Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 101

May 5, 2010

I'm getting back into the swing of things over here, but this morning I got up later than I meant to — so it's been a day of catching up. Days like this are always an exercise in futility. No matter how much I accomplish, I can't shake the feeling that everything should've taken less time, or been finished earlier. Self-flagellation for the win.

Anyway. The day ain't over yet, I know, but the husband will be home before long. In related news, I wish I had an office.*

But here's the progress ...

Not waving but drowning

As many of you know, I made Tennessee my home before moving to Seattle in 2006. I spent about a dozen years in Chattanooga, attending a private Christian college in one of the outlying towns – and then the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I got my graduate degree.

I like Tennessee.

I didn't realize how much I'd grown to like it until I left it.

So now there are these floods, swamping Nashville and many other communities in the middle and western portions of the state. At this p...

May 4, 2010

A few brief bits of morning miscellany, before the day gets underway in earnest:

BOOKSLUT on Clementine – I've been watching the reception of this story with even more intense interest than is usual for a brand new book. It was a tough tale to write; I struggled to strike a balance between difficult truths and awesome adventures, and so far, readers seem to be largely along for the ride (thank heaven).

Libby's still posting photos – One more from that shoot last week. I like all the shots I...

May 3, 2010

I'm back from Penguicon and actually awake this morning, having spent nearly 12 hours catching up on the sleep I lost over the long weekend. It's a good thing, too. I need to be awake. I'm absolutely staggered by how much stuff piles up when one spends four days away from one's work and email duties.

But the weekend was a blast, as Penguicon always is. This particular event serves as my primary "relax-a-con," which is to say, I don't bring anything but carry-on luggage and I don't bother...

April 28, 2010

Heads up, internet - tomorrow morning I'll be flying out to Detroit in order to participate in the annual awesomeness which is PenguiCon. I won't be bringing my laptop (it's heavy) or any costumes/dress-up clothes (nothing but carry-on), but I'll be all over the place in plain-clothes (and blue hair, so I'm easy to spot).

So in short, I'll be able to check messages/internet (helloooo smart-phone) but I won't be responding to much unless it's crazy important, in which case you should...

April 27, 2010

Despite Bonus! edits landing on two separate projects today, I carved out an hour or two for fiction. So here's the progress on the new steam-horror fin de siecle project about ghosts, guilt, elder gods, and monster-hunting in the aftermath of two gruesome murders:

Project: (tentative title) Maplecroft

Deadline: None

New words written: 1489

Present total word count: 8862 words

Things accomplished in fiction: It got weird.

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work (more than usual - I'm ...

things I've been told vs. partytime in my bloomers

If someone tells you that steampunks have to wear lots of brown and glue gears to their hats and have very good posture and sip tea with their pinky fingers sticking out and anyway, they're a bunch of stuffy jerks who live in sepia and don't have any fun …

… kindly reply with your middle finger.

I reject your reality and replace it with my own!

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

April 26, 2010

Today I got an early start, picked up my next day-job gig, and then spent all afternoon hanging with Libby Bulloff at her studio down on Pioneer Square. Officially, we were taking pictures for an upcoming project with which we are both affiliated; unofficially, we had lunch and goofed off a lot, too.

I can't wait to see the pictures. It's sort of full-tilt, wack-a-doo, fun-as-hell steampunk without a hint of sepia in sight. Because you can do that, you know - if you want to. If you don't, ...

April 23, 2010

As some of you know, if you keep up with the Wild Cards consortium and/or the life and times of science fiction and fantasy novelist Victor Milan … Victor has had a rough time of it lately. A few months ago he fell severely ill and was hospitalized for three weeks, undergoing several rounds of surgery; and like a good many of us professional creatives, he is hideously under-insured.

Therefore, our mutual friend and fellow writer Sara Harvey has set up a LiveJournal auction site to help...

April 22, 2010

Still working, though I think I can see the end from here. To celebrate my impending done-ness, I took a break in the middle of the day to go get my hair did (no, not really - I had an appointment). My roots were starting to look … um … epic. Anyway, click the link below to see the results via crappy phone-camera pic.

Don't worry, it's still blue/green. Just fresher and root-free.

MAKE WITH ZEE CLICKINGS »

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here o...