Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 46

More than a feeling

And now for a 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
Present total word count: 112,000 words





Deathmarch Ahoy? Ladies, gentlemen, and the otherwise affiliated...we have a Draft Zero.

Next Up: [:: collapses ::]

Honey on a rock and the sugar don't stop

Here's today's progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 4054 (good)
Present total word count: 108,367 words





Things accomplished in real life: Morning jog with the dog; broke a plate. Not much else.

Other: THE END IS NEAR. No, seriously - I have one more scene to write, and then we're finished. Funny enough - it's not the epilogue; I wrote that today. I don't usually bounce around, but this one scene kept needing amendments, and then the epilogue was sort of on the tip of my tongue, so I went ahead and sat down and spit it out. Now I just have to go back and finish the little scene I started, but abandoned. I believe I will save it for tomorrow, because I'm not 100% positive how I want it to go yet.

Revenge of Other: This draft is going to come in under 20k as predicted. Edits will flesh it out some. I predict that what I actually hand in as a Draft One will probably be around 115/118k.

Promise: DEATHMARCH AHOY

When the men on the chess board get up and tell you where to go

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 5942 (RAR.)
Present total word count: 104,313 words





Things accomplished in real life: Morning jog with the dog; grocery shopping; lunch.

Other: Told you I speed up as I get toward the end. But Jesus, I'm tired now.

Threat: DEATHMARCH AHOY

You take what you need and you leave the rest

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 6293 (YES.)
Present total word count: 98,371words





Things accomplished in real life: Morning jog with the dog; brief nap; got to work and mostly stayed that way.

Other: FINALLY a kick-ass wordcount day. The tally was helped by the fact that it was a really big climaxy actiony scene - the first of two, and then the big wind-down, and then I SHALL HAVE A DRAFT. Tomorrow, if I'm still on a roll, I'll write that second scene, and then it's all blissfully downhill from there. FINGERS CROSSED. HOME STRETCH, Y'ALL.

Son of Other: Just for the record, 120,000 words is only a guestimate. This may run longer than that, or fall shorter than that. More often than not, I over-write and end up having to cut back down; I have a feeling that this one's going to be the opposite, though. I think it might be one of my longer books, when all is said and done. But like the wordcount meter, that's just a guestimate.

Cheer: DEATHMARCH AHOY

You'd let me know when the time was now

Here's today's progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 2068 (meh)
Present total word count: 92,078 words





Things accomplished in real life: Morning jog with the dog; went and got my hair did; went to Walgreens to manage some prescriptions; picked up a scale; cajoled the dog with many treats until he let me hold him; strained my back a little, but learned that he now weighs 54 pounds; took a desperately needed nap.

Other: Slept like hell last night. Doesn't bear a dry retelling. Suffice it to say, by the time I got home from my hair appointment I was so tired that I felt dizzy and sick. So I crashed. Didn't want to - but literally could not keep my eyes open. These things happen. These things also mean that my wordcount is kind of crap today.

Bride of Other: Tomorrow I will do better.

Prediction: DEATHMARCH AHOY

Speaking of Greyson...

...I need a heads-up sign for our gate.* A sign which says something other than BEWARE OF DOG in giant red letters on a black background like some kind of minimalist horror novel cover from the 80s. I hate those signs, because they make my lovable puppy sound like a slathering kitten-killing** maniac.

I'd like to see something more like:
BE AWARE THAT A LARGE DOG LIVES HERE. SOMETIMES HE HANGS AROUND OUTSIDE. LIKE NOW, MAYBE - OR MAYBE NOT. EITHER WAY, STAY ON THIS SIDE OF THE GATE IF YOU ARE NO GREAT FAN OF BIG DOGS. JUST SAYIN'.
I mean, I don't want to make him sound like a MASSIVE ANGRY MOFO what will TAKE YOUR FACE OFF FOR LOOKING AT HIM FUNNY, but I don't want to make him sound too cuddly, either. Our neighborhood is pretty nice, but it hasn't been that nice for that long, and it has its...moments.

But yes, yes. I know. He IS cuddly.

He's a ridiculous already-a-giant hug-loving puppy-beast ... until it's 3:00 in the morning and there's a wayward raccoon lurking UNINVITED under the living room windows - in which case he turns into a cross between Woody Allen and Cujo: existentially fretful, but ready to make with the face-tearing as necessary.

He will be an excellent guard dog. Guarding kittens, I think - that would be his preference. But he'll settle for us, possibly because we hoard all the tennis balls and cheese in the whole wide world, so far as he knows. Hey, we'll take it.

Now: Do I have to make myself such a sign?
Or can the internet provide?


* The heads up is needed for the sake of delivery guys, who've gotten into the habit of sometimes leaving packages at our back door. I feel like they deserve a warning, because honestly, I don't know how he'd react to a stranger letting himself into the yard.
** He is vicious to kittens, yes.

I don't know about you I don't know about you

Just to get this off my chest: it's been a completely shitty day. We had an appointment to take Greyson to the groomer's at 11:30 - for a bath and a nail trim, so, nothing complicated and nothing new. We were told it'd only take a couple of hours.

But to sum up, what should've been a lunch break became a 5-hour all-afternoon bullshit-a-thon that ate up the bulk of my workday and left our dog crying frantically - unwilling to leave the kennel until he saw us - never mind still damp and kind of hysterical from spending four full hours without food or a potty break.

At least they comped the visit. If they hadn't, I'd already be on the phone with corporate.
And that's the short version.

Anyway. An old friend of mine has made a recommendation for a place that's closer (and very well reviewed online), so we'll look into that fine establishment next time he needs a little spa day.*

I'll shut up about it now. And I will try to quit seething.

_________

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 3927 ([:: sigh ::])
Present total word count: 90,010 words





Things accomplished in real life: See above. Also went to the post office to mail off my taxes.

Other: Here's a picture of Greyson. He's at the foot of our queen-sized bed, if you're wondering - and yes, he's becoming quite the handsome, largeish fellow.

Return of Other: The kitty is doing well. She's squished between me and the back of the couch as I type this, snoring happily. Behold.

Rallying Cry: DEATHMARCH AHOY


* We don't really have the facilities to bathe him at home, though we can and will if we have to; really it's more about getting his feet managed. He has massive, fluffy paws, plus extra dews with claws that will curl and grow into his skin if they aren't regularly cut back. So he needs the fur between his toes trimmed for hygiene's sake, and his claws clipped for his comfort and safety - but there's just no explaining it to him, and he'll be damned if he'll let us do it. So we prefer to leave it to the pros.

Spin-offs with those who slept like corpses

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 4732 (okay but not great)
Present total word count: 86,083 words





Things accomplished in real life: Daily jog with the dog; WASHED ALL THE THINGS or at least all the laundry, anyway; finished up yardwork; took my cousin to supper and then drove her back to school; filled out an email interview; got ready for the big Sword and Laser interview tomorrow.

Other: I wrote all but 300 of those words today. Boo. As a one-day total that's pretty good. As a two-day total, it's only semi-respectable. Tonight I go have supper with those visiting friends from Scotland and another local I haven't seen in awhile. It'll be nice. I need to decompress. I mean, until morning - when it starts up again. And then gets interrupted by this interview in the afternoon. So we'll see how much work I get done tomorrow. It HAS to be more/better than 300 words.

Suggestion: DEATHMARCH AHOY

Point of note: Since the beginning of the month, I have written 24,242 words of fiction on Fiddlehead. Christ on a cracker.

Make up your mind to have no regrets

Here's today's progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 3322 (okay but not stellar)
Present total word count: 81,351 words





Things accomplished in real life: Daily jog with the dog; birthday phone call to my dad; supper at Krystal's, yay; a whole crap-ton of yardwork, which served mostly to make a huge mess - but I'll try to fix that tomorrow.

Other: Our yard is hitting that end-of-season die-off, and that - combined with a benign neglect - has really led to one hell of a mess back there. The main reason we've been benignly neglecting it has been the weather: for weeks, when it hasn't been storming, it's been brutally hot. And I had a lot of work to do anyway, so I was like, "Eh, to hell with it."

But today it cooled off significantly, and although there was rain off-and-on, I did a positively MASSIVE amount of weeding in preparation for the cultivator. I also did some EPIC pruning on a number of things, not least of all the rose tree - which is DETERMINED to eat the power lines that run between the house and the garage.

I know I've said "I can't afford a break right now," but the weather is supposed to continue to be milder - and drier! - for the next few days, so I'm giving myself permission to take care of my home in between writing jags. Today it actually worked pretty well. I'd do a thousand words, and if it wasn't raining, I'd run outside to get some work done. Broke up the day nicely, and I still came out of it with a decent word count. Here's hoping tomorrow works out equally well.

Daughter of Other: Happy birthday to my dad! Who is awesome!

Motto: DEATHMARCH AHOY

He was dressed to thrill wherever he went

Here's recent progress on my 19th century D.C. spy caper about a powerful Difference Engine that will end the Civil War - now with warhawk conspiracies, clockwork assassins, two presidents with more in common than they know, two spies with less in common than they think, a conflicted U.S. Marshal, and Bonus! not-at-all mad scientist who can save the world if someone will just give him a chance:
Project: Fiddlehead
Deadline: October 1, 2012
New words written: 4327 (middling)
Present total word count: 78,029 words





Things accomplished in real life: Daily jogs with the dog though I've been bad and skipped the yoga; emails with agent and editor; went to lunch with a couple of old friends who are in town from Scotland; ran into some other, unrelated old friends from when we lived here last, and hung out in the evening; cleaned house; paid particular attention to my bathroom, which had become a disaster area; did tech tests with the nice folks from Sword and Laser for an interview on Tuesday.

Other: Wrote most of those words today, natch. So this is a good single-day total, but a mediocre 2-day. And right now, I just can't pat myself on the back for having one good day. I need a serious daily tally to make deadline on this bad-boy. On the upshot, the closer I get to the end, the faster I tend to write.

Bonus Other: I removed the "things accomplished in fiction" bit because from here onward, pretty much everything is spoilery.

Battle Cry: DEATHMARCH AHOY