End of February Writing Update

2013 Goals:

Goal 1 - Write a Grandpa Anarchy Story a Week:

January 2013

Jan 19:  DarkFireDragonNinja  (begun several years ago)
Jan 24:  OmniGen Again  (begun Jan 23)
Jan 25:  Veteran of the Bone Wars  (begun Dec 30)
Jan 29:  Nemesis  (begun Dec 10)

February 2013

Jan 31:  Turncoats (begun Dec 8)
Feb 3:  There Ain't No Justice  (begun Nov 29)
Feb 5:  City of the Monkey God  (begun Nov 26)
Feb 7:  Future Me  (begun Jan 31)
Feb 10:  Roll of the Die  (begin Feb 10)
Feb 11:  Trouble Focusing  (begun, Nov 21, in theory)
Feb 19:  Dead Again  (begun Feb 18)

Goal 2 - Write a Tai-Pan Story a Month:

Feb 16  The Pilgrimage of Ian St. Ritz  (January Tai-Pan story, 10,000 words)
Feb 23:  Space Miner Blues
Feb 23:  Banker Blues

Goals 3 & 4

We're not going to talk about these right now.  ^_^  No progress on drawing or working on my other stories.  No progress on the Grandpa Anarchy book right now either.

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I actually wrote two short stories last Saturday.  These are Tai-Pan universe Musachin/Bottles shaggy dog type stories, very short and very easy to put together.  I'm not sure how good they are, but I still count them towards my goal of writing a Tai-Pan story a month for 2013.  I have officially completed 3 Tai-Pan stories so far this year.

What I haven't done is any art, or any significant writing on my anime fanfic Girl's School.  I want to start on that soon but it's a big project.  It's so much easier to toss off a short story than it is to wrestle with the longest continuous story I've ever worked on (going on multiple novels in size now).  Also, I feel like I should start work on one of my other Tai-Pan stories, I have a bunch of them that have not been worked on in years or even in a decade.

In the meantime I keep coming up with more Grandpa Anarchy story ideas, so I keep creating new files.  I'm not working on them at the moment, but I've added to my story list:

Feb 19  Anarchy Is Forever
Feb 24  Hero's Sacrifice
Feb 25  The Crystal Weenie
Feb 25  Alien Space Bats

I've been looking at my Vashti stories for the Tai-Pan.  I'd really like to finish a few of those, and I have a bunch in various stages of completion.  I tend to divide them up into a few categories:  Pre-Iktome stories, Iktome stories, and Quantum Lady stories.

Vashti Pre-Iktome Stories:
Man of Golden Words
Ghost Dance / Fly Me Courageous
Bitch
Hair of the Throug That Bit Me

Iktome Stories:
The Villainy You Teach Me

Quantum Lady Stories:
(Bury Your Teeth, a potential Lo-Pan Chau story)
Dark Chest of Wonders
Chance Encounter
Blanking the Lady - Vashti's Story
(also:  Blanking the Lady - Musachin, Blanking the Lady - Willamina)
Mothers
Come Together

Out of all of these, Chance Encounter is probably the closest to being done and the easiest to finish, and the various "Blanking the Lady" stories (which form an interconnected trilogy, or are supposed to) are the ones that I think about finishing the most often, but the ones that absolutely need to be finished are Bitch, Hair of the Throug that Bit Me, and Dark Chest of Wonders, as those explain how Vashti got off Hautakivi, how she joined the Iktome, and how she left the Iktome and wound up on the Quantum Lady.  As such, I really ought to finish those before working on any other Quantum Lady stories about Vashti.

I looked at Hair of the Throug that Bit Me last night.  It's surprisingly complete, but still needs work to become a coherent story.  This is the one story I've worked on more than any other Tai-Pan story, and the plot has changed and morphed several times.  It's a long and complex story, but it's nearly fully written.  I think it could be finished very quickly with a few nights work.

But I really need to finish Bitch first, or at the same time.  They're bookend stories, one explaining how Vashti left Hautakivi with the crew of the Winter's Dance, the other explaining how she left that ship and wound up on the Iktome.  A lot of the same characters are involved in both stories, but Bitch has mostly existed as a collection of ideas and half-scenes for many years.  It will take longer to pull together -- or perhaps not, since it's a much more simple and linear story.

Dark Chest of Wonders is the most problematic, since it's both complex and mostly ideas and partial scenes at this point.  It will take a lot of work to write that one.

Anyway, I think I'd like to work on Bitch and Hair of the Through that Bit Me this next week.  I'd feel really good to finish one of my old and more important Vashti stories.

Mothers is an old idea that I'd never written down -- a story about Vashti's mother visiting the Quantum Lady, and Willamina's mother visiting the Quantum Lady.  That may be one story or two different stories.  I have some ideas but not a solid plot.  Meanwhile Come Together is a brand new story idea, basically Vashti's old band Bedlam Circuit showing up and announcing that they're getting back together, and trying to convince Vashti to go along with them.  None of them are as good of musicians as Vashti's current mates in Bitted Throug, and most of them hated Vashti back when they worked together.  I don't have a full plot for that one either, but there are lots of possibilities for fun for both story ideas.