Cherie Priest

Tonight I’ll be taking off for Potlatch, where there will be a party and I will crash it like a zeppelin full of Zippos. If you’re there, please take pity on me; come up and say hello. I only know a very small handful of the locals on sight, so I sort of feel like the new kid in school, sauntering into the cafeteria with my skirt tucked into the back of my pantyhose. Help a sistah out here.

I look like this.*
(But tonight, I think I’ll throw in my contacts. So. Like. Feel special.)

And now, for stats …

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Safe.
New Words: 3049
Present Total Word Count: 23,536 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Introduced new power player/old gangster from Al Capone’s court in Chicago back in the day; set up the protagonist in newer, nicer digs; spotted irregularities in people’s stories; prepared to make trouble for several parties at once.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Not much. Didn’t sleep well last night and was tired today. Cleaned house a smidge. Ate cheesy enchiladas.

Reason for Stopping: Time to get ready/freshen up for Potlatch social tonight. Might have some coffee and pop some Advil.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 109,390

Spent much of the afternoon with a friend, which was smashing — as always — though I seem to have driven off with her mail. Peculiar. Will remedy that either tomorrow or Saturday. Wrote today, though not very much. Am tired and fighting a headache and/or allergies, not to mention damp from touching up my hair dye and a little warm from a large glass of cheap wine.*

Won’t post word count, as it registers under 1K.
But here’s the darling du jour, because sometimes, I crack myself up:

“Bones gave him a frosty, ‘Oh good.’ And he didn’t wipe the sarcasm off it first.”

Yesterday I got my Congratulations, You’re a Guest! letter from the DragonCon folks, and today I’ve been talked into attending Potlatch 17 … starting, er, tomorrow. I wish I’d known about Potlatch sooner; I’ve just had my head up my ass with all this construction on the apartment and/or keeping up my work-flow numbers, and somehow I completely missed the fact that this fine local event even exists.

But it looks like fun! And I’m going to try and start with the Clarion West General Meeting/Dessert Reception/Party. So who else among you wonderful local folks will be attending? I’ve seen their membership roster, yes — but sometimes I lose track of internet handles vis-a-vis real life names, so help me out here.

OMG HOLY CRAP LET THE TRUMPETS SOUND AND CHAMPAGNE UNCORK! For lo, unto me this day is granted a fully functional closet with Bonus! insulation in the walls* — and now, well. Now I need to restore order to my home. I’ve got closet innards stuffed and stashed all over the apartment, and there’s a fat layer of sheetrock dust over pretty much everything. My kitchen floor is revolting, having been stomped all over by workmen for the last two weeks. My bathroom is filthy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got work to do.
But first, here are the stats I’ve accumulated up to now.

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Good.
New Words Today: 2748
Present Total Word Count: 20,487 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 109,089

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Safe.
New Words Today: 2569
Present Total Word Count: 17,739 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Conversation with Marlise turned into out-and-out altercation; found the right Paul and his magical tower/insurance company skyscraper; discovered things are more complicated than they look; Ezra is a sneaky little trespasser; scored a safe place to spend the day underneath King Street Station.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Went to post office again; went to bank to cash/deposit a couple of checks; did a smidge of grocery shopping; began book review for magazine; watched the maintenance dude FINISH MY KITCHEN WORK, YAY! Next up: closet work. It might actually, hypothetically, maybe be finished tomorrow. All suitable appendages are crossed.

Reason for Stopping: Need to clean/re-set-up kitchen for what is hopefully the very last time. Am hungry. Might get a little more work done tonight, might not.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 106,341

So … two fine folks [on my friends list] are releasing their very first books today. One, Anton Strout, presents Dead to Me; and the other, Mark Henry, offers up Happy Hour of the Damned.

I’m forced to confess that I have not had access to a handy-dandy ARC of Anton’s undoubtedly superb book; but Mr. Henry was a sneaky SOB who got me to blurb his super-plus-good zombie romp a few weeks back. Therefore, I’ll just tack that sentiment right into this very post:

“More brisk, batty, raunchy, and catty than a room full of cougars with a margarita machine. Happy Hour of the Damned is funny as hell.”

And I meant it, too.

Go ye thereforth and give ‘em a gander, people.
Good urban fantasy abounds!

Let there be rejoicing — for lo, Aric and I are not screwed! Today we paid our CPA a visit, and believe it or not, we’re actually getting a tax refund this year! It’s a wee little refund of about a hundred bucks, but considering the fact that I expected to owe a couple thousand dollars, I’m absolutely delighted.

[:: bootydances all over the living room ::]

In other news, we returned home from the CPA’s office to find the cat under the bed and the maintenance guy’s work underway in the bedroom closet, so perhaps there’s a chance that this will all get sorted out within the week after all. I sure would love to look like a civilized grown-up with closets and everything before my dad and stepmom come out to visit next month. Dare to dream, I suppose.

Anyway, I’ve made limited fiction-writing progress today, but I squeezed out a short scene and I’m pretty happy with it, so that’s all right. I’ll make up for it tomorrow, if I can.

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Still intact.
New Words Today: 1392
Present Total Word Count: 15,170 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Established a bit of the background conflict; met Marlise, who is trouble; lost track of a streaky-haired girl, but that’s okay.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Went to see the tax magician and learned that we’re not going to be eating ramen for the next six months; went to the post office to mail a few things; removed all contents from kitchen; comforted hysterical cat; chatted on the phone about later-in-the-week plans with a friend; scraped up enough quarters for laundry.

Reason for Stopping: I need to replace the contents of the kitchen and I want to get a load of laundry in/done before Aric gets home from work again. Yes, there’s still plenty of writing time, but I need to get a bunch of little things in gear and I probably won’t get back to the laptop today. Such is life.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 103,772

I don’t have huge numbers to post, but (a). it’s the weekend and (b). I’m definitely getting sick. Even so, I’ve averaged about a thousand words a day during my slump, so I’m not complaining.

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Sound.
New Words Today: 4839
Present Total Word Count: 13,778 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Shook up protagonist like a hornet in a jar, let him loose; introduced a side character or two; had supper (wocka wocka); began process of plotting destruction of enemies.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Saw a movie or two; went to University District farmer’s market with Ellen; drank a lot of coffee; spent some time wandering in a bookstore; meandered pointlessly through the mall; composed, printed, stamped, mailed a letter to an elderly aunt.

Reason for Stopping: I need to get up and take another round of meds. I can’t tell if this is allergies or illness, but I’m popping pills for both. Also, if I sit here any longer I’m going to fall asleep. Time for more coffee, maybe.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 102,330

Because this has sort of been stuck in my craw since yesterday, I’ll go ahead and make a public note of it here. I’ve mentioned it before — how I hurriedly changed my Tennessee license to a Washington State one because of the intensely negative reactions it garnered; and since I’ve also changed my car’s tags to local ones, my out-of-town origins don’t come up so much anymore.

But if you go out of your way to ask where I moved to Seattle from, and I tell you “Tennessee,” the appropriate reaction is not, “EWWW. God, I’m sorry.”

I tend to augment these forced confessions with the fact that I’m actually from Florida, which seems to put the askers at ease — as if Tennessee were a place without plumbing, cable, or toothbrushes, and at least Florida has like, roller coasters or something. I used to back-peddle like this because the reflexive snobbery made me feel uncomfortable and defensive in a, “Christ, please don’t spit in my food” kind of way. But now I do it because twelve years of marinating in southern manners prevents me from responding with the first thing that pops to mind, i.e., “You can kiss my ass.” For heaven’s sake, I’m not a refugee — and I’m not a visiting dignitary from a third world country.

But if I indulged this bit of petty backtalk it would only confirm the worst stereotypes and validate that rude reaction to other incoming southerners, and I don’t want that on my head.

Anyway, in the interest of education (so I cannot say that I did not try), here’s a little primer for folks who aren’t instinctively polite when confronted with an answer that they, personally, find distasteful. Some suitable sample responses to, “I moved here from Tennessee*” might include,

Quasi-Acceptable By Virtue of Self-Awareness: “Tennessee? I’ve never been there and have no credible reason for thinking you’re an illiterate cousin-snogger, so I’ll just assume that you’re a civilized human being like myself and behave accordingly.”
Good: “Oh really? Tennessee. That’s nice.”
Better: “Tennessee, huh? I hear it’s a beautiful place.”
Best: “Oh really? Welcome to the northwest! We hope you like it here.”

See? It’s not that hard.

In 50 words or less: Unexplained digital communique wreaks havoc with the psyche. Half the people who hear it become infected with murderous rage; other half run and hide to greatest extent possible. Perhaps occurs in a fictional (science fictional?) city that is somehow isolated from the rest of the world. Marital dysfunction and idealized infidelity ensues.

Do you have the crazy? Maya and Lewis don’t get along so hot, and now she’s cheating on her (abusive?) husband with Ben — a good-looking, sensitive soul who wants Maya to run away with him and/or stay in bed, whichever is more convenient. Maya initially declines both invitations. When the feces become airborne, Ben and Maya struggle to reconnect from their respective sides of the city. Lewis violently objects.

Spoilers to Follow

The Signal is presented in three parts, or “transmissions” — each directed by a different party. If you are unaware of this when entering the theater, you’ll figure it out soon enough. But this isn’t a Grindhouse sort of affair. This isn’t a set of thematically related stories being told by individuals; it’s one story told by three distinct parties with differing motives and styles. Therefore, I’ll treat these three vignettes individually, as they are offered.

Transmission #1: The first installment is damn near pitch perfect. It’s an explosive set-up presented as a quick, effective character study of people in peril with unknown enemies and uncertain sanity, and it does a very good job of getting the ball rolling. If I were forced to name a weakness, I might say that Ben is a smidge too-good-to-be-true, and Maya isn’t a very good liar when confronted by her husband about her whereabouts; but Lewis is a suitably menacing maniac and the chaos that unfolds is grim, bloody, and appropriately confusing.

Transmission #2: The gears shift sharply when Maya crashes her car and sets off on foot, leaving the car to be discovered by Lewis — in hot pursuit of his wife, who he must protect from all the other loonies (or so he believes, in his homicidally muddled state). Lewis doesn’t find Maya, but he does interrupt a New Year’s Eve celebration that’s gone horribly, comically wrong.

The first chunk of Part Deux is honestly funny — which is a real trick after the uncompromising nightmare of the first installment. At first I was annoyed by the 90-degree turn in tone, but it grew on me; and before long I was rolling with it. Unfortunately, the black humor derails somewhere around the middle of the scene. There’s a shift attempted, as the story struggles to return to the chaotic terror of the first third. The gears jam. The shift fails.

Transmission #3: Return of the Ben starts off promising and devolves into an impossible adventure wherein the villain is almost completely indestructible and the good guys, Ben and his new friend Clark, are inexplicably, repeatedly seized by a suicidal panic that leaves them frozen with terror. Several times they have a clear upper hand, but no one ever grabs the moment by the short hairs and yanks. Instead, Lewis is permitted to live another day and dole out increasingly unlikely beatings, heroic-thwartings, and spittle-flecked madness.

My problems with the story are many and varied, and they are only exacerbated by how truly fine the first Transmission was. #2 drops the ball midway in an attempt to tie black humor to snuff-level violence with a series of awkward segues that are too bleak to be funny and too silly to be horrific.

#3 devolves into a super-hip, meta-riffic post-modern slog that folds back in on itself like an origami gymnast. The audience is repeatedly tricked with false flashes of story, as if the director wants to give the viewers the phony flashbacks and bring the theater itself into the delusion — and hey, that’s ambitious, sure. Look, I didn’t mind when the characters hallucinated or daydreamed; they were entitled. But this was not the narrative manipulation of Shyamalan. The Signal doesn’t misdirect the audience, it habitually lies, painstakingly unraveling its own credibility again and again.*

At least — and here I must give credit where credit is due — it doesn’t take the hateful, plunging misstep I feared at the end. It sets up the possibility of “Oops, perhaps I’m confused about my own identity,” but doesn’t actually take it there, thank God. That would’ve been tantamount to, “And then I woke up,” and then I would’ve had to hurt somebody.

In Conclusion: The Bad — Inconsistent as hell and too hip for its own good. And what was up with the whole “no one leaves Terminus” thing? If they’re stuck someplace a la The Island or whatnot, it was never established as being relevant to the trouble (Clark’s manic, incoherent exposition notwithstanding).

In Conclusion: The Good — High concept horror is hard to come by, and hell, at least somebody’s going for it. The first segment is a thing of black-hearted beauty. The second is mixed. The third is largely baffling, but peppered with moments of glory. It might make more sense in an extended directors’ cut on DVD, and there’s enough terror/survival/suspense being thrown around correctly that it’s worth watching. Also, it gave me nightmares.

So it must’ve been doing something right.

Still no working closet. Yes, this was supposed to take five days. Yes, it’s been nearly two weeks. No, it might not be finished up tomorrow, either. No, I’m not as pissed off about it as you might expect, because at least management is actually addressing the problem — as opposed to pretending it didn’t exist.

At present, all of our closet-stored belongings are stacked around the bedroom or crammed into the hall closet, but that’s not the thing that aggravates me most about the situation. Oddly enough, it’s the lack of a full-length mirror that makes me craziest. With the closet doors removed (and stashed in the apartment stairwell outside), I have no means by which to make sure that I’m not dressed like a total idiot each day, and it’s making me neurotic as hell.*

Anyway. Today’s stats for my noir vampire-fest:

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Solid.
New Words Today: 2702
Present Total Word Count: 8939 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Darling du Jour: “Bones had some very specific and profane thoughts on the subject, but he kept his mouth shut as if he were being charged by the word.”

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Finally finished opening chapter. This is the first time I’ve ever opened a book with a protracted scene of brutal, unwarranted protagonist peril; but it’s important. I need to remove all doubt about why this guy gets involved in the fray, and now the poor bastard has a whole lotta motivation, lemme tell you.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Basically nothing. Have been a little under-the-weather — though not nearly so bad as Aric, and I accidentally took a nap on the couch this afternoon, thus the low-ish word count. I woke up with the cat sleeping across my neck and my laptop burning a hole across my thighs. And now, weirdly enough, I actually feel kind of worse.

Reason for Stopping: Finished scene. Have headache. Want a cup of tea and maybe a sandwich or something. I need to get up and move around.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 97,491

Yesterday was pleasantly weird. Immediately as my work day wrapped up, Aric came trotting in the door telling me to grab my coat — because there was industrial equipment to be unloaded! Oh, I wasn’t going to help or anything, but I tagged along in order to spectate and cheer at the burly dudes who wrestled the 600-pound roaster out of a truck and into the basement of Fremont Coffee.

[For those who perhaps don’t keep up with my husband’s blog, he’s agreed to a part-time gig roasting beans over at that fine establishment; and for the last couple of months, he and the store owner have been scaring up equipment and hashing out the business plans.]

Following the liberation of the big old machine, we decided to do supper in nearby Ballard — where there’s a groovy little dive bar/restaurant called Bad Albert’s that makes the best damn fish sandwich in the world. I was introduced to this marvelous little hole-in-the-wall by a certain Kat Richardson, who lives right around the corner from it; and lo and behold, who should be sitting down to supper right as we walked in the door? Convenient! Impromptu collaborative dorkdom did ensue, with fish sandwiches and beer for all.

Also, we discussed writing. So it was totally a tax write-off.

Anyway, here are today’s stats for my noir vampire-fest:

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Safe.
New Words Today: 3134
Present Total Word Count: 6237 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1





Darling du Jour: “It interested him in a disconnected, pain-muddled way. There was a difference between the flailing, centrifugal pounding of the monstrous limbs and the precise, whistling crack of the skinny tool against his ribs.”

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Got 2/3 of the way through my opening scene, wherein our protagonist is dragged kicking and screaming out of his comfy little hidey hole and tossed into the middle of a conflict in which he has no interest whatsoever. He’s stuck, he’s scared, he’s pissed, and the sun is coming up in a couple of hours. If he successfully escapes from this, heads will roll, bounce, crack, smash and explode. Seriously. They should’ve left him alone.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Important emails/phone calls undertaken; quick jaunt to grocery store for milk and butter; convinced cat that the maintenance man was not going to roast her on a spit; finished sorting tax documentation/paperwork that was begun yesterday, before husband came home and announced the need for immediate hurry.

Reason for Stopping: We still don’t have a functional closet, but the end is near — and there will be no further cutting, drilling, or sanding … so I’m going to whip out my dusting implement and clear some of the debris. Aric’s been as sick as a dog and my own allergies are on the warpath. Vegas odds suggest that the air quality in our home isn’t exactly helping the situation. After the mad dusting rampage, it’s vacuum time, y’all.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 94,789

I give the hell up. On its present track, Awake Into Darkness simply isn’t working. It’s a tough thing to admit, especially when I’m almost 30,000 words deep in the draft; but if I’m going to be completely honest with myself, I’ve known from the start that it was b0rked — because I was doing a shitty job of recycling old material. I knew from the get-go that I ought to just trash the whole thing and rewrite it, and I didn’t, and that’s nobody’s fault but mine.

At least I’ve come to grips with it in time to do something about it. Following much head-desking and a whole lot of emailing, badgering, and drunken grumbling (at self, husband, editor, etc.) about this story, I think I’ve finally got an idea of how it can work — and yes, it definitely involves starting over from scratch.

Jesus, it’s brutal. The original draft was about 90,000 words. I had about a third of that re-done, and I can’t keep any of it if I want a book that isn’t going to suck ass.

Following an intense and miserable deconstruction session, I realized that I had committed some of the following narrative sins:

(1). Relied too heavily upon a bland vehicle character
(2). Set up an Alpha character who was not very interesting
(3). Shoehorned characters into motives that aren’t credible
(4). Forced my least interesting characters into pivotal roles
(5). Failed to establish a solid setting of any sort
(6). Was too dependent upon complicated plot structure at the expense of character development

And dumbest of all …

(7). Kept interesting characters relegated to the background, because I was afraid they would take over the story.

In my defense, I did first write this book ages and ages ago, so I suppose I ought to look at it as a good sign that I’m learning enough to fix some of these amateur hour glitches. And now, I’m going to make some of the following corrections:

(1). Strip out boring vehicle character and untangle the worst of the plot knots
(2). Relegate asshole Alpha character to a more credible position
(3). Adjust events to better define and shape motives
(4). Let the character interaction inform the story development instead of dictate it
(5). Go ahead and set it firmly and precisely here in Seattle (hay, why not?)
(6). Distill cast of thousands down to characters with an actual stake in the story*

And best of all …

(7). Take my strongest, most engaging characters to the forefront, where they belong

Oh, it’s gonna hurt. You can bet your sweet patootie I don’t want to go back to square one on this bad-boy, but I’m gonna — in the interest of ending up with a product that I’m proud of. From my new starting point I’ve launched a new opening scene, with a different protagonist, and a different direction; and after much blood, sweat, and tears, I’m actually sort of squeally about what I’ve got.

Yes! Amazing! I know! I thought I’d never get here, but here I am. So once more with feeling, here are new stats — this time for my simple noir vampire-fest:

Project: Awake Into Darkness (redux)
New Year’s Resolution Status: Secure.
New Words Today: 3103
Present Total Word Count: 3103 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1
Pardon the new word meter, as the other one is broken:

3103 / 100,000 words.


First Sentence: “Underneath the street a low-burning flame chewed warmly on a candle stub — brightening a corner of the hidden room and augmenting the thick, friendly stink of moldering paper with the gummy scent of paraffin.”

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Here’s to new beginnings! I’m actually thrilled silly with the word count today, because I spent almost 3 hours (literally) trying to pin down the first paragraph. It was so hard to switch gears and get moving on something that actually works; but once I got things underway, it just sort of took off. I consider 3000 words to be a highly respectable word count on even a full-length, high-gear working day — much less one wherein I dicked around all morning before getting started good.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Precious little except for fixing this. Changed the cat’s water; answered some email; walked down to the Walgreens to get a Coke; did some dishes; made the bed.

Reason for Stopping: I have a few other things I need to tackle before my work day officially ends (read: when the husband comes home and I drag him off to supper). We’ve got an appointment with the tax guy next Monday, and I want to sort out some paperwork and stuff.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: Including the now-discarded work I composed over the weekend — but failed to record here — 91,655. Yes, I’m keeping the word count running. Just because I didn’t keep it, that doesn’t mean I didn’t write it. All words are valuable words in their own way, if only for illuminating the sad, sad fact that I’m doing it wrong.

I tried to restrain myself. I said, “Self, I am not going to make a gratuitous kitty picture post, even though I now have a new picture of Spain the Cat that makes me cackle with mirth every time I load it. After all, it’s not like these people [read: you folks] have never seen this cat before.”

And yet, here I go.
Click the link below.

(more…)

Holy crap, I’m boring lately. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve been busy as hell, and yet none of it makes for good blogging material. Today in particular has been a bit of a productivity madhouse; this morning alone my labors have included (but are not limited to) such diverse elements as wrapping up Fathom line edits, sorting out Those Who Went Remain There Still proofs, printing and mailing a set of short story contracts plus some extras for Norwescon, and exchanging copious emails with assorted important persons.

Over the last couple of days I’ve also had a visit from Ms. Porkshanks*, gotten a fair measure of fiction writing done, and steadily maintained my New Year’s Resolution to varying degrees. Unfortunately, my preferred progress bar seems to be on the fritz — so I won’t post a general metrics update. I know I could pick another one, but right this moment I can’t be bothered.

Besides, I’m strongly considering trashing much of what I’ve done recently on Awake Into Darkness. I think I might need to start this one over from scratch. Meh. It’s going to be cool; I’m just uncertain of which brand of cool should be applied to this particular project. If you know what I’m sayin’.**

Hmm. What else? Oh yes. I saw Diary of the Dead this past weekend.
I was underwhelmed. Here. Have a quickie review.

In 50 words or less: Film students struggle to survive zombie outbreak, record every possible moment of it, annoy the ever living hell out of one another and the audience, and receive a crash course in irony.

Broad Impressions: Jesus H. Christ, Romero — you knew how to do this thirty years ago. What happened?

The Good: We’ve got a bad-ass elderly, mute Amish man named “Samuel.” Why yes, I would have bet money against ever typing that sentence in all seriousness. There’s also some almost-clever parallelism between “shooting” weapons and “shooting” cameras — but Alan Moore did the same trick much, much better in the old Swamp Thing run wherein he semantically plays with falling hammers (the tool/the part of a gun).

The Bad: The funny parts fall flat, the profound parts are accidentally funny; and the dialogue hurts worse than a hangnail. DotD scans like it was written by someone who has only just heard of this neat new thing called the Internet; I kept expecting someone to use the word “blog” with finger-quotes. Also, it spoon-feeds its moral with a hand so heavy it could crack walnuts.

Now here’s the part where I reveal myself to be a huge, pimply, two-faced hypocrite: If DotD had been made by a no-name director and crew, filmed on a budget circa Sam Raimi in 1980, and gone straight to DVD … I probably would’ve come out of it waving two half-hearted thumbs up. Oh, it’s not great film by anyone’s standards; but if it had the excuse of a budget that could be measured in pesos and some newbie at the helm, I could’ve forgiven it. There are laugh-out-loud moments, earnest shocks and scares, and a few risks taken with character types and portrayals. In short, if this were the first flick of someone’s career, I would call it a promising debut. But from Romero? It’s just embarrassing.

And now, to cleanse the palate and close the post, here’s a very silly cat sitting on a discarded Barnes & Noble bag.

Today’s stats for the noir fable with warring factions, score-keeping ghosts, supernatural animal testing on an industrial scale, survivors with grudges, a mysterious ex-clergyman who lies exquisitely, and a vampire who wakes up cranky from his 100-year nap:

Project: Awake Into Darkness
New Year’s Resolution Status: Good.
New Words Written Since Yesterday: 4193
Present Total Word Count: 24,934 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Showed part of an insidious plot; made part of a separate insidious plot; got somebody all bit up; answered a few questions; asked a bunch more.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Yet more combing of Fathom line edits, which I hope to have finished by Sunday evening, but we’ll see; waited out yet more closet/ceiling work; cleaned house a little; changed Howard’s tank for it had gotten all manky; drove out to pet store for more kibble for the kitty plus fresh plants for Howard’s aforementioned tank cleaning.

Reason for Stopping: I’m very, very tired. I feel like I’m sketching this book out; I’m doing a bit of cannibalizing from the original manuscript — which is quite old, but as I mentioned before, structurally savable, sort of — and when I’m tired, I cannibalize too much and don’t do enough new work/new content/new writing to repair/restore the old. I just end up reading on the old manuscript and I don’t even really pay attention to it. This is not sufficient for progress’s sake.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 85,696

Spain the Cat would like to share a little love with the internets upon this special occasion; but since she has easier access to my forehead than she does to the internets, she’ll settle for giving me a holiday smooch.

And now today’s stats for the noir fable with warring factions, score-keeping ghosts, supernatural animal testing on an industrial scale, survivors with grudges, a mysterious ex-clergyman who lies exquisitely, and a vampire who wakes up cranky from his 100-year nap:

Project: Awake Into Darkness
New Year’s Resolution Status: Safe
New Words Written Since Yesterday: 4052
Present Total Word Count: 20,741 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Talked to a ghost at length; busted into an abandoned library; awakened sleeping vampire in accordance with his wishes.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: More combing of Fathom line edits (which ate up most of the workday, yet I still got a healthy word count in, woo!); answered a stack of emails; dodged closet repair dude; caught up on internet goings-on (a bit).

Reason for Stopping: I want to take a shower/wash hair/change clothes/etc. in case we go out for Valentine’s Day. I don’t think we’re going to go do anything too crazy-exciting, but we might hit the town, you never know.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 81,503

Via the fine, fine people at Subterranean: My novella, Those Who Went Remain There Still is up for preorder on the website … but don’t whip out that wallet quite yet!

Instead, go to the Subterranean website and scroll down until you see the “Newsletter” link on the right-hand side of the page. Plug in your email address. Sit back. Wait. Receive updates for new Subterranean stories, and exactly zero additional offers of V1ag4a, we promise.

Best of all, sometime in the next few days, you’ll receive a newsletter including a one day discount for preorders of my hillbilly feud/cave monster/ghost novella. That’s right! News you can use, plus a few extra pence in the pockets! There’s no time like the present, folks, and the offer won’t last — so dash on over there, give ‘em an addy, and brace yourself for incoming digital goodies.

:-D

Yes, I’ve seen this. No, I wasn’t planning to contribute.

For one thing, I’m a busy woman at the moment. For another, I already have more reading material than I can handle as it is — and although I’m sure Ms. Johnson’s ARC would be a real treat, I feel like it would be irresponsible (from a productivity standpoint) for me to actively seek more leisure fiction at this time.

However, I believe that the record will reflect that I have a certain affection for the undead, and when someone suggests that I rewrite a classic bit of literature to include a zombie character, there’s only so much resistance I can muster.

*ahem*

Because I could not stop for death
He kindly stopped for me;
The wasteland held but just ourselves
And he was a zombie.

We slowly shambled, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My hatchet, and my shotgun too,
For his psychological comfort

We passed the school where children played,
Like cheese sticks lightly browned
We passed the fields of waving hordes,
And the evacuated town.

We paused before a lab that seemed
A scientist’s compound
The guards were scarcely visible
They looked delicious.

Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the zombie’s teeth
Were gnawing on my leg.

As you no doubt noticed from my previous post, construction on a mold-free closet interior began today. It began at 9:30 and didn’t end until after 3:00 — but I’m not going to use that as an excuse for a low-ball word count. Far from it! I did all right, all things considered, and I got a bunch of other stuff done too.

For example, I installed a wee version of this widget on CheriePriest.com; and I tried (but failed) to figure out how to set it in LJ on a semi-permanent basis while using the S2 system, so alas, my fealty to the cause beyond this post shall only be evident on the one page, not the both.*

Isn’t it shiny? Isn’t it sweet? Don’t you want one of your very own?

And here are today’s stats for the noir fable with warring factions, score-keeping ghosts, supernatural animal testing on an industrial scale, survivors with grudges, a mysterious ex-clergyman who lies exquisitely, and a vampire who wakes up cranky from his 100-year nap:

Project: Awake Into Darkness
New Year’s Resolution Status: Secure
New Words Written Since Yesterday: 3461
Present Total Word Count: 16,689 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Broke into a witch’s lair and stole a ghost; wreaked havoc in a condominium high-rise; donned crazy disguises; was forced to trust a distinctly untrustworthy dude; came to terms with peculiar partnership.

Other Things Accomplished in Real Life: Wrote book review that’s due tomorrow (ahead of deadline — score); listened to much aggravating power tool operation; moved remaining contents of closet into middle of bed and sorted them; walked down the hill to get a little business done; caught a phone call from a friend; comforted hysterical cat.

Reason for Stopping: I am starving. Also, husband will be home soon — and perhaps he can be persuaded to partake of enchiladas. Mmm…cheesy enchiladas.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 77,451

Behold. My bedroom, right this moment. Somewhere behind that plastic is a work-dude tearing out all the mold-damaged drywall.

As you might imagine, Spain the Cat takes a very dim view of these proceedings. Here she is, hiding underneath my desk while I work — and sitting up on a teeny, tiny, bubble-padded envelope. I have no idea where the teeny, tiny, bubble-padded envelope came from, what it is intended to hold, or what it’s doing under my desk behind a trunk full of files. But Spain has decided that it will suffice as cushioning for her hiding spot, so I guess it can stay.

But to see how she really feels about the whole business, click the link below.

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Every time I talk about doing editorial work on a novel, I get emails asking the same old questions. “What’s that like?” “What’s involved in that?” “How does that work?” And since I’ve been nattering on about Fathom for the last few days, these emails are popping into my inbox once again. So here’s my attempt to answer; but mind you, this is how I, personally, go about it. Your results may vary depending on your temperament, publisher, and/or hair type.

Yes, hair type. For you see, a book-in-editorial-process is much like a terrible hairdo.
Yes, yes it is. Hear me out.

First I write a full draft and pass it along to my editor. This is the equivalent of getting my hair wet, throwing some Dep in it, and going skydiving. Then I slip out of my jumpsuit, climb into my car, roll down the windows, and drive cross-country to go see my editor … and I ask her, “How do you like my new style? Eh? Pretty hot, right? Right?”

The initial response to the wannabe-book is an editorial letter. This is my editor pointing out that my hair — while a lovely color, and boasting many other fine attributes — needs a little work.

I defensively pat my hair as if I’m really quite happy with it; but the truth is, I’ve long suspected that it could be better. I take my editor’s words to heart and later note that she was kind enough to leave out the phrase “rat’s nest glued together with bubble gum.” Upon glancing in a mirror, I quietly marvel at her self-restraint.

So I wash my hair and twist it up in a towel, let it down, blow it dry, and that’s the next draft. If I’ve successfully removed the worst of the funk, then I’ll get a bunch of line edits back in response. This is the equivalent of my editor saying, “Much better, yes. Now let’s brush it out and see how it looks. Here’s a wide-toothed comb, a skinny-toothed comb, and a round bristly hairbrush. Get to work.”

I tackle the line edits with the wide-toothed jobbie first, combing through the document, getting the loose, easy tangles. These translate to, “all the dumb things I did with grammar/tense/word choice/etc. that I was fortunate enough to have somebody else catch.” Next, I switch to the smaller comb and work it through over and over again until I’ve pared away most of the other, more difficult tangles. This includes factual questions, judgment calls, and queries about story consistency. I usually make two or three passes with this smaller comb.

Once I’m satisfied that I’ve accomplished all I can with the combs, I switch to the round bristly brush. This brush shines up the draft, smoothing out any leftover questions about tone or story line. It double-checks any notes-to-self and addresses any issues wherein the editor had localized general concerns — for example, “This section is awkward.”*

Finally, I reach for a tube of product and apply it accordingly. In this case, “product” can best be described as “my editor’s final or follow-up thoughts,” because it’s usually something that I must work in lightly and evenly from top to bottom, start to finish.

And when I’m finished, (a). I’ve spent forever and a day hogging the bathroom, and (b). my book and I are much, much more presentable. Oh sure, there are further polishings to take place — the copy edits, the proof edits, etcetera; but think of that as the curling iron and hairspray on the whole shebang.

So basically, that’s the bulk of it. Is it clean? Is it tidy? Is it safe to leave the house without a hat? If yes, then color me a happy camper, and kindly pour my editor a good stiff drink.

Today’s stats for the noir fable with warring factions, score-keeping ghosts, supernatural animal testing on an industrial scale, survivors with grudges, a mysterious ex-clergyman who lies exquisitely, and a vampire who wakes up cranky from his 100-year nap:

Project: Awake Into Darkness
New Year’s Resolution Status: Sound.
New Words Written Since Yesterday: 3948 (much better, yes)
Present Total Word Count: 13,228 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Introduced my favorite character of the book. He’s easy to write about, bless him, and getting in tune with him again is really revving up my interest/engagement in this story. In case I haven’t said as much already, there exists a very old draft of this story already — and although the whole thing needs to be greatly, extensively rewritten, about 2/3 of the structure is pretty solid. Therefore, I’m already pretty familiar with the characters and the general blueprints of the tale. So let me put it this way: if this book were a house, it would need major structural remodeling, but I wouldn’t have to tear the whole thing down and start over.

Other Things Accomplished in Real Life: Finished combing through another round of Fathom edits.

Reason for Stopping: Exhaustion. Hunger. It’s coming up on 5:00, and I try to keep regular work hours; though it’s true that I often get more work done later on in the evening after suppertime.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 73,990

Today’s stats for the noir fable with warring factions, score-keeping ghosts, supernatural animal testing on an industrial scale, survivors with grudges, a mysterious ex-clergyman who lies exquisitely, and a vampire who wakes up cranky from his 100-year nap:

Project: Awake Into Darkness
New Year’s Resolution Status: Sound.
New Words Written Since Yesterday: 1788
Present Total Word Count: 9280 words
Goal: 100,000 words by July 1.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Filled in the mechanics of my monsters via tragic info-dump. Mother of dead dude spills all to the survivor in an attempt to allay her fears (there’s method to that madness, trust me) — but instead, the survivor gets some nasty ideas.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Wrote introduction for story that’s going into Son of Retro Pulp; did more noodling with line edits on Fathom (which ate up most of my writing day, as it shall continue to do for probably the rest of the week, if not longer); read half of a book I need to review for a magazine; accomplished laundry, which is good because I was out of socks and undies; and walked down to the post office to mail some things and check the P.O. box.*

Reason for Stopping: Hunger. Also, end of a chapter. Good stopping point. Note to self: someone asked me the other day to talk more about how the editorial process works from my end, and I’ll try to answer that in a post sometime tomorrow or the next day, maybe; but this is turning out to be a busy week, and I’m about to have a week’s worth of construction going on in here, starting Wednesday.

Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 70,042

So … if you click the link below, you’ll see the tentative cover of my next offering from Subterranean Press. :-D

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