Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 124

Update the Second: or, “I Suck at This”

The shitty word count today shall have to stand. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, exactly; maybe my allergies are putting in one last gasp of misery before summer, or maybe I was sick last week after all — and overexerted myself at Deception Pass. I don’t know. But I can’t breathe without two rounds of neti-pot messiness and a few spritzes of Afrin: Sinus*. Combine that with a massive headache and some sleepless nights that resulted in kitten-style nap attacks all day, and I’m sorry to adm

Update the First

I’m not finished writing for the day (I can’t be, given my paltry numbers), but it’s been a few days since I made a proper post, and I feel compelled to rectify that. I’d been meaning to post pictures from Saturday’s jaunt to Deception Pass anyway, so here goes — a brief travelogue of my trip out of town with Caitlin and Kat.

Click the jump to see a few more.

Click here for magical maps, driftwood trees, scenic vistas, and cheeseball self-portraits »

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like

June 18, 2009

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought

New Words: 5575 (RAR! But some of that is from last night.)

Present Total Word Count: 83,017 words

Goal: 120,000 words

Things Accomplished in

June 17, 2009

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought

New Words: 3096 (Meh. Some is from yesterday.)

Present Total Word Count: 77,442 words

Goal: 120,000 words

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Esp

June 15, 2009

No, I didn’t do any work on Dreadnought last week. There was a lot of writer-business-stuff going on, and life just got in the way. Tomorrow, more things are likely to get in the way as I have some running around to do, but I’ll try to keep this a priority. I need to keep this a priority if I’m going to finish a draft by August 1, Lord knows. Lord also knows it’s very likely to run well past 120,000 words (at least for a Draft Zero), and I’ll need to spend some time backtracking. But we shal

the other side of the coin

And now for the happy tunes mix starter kit. As with the previous, these aren’t necessarily songs that are personal favorites, or are even innately happy — but for some reason they make me happy. So here goes, more than you probably want to know about me, but oh well:

“Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys. What’s not to love? Even if you don’t have my mile-wide soft spot for the BBs, this is a fun one. Loud enough to holler along to, bouncy enough to keep you company in traffic. Sample lyrics:

this is the saddest song I’ve got

As my pal Caitlin mentioned over on her page, she and I got into a conversation about depressing music — and her recommendations have been posted for your reading pleasure. Or sorrow, as the case may be. I realize that creating a definitive list would be an exercise in futility that would lead to internet bickering through all the years to come; and I furthermore realize that some of the songs I’d choose aren’t necessarily regarded as Grade A tear-jerkers by all and sundry.

I shall consider it a

a small, docile herd of domesticated links

George R. R. Martin brings the freebies. Sample content from the upcoming Wild Cards book SUICIDE KINGS can be found live and cost-free up at his webage. (Edited to add: I’m contributing to the one after SK, not this one. But that’s no reason you shouldn’t go check it out.)

Cat Valente brings the YA badassery. The divine Ms. V. will be serializing a young adult novel — The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making over on her website, and you can sign up to read it on an

Productivity Pass/Fail

No new words on Dreadnought today, for which you can blame this guy. To sum up the situation, I sat down for a few hours this afternoon and knocked out a full draft of a short story for this project, which will soon be passed along to my collaborative partner-type person for further augmentation and contribution. No, I have no clue what the final product will look/sound/read like. I suppose we’ll have to see.

Hint: Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that a few weeks ago I had a really

June 8, 2009

Had a busy weekend, wherein I did not get a single bit of writing done. But I have a very good series of excuses — ranging from “I went yardsale-hopping with Caitlin, Psynde, Ellen, and Suezie” to “I went out to Redmond and visited with authors and other cool folks,” and “I dragged the husband back out to the boonies on a hunt for old trains.”

So you see, I have my excuse bases covered.

I also came back from the weekend with many pictures of the aforementioned old trains in varying states of rep