Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 54

Ninja-related word metrics

Have I been bad about working on this project? Oh yes, totally. I dropped the ball right out of the gate, I swear. But in my slight defense, I've been tied up in Inexplicables edits, and I've also been trapped deep in the throes of some disgusting, phlegmy bug I picked up upon my return from Tucson. I blame the husband. Because he is here.

Anyway, this is pitiful progress, but it's the only progress I have to report. I cut out some material, rearranged some material, and then added ... well, not a huge segment of material, but better than no new words at all.

So here's an update on my comic/sci-fi young adult project where a girl becomes a ninja and fights aliens with much ass-kicking and many LOLs but not a whole lot of kissing (or any kissing, to be frank) plus BONUS Bruce Lee's ghost, a vintage Thunderbird, zenlightenment on the fly, and fat stacks of Cool Ranch Doritos.
Project: Ninja Planet
Deadline: Sooner or Later
New words written: 1516 (Don't judge.)
Present total word count: 24,672 words





Things accomplished in fiction: Was picked up by an FBI agent who is stuck running errands for a belligerent alien abduction victim. Got lost in those little residential neighborhood warrens on Queen Anne hill.

Things accomplished in real life: Burned through half a box of Kleenex (with lotion somehow magically incorporated into them, thank God); got my inbox down to zero which was no small feat, I'll have you to know; recounted a pretty kick-ass dream on Twitter; very little else of substance, to be frank.

Ah, well.

The Inexplicables

Ladies, gents, and the otherwise affiliated ... I give you ... the cover of The Inexplicables! Click to view larger, natch.

This time around the art comes courtesy of Cliff Nielsen, not Jon Foster (as with all the previous covers). I admit, I was a little worried about the shift - for the sake of consistency, if nothing else. But honestly I think it looks great.

Well played, Irene Gallo (of the Tor art department) and Mr. Nielsen! Fine work all around, and I can't wait to see this one hit the shelves this fall.

* * *
It's true, this is my first book without a female lead - though Princess Angeline and Mercy Lynch play fairly prominent roles; and it's true also that I have been promising people at least one zombie sasquatch. With this in mind, here's a bit of general blurbage on the book's contents:

Rector "Wreck'em" Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his eighteenth birthday, he'll be cast out out of the orphanage.

Wreck's problems don't stop there. He's been breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply--and he's also pretty sure he's being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know. Zeke Wilkes almost certainly died six months ago inside the walled city of Seattle. And it was Wreck who sent him in there.

Maybe it's only a guilty conscience, but Wreck can't take it anymore. He sneaks inside the city.

The walled-off wasteland is every bit as bad as he'd heard, chock-full of the hungry undead and utterly choked by the poisonous, inescapable yellow gas. And then there are the monsters. Rector's confident that whatever attacked him was not at all human--and not a rotter, either. Arms far too long. Posture all strange. Eyes all wild and faintly glowing gold, and God help them all, it wasn't alone.

When the locals discuss the creatures, they do so in whispers. And they call them "The Inexplicables."

Drive-By Recap

The Tucson Book Festival was great - let me just get that out of the way, lest anybody wonder. It was big and crowded and a bit messy at times, but the panels were smashing, and I had a wonderful time catching up with Sam Sykes, Maria headley, and Kevin Hearne (among others - but mostly those guys).

The weather was beautiful. And now I'm back in Seattle watching a very wet, wholly unattractive blizzard billow through my neighborhood.

*sigh*

In other news, my Apartment of the Damned continues to punish me for some unknown karmic infraction. Yesterday during a routine faucet adjustment in another unit, a decayed pipe collapsed inside a wall - and we had no water for hours. (No hot water for significantly longer than that.) The plumbing in this place is 70 years old if it's a day, and we've known for quite awhile that there were plans to replace it ... but Jesus, I'd hoped it could hang in there just another couple of months.

I predict that it won't. I predict that this building will make sure I get one more round of obnoxious, protracted maintenance in before we move. I'm a terrific optimist, yes.

Anyway, now I'm eyeballs deep in Inexplicables line edits, and I'll remain that way for another couple of days. But I did want to poke my head in and update, lest it look like I'd wandered out into the desert and never returned.

The Tucson Festival of Books

First thing tomorrow morning, I'll be flying out for the Tucson Festival of Books - where you can catch me Saturday and Sunday. (And Friday night, at some author dinner thingy - which I'm led to understand has sold out.) The festival takes place at the University of Arizona campus, so come one, come all.

Get stuff signed! Listen to me ramble! Go here to the list o' authors to grab my schedule and whatnot. Ask me anything. S'cool.

A change of venue

As you know, I've been in and out of town a lot over the last few months - running clandestine errands in another part of the country while being cryptic and annoying over here on this page. But so many things could've fallen through. So many things could've failed to pan out. I felt like I couldn't talk about anything until all was said and done - and now it is.

I expect that the tl;dr crowd is already losing patience with me. All right then, here's the long and short of it: My husband and I have bought a house. It's in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we'll be moving (back) there around the first week of May.

The reasons are many and varied, not least of all related to money. It's no secret that we've had a difficult time settling down in Seattle; we've lived in three apartments over the last six years, each one seriously problematic in its own way. (Most recently, the Lovecraftian mold/soot creep of uncertain cause and origin - as you may recall.)

But fiction-writing has been kind to me as of late - kind enough that the "let's buy a place" conversations began to occur.

When my husband and I looked in the bank, our savings added up to a minimum down-payment on a mediocre condo here in Seattle ... or ... a huge portion of a restored Victorian back home in Tennessee; and these days, we each earn most of our living through channels which are not place-dependent. So with a lot of soul-searching and number-crunching, we decided to take the plunge.

I expect this raises a few questions.
Let me see if I can head off some of them at the pass.

Yes, my husband (co-)owns a coffee shop here in town. He will continue to own it, and manage it from afar - returning quarterly to handle paperwork and whatnot. I will likely accompany him on some of these visits, because Seattle has treated me well, and I'm not out to abandon the region with a wild cry of, "So long, suckers!" I've accumulated some dear friends, writing buddies, and bookstore connections who I hope to see on a regular basis.

But it's true (and no great secret) that I've found the region difficult at times. I'm a Gulf Coast girl who grew up on the beach, and the Northwest's gloom and dampness have taken their toll.

[understatement] I have not always handled it well. [/understatement]

Travel has been particularly problematic. My entire family is back east. I haven't been home to see my mom in Florida in several years, and I haven't been back to my dad's place in Kentucky in about the same stretch. I've missed weddings and babies. I've come very close to missing funerals.

Now, I realize that more than a few of you are probably thinking, "Chattanooga? Really?" and my response to that is simply, "Yeah, so?" I lived there over a dozen years and liked it just fine - if anything, I didn't realize how comfortable I was until after I left. My husband was born and raised there. The cost of living is low, it's centrally located to a number of other cities, it's pretty as hell, and I have oodles of friends (and relatives) in the area.

And did I mention that I just bought a house which is on the historic registry? Everything else aside, you guys this house. I couldn't buy its equal in Seattle for three times the price. No, literally.

Much as it pains me, I've decided against posting pictures. I've learned the hard way about protecting my privacy in this fashion, but I don't mind telling you that it's damn near perfect. My husband wanted a Craftsman. I wanted a Victorian. I'd hoped to find a late Victorian/early Craftsman for a compromise, and hot damn, I did.* Beautifully restored, in a gorgeous little historic district. I'm about to become one of those daffy southern broads with a porch swing and a bunch of flower baskets.

You just watch me.

Anyway, there you go. That's what the hullabaloo has been about, and that's why I've been running around like a maniac for the last couple of months.

I swear to God, buying a house 2500 miles away is like having a part-time job that's a high-stakes scavenger hunt. Every other day, it seemed, I got a message about how a special magic piece of hard-to-obtain paper needed signing before close-of-business East Coast time or else EVERYTHING WILL FALL APART so RUN RUN RUN LITTLE LADY GET CRACKING.

I'm emotionally and physically exhausted, which won't get fixed quite yet despite this happy resolution - because tomorrow morning, I have to fly to Tucson for a book festival. I like book festivals! I like Tucson! I am looking forward to this event! But I just got back from Tennessee late last night, and I'm so jet-lagged and wiped out that I pray people will cut me a little slack or perhaps serve me a metric ass-load of caffeine when I arrive.

And I still have to do laundry. And re-pack. And run to the bank (yet again), and grab myself some lunch. So I'm going to log off now, and later (probably next week, at this rate) I'll make my Giant Post of Gratitude aimed at some of the folks who helped make this possible.

So thanks to all of you for reading, and lots of love to all ... but it's off to the races for me.


* Yes, I had the ever-living shit inspected out of it.

The Friendly Skies. I hope.

The husband and I are all packed up. The boarding passes have been printed, and the apartment-sitters have been briefed. (What? You think we leave the Infamous Cat alone? I think not.)

I'm not really looking forward to taking to the sky yet again, but it's gotta be done. I'll update again in a few days - either from our secret location, or from Seattle when I get back. I'd love to dispel some of this mystery, believe me.

[:: deep breath ::]
Here we go...

It's such a game to seem adored

It turns out, I'm a filthy liar. I've gotten exactly zero fiction words written since that last post - due to a combination of work issues, personal business, and the awesomely disgusting (but apparently brief) flu to which I awakened this morning. The husband had it yesterday, and is more or less okay today. I'm hoping for a similar arc, especially since we have to fly back east on Saturday.

Yes, I'll eventually tell you what all this cryptic personal business is about. But not yet. ALL SHALL BECOME CLEAR in the fullness of time. Which is to say, probably next week. Time ought to be full enough by then.

We'll be back Wednesday night, but then on Friday morning I have to fly out to Tucson for a book festival; so I won't really be around much until next Monday.

Hey, you want to hear something funny? I vowed that this year I'd do no more than one out-of-state trip per month, and Tucson will be my fourth of 2012. Ha ha ha ha ha. *sigh*

Don't get me wrong - all this travel is For the Greater Good and I'm looking forward to everything I have upcoming on my schedule. But I see a very long nap in my future. Perhaps the entire month of July.

Of Ninjas and Aliens

As previously threatened, I've gone back to work on the YA novel that's making the rounds. (Partial manuscript with proposal, natch.) It's a dandy distraction while I'm waiting for other shoes to drop.

I revisited my sample chapters, ultimately cleaning them up a bit further (yeah, yeah, I know) and tweaking them a smidge - and now I've added another 4K or so. It's my goal to do about 2K a day, not burning myself out, but setting a healthy pace.*

So here's recent progress on my comic/sci-fi young adult project where a girl becomes a ninja and fights aliens with much ass-kicking and many LOLs but not a whole lot of kissing (or any kissing, to be frank) plus BONUS Bruce Lee's ghost, a vintage Thunderbird, zenlightenment on the fly, and fat stacks of Cool Ranch Doritos.
Project: Ninja Planet
Deadline: Sooner or Later
New words written: Today? About 2000
Present total word count: 23,156 words





Things accomplished in fiction: Fight with mom, making it onto national television via grainy cell phone video, nearly getting run over by a horse cop.

Things accomplished in real life: Printed off some contract amendments/signed them/took them to the post office, dishes, laundry, negotiated a signing (off site, while I'm out of town for an upcoming event), chatted with the Tucson Festival of Books people, ultimately achieved the fabled Inbox Zero can I get a what-what? In other news, I sent off that short story to the editor. I hope he likes it. I'm worried about it, though. I don't write a lot of short material; I don't think it's my strong suit. I always feel like it needs to be longer, or paced differently, or something. Live and learn, I guess.

Hm. What else?

I gave up on Once Upon A Time. Just couldn't make myself care about it anymore; but I'm still clinging to Grimm - and though I see a lot of "meh" chatter online about last week's episode, I liked it fairly well. I can't help it, that captain fellow just melts my butter. Lawful Evil FTW.

Still watching The River too. So far, so good. Alcatraz - ditto, more or less. It's not blowing me away, but I like the characters and I'm hoping that with time, it'll stretch its narrative legs a bit. Still love Castle. Hard to believe, I know.

In a different media vein, the husband and I started the game Alan Wake, which is older, yes - but only recently ported to PC. I heard many good reviews and hearty recommendations, but God bless, it was just about the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The husband and I only got a couple of chapters deep before our eyes rolled so hard that we were forced seek medical attention.

We followed that one up with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and it is vastly better, so far. Speaking of - I require Megan Reed's jacket. STAT. But maybe in black. I'm too clumsy for ivory; that bad-boy would be covered in ketchup and Coke Zero stains in under an hour. Yes, well. This is my curse. This, and flat feet.

Anyway, just do me a favor and pretend I wrapped up this post with something tidy and rational. Don't assume I got sleepy and needed to go make a cup of tea, lest I faceplant into the keyboard or sakjldfaso;i reftakw4eW'PAle



* I'm noodling on this as a place-holder activity while I try to play catch-up on other things - knowing that editorial work on two other projects could land at any time. I'm also preparing for yet another out-of-state trip for personal business. The husband and I leave Saturday, and will be back Wednesday night. So. Kind of busy over here, for all that I have precious little to blog about.

Yeah I've given up my wings / They were only wax and strings

Not much to report over the last couple of days. I've been home decompressing from the busy weekend, running errands and whatnot. I've also been digging through a few old projects that never went anywhere ... and deciding what to save and develop, and what should probably be jettisoned to the circular file.

I've tossed a few things and retrieved a few things, and even started something new - a short story that someone asked me for a couple of months ago (yes I'm being cryptic, such is life). I wrapped up a draft a day or two ago, and will poke it with a stick on Monday to see how I feel about it. I hope it's good on a second look. It's the first new content (unrelated to Inexplicables editorial) I've composed in months.

At the moment, I'm sort of hanging between projects - thus my sudden interest in shorter stuff and material I had to put down last year. I'm waiting for an editorial response on that second Inexplicables draft, and I promised myself I wouldn't start Fiddlehead until March - because I'm trying to buy myself some breathing time.

(Last year was hella-nuts, and this year hasn't started off with any greater sense of leisure - so I force myself to take "breaks" as a matter of sanity, whenever I can shoehorn them in. Of course, by "breaks" I mean, "Time to noodle around on things I'm not getting paid for - but things I hope to get paid for, eventually. Maybe. Or not. But it's fun work. So to speak.")

Anyway. The main focus of my temporary revision gaze is the YA project I've been sitting on for the last year. It's out making the rounds again via my agent, and I have high hopes for it. But so far it hasn't found a home.

I've been revisiting the existing content in an attempt to decide if I should just put it down and forget about it if we can't find any takers; God knows sometimes I'm not the best judge of my own output quality. But upon reflection, I still love it - and I think I'll finish it regardless of how the queries comes back. Heck, I know a great independent press or two, if none of the big guys want to take a chance on a story about a juvenile delinquent and her two best friends caught in the midst of an alien invasion, wherein nobody kisses but many asses are kicked and copious laughs are had ... and there is science!, girl power, boy power, Bruce Lee, UFOs, and Doritos. I can't help but believe it'll find some readers, one way or another.

So. Yeah.

Today I jaunted down the hill and went to the bank, swung by the post office, nabbed myself some lunch, figured I needed a bit more rum so I stopped by the liquor store (yay!), and hit up Walgreens too. I might finish the cleaning the house before the husband gets home. Or then again, I might not.

Have a good weekend, everyone. I'm going to log off and pretend to be productive.

Progress and Productivity

Today I sat down and wrote over 5000 words on a short story I'd been noodling on for a week, thereby completing it. Total count: about 6200 words. Hot damn, I say. It was the first new material I'd composed (apart from editorial repairs on Inexplicables) in months.

It was tough getting started after such a long dry spell, but once I sat down and forced the matter...everything just fell out - like I'd whacked a pinata. A very slow pinata. One which took about six hours to empty. Regardless, I am pleased.

Not much else to report today. Received some more UK editions of Four and Twenty Blackbirds in the mail, as well as a fat stack of bookplates for the same - which I promised to sign and ship back to England sooner rather than later. So I guess I know what I'm doing while I watch TV tonight.