stillsostrange

Dance-off!

I'm not sure exactly how to have a dance-off via the internet, but you are all clever and will surely think of something. Dance, monkeys, dance!

ETA: cristalia spells it out for you: YouTube videos. Something in the vein of these skanking tutorials, perhaps.

If I've ever been dancing with you in real life, you could possibly argue your case without recorded evidence.

I am safely returned to Connecticut, after suffering the iniquities of New England road work at 11 at night.

The con was not without nuisances--namely the inability to get a glass of water in the convention center or the related bars--but overall it was awesome. I got to hang out with lots of friends, and meet lots of new people. Highlights include meeting the lovely and charming la_marquise_de_ (and marquis) in person, gothing with curgoth & co., seeing David Anthony Durham in the Campbell tiara (really a diadem), and watching my bracelet matociquala win a Hugo. Also, my dishy new Fluevog heels lasted through dinner, the Hugo reception, ceremony, and a chunk of the losers' party before they started to kill my feet, which makes them well worth the price of Fluevogs.

AND, I'm told that I have a box of copies of TDC waiting for me at home. IT LIVES!

Now I just have to survive the trip home, and the three hour layover in Nashville.

Chapter 3 of The Drowning City is up on my website. The next bit of extra content will be a pronunciation guide, I think, so if you see any names or made-up words that are particularly bothersome, let me know and I'll add them.

The Bone Palace

Words today: 745
Darling: a chunk of exposition too long to paste
Tyop: a prescribed Rosian sect That ought to be 'proscribed', not "take two demon-worshipers and call me in the morning".
Distractions: In trying to figure out names for different types of demons, I got distracted thinking about what the life cycles of said demons might be.

I got to the meat of the final scene at last, though I had to skip all transitions and grace of prose to get there. Tomorrow I'll try to smooth it over a little. Where is the horse and my glamour?

38124 / 100000 words. 38% done!

The Bone Palace

Words today: 808
Words total: 37,339
Darling: n/a
Tyops: (Left over from the last scene) nearly lost beneath the shouts of the approaching hungers, and knocked him aside and lunched into the shrubbery -- those ought to be hunters and lunged. Possibly I was hungry then.
Mean things: Isyllt still has that concussion.
Deaths: only my will to live

37339 / 100000 words. 37% done!

They're finally out of the boring part of the sewers and into the creepy historical part. This lets me infodump all over the place.

I've also been illicitly brainstorming for Mist & Chill, on the theory that any notes I scribble down now will only make the whole thing come together faster when its turn finally comes. M&C currently has the advantage over Prayers, despite having 15k fewer words, because I actually know what's supposed to happen in it. The actual plotty bits of Prayers continue to evade me.

For something more licit, check out this nifty widget that sparklefancy made!

And the winner is...hominysnark, with 10 right answers and a bonus. The runner-up is sacredchao23, with seven answers. You have each won an ARC of my novel The Drowning City. If you want it, email me at exoblivione AT gmail DOT com with your address.

And maki_to13 is my favoritest person ever for knowing the Das Ich song. Nobody ever knows my German music! *confetties*

Thanks for playing, everyone!

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For the first (or first two, in case of a tie) ARCs of The Drowning City, I resurrect an old music meme. Below are lyrics from 25 random songs. Whoever guesses the most songs and artists correctly wins the ARC. NO GOOGLING!

Comments will be screened for added fairness. I'll be taking guesses till I get home from work tomorrow. If you want to play but don't want an ARC, please say so when you comment.

(I would appreciate it if anyone who ends up with an ARC blogs about it, but I won't hate you forever if you don't.)

The meme:

1. Or how you navigated wings of fire and steel up where heaven had no more secrets to conceal

Emmylou Harris - "Bang the Drum Slowly", hominysnark

2. I was so young and vestal then, you know it hurt me

Tool - "Prison Sex"

Where are the Tool fans on my flist?

3. What I do will make it worse so I stopped interfering

Funker Vogt - "Tragic Hero"

4. Liebe, Hass, gut und böse
Haben mir das Hirn geraubt
Mensch, Tier, Freund und Feinde
Haben mir das Sein verwehrt

Das Ich - "Meine Wiege", maki_to13

5. On a long-lost ocean wave of light, submerged and unafraid

Peter Murphy - "The Scarlet Thing in You", sacredchao23, hominysnark

6. Realms of bliss, realms of light, some are born to sweet delight

The Doors - "End of the Night", sacredchao23, hominysnark

I thought this one was a freebie, too.

7. The cops here always get there too late
they always stop for coffee on the way to the scene of the crime

Tom Waits - "$29.00", miintikwa (artist only)

8. All my traits are charming
I know you know that they live beyond their means

Curve - "Turkey Crossing", maki_to13

9. You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be?

Madonna (but I was listening to Girls Under Glass) - "Frozen", starlady38, sacredchao23, nathreee, hominysnark, Rylie-the-nonLJ'd, miintikwa

10. Some nights I lose the feeling,some nights I lose control,
Some nights I just lose it all when I watch you dance and the thunder rolls

Meat Loaf - "I Would Do Anything for Love", katallen, sacredchao23, miintikwa

11. There is a hole in my side
Where my pride used to be

Lost Signal - "Regret"

12. Cry like a banshee and die like you want me

Rob Zombie - "Demonoid Phenomenon", hominysnark (artist only)

13. I had a bottle of burgundy wine; my love, she did not know
And so I poisoned that dear little girl along the banks below

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "The Willow Garden", sacredchao23, hominysnark (artist only), miintikwa

14. Directionless, the letters on the signs have long since faded
The sky conspires to swallow me

Assemblage 23 - "Awake", starlady38

15. Oh I'll empty you, I'll empty you
as empty as a boy can be

The Cure - "Icing Sugar", mekkavandexter (artist only), hominysnark

16. Fuck you, I win this prize
Stardom pardons the lies

Siouxsie & the Banshees - "New Skin", hominysnark, with a bonus point for know that it's on the Showgirls soundtrack. God save us both from this knowledge.

17. Eve took a fruit, Eve bit the fruit
Juice ran down her chin
Babies will put things in their mouths
Never heard of sin

Joan Osbourne - "Lumina", joeboo_k, miintikwa

18. Once upon a time there was a poor child with no father and no mother, and everything was dead

Tom Waits - "Children's Story", mr_earbrass

19. The bass and drums and microphones a threat

Rage Against the Machine - "Darkness"

20. Two worlds apart and two together,
into that good night kiss away

The Sisters of Mercy - "Under the Gun", mekkavandexter (artist only)

21. Holy burning hand of wrath
piercing forever through the heart

:Wumpscut: - Wreath of Barbs

22. Has no one told you she's not breathing?

Evanescence - "Hello", hominysnark, maki_to13, Rylie-the-nonLJ'd, thistlewicche

23. I can't let Mr. Sorrow try and pull ol' Frankie down

Tom Waits - "Straight to the Top", mr_earbrass

24. Don't worry, baby, it'll be all right
You've got the right shoes to get you through the night

U2 - "Zooropa", hominysnark, miintikwa

25. Wake up, stop screaming,
We sell our soul and we kill our own god

Suicide Commando - "Face of Death"

Bonus: He promises me we'll be safe as houses, as long as I remember who's wearing the trousers

Depeche Mode - "Never Let Me Down Again", mekkavandexter, truepenny, blubeagle, emmaderais, hominysnark

Ask and ye shall receive! Kittens! With ARCs!

The one with the white face and feet is definitely the boss so far, and very loud.

Of those eight ARCs so attractively displayed, I'll be giving away five to people from the internets who want them. But how to choose which five people? Song lyrics contests? Names in a hat? Whoever finishes my novel for me? (That would definitely be worth an ARC and a kitten.)

So far I've gone through 17 chapters of TDC, with three more and the epilogue to go. I've encountered: 3 type-setting errors, a homophone that nobody caught, 3 STETs that didn't get STETed (2 of which I'm correcting back, because I didn't STET them the first time for my health, dammit), and two cases of word rep that were more cunning than their brethren and have now survived to breed a hardier, sneakier strain.

I am still very fond of this book, except for the word rep bits. I wish I could have layered in more backstory and worldbuilding and coolshit, but hopefully I will learn to do that gracefully before the end of Bone Palace.

When I'm done with the proofs, I will ask my fancy editor when I can put up the first few chapters, so that readers can promptly find more word rep that it will be too late to fix.

There! The CEM is slain at last, and shall be delivered unto UPS in the morning. (Even though there are awful chunks of that damn book without enough grounding, and how the hell did it leave the house looking like that? What do I pay you people for?!)

I can now return to angsting about Bone Palace.

Seven chapters STETed gone over. A third of the book!

Today's quandary is what title to give a character. I'd originally called him an Imperial Investigator, but that might be a little vague, and doesn't abbreviate as nicely as DCI. I'm trying not to stop the edits to work out every possible rank and title in the Empire. :P

The dog is sleeping with her tongue sticking out.