All the vampires walkin' through the valley

Okay! I'm coming up for air, at long last. It took 110% of my post-DragonCon attention span, but I finally finished the rewrite of The Family Plot and sent it off over the weekend. Now it's headfirst back into Drawing Fire ... a first draft of which is due on the first of November. So that gives me what, five weeks to write 2/3 of a novel + accompanying comic masterpiece?

Yeah. So. Here goes nothing, right?

I spent yesterday re-reading the 80 pages or so I've got finished so far, refamiliarizing myself with the content and making a few tweaks and notes, here and there. I also laid out the material for the next chapter, and will get started on that either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I meant to get a jump on it today, but the truth is I've been playing catch-up for all the stuff I put off while I was eyeballs deep in The Family Plot.

I mean, no lie - for 2+ weeks I didn't clean the house, go grocery shopping, do laundry, answer email, or do much of anything except stare at my laptop and try to bang the story into submission.

Well, I might have hypothetically taken a bunch of pictures of the household's four-footed members.

Speaking of, everyone is doing quite well. Quinn is 3-4 months old now, and growing like a weed. She and Greyson are absolute besties; she and Spain are...roommates. But Quinn is working on it. She is DETERMINED to achieve Full Snuggle with Spainy one of these days - and for now, she's allowed (a). intermittent close proximity, and sometimes (b). a single paw of contact. I have about a dozen pics similar to this one, with a sleeping ElderCat and an opportunistic TinyCat pushing her luck with one wee foot.



This is about as close to Proper Cuddling as she's been able to muster so far. You can see the WIKTORY in her eyes. And in her tiny fist-pump.





The cats also play a little bit. Mostly it's idle games of chase, though occasionally they share a ping-pong ball or some other toy. They even play tag around the new kitty condo, and every morning, they peaceably share it. Alas, this detente typically comes to an end when Quinn gets over-stimulated and goes all chompy with Spainy's tail, at which point hissyfits ensue.



But like I said, Quinn and the dog are tight. They play and cuddle all the time, and if there's anything on earth any cuter than a big fluffy dog being super-gentle with a small cat, then I just don't know what.

[See http://www.cheriepriest.com for Vine, because LJ won't host it.]

When Quinn is upset, or lonesome, or something's frightened her...do you think she comes running to Mom? No. No she does not. She goes running for her big brother.

[See http://www.cheriepriest.com for Vine, because LJ won't host it.]

AND ON THAT NOTE. Let's get the word metrics booted up again, shall we?

So here's recent progress on my young adult haunted house story about a long-lost adventure pulp comic manuscript that's guarded by a good ghost and a bad ghost; now with Bonus! gentrifying drama, golden-age mystery, Hollywood intrigue, fallout from The Storm, and an agent who's just trying to do the right thing, goddammit:

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November, 2015
New words written: 762 (added in recent review pass)
Present total word count: 25,049



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Got reacquainted with the material so far, which was entirely necessary - because I hadn't so much as looked at the draft in weeks.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: [In general, since last post] Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; one checkup vet visit for Quinn; almost nothing but work for 2+ weeks, but then in the last couple of days - went to bank, grocery store, post office; did laundry; cleaned house, for it needed it desperately.

Other: I am trying to keep from dwelling on the fact that as soon as Drawing Fire goes off to the editor, I have three months to hand in a draft of Brimstone - then another three months to do a draft of The Toll. So...if you don't see much but word metrics for awhile, my apologies. But there won't be that much else going on in my life for the foreseeable future.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 81,052


And in closing:
This one's for their album cover.