Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 58

Christmas Shopping

You know, signed books make great Christmas gifts ... or gifts for any occasion, really, but hey - here comes Christmas, so you get the Jingle Bell Shill.

So where can you get signed books from yours truly? The usual Seattle-area spots all have scrawled-upon goodies: Third Place Books (in Lake City), Seattle Mystery Book Store, and the University Book Store; and if I've been in your neighborhood recently, you can find a trail of signed stock in my wake.

(My tour schedule is on this page - scroll down for recent visits/stores.)

If you want a personalized signature - that is, a book signed to someone in particular, with the message of your choice - you can do that, too. I have an arrangement with the aforementioned University Book Store. It goes like this:
Step One: Click here to locate a list of my books at the University Book Store. Order the book or books you want, and proceed to checkout.

Step Two: State your purpose. On the payment page, there is a comment field. Fill it with specific directions about how you'd like your book (or books) signed. Say something like, "Please sign my copy of Boneshaker 'to Pookie with love.'" Include the book's title, and add "Contact Duane Wilkins for arrangements".

Step Three: Complete and pay for your order.


At this point, Duane will contact me, and I'll go down to the bookstore to sign your book(s). Then Duane will mail the book(s) to you.

And now for a couple of notes which you should absolutely read and remark before ordering:
NOTE #1: You can only order books of mine which are in print. I have a handful of out-of-print titles, but U-Books cannot help you with this, unless their site shows that they have some in stock. And they might, you never know. I give them the hook-up every now and again.

NOTE#2: The bookstore will run your card and make sure the payment clears before contacting me so I can come and sign it. Due to this -- and the fact that I live several miles away from the bookstore -- please understand that your book will not ship immediately. There will be a lag time of a couple of days.

NOTE #3: If you have any questions or problems with this system, please contact Duane Wilkins -- duanewsfbks@lycos.com -- and he will assist you because he is awesome.

So ... there you have it. Pretty straightforward, really. Happy ordering, if you are inclined to order. Support your local independent book stores!

Coming up for air

The last few days have been something of a blur. I got some day-job news that was both frightening and potentially cool, but it significantly ratcheted up the pressure; I've been on the phone with pretty much everyone I know, trying to answer questions and burn off some of this nervous energy; and I've been fielding email left, right, and center. It has been an utter hurricane of activity. I've scarcely had time to breathe, much less blog.

But people are still pushing for details about the movie situation.
I wish I had more to tell you.

No, I don't know who will star in the movie. No, I don't know anything about a score or soundtrack. No, I don't know when it might begin filming, or where - so I can't tell you whether or not you can sign up to be an extra. No, I don't know when it might actually hit theaters.

I'm sure these things will reveal themselves in time, and believe me - as soon as I know anything pertinent, I'll post it right here so you can get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or the horse's website. Or my website. As the case may be.

For now, because I can't stop myself (and this is hands-down the most interesting bloggable thing in my life at the moment) ... here are a few more relevant links.
The Independent - Victoriana meets the zombies: the sci-fi cult coming to the big screen

IMDB - Hammer Films to Adapt Cherie Priest's Boneshaker for the Big Screen

Film School Rejects - 'Boneshaker' Will Add a Little Steampunk to Your Zombie Movie

The Daily Mail - Steampunk zombie classic Boneshaker is coming to the big screen

In other news ... there isn't much other news. Yesterday, the husband and I went out for a celebratory supper and did some Christmas shopping. Today I worked. Tomorrow there will be more work, and Monday there will be work and errand-running. Next week might give me breathing room, or might not.

We shall see!

Quick Movie Follow-Up: Or, Cherie Gets Exclamation-Happy

First, thanks a million to everyone for all the congrats, well-wishes, and all-around good cheer! I wish I could respond to you all individually, but by my best count - between internet comments and email - I've received over 3000 messages today. And no, I'm not quitting my day job,* where we've hit crunch time (so I'm rather snowed under from several sides at once).

But! I do want you all to know how much I appreciate your friendly sentiments! And I also want to take a moment to thank my agent, Jennifer Jackson - a.k.a. my Bottle Rocket of Fiery Justice; and likewise I want to thank Boneshaker's editor, Liz Gorinsky, who truly went above and beyond to make that book the best it could be - and to sent it out into the world with a bang!

And now, before I settle in with a celebratory beverage and a little bit of Batman ... let me answer a few of the early bird FAQs:
* Can we see the official press release? Sure! It's right here!

* When will this movie thing come out? I have no idea!

* Who will star in it? Nobody knows yet!

* Are you writing the script? No!
* Will you otherwise be involved with production? Not to my knowledge!

* Don't you know that Hollywood will change your material? Yes! I do! Life goes on!

* Is this the news you've been hinting at all this time? Yes!

* Is there other news yet to come? Yes! But it's not related to this news, and it won't be public for awhile yet!

* Hammer Films? Will Christopher Lee be in it? I can only dream!

* But what has Hammer done lately? A very damn cool thing or two!

Okay - well, yes. Those were the most prominent queries of the afternoon, though I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list as time goes by. I'll absolutely keep you updated with all the particulars that are fit to blog, you may rest assured of that.

But for now, Arkham City is queuing up and I need to get off the internet for a bit for the sake of my sanity. So all of you, everywhere, please have a most excellent evening - and thanks again. Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for being so amazingly supportive.

Thanks for everything.


* Though as a point of fact, it's contract work; I'll be done around Christmas.

BONESHAKER COMING TO THE BIG SCREEN!

And I don't know WHY, but LJ won't let me cross-post the content with all the details - even manually - so I'm posting THIS LINK ! Click it! CLICK IT AND COME DO A HAPPYDANCE WITH ME!

Return of the terrible blogger

Man, it's been a whole week since I updated - which is unforgivable, unless you consider that it was a holiday week, and I deserved a little time off.

Ha! I'm just kidding. Writers don't get holidays off. Instead, I worked. And I worked. And I worked some more. Much was accomplished, but much remains to be done.

For Thanksgiving itself, I hit up a Thai restaurant with some friends, and then saw the Muppets. Perfectly pleasant holiday, and no one had to do any dishes. Also: Yay, Muppets!

Otherwise, not much to report. Things are kind of bananas over here, in more ways than one. And no, I can't talk about any of it. Not yet.

November 22, 2011

Yesterday was the first full business day of my return, and that meant doing the first business-y things in the queue; but I got most of that stuff squared away in a timely fashion, so today was just a regular old work-day.

I made some significant progress on my day-job project (praise heaven) - working up a bit of momentum that kept me chugging away well after dark. And I even squeezed in a chat with my agent, which is always good for the soul.

I know I've been promising Big Announcements and Awesome Reveals for the last couple of months, but you just have to trust me - things are happening. News is coming. Ever since September, my life has been very duck-like ... which is to say, calm and a bit dull on the surface, but with furious paddling taking place below the waterline. Soon, all of this aforementioned paddling will be revealed - and a duck belly plus wildly waggling webbed toes shall be lifted to the light for all to see.

I do believe the metaphor's usefulness has officially expired.
Moving on, then.

Today I cleaned the fish tank, did some housework, went to the bank, aggregated some quarters for laundry, got a leaky tub faucet fixed, and called the cops to report that my neighbor's car had been broken into.

The cops didn't care, because I didn't see the crime happen. I only knew (a). that it happened, (b). when it happened, and (c). where it happened.

I went to Subway to get a sandwich and all was well, but on the return trip I walked past this same car (parked right under my apartment) ... and its window had been bashed out - and its interior rifled through. I couldn't have missed the event in question by more than five minutes.

So I called the cops on their non-emergency line. The woman who answered the phone very kindly, very politely, very hastily ... told me to go away. I didn't know whose car it was, only that it belongs to someone who lives nearby. I didn't see the crime take place, and couldn't describe a witness. No, they wouldn't deploy anyone to check it out, not until the car's owner called in the crime.

And I get it, I really do. I didn't expect an APB and a SWAT team. Just maybe ... I don't know. Idle curiosity.

But - as I put it to the nice woman on the phone - I could tell them where the car was located, and provide her with its make, model, and license plate. When the owner eventually DOES call in the problem, at least they could add to the police report that the incident occurred around 3:10 in the afternoon. You never know. It might be useful.

(And anyway, couldn't they look up the license plate and maybe inform the car's owner that it'd been breached? It's been pouring down rain all day. If it were MY car, I'd like to know about it.)

The nice woman assured me that my information wasn't useful at all, and that the Seattle Police Department had no intention whatsoever of making any note of any of this. Sorry. And then she thanked me for my time and hung up.

So ... okay. Whatever, I guess.
That was all the excitement in my day.

The Cheshire Red Books: How to Chime In

When I was on tour last week, a not-insignificant number of readers asked me about when there'd be another Cheshire Red book. As it turns out, Raylene and Sister Rose have some dedicated fans - and for that, I am superlatively grateful! But as I've mentioned here before, I still don't know whether or not the series will continue.

For details on the hows and whys of this situation, click here . The business is crazy right now, and many things are uncertain.

But one of my most frequently asked questions (of the non-steampunk-related variety) was how, precisely, readers should get in touch with my publisher if they wanted to voice their support for my vampire franchise. At the time, I didn't have a good answer; but as one particularly persistent fan has pointed out ... you can drop a message to Random House* through their website.

Here's the form.

So ... yes. There you go. I love hearing from happy readers wanting more, but I'm not the one you need to implore. This one's up to the publisher.


* Bloodshot and Hellbent are published through Ballantine Books as a Spectra trade original; Random House is the parent company which collects all the correspondence.

More things that happened in my absence

It's become a bit of a running joke between me and my agent, that good news always lands when I'm out of town and ill-prepared to properly respond. This was definitely the case while I was off on tour, so now I can take a moment and fill you in on the awesomeness.

To wit, Dreadnought has won the Endeavour Award! I am dumbfounded by this outcome, to be perfectly honest; but of course, I am delighted! And I can't thank the folks from OryCon enough. It's a privilege to be in such illustrious company!

* * * * *
In other news, I am totally on CNN right now. Sort of. Well, I mean, I was interviewed for CNN. For a Geek Out! blog piece, that is. (I'm quietly giggly about how the writer closed the piece with one of my favorite pieces of advice.) #steampunk #chicksdigalternatehistory

* * * * *
And for those of you who, for some reason, want to see me talking awkwardly to a nice man with a microphone ... all your prayers are answered in that-there interview for Author Magazine, which yes, went live while I was gone. (Also, yes - I am wearing a vintage hair thingy. People keep asking about it.) Mostly I'm just relieved to note that my eyebrows look even. #publishing #weirdindustrytales #hairdoodads

My week on the road

So yes, I'm back - and last night I slept almost eleven hours, only to arise this morning to yet more work that needed to be done. But never mind that! It's blogging time.

When it comes to the tour recap, I suppose the most logical thing to do is handle this in highlights - even if they feel a little disjointed and/or incomplete. So much has happened that I'm bound to leave a few things out by accident or design; and a full, dry retelling would probably bore the crap out of everyone. So I'll restrain myself, and try to keep this relatively brief. Yet crunchy.

And here we go.

MEMPHIS
For the first leg of my trip, I went back to Tennessee - to Memphis, where I stayed with my friend Spider. She and I were joined by Denny, who did a most excellent write-up of our adventures here . Click that link. There are pictures.

On Saturday, I did a chat/signing at The Booksellers at Laurelwood. The crowd was happy and I was happy and I signed everything everyone wanted; and I rambled at length about whatever the nice people asked me to ramble about. There wasn't much stock to sign afterward, as we'd mostly sold through what was on hand. Nice problem to have!

Afterward, me and Spider and Denny got silly. We wined, we dined. We met Spider's friends and parents; we bopped up and down Beale Street (in accordance with tourist law), saw a thousand and one pictures of Elvis but did not visit Graceland, checked out the Peabody ducks, and ate ourselves silly all over the city (special hat-tip to Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken). Denny had to leave us on Sunday night, but on Monday Spider and I continued our nomming adventures at Corky's BBQ, and generally hung about being lazy, watching TV, and drinking rum. Then, on Tuesday morning, I flew out for St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS
In St. Louis, my publicist was kind enough to put me up at the restored Union Station - which has been converted to a hotel. Yes, I am aware that parts of Escape from New York were once filmed inside it, such was its state of pre-restoration squalor; but it's a real gem now, and the food at the hotel's restaurant was outstanding. (As those of you who travel regularly are all too aware, this is not always the case.)

I arrived for my event at Left Bank Books early (partly by mistake, long story), so I went across the street to a neat little restaurant called "Duff's" and got myself a light supper. Then I jaunted over to the bookstore, where I met the marvelous Mark Tiedemann - fellow Donald Maass Agency client, and all-around nice guy. I also met "Spike," the bookstore cat. Spike looks rather comically like a taller, leaner version of Spainy ... and he sat on the front row for much of my talk, which totally cracked me up.

After all the nice people had gotten their stuff signed (including the nice store staff, and their stock), Mark was kind enough to give me a lift back to the Station - where I might have hypothetically wandered around for awhile in my pajamas, just checking the place out. Then, the next morning, it was off to Denver.

DENVER
I don't have any pictures from Denver, which is a shame because once more, I was among (old rather than new) friends. David Boop [be advised: site has sound] nabbed me from my hotel and whisked me off to supper with himself and Mario Acevedo - who you may recall from the Paranormal Bender Tour of a couple of years ago. We had a most excellent supper, then grabbed coffee, and then swung by the Broadway Book Mall.

The crowd was great, the store was smashing; and as a bonus thrill, Ed Bryant - fellow Wild Cards writer - came out for the show. When he introduced himself, I was utterly tickled! He was excessively charming, and I was delighted and dorked-out to make his acquaintance.

But all good things must come to an end, so when all the books were signed and all the giggles were had, David gave me and Mario both a lift back to our respective spots. And then, the next morning, it was off to Boise ...

BOISE
I also have no pictures from Boise, which is likewise a shame. But by this point in the trip, I'd been on the road for a week and my brain cells were scattering. Alas.

Anyway, Boise was a delight! I was picked up from the airport by Bruce Delaney of Rediscovered Books - and driven out to Timberline High School where I chatted with some of the students/teachers/librarians for a bit. Then it was back to the hotel for a quick breather. (Though like all my breathers, I spent it doing day-job work. Que sera.)

When the appropriate time had arrived, Bruce picked me up and took me back to the bookstore, where things were picking up! I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there's nothing a visiting author likes to hear more than, "Oh my, we're going to need more chairs." The crowd was hopping, and I met many fine folks from the local SFF scene. Many books were signed, much socializing occurred, and then Bruce delivered me back to my hotel.

[A note about Boise in general, if you Idahoans don't mind: This was the most laid-back, friendly, easy-going city I've ever visited outside of Canada. What a nice bunch of folks! Not that the other people on the other legs of my trip weren't lovely as well ... it just seemed like Boise has a pervasive regional zeitgeist of leisurely helpfulness.]

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to see me; these tours wouldn't happen without you readers coming out to show your support. Likewise, a big round of thanks to everyone else who helped create the event - the bookstore owners, operators, and staff members who kept me in pens, water bottles, and books all week; and also to Aisha Cloud at Tor - who did all the booking, and has now been on the receiving end of a small tsunami of receipts.

This was a most excellent week, and I'm immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to see more of the world and shake hands with more of you book-buying, book-selling, author-helping superheroes. You all rock.

There and back again

Well, I'm home - and I very much want to tell you all about my wild mini-tour, but I scarcely know where to begin. It was fantastic! I enjoyed every minute! But I'm so tired right now, that I'm positively cross-eyed. I will do my best to cough up a write-up over the next couple of days. Even if it's just a highlights reel, I do believe the week deserves to be documented.

But today I got up at (the equivalent of) 5:00 a.m. and flew in from Idaho; then I hauled myself home and discovered both terrible weather and errands awaiting which wouldn't wait - and I hiked all over the hill because my husband had the car today at work; and finally I sat at my desk and knocked my inbox down to zero (almost!) because Jesus H. Christ, you have no idea how much Important-Stuff-Address-It-Now-Now-Now can pile up when you're gone for a week.

Or maybe you do.

Regardless. I am beyond exhausted, I've only been back in town a few hours, and I've logged a few thousand miles in the last few days; so now I'm going to make myself a hot butter rum, throw on some pajamas, watch some TV, and crash for the evening.

(You see? I've devolved to tacking together loosely related clauses with stylistically questionable commas. This is what it's come to.)

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to see me; thanks for your encouragement, your questions, and your cheerful participation. Thanks also to all the fine bookstore crews who hosted me, and to my publicist Aisha who booked the whole damn run.

I may be beat, but I'm not so worn out that I don't know how lucky I am.