Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 112

Thanks, Evan

Via Kyle Cassidy - (beware of heartwarming ahead) - a 7-year-old boy named Evan saved up his allowance and donated all of it ($46.75) to the animal shelter from whence he adopted his cat. Get the whole story (plus a cute shot of his letter) right here at Kyle's blog.

Thusly inspired, I went and looked up the shelter from whence we adopted Spain the Cat, nearly eight years ago now. The Pet Placement Center in Red Bank, Tennessee, is the oldest no-kill shelter in Hamilton County* — and like...

Quickie

Nick of Time PDF — In case you were reading quickly, be aware — that link leads to a PDF download. Nick of Time is a holiday sampler of excerpts from twelve new novels, including Laurell K. Hamilton, Cory Doctorow, Scott Sigler, and yours truly … with the first three chapters of Boneshaker. That's right, free!

Clementine news — Right here, via Subterranean. The last paragraph of this particular set of announcements makes me all giddy! Clementine, my short novel that serves as a...

December 15, 2009

Things are quiet here at the homestead, by which I mean, I'm so busy that I have virtually nothing to blog about. In addition to keeping up with my day-job, I'm trying to turn a 500-page book around into something show-able by Christmas; meanwhile, I'm fielding requests for stock signings (I'll always work 'em in — it's a nice problem to have) and trying to get ready for my holiday travels to Kentucky.

So. To be brief and self-promotional ('tis the season!), in case you didn't see it —

Great weekend already

Yesterday was packed to the brim, I tells ya. Around noon Ellen and I crashed Kat's Not A Christmas Party down at the Big Picture, where we hung out with the usual suspects, had a couple of rum-and-Cokes (YES at that hour and WHAT OF IT?), and watched Hot Fuzz which is brilliant and deeply hilarious. For the record, Kat could throw an awesome party in an empty soup can; so I dare you to IMAGINE how cool the event at the underground, booze-happy theater went.

Though Kat's party was a tough...

Start your weekend right

With links! From yours truly.

Canadian Science-Fiction writer Peter Watts shanghaied at customs - This is just plain embarrassing. There is absolutely no excuse for what happened to this man, no matter who or what you believe. In short, "Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is in serious legal trouble after he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and imprisoned by American border guards at a Canada U.S. border crossing December 8. This is a call to friends, fans and colleagues...

December 9, 2009

Last night's event at Third Place Books was my very first solo bookstore venture,* so I confess I was nervous about it. Besides my usual What-If-Nobody-Shows-Up? insecurities, the weather was a thrilling 16 degrees by event time, which might as well be NEGATIVE A BILLION DEGREES in Seattle — where it rarely gets below freezing.

And yet … much to my personal astonishment, we hit standing room only, and the crowd was great! In fact, I feel like I leveled up a bit as an author, because this...

Tonight!

Tonight you'll find me down at the Lake Forest Park location of Third Place Books — signing, reading, hanging out, and whatnot — starting at 7:00 o'clock. So come on out! Join me as I loiter in a warm, dry place, surrounded by books. (It's a really groovy store … got its own food court and everything. I'm just sayin'. In case you're on the fence about it.)

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

December 6, 2009

Last night's steampunk ball was a blast and a half. The venue was superb (a regional history museum packed with 19th century tech exhibits), the event was very well attended, and everyone (from the museum and bar staff to the attendees) was outstandingly pleasant.

At ten o'clock I got up to read, and I read for half an hour, which — on this particular occasion — was a bit tricky. The lights were fairly low, I had two adult beverages under my belt (so to speak), and due to a major case of...

December 4, 2009

Been a busy day here, wherein I checked off the last of my Christmas list and shipped everything back east. Wow. All that fit into one sentence. Funny, it felt pretty epic at the time.

The only true point of hilarity came when I was inside [:: store redacted ::] purchasing [:: item redacted ::] from a clerk who had clearly been a bit bored for awhile — because he had a copy of The Stranger sitting open beside the cash register. I interrupted his reading, handed him my debit card and my ID, ...

December 2, 2009

Hey folks - just a quick heads up from yours truly. Tonight at the University Book Store (on the UW campus here in Seattle), the amazing C.E. Murphy will be reading and signing. I regret to admit that I can't attend the event due to a previous commitment, but I do hope that Seattle will turn out in force and make her feel welcome.

In other news, and quickly, with bullet points:
War Rocket Ajax and Me - Tonight, starting at 9:30 east coast time, 6:30 west coast time … I'll be nattering on...