack of Fables # 40, with help from Matt of course. And half the script to Angel # 3. It's actually not issue # 3, it's whatever the real issue number is, but I can't recall that just now, and it's my third issue of the run, so there.

And then, Tuesday I have to write the rest of Angel # 3, and the complete script to JSA # 36. Plus I also have to find time in the day to pack and pick up my dry cleaning, and generally get ready to leave far too early the next day.

So there you go, Matt. I have no compassion for you. This is the life we've chosen.

Put that wooden stake down. We're not (un)dead!

Okay, we've let this place lie fallow long enough. I've been traveling, and got the flu, so got behind on deadlines, and every other sort of blah, blah, blah. But we started this silly blog to talk about writing in general, and our writing in particular, and to keep the communication going between the widely dispersed Clockwork Storybook group.

So let's kick this thing back to life, starting now.

Matt Sturges has a novel due in just about a month, and he has to complete it without letting all of his comic book work go undone, so he's decided to start another one of those "How much work can I get done in one month?" marathons, just like our Great February Writing Duel last year. This time Matt is starting October 1st and running through the month. I can't participate this go round, since I'll be in Israel for most of that time, but I will snipe and comment, when I can, from the sidelines.

At this point I have no idea if the other Clockwork boys will be joining Matt, but since Matt has to do it, even if he does it all alone, and since posting his daily progress here publicly will help keep him on track, away we go. Well, away he goes anyway. So visit and comment when you can, and help keep Matt's feet to the fire.