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).

Mainly for the UK people, or anyone who’s already read SoU (it’s got minor spoilers for SoU, so read at your peril): you can read chapter 1 of book 2, Harbinger of the Storm, here.

4000 words on the draft of book 3 today. Chapter 1 dusted and done.

Body count: 1, 1 in progress
Best moment of the day: Acatl trying to sacrifice an uncooperative owl. Many scratches ensued. Good thing blood is magical…
Missing research: need to find out if a character (Nezahualpilli) took part in the coronation war of the new Aztec Emperor. Will hit the history books.

Also, my birthday gift is apparently that I get to see my French editor to talk book, translation, promotion etc. (well, I had to place the meeting somewhere, might as well be on a nice day :=) )

The wonderful M.G. Ellington has been kind enough to lend me some space on the Apex blog, where I ramble on what I should have done when writing Obsidian and Blood:

When I settled down to write my novel, the Aztec noir fantasy Servant of the Underworld, I had only the vaguest idea it might turn into a series. My first thought was to finish the darn thing, and not really to map out what might be happening to my characters after the plot was over.

That was 2007; now we’re in 2010. I’ve sold Servant and two more books in the Obsidian and Blood trilogy to Angry Robot; I’ve turned the sequel, Harbinger of the Storm, to my publisher; and I’ve just completed a tentative synopsis for the as-yet-untitled book 3. Looking back to how I wrote the series, there are a few things I did right, and a few things I should have paid more attention to.

Read more.

Go check it out!

In other linkage news, Mike Johnstone reviews the February 2010 issue of Asimov’s, which contains my alt-hist “The Wind-Blown Man”:

Her prose deftly taps into the atmosphere, rhythm, and thoughtfulness of Chinese tales (Buddhist, Taoist myths): it is measured, unhurried, soothing; it suggests a depth just tantalizingly out of reach.

That’s all for now. I’ll go back to RL stuff and programming (and %% implicit conversions).

Er, wow.
Duncan Lawie reviews Servant of the Underworld for Strange Horizons. It’s pretty special, because SH is huge, and because it’s the one venue I regularly go to in order to read reviews–so to be reviewed there does make me feel like a star…

And, what’s more, it says things like:

(…)Servant of the Underworld is rounded and complete in itself, although the title page suggests this is the first volume of “Obsidian and Blood.” If Aliette de Bodard can continue as well as she has started, Acatl deserves to become as well known as that other priestly investigator, Cadfael.

*writer goes for a liedown*
(I know you’re meant to ignore reviews good and bad and focus on writing, but–wow. Just wow.)

And here’s the cover to go with the blurb! Isn’t it so pretty? (note that I have different bloodstains on my covers–you can now collect them all *g*).

Coming January 2011 in the UK/Australia and February 2011 in the US/RoW. With star demons, conniving high priests and generalised political plotting. Oh, and more ahuizotls, because fingernail-eating monsters always make everything better.

Pre-order on Amazon.co.uk|Amazon.com|Barnes and Noble|Book Depository|Amazon.fr

And while I’m at it, another (very nice) review of Servant of the Underworld at Cold Iron and Rowan-Wood.

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.