Weighing at right around 72,000 words, my steampunk novel now stands complete!

This has been a really fun novel to write, as the way that Fire Cage's concept and setting all came together really gave me the opportunity to world-build a very different environment than I'm used to. In the end, the world of Fire Cage is very cinematic, quite visual, and the running course of the action takes the reader through a series of fast and furious schemes, chances, and encounters -- all at the speed of Science!

At this point, I've sent off beta invites to a bunch of the folks that originally tapped me to read the final story. If you are one of those folks and haven't received an e-mail from me, feel free to drop me a line and request a kit. As always, the more readers, the merrier it will be - especially if I can get comments back from you by the end of November, so I can get this book into the agent/editor queue before the surge of Nanowrimo manuscripts starts to pile in. :)

Onward!
-Scott

Health
- My mother-in-law ended up in the ICU on Halloween night, and we spent most of the last eleven days helping out up north.
- While she is back to a stable condition and is in largely good spirits, we're still waiting for test results to determine what caused the illness in the first place.

Writing
- I hammered through the logical end of the Fire Cage alpha pass during my six days of waiting room time, and kicked it up to -- 72,000 words.
- Very soon, I'll be sending out beta copies to the folks who already signed up with me as readers, with the goal of getting it query ready by Christmas.
- While I originally thought Fire Cage was going to be a novella, it seems to want to be a full-sized book now, and I'm pretty much fine with that.
- I also read Boneshaker by C. Priest, Faerie Blood by A. Korra'ti, started Four and Twenty Blackbirds by C. Priest, and received Possum Kingdom written by my fellow Alliterate, L. Shannon.

Creativity
- Also in the waiting room, I hammered forward on the game pitch related to my patent, which goes out in the mail tomorrow.
- I suspect the game is pretty sound at this point, but we'll see how the final playtests work out.
- I fell like the balancing went very well this morning, and the cards will start being assembled here in the next few minutes.

Short Stories
- For an upcoming anthology that Drollerie is putting out, I'm working on an 10k short story for submission involving the spooooky Aunt Zillah. (She has a hat.)
- In the end, it took me a number of false starts to find the story that I wanted to tell, vs. ones that thought that they had a right to be told.

House
- The leak in the downstairs laundry room is now fixed, and the previous owner's mad-scientist screw-fitting has been replaced by conventional pipe-sautering.
- One of my friends was nice enough to get the mail for us and check on the house while we were gone, and we took him to dinner tonight as thanks.

Jobs
- I got a solid lead on some contracting work, just as I'm finishing up my current contract assignment. We'll see what pans out...
- I'm suspecting the Microsoft Natal possibilities are closed, as they reposted the same job description with a different title & coder requirements I don't have. (sigh)

Creativity
- Four novels being shopped to four different agents, keeping on top of the curve.
- Fire Cage is now up to 46k, and I'm guessing it will slide into completion within another 10k words.
- I finally got a solid bite on my card patent, and will be turning in a revised prototype in the next few weeks.
- Bought Boneshaker for my Kindle, can't wait to dive into it!
- Am very much hoping to get to Alliterates meeting in a few weeks, as I've missed the last two gatherings.

Work Related
- Still working on the Microsoft angle, but now I have two jobs I'm up for, rather than just one.
- FT pickings across the rest of the local industry are looking awfully slim, but I'll keep on hunting.
- Starting to branch my hunt out of the games industry, looking today towards Google's new Kirkland branch
- Met a couple more cool recruiters, decided that I don't want to move to SFrancisco, even for a VP-level job :)
- Contract gig might be coming to a close, need to look for more opportunities to make some side cash.

Life Related
- Kistha and I spent a week cleaning the house from top to bottom, nice to be on top of it.
- Need to get up on the roof on a dry day (right...) to get the gutters cleaned out, high priority.
- The garage is now more of a nightmare than ever, but the 2009 recycling pass is officially underway.
- Found a couple of amazing little lampshades at Lowe's for the library lamps, which nicely completes the room.
- Damn nice summer vacation, in WA, OR, and CA - but now I need to get my nose back to the grindstone.

Gaming
- Slowed down on Eve and GW MMO play, as I need to get creative projects finished up in the next two weeks.
- Gears of War, not playing as much, though Battlestations F-51 strategy play is a nice occasional distraction.
- Learned about the perils of connectivity, and ended up having two hundred foot cords running the house last weekend.
- Really glad to see Kobold Quarterly is charging along, with good production and good reviews. Check it out!

As part of a big family trip, my wife and I went down to Disneyland over the last few days with her brother, his wife, and their two five year old twin boys. This time, we drove down along the I-5 corridor, stopping overnight in Ashland and Willows along the way, before staying for a week in sunny 80 degree California.

- Riding Space Mountain in the dark totally changes the way you look at conventional roller-coasters.
- The new Halloween fireworks display is totally worth the visit, especially if you wait the two hours and see it right up close!
- The updated Fantasmic show, complete with a 30' fire-breathing dragon, is very much worth the price of admission!
- In getting to see the Pirate Dinner down by Knott's Scary Farm, there is such a thing as cheesy pirate goodness.
- It seems like half the fields and orchards along the I-5 corridor are dead, with miles of sun-blackened trees visible around every corner.
- The folks at California Adventure fixed the Mulholland roller-coaster, making it significantly less frightening for people taller than 48 inches.
- The new Buzz Lightyear / Toy Story Midway ride is completely awesome, and is totally worth the 45 minute wait in line.

Back in the real world, now that the glittery fun is over

- I'm still in the running for a third interview with the folks at Natal for the possibility of a FTE Microsoft position.
- I'm finishing up one batch of contract work, and am on track to pick up two more sets within the next few weeks.
- I reached the 34,000 word mark on Fire Cage during the trip, and am starting to suspect it might be a novel, and not a novella.
- I should be hearing back from two different companies around my game patent during the next few weeks.
- I sent off two more agent queries yesterday morning after receiving two really good, personal rejection letters from two other agents.
- I'm talking with a couple of different recruiters now, and am starting to change the parameters of my game designer job search.
- But I did receive my first nod for a VP-level game design position this last week... while flattering, moving out of state and risking everything isn't currently on the docket.

I am SOOO looking forward to reading Cherie Priest's steampunk novel, Boneshaker! Onto Amazon.com, with speed!

As of this morning, I reached the mid-point on Fire Cage, where the hunted become the hunters, and the good guys get the first clue on who might be behind all of the deadly mayhem.

My wife and I spent the last ten days or so down in the deeps of Oregon, visiting friends and taking a much overdue vacation trip to the coast to catch some wave time. As the last couple of anniversaries and Christmas trips got cancelled due to a variety of challenging situations, this trip was designed to kind of include everything that we wanted to catch up on and to kind of clear the docket. Now, after being back into the grind of life in Seattle, I can look back and say that we were blessed with ten really good days of just being able to chill out and recharge on a variety of levels, and I can say with all honestly that I wish we were still down there just lazing in the morning sun.

Job Bits
Still waiting to hear back if I'm advancing to the third round of interviews with Microsoft's Natal group. Fingers crossed!
Waiting to hear back any more news on my contract writing gig, to see what the next steps are going to involve.
Found three more local jobs this morning that I can apply for, will probably send out resumes later today.

Creative Bits
Received nice personal rejection for Goblin Girl, sent query off to Flux, a publisher I recently heard a bit about.
Found another potential angle for my card game, if the first option doesn't work out. Sending demo kit this week.
Wrote up another few chapters for Fire Cage, up to 18k out of 45k with the plot advancing along nicely.
Need to start working up my demon story for the Drollerie Press story contest.

Other Bits
Getting frustrated with spoofing and lag-pedals for Gears of Wars 2 multiplayer - probably switching over to Battlestations: Midway.
I played through the Curious Village puzzle adventure for the DS over the trip, and enjoyed most of the game.
Not sure how much time I'm going to have for Eve and GW over the next two weeks, as real life is likely going to interfere a lot.
Got a good education on firearms from some friends of ours, and got to shoot a variety of handguns and rifles over the weekend.

All for now,
-Scott

The writing is getting along a bit better now. While I was suspicious about whether it was all going to come together, now that I've hit my stride in the third chapter, the story is flowing on as I would expect. On a nice bit of news as well, I may be able to convince a local artist friend of mine to make me a few steampunk flavored icons, as there are a number of pieces in her online gallery that just might fit the bill for what I'm looking for in a placeholder book cover. -Scott