Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 65

And my affection, well it comes and goes...

Here's today's progress on my fifth Clockwork Century novel - a book about teenage juvenile delinquents, hypothetical ghosts, and gangland mayhem within the walled city of Seattle ... now with Bonus! zombie Sasquatch and the return of everyone's favorite elderly cross-dressing Native American princess:

Project: Inexplicables
Deadline: September 15, 2011
New words written: 4226 (yay!)
Present total word count: 62,548 words

Things accomplished in real life: Daily run/climb in all its sweaty glory; cleaned the fish tank, where Ziggy seems to be trying to cultivate an algae garden, drat him; celebrated yesterday's successful day-job marathon; exchanged some important emails; exchanged some unimportant emails; received birthday present in the mail (Wii Fit Plus! Wee!).

Other: A good fat writing day, huzzah! Yesterday, as mentioned, was a wash - but my actual sit-down-and-write pace is picking up speed, as it often does for me in the second half of a book. I'll probably end up culling a good 15K out of the first half (again, as usual), but I'm really scooting along now. Let's hope I can keep this pace up! Obviously I can't when I have more day-job work on my plate (today is a breather), but I'll do my best.

Other, redux: I promised myself that if I hit 4K today, I could unpack and set up this-here Wii Fit. I've wanted one for ages, and my dad sent me a gift card to Amazon.com ... so, yeah. Off my wishlist it came! [:: happydance ::] And off the internet I go!

Total narrative fiction word count for 2011: 62,548 words

Rest In Peace

This morning, Leslie Esdaile Banks died of cancer. I mentioned before how I met her and why I adored her; and even though I knew she'd been desperately ill, I suppose I never really thought it'd come to this.

I don't really know what to say.

Leslie Banks was a great lady. She was a powerful woman. You could look up to her, and rely on her, and trust her. She moved through the world with strength and kindness. I will miss her. I can't believe she's gone.

And they said a hundred times I should've died

Today was a lost cause from a fiction-writing standpoint, as it has belonged thus far entirely to the day-job.* This isn't a bad thing, really; the day-job project is pretty cool, and a useful learning experience to boot. But it does mean no word metrics to offer up to the internet gods.

Ah, well.

Yesterday was immensely pleasant but also writing-free, having included not just farmers-marketing with the Cap Hill crew ... but also a lunch/brunch at B&O with a number of lovely folks in post-birthday fashion. And tomorrow, well. Tomorrow I will try to be a productive writer-person.

But for now, I will log off and await the next round of day-job communication (which is inevitably coming).

Thanks again to everyone who pinged, tweeted, messaged, and emailed with birthday wishes early and late over the last few days, and I'll try to have something more pithy and practical to post tomorrow.


* I knew this in advance. I got the assignment on Friday evening, and knew we'd spend today cleaning it up and making it all shiny; so I resigned myself to this being a zero-fiction-word day. Sometimes it's okay - just as long as I don't make a habit of it.

Ganymede Goodreads Giveaway

Hey everyone - if you'd like a shot at winning a copy of Ganymede via that fine website "Goodreads," then I would like to direct your attention to this-here link . In short, Tor is giving away ten copies in a drawing that ends September 9th. So go throw your name in the hat!

(For a few details, go here the Tor/Forge blog.)

May the candles on your cake / burn like cities in your wake

Last night was fantastic! If you ever get a chance to see George speak, you should absolutely pounce upon that chance. Even if you are in a sweaty-hot town hall wearing far too many clothes for the occasion, you will absolutely love it, I promise.

* * * * *

People often ask what it was like to work with him on the Wild Cards [on the Fort Freak project], and the answer is easy: I leveled up as a writer by virtue of having his focus and input. I am acutely aware of how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to participate, and I remain utterly, dorkily, cheesey-grinnily proud to have been part of that wild and venerable franchise.

(On Thursday, my husband and I were fortunate enough to join GRRM and his entourage for supper downtown, which was also 100% sterling awesome in every way possible. He has been immensely kind and excessively supportive, and frankly, I can't thank him enough for just being.)

* * * * *

So today is my birthday. I arrived on planet earth a few hours ago (East Coast time) on this day in 1975, and it's been a hell of a ride. Some good, some bad. I am daily amazed by how things have gone so far, up to this last year of what I can officially call my "mid-thirties." I have a fabulous and good-looking husband, a fat and spoiled kitty, an entertainingly pissy fish, and I get to tell stories for a living. Things could definitely be worse!

Speaking of those stories – if you'd like to do a birthday girl a favor, I'm not too proud to make a couple of recommendations:

(1). If you've ever considered trying one of my books, but haven't yet gotten around to it … perhaps you could consider doing so today. I have quite a list to choose from, and I'm not saying "there's something for everyone!" because taste is so subjective; but there's a pretty good spread. Even if you think my material isn't your bag, there's always a chance you know somebody who's keen on zombies, monsters, ghosts, steampunk villains and heroes, or alternate-reality freaks. Books make great gifts!

(2). If you've read any of my books and enjoyed them, please say so. Tell a friend! Leave reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the retail site of your preference. Word of mouth is everything, and especially on the internet, the unhappy people have the loudest voices. (All too often, anyway.)

Click any of the links below to see all my listing at these fine establishments:

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble.com

Powell's.com

Or you can search for an independent store near you through IndieBound.

Don't forget the University Book Store at the University of Washington. You can order books through them, and I will sign them however you like. No extra charge. Details on this service are available right here if you're interested.

Anyway! Thanks so much to everyone who has passed along birthday wishes via the usual internet and text message suspects. They have warmed my morning and cheered me greatly on this day which marks my encroaching decrepitude. Likewise, thanks in advance to anyone who participates in Cherie's Shameless Birthday Book-Buying Plug – because without you readers, we writers would be out of business.

And now I'm going to log off, freshen up, and join my husband for lunch before heading out to see Cowboys and Aliens. Thanks again, and I hope you all have a most excellent weekend!

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

Weekend and Whatnot

I don't have any word metrics to offer this afternoon, mostly because I didn't write anything. Instead, I cleaned house a bit, took care of some outstanding interviews and emails, and lounged around with a headache due to lack of sleep for several nights in a row.

Mind you, I couldn't take a nap. The shouting construction workers with power tools and questionable music taste saw to that.*

Yesterday's supper meet-up ran late, yes; but I still could've gotten my reasonable allotment of slumber had not a pack of drunk hipsters camped soggily on our stoop – directly under our window – until the wee hours of the morning. I was ready to boil some oil and pop out the screens, I swear to God.

Really, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever see eight hours again.

Or even six.

*sigh*

Anyway! On to a brighter subject.

At the risk of sounding like I'm gloating, in a couple of hours the husband and I are heading out to go do something awesome. So I'm going to log off and find something to wear, and then I will pretend like I have a couple of days to do some relaxing like an ordinary civilized person.

(Hint: I don't. I have a LOT of work to do. Some of which I should've done today. Ah, well.)

* They begin every morning at 7:00 a.m., and usually (though not always) wrap it up by 7:00 p.m. – at least six days a week, and often seven. It's been this way for weeks, and will likely continue for months. In other news, earplugs make my ears ache and I hate them.

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

Enjoy the Silence

As many of you know, LJ is having some "issues" right now. This morning, I was able to log on for the first time since Sunday - and nothing I've posted to my website in that interval has successfully cross-posted here. I don't intend to repost everything now, as that would feel spammy; so instead I'll just say this: If you want to know what I've been up to, click here and scroll around .

In the event that LJ gets its act together and/or successfully secures its servers, I will resume cross-posting as I am able. For now, you may want to bookmark my site and make a point to visit me there, instead.

Thanks for reading!

Excuses and PDX and Mayhem Oh My!

So I didn't get any writing done today, but I certainly got a lot of writer business taken care of, and now I've moved on to laundry. I had a g-chat/video interview with the awesome Justine from Geek Speak Blog; I spent a frankly comical amount of time on email backlog, then killed an hour and a half on the phone with an old friend, who is coming (with another good friend) to see me in September, yay!

Tomorrow, though. THIS WEEKEND, EVEN.

I will be out of town.

Where, you ask?

Portland Gear Con.

(Thus the laundry. And the subsequent packing.)

Anyway! I am a busy person who has done no word-metrics-worthy work today, but I would like to impose some links upon you, if that's all right. It is? Excellent. Here we go:

My Twitter Feed – I likely won't be blogging while I'm gone, but I'll be posting over there. Pictures, shenanigans. Whatnot. You know the drill.

Click here to hear me natter on – Behold, a podcast interview with a very nice gent at SciFi London, re: vampires, alternate history, and other assorted wackiness.

Speaking of Bloodshot – There's been a revival in press for this book, because it's coming out soon in the UK. Much to my personal delight. Here is a faboo interview, and you should totally go read it and realize that you MUST OWN THIS BOOK.

What's that? You want another Bloodshot review? – Please, allow me to oblige! SFF World really dug it.

Come again? You'd like to see an interview about Bloodshot? – Ah, I can oblige there, too. GeekNative really got their teeth into this book, and that is a terrible pun, yes, but I get to use it because they did it first.



Okay. Thanks for reading, everyone – but I have laundry to sort and packing to do, so I'm going to log off now and get productive. Tomorrow, on the train, I will write. You just watch me…

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

July 19, 2011

Here's today's progress on my fifth Clockwork Century novel – a book about teenage juvenile delinquents, hypothetical ghosts, and gangland mayhem within the walled city of Seattle … now with Bonus! zombie Sasquatch and the return of everyone's favorite elderly cross-dressing Native American princess:



Project: Inexplicables

Deadline: September 15, 2011

New words written: 2933 (not bad, except it's a 2-day total)

Present total word count: 46,512 words

Things accomplished in real life: Lots of writer business this morning, the kind that somehow eats a huge chunk of the day; got some seriously strange personal news, but won't be talking about it here; tidied apartment; made lunch and cleaned up after it; talked to the husband when he came home from work unexpectedly; considered taking a flame-thrower to the construction workers behind my building, because they won't turn that goddamn radio down, or off, or whatever, and I shouldn't be able to hear it half a block away while my television's on.

Other: Yesterday and today have both been feeble writing days, but at least I'm still moving forward. I'm calling the word count quite early, obviously – but that's partly because I have errands to run, and then a meeting this afternoon. MOAR BUSINESS. Thank God I've got a temporary day-job reprieve, though that'll change come August (if not sooner). Crunch time will hit me from all sides before long, and these piddly word counts won't cut it. I'll try to write more tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Total narrative fiction word count for 2011: 46,512 words

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

July 16, 2011

Here's today's progress on my fifth Clockwork Century novel – a book about teenage juvenile delinquents, hypothetical ghosts, and gangland mayhem within the walled city of Seattle … now with Bonus! zombie Sasquatch and the return of everyone's favorite elderly cross-dressing Native American princess:



Project: Inexplicables

Deadline: September 15, 2011

New words written: 2754 (not bad for a weekend day)

Present total word count: 43,279 words

Things accomplished in real life: Slept in due to rain – the construction work outside could not begin at its usual 7:00 a.m., so I carpe'd that diem; took a couple of phone calls; answered a few emails (important and otherwise); not much else, honestly.

Things accomplished in fiction: Got a job offer. It kind of sucks, but what can you do?

Next up: Testing our salesman skills.

Other: I'd intended to use this as a "day off" – just to give myself a break – but yesterday's utter word count failure meant I really needed to bang out a few lines to keep up with the flow. I told myself I'd settle for 1500 words, but then I got on a roll, which was nice. Now to run an errand or two, and wait for the husband to get home so we can see about supper.

Total narrative fiction word count for 2011: 43,279 words

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