Hey all,

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. I’ve mostly been slammed by doing a lot of GeekMom work, editing and writing.

The eldest has been in the middle of doing all sorts of college application stuff. I think we’ve all got it in and she really worked hard on her essays.

And I started working on several writing projects.
The first is a ghost story/urban fantasy/romance that I started a few years back, finished, revised, and then put aside because I didn’t feel good about the story. But it kept haunting me (pun intended <g>) so I went back to it. I’d originally written the beginning in first person, didn’t like it, flipped it to third person, and it worked better but not hugely better.

When I went back, I flipped it to first person again and *finally* found the character’s voice. I’m pleased! 🙂

The other is a new short story that my editor over at The Wild Rose Press asked me to write.

It’s steampunk.

Now, when she asked, I said “I don’t write steampunk.” Yes, I know, I have all sorts of cool gadgets in my Seneca storyverse. But that’s alternate history.

Steampunk is different.

Then I thought about it. Then I watched Sherlock on PBS. Then I saw a promo poster for the return of the CrossGen universe, featuring Simon Archard from RUSE.

And I thought…well, maybe I don’t write steampunk. But I’ve always wanted to write a Sherlock Holmes mystery. And he’s in Victorian times. And he was a chemist and tinkerer so….

Thus was born my story, tentatively titled “the Curse of the Brimstone Contract,” starring one Gregor Sherringford, my riff on Holmes.

Yes, it’ll be a romance but if I do this right, I can carry the romance over a number of short story mysteries, just like Doyle’s original tales. (The short mystery part, not the romance part.)

I’ve finally mapped out all the scenes I want. The plot came easy–it’s getting the steampunk gadgets right that I’m having trouble with so far. I know what part I want them to play in the story. But first, I have to figure out how to engineer them, if that makes sense.

So I’ve been writing in “uses gadget to test gloves for traces of chemical” in the manuscript.

Then I’ll have to go research to fill them in.

I have to say I’ve having a ball writing them, especially putting in easter eggs from Doyle. Like, say, my detective’s last name. 🙂

Note: cross-posted from my livejournal.