Handed in the final Greywalker novel, REVENANT, Monday at 1 am. And now I have received the hardcopy proofs for the mass market paperback edition of POSSESSION. Bye-bye leisure time.

So, there’s a lot of discussion around about awards–it’s that time of year for writers, the last chance to get your work on the nomination lists for the Big Awards. It’s a really confusing and upsetting thing to work in an industry that’s so much in flux that it’s impossible to keep track of what’s out there, much less what’s eligible (see Mary Robinette Kowal’s article about why her wonderful audio The Lady Astronaut of Mars was not eligible, in spite of seeming to be). I, personally think it’s a hair-split that’s ridiculous, but it’s in the past now. However, new rounds of “nominate me” are in the works and both Mary (whom I adore) and John Scalzi (whom I respect and like very much) have posted about the whole problem of pimping your work for awards, because we writer-peeps are kind of creeped out by the whole “Look at me!!!” aspect of this sometimes. Both are excellent bits of common sense and “Please stop freaking” (and they both write a damn fine story.) See Scalzi’s article here. And Mary’s here.

And so with that in mind, I am going to say this: I had three publications last year. One was a reprint of last year’s book and it’s not eligible for anything. But one was a new hardcover novel (Possesion) and the other was a short story (“The Hollow Hounds”).

Possession (Greywalker novel #8 from Roc) was a good book and it was fun, but probably not much of contender against all the other Fantasy and Science Fiction novels that came out last year–it really was an amazing year for the genre.

But the short story, “The Hollow Hounds” was one I really liked, and the anthology, Clockwork Fairy Tales (edited by Stephen L. Antczak and James C. Bassett from Roc), was unusual and well-done. And aside from my story (which I thought rather nifty) it had a great line up of steampunk fairy tales from some amazing writers (K.W. Jeter, Jay Lake, Paul di Fillippo, Stephen Harper, Nancy A. Collins, G.K. Hayes, Gregory Nicholl, Pip Ballantine and myself, Kat Richardson.) It also came out in the beginning of February and was largely lost in the shuffle.

If you are in a position to nominate one of these for a Nebula or other award–or if you just want a good read you missed in 2013, please consider these.

DONE! Yes, finally and barely on time. REVENANT first draft is done at 121,100 words. 7,549 of them today, including the Pro- and Epilogues. Killed people, saved people, left wreckage by the side of the road and I think it’s pretty good.

Just need to spell check and it’s off to Editor, Agent, and Betas.

Best of all: it’s done. For now.

I wrote 8,401 words today and only the set-up to and Big Climax (plus Pro- and Epilogue) to go. Total word count: 113,533. I don’t feel tired yet, even though I started at 11 am Saturday and it’s now 2:30 am Sunday. It will hit me later. This is the longest writing day I’ve ever put in and the highest word count–personal best–for a single session, but it doesn’t feel like a victory: there’s still too much to do and only one day to do it. All other projects are hanging fire until this is done.

Sorry not to have updated here recently–there were some problems with the database and server for the site, AND someone tried to hack in via the WordPress back end–stupidly asking for a password reset, which immediately caused all sorts of interesting things to happen. But things are running again. The site’s file space is getting very full, so I hope to be moving the site’s files to a different server in the near future. In the meantime, I’ll be cleaning up behind the scenes and updating the Tour page, but probably not a lot else until the current WiP is done (January 6 deadline!) If you want to keep an eye on me and my doings, please watch the blog or visit me at FaceBook or G+ (where I can actually manage to have real conversations with real people instead of what FaceBook claims are “conversations with friends.”)

Daily Dog returns to the blog!

It’s still really cool to run across a new review of the first Greywalker novel.

And for those of you wanting more daily dog: Check out the blog!

Yesterday I finally acquired a file cabinet.

It’s elderly, but made of actual wood! It does need a little bit of work on the sliders and some oil and wax here and there before I can store my files in it, but it’s nicely made of solid oak and cabinet-quality oak plywood. It has a Washington State property stamp inside that reads “W.C.E 7th GR”. (I feel just like Harper with her old wooden file cabinets!) Luckily for me, Bella has no interest in eating the file cabinet.

I’ll be participating in a Spreecast online this Wednesday with Rachel Caine, Sarah Pinborough, and Anton Strout starting at 3 pm Eastern time. Drop by and see us chatting live! You can even RSVP in advance and be reminded of the event by clicking here: http://www.spreecast.com/events/penguin-urban-fantasy-chat

Possession is officially on shelves and for sale today, but it’s not the only book out there: Tom Sniegoski has a new Remy Chandler book, Jim C. Hines has his second Magic ex Libris book out, Stacia Kane has a special Downside Ghosts book out, Mario Acevedo has a new book, and wonderful mystery writer S. J. Rozan has a new book out as Sam Cabot.