The Ongoing Prancery of Pradeep

Well, I'm still working on my next novel, Fading Man. I'm about 45,000 words in, which means I am slightly less than halfway. I just got done with a passage that was dark and troublesome with a lot of skulking through underground tunnels and cities. There's a kind of steampunk vibe in parts of this novel, which is a genre I am modestly fond of. Mostly, however, it's just post-apocalyptic decay and ruin.

Since my last blog entry, I have written the following chapters:

Chapter Nine: Kingdom of Sickness

Chapter Ten: Cities of Ruined Flesh

Chapter Eleven: A Brutal Philosophy
Chapter Twelve: Hell to Pay

There are so many flat-out weird characters in this novel that I can't wait for reader to meet. I've already mentioned Pradeep, who is my favorite, but the beautiful duo of Hilda and Billiam are the latest. They are just delightfully hideous.

But this novel is not all about ruined cities and hideous people. Thematically, it is more about the emotional wreckage that comes from a relentless pursuit of self (or perhaps instead of "self" you could say "identity," "meaning," "contentment"). If I pull it off, a certain point in the story should be obliterative.

I really like the word "obliterative."

In other news, Mary of the Aether, my first published novel, was the Indie Book of the Day for April 2, 2014. Here is the actual award:

Click it to go to the award article. Anyway, it's nice. I guess I can now technically call Mary of the Aether an Award-Winning YA novel and not be lying. So I shall. In fact, henceforth, I shall include the term "Award-Winning" in every single reference I make to the book, so brace yourselves, people.