So The Black Mask Brigade is nowhere near actually being finished, but it is over the 50,000 word goal, which means that I'm a NaNoWriMo 2007 winner! The final word count is 61,781 -- not bad for a novel started on November 1st, not quite thirty days ago!

I'm pretty happy with how it's shaped up so far. The Black Mask Brigade takes place in the same weird superhero universe as Something Like Thieves, and some of the main characters in BMB are actually characters that have been mentioned in passing in SLT. And there's at least one who plays a significant role in SLT: if anyone wondered what the Gearslayer has been getting up to when he isn't doing freelance work for Obsidian Fox, well, this answers that question. Now that the cast of BMB is fully fleshed out and living and breathing in their own right, I think I'm going to be doing a lot of crossing over between the two. I'm actually tempted to start another story in the same universe, focusing on Lightningbug's quest to redeem his father (yeah, I know, writing about the heroes when writing about the villains is so much more fun!), but I should probably stick to what I've got for now.

Besides, I'm having enough trouble resisting the urge to write more Wolfeknight/Red Wraith drabbles. What's up with me and hetero romance all of a sudden?

Anyway, here's an exerpt from The Black Mask Brigade:




And no, this isn't the DC or Marvel universe: they're just comic book characters to these guys, too. Cade (Red Wraith) has many, many heroes, most of whom aren't real.