Because of moments like those: I was looking for something else entirely (specifically, information about religion in Tlatelolco for a minor character in book 3), and happened upon an awesome tidbit of information related to the time period, which will fit great into the novel.
Research is made of awesome.

PS: apparently, book 3 is now listed on amazon, with a Sept. 1 2011 release date (and no title). Good to know while you’re writing it…
EDIT: OK, according to AR this is an erroneous listing, and the book will *not* be released on Sept 2011. Phew.

Wordcount: 17,000/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: the Tlatelolco marketplace.

Unexpected moment of the day: the merchant. Thin, armed to the teeth, and determined to defend his goods…

Missing research: none so far.

Wordcount: 14,600/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: Teomitl interacting with children.

Unexpected moment of the day: Acatl’s family dynamics. The previous family meal scene was in book 1, and wow, how things have changed, two books later.
Unexpected moment of the day, #2: finding out all Aztec priests painted their whole bodies black. Ah. Would have been good to know this before I wrote two freaking books featuring a priest as a main character…

Missing research: not that I can see for tonight. Spent a lot of time figuring out how many nephews and nieces Acatl had, and what they were up to. The pile of books near my chair is now a complete mess.

Wordcount: 12,000/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: the Zen warrior, part 2.

Unexpected moment of the day: recycling a scene from book 2 and opening up tons of fun possibilities for the end game.

Missing research: need to find some juicy anecdotes about Axayacatl’s reign (yup, you guessed it. The best book I had for that is the Hassig, which is still MIA).

Missing bits: we’re down to extra bits, with a little scene that I mean to use at the beginning of chapter 4.

Also met with my French editor Eclipse, and they are made of awesome. Got to do some thinking about forms of address and “tu/vous” in the translation, which should keep me busy for the weekend 🙂
The editor-in-chief also said it was the first time they were working with someone who understood the translation perfectly and could comment on how accurate and how close to the text/the original intent it was, and that it would be an interesting experiment…
BTW, the official French release date for the book is May 2011, with the other books to follow at six-month intervals.

That’s it. I’m off to have Chinese for my birthday dinner, and to find out about my presents (first one was the H’s renewing my Asimov’s subscription, which pleases me no end).

Bit of a wash today, due to a truncated lunch break.

Wordcount: 10,500/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: autopsy from really, really far away (just to be sure there’s no contagion)

Unexpected moment of the day: the warrior with a Zen outlook on things.

Missing research: have to check where the blazes Metztitlan is and what happened there–which would be easier, had I not lost the Hassig book.

Missing bits: we’re down to extra bits, with a little scene that I mean to use at the beginning of chapter 4.

Wordcount: 9,500/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: Acatl being called in to examine a sick man (yup, he only does autopsies 🙂 )

Unexpected moment of the day: throwing in a further autopsy, just for the heck of it. Oh, and a character turning abruptly responsible.

Missing research: well, a missing book, really. I forgot Ross Hassig’s Aztec Warfare on the bus Thursday evening, and just realised it. Darn. I had to forget the expensive research book…

Missing bits: we’re down to extra bits, with a little scene that I mean to use at the beginning of chapter 4.

Wordcount: 8,000/100,000

Awesome title ideas: meep. None. Temp title is Gatherer of the Slain, which sucks.

Body count: 1, 1 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.

Best moment of the day: Teomitl helping Acatl change boats–causing the grandmother of all traffic jams in the canal.

Unexpected moment of the day: inverting two chapters in the book for dramatic effect.

Missing research: still need to find out more about coronation wars.

Missing bits: 3 AA batteries for my Neo, so I can type on my bus journey.

Oh, BTW, my nano page is here (updated irregularly, but I’m making an effort).

So, the synopsis for book 3 came back from AR towers with a couple of very perceptive editorial comments. I’ll need to sit down and rework it, but I’m going to start working on it as soon as I’ve finished the current short story.

Temp title is “Master of the House of Darts”, which has the inconvenient of not fitting on a cover, so it’s only a placeholder until I have a brilliant idea for an alternative title. Going to be referred to as MHD/book 3, methinks… Focusing on human sacrifice, the Aztec way of waging war, and Tenochtitlan’s relationship with its neighbours.

Also, I’ve put up the combined character index for books 1 and 2 of the series online (warning, mild spoilers), and the combined Aztec glossary (no spoilers, bar if you want to see what concepts I used in books 1 and 2 🙂 ).

And for those French-speakers among you, Eclipse, the imprint of Bibliothèque Interdite, which bought the French rights to the series, has announced its initial lineup, which most notably includes Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Haven’t seen the actual books other than the mockups, but I do like the sober look very much (and they’re not systematically reordering a cover if they like the original version, which is interesting). Also, I’m a big fan of their big shiny banner (see below).

Remember that character I mentioned, way back when I was writing Harbinger? The one to whom I gave a long and complicated name, figuring we’d never see him again, and who ended up playing a major part in Harbinger?

Well, it turns out he’s going to play a major part in book 3, too. And I’m still stuck with him…

*sigh*

PS: in case you’ve read Servant of the Underworld and are wondering… It’s Acamapichtli, the disagreeable High Priest of the Rain God. He turns out to be still disagreeable, but way too useful for plot purposes.

So, it looks like I have about half an outline for book 3. Missing: any kind of sense, and a number of plot elements which come in way too late. Slowly chipping away at it…

Also, I’m sitting on a piece of good news I’m dying to share, but can’t right now (and nope, it’s not the one in the next post). Stay tuned for an update (I hope soonish, but you never know in this crazy environment…)

And finally, I’ve started learning Vietnamese. Currently struggling a lot with a number of wrong-footed instincts (tonal languages are %% counter intuitive when you’ve never learnt one, and I’m mixing up a lot of the many many vowels as well. On the plus side, the alphabet’s mostly recognisable)…

PS: and here’s an obligatory short reminder that you can win a pretty anthology, simply by leaving a comment in this post until next Wednesday.