Author: Tim Pratt

Not a terribly productive writing day yesterday: the combination of returning to then day job and an evening of being distracted by the election joined forces against me. But I got a couple of pages written, and I know what happens next, so at least things are moving forward.

Otherwise: I’m excited about being all done thinking about elections for a while.

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 453. Total: 9,334.

Notable Line(s):  Worrying about serial killers and dragging ladders onto a roof tends to be a little distracting.

Monday was the last day of my beautiful five-day weekend. I wrote in the morning, getting down six or eight pages and bringing in some gunfire and mayhem. I took a walk downtown and thought about what I need to write next — mysterious letters, incontrovertible evidence of magic — and did a little shopping for the kid’s 5th birthday. (He had a party on Sunday, but the actual birthday and present-opening is on Thursday.) Then I went to Jupiter and had beer with my friends Chris and Maggie (well, technically they had pomegranate cider) and talked about modern horror fiction and writing in general and What’s Wrong With Science Fiction (nothing more beer can’t solve). They went with me to pick up the kid from school, and we chatted at my house for a while longer as my son bullied us into playing assorted games he’d just invented, many involving leftover party balloons and the threat of imaginary lava. A very pleasant end to my mini-vacation!

Today, I’m back at the day job. Ah, well. Happy election day. (I voted ages ago by mail, as I recognize my own inherent laziness when it comes to actually going places and doing things.)

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 1,897. Total: 8,881.

Notable Line(s):  [All my favorite lines are spoilers.]

Didn’t do any writing Sunday. The entire day was spent preparing for, experiencing, and recovering from my son’s 5th birthday party. (Fun, sure. But definitely exhausting.) I had no brain for fiction.

I’ll try to make up for it some today. I’ve got about five hours until it’s time to start drinking beer.

Unfortunately, my kid’s sleep patterns are all wacky because of the time change, so he woke me up at 3:30 a.m., than again at 5:30 a.m., then every 15 or 20 minutes thereafter until I finally gave up and got out of bed. All I want to do is go back to sleep. I’m trying to stay up and drink coffee and write, but I may fail.

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 0. Total: 6984.

Notable Line(s):  N/A

This will have to be quick, since we’ve got to leave for our kid’s birthday party soon. (He’ll be 5 next week! His party has a rock and roll space carnival theme. His choice. Tricky to execute, but we’ve done our best.)

Saturday was a good writing day, though I was able to work only in little dribs and drabs here and there. It added up to my most productive day yet this month, though, and I’m beginning to ratchet up the tension in the book. I like to set up lots of complications early on and let them ricochet around and/or quietly tick away like time bombs in the background. I’ve got mystery burglars and a love interest and creepy abandoned cabins all working for me now.

Apart from the writing, the main event yesterday was making sugar cookies for the kid’s party. We cut out various space-related shapes (rockets, moons, stars) and then the boy decorated them with icing, in the style of Jackson Pollack. Very fun. He’s a good little sou chef.

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 2794. Total: 6984.

Notable Line(s):  She found Charlie in the breakfast nook clutching a mug of coffee like he would fly off into outer space if he let go.

Yesterday I managed a couple thousand words on the new novel. (I also cleaned the kitchen, because writing a novel — or rather avoiding writing a novel, or thinking about plot — can be a great way to get housework done.) I finished chapter 2 and got partway into chapter 3, and the characters are starting to take on real definition in my mind (and, I hope, on the page). The shape of the book as a whole is beginning to become clear to me as well.

It feels very comfortable, in a way, like this is the novel I should be writing. (Which isn’t really an indication of anything. I’ve sweated blood over novels and stories that read like light and fluffy confections, and some of my more ambitious pieces have poured out of me like I was just a funnel directing the flow of words. All that really matters is what’s on the page when you’re done. Most readers don’t care how it got there.)

This is the first book I’ve written set in the mountains of North Carolina in many years — most of the action takes place just eight or ten miles outside the town where I went to college. Makes me want to go back and visit — though perhaps not in November, as it’ll be snowing a lot there soon. Even the novel starts in May. My characters might avoid the winter entirely.

Otherwise, life continues pleasantly. I got a couple of beers at Jupiter in the afternoon, and went to the library, and picked up my kid from school. I got him from the afterschool program early, which he normally likes — but this time I picked him up just before they went into the cafeteria for nachos, thus inciting the rage of nacho deprivation. I mollified him with the promise of making “fancy nachos” at home, so after we rode the train back to our place he helped me load up tortilla chips with beans and cheese and bake them, then serve them with dollops of guac and sour cream and so on. (I’m lucky it was grocery shopping day, so all the ingredients were on hand.) Crisis averted, love restored via food, which is as good a method as any.

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 2309. Total: 4190.

Line(s) I Like:

“I don’t think it’s a special effect. I think it’s…”

“Sufficiently advanced technology,” Bekah said.

“I was just going to say ‘magic,’ but whatever makes you happy.”

It’s National Novel Writing Month, and since I was going to start work on a new book this month anyway, I figured I might as well do it NaNoWriMo style (though I haven’t officially signed up) — at least, I think it’ll be fun to post daily updates on my progress. I used to take part in “novel dares” a decade ago, when writers would challenge one another to hammer out a rough draft in 30 days, posting progress on our “online journals,” and it was often fun.

(Progress. Right. So far this morning: Uh, I’ve thought about the main character’s name. But it’s not even 9 am yet. Consider this an introductory post.)

The novel is tentatively titled Heirs of Grace, and is about a woman just out of college who inherits a house and a sprawling bit of land in the mountains of North Carolina from a distant relative she never knew she had. When she goes to check out the property, she soon learns all sorts of strange things about her biological family, and herself. (I make it sound like a family drama. It’s a contemporary fantasy with lots of odd magic. Said distant relative was a sorcerer, and left a lot of dangerous bits of magic lying around, and there are other people who want some of the things my main character inherited.)

I’ve been thinking about this book, off and on, for years, and I’m glad I finally have a couple of months to work on it. I’m writing this one entirely on spec, for my own amusement, and it’s also an interesting change to have no deadline or editorial expectations.

Wish me luck — and good luck to everyone else embarking on National Writing Lots In Hopes of Having Something Somewhat Novel-Shaped, Albeit Probably Incomplete, by the End of the Month.