Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 88

September 10, 2010

Here's the weekend's progress on my Hunley version 4.0 submarine book about Andan Cly and his crew having a damp misadventure in a Texian-occupied New Orleans, plus Bonus! guerrilla warfare, other assorted historic pirates, and an octoroon madam who moonlights as a Union spy.

Project: Ganymede

Deadline: November 1, 2010

New words written: 5377 (multi-day total, alas)

Present total word count: 51,538 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Finally reached the injured party who has been our goal...

morning drive-by now with delicious links

It's going to be another busy day, but I wanted to sneak a few links in front of you. They accumulate, these links. And if I don't post them now, I might forget to post them later…which would be UNACCEPTABLE (for a relative value of unacceptable). Or maybe it's still kind of early and I'm a little goofy-headed. It's entirely possible.
2010 Spotlight Award Winners on video – Courtesy of the Seattle Magazine website, this video was shot a few weeks ago – at least the portions with yours...

September 9, 2010

Momentum sucks. I mean, it sucks when you've lost it. I'm having one hell of a time diving back into Ganymede, and it's not just because I was distracted by DragonCon, or because I'm faintly sick with some kind of con-crud*; it's due primarily to the fact that I had momentum on the project and then I lost it by putting it down for over a week.

At the moment, I'm rereading chunks repeatedly, combing through notes, and generally trying to figure out where the hell I was going with some of this s...

FAQ of the new and limited variety

At DragonCon I read my short story "Reluctance" (from The Living Dead 2 anthology) to a room full of very nice people; and in the last two days three of those people have emailed to ask about the use of hydrogen in that piece. Generally, people want to know if I made it all up – or if my handling of the subject matter was based in real life retro science.

So to head off further queries, here's a general catch-all answer:

Yes, hydrogen-filled people-carrying balloons were actually used in the...

normal is way over there

I always underestimate how long it'll take to resume normalcy after I've been out of town for a stretch. I'd hoped that today would mean a return to the usual schedule – day-job work in the morning, writer work in the afternoon – but that isn't how it played out.

Ergo, there will be no word metrics today. Because I haven't done any writing.

I'll try to make up for it this evening, but there's no telling whether or not I'll be able to accomplish much of anything. I am frankly worn out...

September 8, 2010

And now for all the stuff that was waiting for me when I got home. Because many things make a post, even if they occur in list form. Right? Just agree with me, here. I'm in a hurry.

Locus – September issue, out now – And OH MY GOD I'm on the cover with Gail Carriger, which is almost more awesome than I, personally, can stand. And if any readers out there were unsure whether or not I'm a rambling doofus, well. This issue ought to clear that right up.

Speaking of, Boneshaker spends a 7th month...

DragonCon: The Recap

Well, let's call this a "Sort-Of Recap." Because if I tried to cram four days of DragonCon into one post, we'd be here all night – and I'm still low on time and motivation over here. So rather than try to do a play-by-play, I'll just note a few highlights, and then we can move on with our evenings, okay? Okay. Here goes.

* Had a marvelous time with many, many friends. Too many to list! Because I will inevitably, inadvertently leave someone out, much as Natania Barron is left out of this...

Free Books

Real quick – I wanted to post this to the webby masses, not just to Twitter/Facebook, so here goes: Tor is giving away galleys of Dreadnought to five random fans of the Clockwork Century's Facebook Page. Click ye the link for details!

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

Hello, world!

I am home! I am also so far behind on…well…everything, that I may as well not be home quite yet. I have unpacking to do, receipts to sort, packages to mail, groceries to acquire, day-job work to pick up, phone calls and emails to answer (OH GOD THE EMAILS), and one neurotic kitty to reassure that yes, we are home, and no, we are not leaving again anytime soon.

But this having been said, I'd like to add two more things: (1). DragonCon was MARVELOUS, as per usual – despite it sort of being a...

DragonCon: HO!

Hm. That subject line sounded more dramatic and less questionable in my head. Oh well. I'm too frazzled today to come up with anything else, so it stands!

Tomorrow morning bright and early (read: at dawn) the husband and I are packing up and heading to DragonCon. I, for one, cannot freaking WAIT. Not only is it an awesome convention, but it's also my only chance all year to go smush all my southeastern friends with big sloppy bear hugs; so really, it's just an awesome long weekend all around. ...