Steelgod September - The Gears of Anbar is Finished

After around a month (more or less), The Gears of Anbar - The Might of the Steelgods Book Two is...FINISHED!

Wee!

In celebration I'm posting this post on the new blogger format! It is awesome! We can now tell for sure that it is owned by google, because everything is so white!


At any rate, here are some stats.

Wordcount Stats


Total Words: 112,446
Total Days Covered: 33
Total Days Actually Writing: 28 (Sundays and driving to/from WorldCON)
Words per Day Average: 4,019 (holy crap)
Total actual time spent (in hours) writing: ~40 hours (That's a full time job for one week)
Words per Hour: 2,811 (holy crap again)
Most written in one day: 11,100 words (yesterday, Sep. 1nd)
Least written in one day: 1,040 words (Tuesday, August 30th)

Plot Stats


Number of Chapters: 26 (not counting the prologue and epilogue)
Incorrectly numbered chapters: I have two chapters "2"s for some reason, messing up all future chapter listings.
Characters carried over from Steelgods 1 (physical presence required): 4
New named main characters introduced: 5
Main characters killed: *spoiler*
Times Cevan got the crap kicked out of him: 3
Most used joke: "Like the number" (in reference to when Cevan would introduce himself)
Adherence to original outline written last year: ~40%

Compared to Steelgods 1 (faq)


(note: I'm too lazy to stat check, so this is mostly personal opinion)

Is Gears a better book? Yes
Are there more or less Peacemakers in it? Less
Are there more or less Gears of Anbar in it? ...are you seriously asking this question?
Is there more or less action? Less (aaaand there go my Alpha readers)
Is there more or less lovin with the ladies? Loads more (aaaand here they come back)
Are there more on-screen deaths? No
Are there more impactful on-screen deaths? Absolutely 
Are there...politics? Sort of, yes. 
Is it funner? I think so. 
Better structured? Absolutely. Writing this made me realize how much work Steelgods 1 needs.
STEAM SPIDERS ? VERY YES.
Wait, that wasn't a joke? No, there are actual Steam Spiders.
...how does that work? Just read it and find out.
Is Cevan less of a moron? He still has poor self-esteem, but I think he's doing a good job "growing up" over the course of the series. 
What about turning points? The "turning point" moment in this book is (in my opinion) much more dramatic than in Steelgods 1. I'll have a larger impact over the rest of the series.
So you are still planning on writing six of these things, huh? Yep. 
Favorite Gears exclusive character: Pitronus
Favorite series character: Either Roc or Devent
Wait, Devent? Isn't he like a huge jerk? Yes, but he's a complex character, and that's why I like him. Rook was my favorite character from Effulgent Corruption, remember? And he's like a mass-murderer psychopath.
Maybe you need therapy. I've got a BS in Psychology, so I can therapize myself!






...since this has gotten far off the rails, here's the magical WORDLE!

Yeah, I'm surprised Devent and Rosemary are more prominent than Stewart and Pitronus. I guess they are his step-siblings.

I apparently also use the words "like", "just", and "back" a lot. "Back" is a carry-over from Effulgent Corruption if I remember correctly. I should probably keep that in mind when I start the next book.

Next project? Editing Steelgods 1. Then the daunting task of editing Effulgent Corruption. In the mean time I'm debating writing something else, but we'll see.

The first step is outlining the edits for Steelgods 1, because I have a lot of changes that need to be made and don't really have it organized. So I'm going to re-read it, write down those edits, pull up my two Alpha readers' line edits, and go from there.

Anyway, Gears is done! Now to drown myself in video games.

Anbar August - STEAM SPIDERS

So I'm finally getting into the whole "Steampunk" aspect of the Might of the Steelgods books. It's always been a sort of hybrid between traditional fantasy and Steampunk elements, where the Steampunk parts are mostly of my own design (that is, we haven't gotten into the whole "Victorian era" part of it...at least not extensively).

I've always loved Steampunk, even though I know...well, not a lot about it. Perhaps the biggest Steampunk thing I enjoyed was Final Fantasy VI, which was big on the technology part and not on the other aspects (clothing, period society, etc.)

Pictured: STEAMPUNK IN 16 BITS

Which is sort of where my enjoyment of the whole Steampunk thing comes from. I love the idea of goofy, impossible machines powered by steam and clockwork, but get bogged down in the rest of it. However, I'm cut a bit of slack in Gears: It takes place in London, which is the main city of the Gears of Anbar (the steampunk guys) in Tempered (the land that is mostly traditional fantasy). So they have aspects of both society, which basically means: Nathan can cheat and cut out all the parts of steampunk he doesn't like. Suckers!


Unfortunately, when they actually get to the Steel-Imbued Domain in a later book (the entire country that is a massive Gears city) then I'll have to actually....you know, follow the "rules" of steampunk. But we'll worry about that when I get to it.

But my total ruination of Steampunk for my own fiendish devices means I can do CRAZY THINGS. LIKE ADD STEAM SPIDERS. NOBODY HAS EVER...

Oh wait. 

CRAP.

Well...mine is different. Also there's dirigibles, a staple of steampunkness, as well as some other crap. Basically I'm enjoying myself since I haven't been able to put guns in a story for forever, so it's good to have them all back.

At any rate, I'd say we are about in act 3 of Gears, which is good considering there are only five days left in August. If I'm going to finish this thing before "Anbar August" ends, then I'm going to have to pick up the pace. The plan after that is, while I still have Cevan's story fresh on my mind, I'll go back and edit the first Steelgods book. I'm also considering changing the title to The Destroyer of the World, and thinking of something else for the last book. The Destroyer of the World is just so much more attention-grabbing, you know?

Also all that rambling about that job last time and I probably didn't get it. Oh well.

Here's a bit. IS IT ABOUT STEAM SPIDERS? YOU BET IT IS!

“That isn’t even the best of it,” Pitronus elbowed me. “I heard from a little bird that they have Steam Spiders here.”

I blinked, uncertain what to say. Steam mixed with spiders didn’t sound like a good combination, no matter how many options my vivid imagination threw up. Ashe, on the other hand, nearly exploded in excitement.

“Really? Are you serious? They gave Boreous Spiders? As in, more than one? Steelgods, that’s amazing! Where are they?”

“Judging by the sound,” Pitronus grinned at her, clearly enjoying the attention. “I’d say they are next up in our little performance.”

Ashe’s gaze glued on the corner. I don’t think if I’d stripped naked and danced next to her I could have gotten her attention at that moment. So I watched along with her, hair bristling with anticipation on what a “Steam Spider” might be.

When the monstrous machine at last rounded the corner, I saw that – like the Walking Artillery – the Gears were not ones for subtlety when naming their creations.