Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 109

Well, okay.

Yes, I know about the Macmillan thing. Thanks for all the emailed heads ups. No, there's nothing I can do about it. You can just chalk this up under "one more thing authors don't control."

John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow have beaten me to the thoughtful breakdowns, so I won't go into that here.

Suffice it to say, there's still a great deal of speculation — but it looks like Macmillan and Amazon are bickering over how much Macmillan is allowed to charge for its ebooks. In short: Macmillan...

Sometimes these things happen

I'm inclined to blame Mark Henry. He's the only man who could inspire me to turn my petite, hard-scrabble 19th century single mom into a drag queen.

It kind of rocks, though.

I mean, from a certain angle …

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

Calling Seattle-Area Victoriana Buffs

It's Bartitsu time! You know, Bartitsu — the 19th century "gentlemanly art of self-defense," AKA Victorian stick-fighting … coming to Seattle via seminar on March 6, at the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. Behold, a link: Bartitsu In Seattle.

The seminar's presenters are creating a documentary on this subject, called Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes. For lots of information and fun old photos (plus great period fashion, including that of 19th-century women...

good news/bad news

This morning I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning — my last before our bullet-proof Amazon.com insurance benefits go away at the end of this month. I'd been having a little sensitivity with one particular tooth; so while I was there, I asked about it. The doc did some tests. He poked and prodded. And it soon became quite evident that I have a 20-year-old silver filling essentially rotting out. I also have a teeeeny cavity. When I say "teeny" I mean "the doc said if he knew for...

Question of the Day

I've been asked this question several times over the last few days, so apparently I ought to make a statement on the matter: Yes, if you order the trade paperback version of Fathom (available Feb. 2) from the University Book Store here in Seattle, I will totally sign it and personalize it for you. All you have to do is follow the directions available here, same as before.

This is true of any book I have in print. It would seem that I've been insufficiently clear on this point; but I hope t...

Whew!

No writing on "Far-Fetched" today, because I spent all my writing time sweating over a proposal for a follow-up to Dreadnought (about 2000 words). Just now, after fretting and typing and driving myself bananas for several hours, I hit "send" to all the important folks who need to see it.

WIKTORY.

Also, a bit of exhaustion.

I'd been struggling with the set-up for this book for weeks, and sitting down to make it sound (a). interesting, (b). reasonable, and (c). write-able in four or five...

January 25, 2010

Today I received my author copies for the trade paperback edition of Fathom. Soon (Feb. 2, if not sooner at your local bookstore) you'll be able to own one of your very own, nipple-slip cover and everything! Nice how they kept that.

To refresh your memory with regards to this project, I shall reach back into the mists of time and retrieve a pitch summary I wrote long ago:
An ageless water witch schemes to bring old gods back to glory, but awakening the Leviathan is no small feat–and it's none...

January 24, 2010

Not a lot of writing happened this weekend, and I undid half what made it to the page — leaving me with a very small net word count. But such is life, and it's been a good couple of days anyway.

On Friday night I went to the g0thbar with Elaine and Ellen; yesterday Aric and I did lunch and spent the afternoon with Krissy and Jon; and today I did virtually nothing but lounge, clean house, and catch up on some of last week's day-job work.*

In other news (WOCKA WOCKA) I'd like to thank Mary Ann...

January 22, 2010

Here are today's stats on the Clockwork Century story, "Far-Fetched" — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland:

Project: "Far-Fetched"

Deadline: February 20, 2010

New Words Written: 649

Present Total Word Count: 1320







Things Accomplished in Fiction: Finished the beginning and set-up; let the adventuring begin.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work in the morning; went...

January 21, 2010

Yesterday I got some work done on Hellbent, and today I started a new short story, "Far-Fetched." It's for a YA anthology about which I won't talk until I have the contracts; but to give you all the information pertinent to its metrics: I have less than a month to write it. But the project is hot and I'm very excited, and this is going to be a great little piece.

Set in the Clockwork Century, "Far-Fetched" is the story of a teenage apprentice airship engineer named Huojin — or more...