The Race is On!

NaNoWriMo has begun!

As of today, I have 11,445 words according to NaNo's official tally machine.  (According to OpenOffice, I actually have 11,500, but what's 55 words between friends?)

This one is definitely a hot mess, you guys.  I have jumped headfirst into a whole new genre that I've never worked - or read - in before.

Steampunk.

You read that right.  I am writing a fantasy novel with steampunk.  I feel SO COOL right now, okay?  Let's just be honest.  I'm sitting here DYING for a top hat with one of those awesome pairs of goggles.

I did do some research before I started.  TVTropes, my source of many lost hours, has the following to say about steampunk:

Retro-style Speculative Fiction set in periods where steam power is king. Very often this will be in an Alternate Universe where the internal combustion engine never displaced the steam engine, and as a result all manner of cool steam-driven technologies have emerged, ranging from Airships to submarines; the plausible counterpart to Magitek, with a Hollywood Science Hand Wave or The Spark of Genius. Largely, steampunk runs on Rule of Cool. Sometimes combined with the work of Charles Babbage on mechanical computers to produce a kind of retro Cyber Punk set entirely in the Victorian era or a close analogue, with Dickensian exploitation.

 (It actually has quite a lot else to say as well, but that's good for a start.)  I did read the rest of the article, and clicked through to other articles on Punk Punk and such.  I also watched this video which, if you even know what Steampunk is or is actually supposed to be, will give you a chuckle or two.

The long and the short of the above is: I'm jumping into a new pool.  The new novel is turning out to be urban fantasy, based in a city that's a combination of Sharn and Sigil, with both high (spell-based) magic and steampunk technology.

I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH THIS RIGHT NOW I CANNOT EVEN EXPLAIN IT.

In other news, though, I'm also having real-life issues that nobody probably cares about.  The first cold-possible-flu of the season hit me last night with an evil, evil vengeance, and my comprehensive exams are Friday.  (For those unfamiliar with grad school speak, if I don't pass the comps, I don't get my Master's.)  So things are a bit... crazy... in my life right now, and you may or may not hear from me for awhile.  Wish me luck!