THE GIL-MONSTER

I ended with Cadmus pondering his altar and the fact that he...just shed some tears! I know, what the hell, right? I thought the same thing yesterday when I wrote it. That's pretty much why I stopped writing, because I was angry with the story at it heading in that direction so soon. But, the story knows better than I. As the Cylons would say, "All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again."

Honestly though, I can't believe I've finished early, especially after being so sick for so long. I attribute part of it to my sharpening my speed skills with those Date stories. I was pumping out two and three thousand words a day at times with those, so 1667 words was really not an issue for me. I was ridiculously ahead when I fell ill and used my reserve to fortify my word count, so I was never really behind like I thought I was.

I'm about 20,000 words away from actually finishing The Blood Crown. I'm going to continue writing on it today but, tomorrow, I have a review to write for Lighterthief's EP, Hard Listening. The release is on 1 December, and I promised Stuart Rowe I'd have the review for him to spread around at the time of the release. And, no, I haven't been procrastinating on this. I just got the press kit today, so I'm jumping on this to help the Lighterthief crew out...and Barry Andrews, of course. ::big wicked grin:: I've already forwarded the press kit to the contacts I still have in the music business, asking them to spread it around like warm butter.

After the reviews, I've promised acook I would write a collaborative J-fic with gunslingaaahhh that involves Femme Joker (you'll just have to wait and see what that's all about) and Batman. We'll be working on that in December. Once that's done, my J-fic writing days will come to a conclusion. I think that's rather fitting, since I saw the movie last December and began writing fics in January. I'll just end it all on my kind of one year anniversary. The Joker Blogs are also coming to an end soon, so it all works out nicely in the Great Scheme of Things.

Then it will be back to The Blood Crown with a vengeance. I want to finish as soon as I can so I can go directly into The Augury of Gideon. I'm in a serious mood to write my Vampires, particularly Cadmus Pariah and the mortated (that's a word in my book ~ mortation - the transformation of a Vampire back into mortal form) Faust, now going by his mortal name Kallum. Writing "The Sainted Confessor" almost killed me, but it also kind of redeemed me writing-wise, and it gave me the key to writing The Augury of Gideon, so I'm excited. Very excited indeed and absolutely, all billshat aside.

I don't know what 2010 will bring, except a new Shriekback album I wholly intend to help promote to the full extent of my resources and abilities, but I do know I'll be writing my way through it all, and still looking for that elusive publisher. There's so much more for Cadmus to do...to so many people. I'll close with this, because I can - ha ha ha!

Cadmus had broken the Circle long before. He’d stood shortly after Kelat’s speech and walked away from the other Vampires. Let them remain in solemnity, wallowing in fairy tales and dead religions. He was outcast. He would embrace his station and leave them to it. He stood at a secret window in the sanctuary, staring up into the infinity of the stars that watched over this lush garden of a planet, a bounty to both human and Vampire, and especially to Cadmus Pariah. The whites of his eyes shimmered in the pale light, but the iris and pupil absorbed even the faintest of beams. He’d spent centuries listening to people praise the ethereal beauty of his eyes, how alien and magnetic they were. Many of these same people had had their souls ripped from them by way of those magnificent, measureless eyes. He felt every one of them now, and heard them too, whispering still in desperation for release.