Cherie Priest

In all the excitement of the last couple of days (and once again, seriously — thank you all for the birthday wishes and general goodwill) …I almost forgot to post this. So here we go. Just in time. Stalkers take note.

This weekend, you can find me at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference out at Seatac with my Team Seattle homies. Behold. My grueling schedule:

Urban Fantasy 101 with Richelle Mead, Caitlin Kittredge, Mark Henry, and Kat Richardson; Friday from 4:15 – 5:45 p.m in Emerald Ballroom F.

Tailoring Fantasy & SF to Young Adult Novels with Richelle Mead, Lisa Mantchev, and Caitlin Kittredge (yes, I know I’ve never actually published any YA, but such is the nature of these things). Saturday from 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. in Emerald Ballroom F.

Steampunk 101 with Caitlin Kittredge, Lisa Mantchev, and Richelle Mead; on Saturday from 10:30 - noon in Emerald Ballroom F.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Worldbuilding with Mark Henry, Caitlin Kittredge, Richelle Mead, Lisa Mantchev, and Kat Richardson; Saturday from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in room Mercer A&B (whatever that means; I’ll figure it out when I get there).

Anyway, if you make this conference, by all means come find us and join a panel or workshop audience. We don’t bite, and we’re lots of fun (more often than not). Somebody is bound to have props or schwag. It happens, yes. Almost every time.

See this picture, this one right here? That’s what I’m about to tote off to the post office.

The auction results were very, very good — and I’m (a). thrilled to have been able to raise some dough for Travis, and (b). happy to get some of this excess stock out of my home.

Only about half the people who bid yesterday have paid already (which is fine, and even a very good percentage, really); so this is only about half of what I’m going to ship, if all goes according to plan. I have found a box in which to tote all this good stuff down the street to the post shop, and I’ll be making that short jaunt very shortly.

If you have responded to the paypal invoice by right this moment (as I am composing this post), your package will go out today. If I receive it after this post, it will go out tomorrow morning (or whenever you get around to responding).

General stats:


• All told, there were about 200 bids.
  
• The winning bidders have all been notified and invoiced.
  
• Apart from the winning items, about 30 people wanted to claim a stray copy Dreadful Skin or Not Flesh Nor Feathers

DISCLAIMER: I have done my level best to sort through all this and respond to everyone, but I think the record will reflect that gmail is not always 100% reliable and furthermore, neither is paypal. Already, this morning I have failed to receive one paypal notification from someone who successfully paid for his product; so although I try to go through these things with a fine-toothed comb (that’s how I caught this particular problem), sometimes things slip through the cracks.

ERGO: If you never received any acknowledgment to your original email regarding a bid or a request for a stray paperback, please let me know. (Note: I have not responded to paypal receipts unless I’ve had a question.)

LIKEWISE: If, within a reasonable time frame, you do not receive what you ordered, by all means let me know and one way or another, I’ll fix it. This having been said, it’s worth noting the following.

THE FOLLOWING: Orders for stray paperbacks will be shipped media rate, because I do not have all the money in the world and I’m not taking any of the dough out of the Travis fund for postage. However, bid-winners’ books will go priority rate. Please take these things into account before you worry.

SO IN CLOSING: Thanks again to everyone who helped spread the word, who donated, and who bid and bought. I know you’re all wondering about the grand haul, but I hate to count chickens before they hatch — and as I said, many of the stray paperback buyers have not yet replied to the invoices (which is perfectly reasonable, it’s not even been 12 hours and I’m not holding that against anybody). But I will say this: At this moment, over $700 have come into the auction fund, and if all the invoices come through, as much as another $200 or so might be added.

So three cheers for the internet, eh?
And three cheers for my old pal Travis, who is just about the nicest son of a bitch I ever did know.

:)

My outstandingly marvelous employer (and sometimes publisher) at Subterranean Press has freshly announced a new bit of awesome:

For a limited time only, he’s dropped the price of the paperback Dreadful Skin edition to $12. Offer ends tomorrow. Profits to go to his marvelous Travis-ness.

Please use paypal if at all possible, as it makes things easier on Subterranean’s end.

If you’ve put in for one of my ten-dollar copies, you’re still covered, no problem. But I’m effectively out of stock on these, so henceforth you should to go through the publisher instead.

So I post this to tell you that, and to send a hearty THANK YOU ALL for the signal boost, the bids, the donations, and the love. It’s enough to restore one’s faith in humanity, I tells ya — and tomorrow afternoon, I’ll tells ya what the haul was before I declare the event completed.

:)

This fund-raiser has ended. I am all out of stuff, running out of energy, and now I just have to sort out the bids. Thank you so much to everyone who linked, bid, or otherwise contributed — your efforts are greatly appreciated and you are furthermore awesome people.

HOWEVER. If you are still interested in (a). participating, or (b). getting a really cool book on the cheap, please see THIS POST regarding a very nice thing done by my employer.

* * * * *

Ladies, gentlemen, et. al. — today I’m going to try something unprecedented (on this-here page). I’m going to run a silent auction in order to get rid of some personal items from my Stash O’ Author Stuff.

“Why?” you may ask.

Well, the short version is that a friend of mine is in a bind, and I know him well enough to know that he’d rather take a fork to the eyeball than take money from anybody. So I’m not going to open my wallet and give him money. I’m going to try to raise him some money, which is, like, totally different.

I have at my immediate disposal — and am willing to part with — a whole bunch of things from my personal stash.

[Aside: Ebay hates me (long story) so I can’t put these up for an ordinary auction. (Bonus: This way he won’t know how much I raise so I can slip in a few bucks myself and he WON’T EVEN KNOW HAHAHAHA. Ahem.)]

It’ll work like this. If you see anything you like in the list below, drop me a private email - cherie.priest@gmail.com - and tell me (a). what item/items you want, and (b). how much you’re bidding. Tomorrow, I’ll choose the highest bidders and contact them with a paypal invoice.

I will cover all shipping and handling charges myself.
Repeat: There will be NO shipping or handling charges.
I’m doing this from my living room with my own envelopes and stuff.

And if you can’t or won’t offer more than the minimum bid, feel free to bid anyway. You never know. You might be the only person who wants that item.

Here’s the LOOT that’s UP FOR GRABS:

• Not one, but TWO Advance Reader’s Copies of Boneshaker. Won’t be out for another couple of months in real life, but you can have an early peek with one of these ARCs. (minimum bid: $10 each)

• One SIGNED, LIMITED EDITION of Those Who Went Remain There Still. This book is presently sold out in its trade form, with only a few of these special limited editions remaining. The limited runs $40 through the publisher, but this is one of my own author’s copies. (minimum bid: $25)

• One SIGNED, LIMITED EDITION of Dreadful Skin - NOT the oversized paperback linked here, but the hardback which has been sold out for several years. Again, this is one of my author’s copies. I believe it too retailed for $40, but it’s been so long I can’t remember. (minimum bid: $25)

• My SOLE REMAINING COPY of Apex Digest: Volume 1, issue 12 — the issue wherein the story “The Heavy” appears. Signed however you like it. (minimum bid: $10)

• ONE FULL SET of all three EDEN MOORE NOVELS, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Wings to the Kingdom, and Not Flesh Nor Feathers. All signed and personalized at your preference. (minimum bid, $25)

• ONE COPY of Fathom, hardback. Signed however you want it. (minimum bid: $15)

• MULTIPLE COPIES of Not Flesh Nor Feathers and the TRADE PAPERBACK edition of Dreadful Skin. [Edit: No more copies of DS. But click here for a similar offer put forth by Subterranean.] Due to a mix-up regarding my author’s copies (with both Tor and Subterranean, coincidentally enough), I ended up with twice the usual number — and I have about twenty copies of each of these titles that I’ll sell, signed, for ten bucks each. I’ll pull this particular listing in the event that I sell out, and I won’t invoice anybody until I’ve counted everything, to be on the safe side. Just speak up via email and claim one if you want one.
  

If you’d like to know the longer version of why I’m selling off these books, click the jump below and all will be revealed (or, if you’re reading this via direct link or RSS feed, just scroll down a little farther).

(more…)

I know I said I was going to try and spend a week not thinking about Dreadnought or working on it, but the more I thought about it, the more the time frame looked unreasonable. Therefore, after finishing up day-job work this afternoon, I dove right into revisions after the downtime of only a weekend. Yes, well. The best-laid plans and all that jazz.

At present, I’m about 150 pages into an almost 500 page project, and I just keep telling myself, “It doesn’t have to be perfect. It only has to be complete.” And mind you, in order to keep my editor and/or beta readers from going blind with the suckitude, I’d also prefer for it to be at least somewhat good.

[Insert witty transition here.]

Anyway. As some of you are aware, we’re experiencing a bit of a heatwave here in Seattle right now, and yes, I’d rather it be too hot than to cold, but no, we don’t have any AC and the weather is particularly hard on the husband but I’m pretty much dealing with it all right.

So too the cat, oddly enough.

I’ve mentioned before that we have a weird bedroom, insulated sometime in the 1950s with enough additional wall filler to effectively sound-proof it. One side effect of this insulation is that it always stays somewhat cooler than the rest of the apartment — as the cat has figured out. And as we have figured out, if we put a reasonably powerful small fan in the window, we can keep that room about ten degrees cooler.

Here. To illustrate the point:

(And no, that’s not our new bedding set. We removed the comforter in favor of a light cotton covering, given the temperature and all. Behold the cat’s approval.)

To give you some frame of reference, my handy-dandy thermometer says it’s 85 degrees in there. Do the math, and that’ll tell you a little something about what our living room feels like right about now.

[Witty transition the second.]

In other news, I have freshly updated the Clockwork Century — as I’ve been doing about once a week or so. But to save you an extra click, please allow me to go ahead and point you directly at Sesquicentennial Madness.

You may be asking yourself, “What’s a sesquicentennial, and why are people going mad about it?” To which I would say — in short, it’s the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. And for more information on the subject, I suggest that you go poking around on that webpage, which is operated by my old friend Andrea Jones (Navy veteran and Civil War historian who has saved my fiction-writing ass on more than one occasion).

Upon that page you’ll learn many useful things, and you’ll also find an interview with yours truly — an interview about growing up southern/not-quite-southern, steampunk apologetica, and what prompted me to make the war such a significant part of my Clockwork Century universe.

So go on. Click around. Show her some love.
She deserves it.

I think I have a Draft Zero.

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 5329 (!!!)
Present Total Word Count: 140,167 words
Goal: 140,000 words

And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I think I’ll go do the dishes.

• PHFactor Storefront. I met the gentleman proprietor of this establishment back at Penguicon; it turns out, he lives in Tacoma, and is exceedingly kind. He gave me the most KILLER set of goggles today, I swear to God. Go check out his wares. Solidly crafted, beautiful steampunk merch.

• Weekend adventure pics. With Mark Henry’s own special brand of commentary …

• More weekend adventure pics. Kat Richardson also posted a photo-log of our adventures, but somehow I missed the post the first time around. I think I’m all caught up now.

• Temple Library Review digs Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Very nice review from very nice people (I also got a friendly email from the reviewer). Sample: “To me gothic literature is a potion, even though I am not well read in the field, and as such utilizes its ingredients to the fullest to create a full time goose-bumps sensation. Priest is an A student at mixing concoctions and quite surprising for a debut.”
  

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 3099 (pretty good)
Present Total Word Count: 134,838 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Spent the morning on day-job work; exchanged some important emails/phone calls; met Hans briefly; mailed a whole bunch of stuff; went to Walgreens.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Holy shit. I’m writing the denouement. There is an excellent chance I will actually finish this book tomorrow or the next day. And I say that as someone who bloody well knows my tendencies toward saying this kind of thing and then failing repeatedly, writing for another week or two. But not this time. Seriously, I’m almost done. And I’m almost breathless about it.

Reason for Stopping: The oven just beeped. Time to pull the roast out and get slicing.

Final cover and verbage for BONESHAKER. Liz sent me this today and I did a little dance, right here in my chair. That’s what it’ll look like, front to back, folks. I am genuinely awed by how cool this book is turning out.

Check-ups at Elliot Bay. This morning, Spain the Cat went in for her (approximately) annual check-up. She was declared to be in such damn fine health that the vet won’t even classify her as a “senior” for another year.* However, she is succumbing a bit to the ol’ “middle-aged butt-sprawl.” Her weight has crept up by 3/4 of a pound in the last 3 years and now she’s almost a twelve-pound armload. Low-cal kibble, here we come.

Steam-powered snowplow engines. YouTube link submitted by a reader. Fast-forward to 1:29 in that video if you think I’ve been kidding about chopping up zombies with a train’s snowplow.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 4100 (awesome!)
Present Total Word Count: 131,739 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Took kitty to the vet (much to her righteous indignation); came home to day-job work and housework; stopped for lunch; wrote like hell.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Oh, such zombie-killing shall I give you! In other news, I have officially finished (Draft Zero of) the Big Action Climax. I feel relief … until I remember that I still have to wind all this stuff down. I think the guestimate of 140,000 words might actually turn out to be roughly correct. We shall see.

Reason for Stopping: Am exhausted. Need food. Maybe a drink.

---

* She’s about nine or ten years old.

And I’m absolutely pooped. The trip was grand, the signing was grand, the after-shopping was grand, and the road trip there and back was also grand, if warm (the Impala doesn’t have AC). But now I’m home, and I didn’t take any pictures or anything, which is just as well because I’m cooking supper and unpacking and generally doing the kinds of things that are multitask enough without adding “typing coherent thoughts” into that mix.

But Richelle took pictures and posted a write-up. And I know that Mark took pictures too, but he hasn’t posted them yet, so I can’t leech off his productivity.

Anyway. That’s all I’ve got for now. Supper is calling and so is a nice hot bath, but I don’t think I’ll combine the two. Yes. Well. I hope you’ve all had a weekend as packed with silliness, camaraderie, and martinis as I did.

Once more, for your reminding pleasure — tomorrow I’ll be visiting Salem, Oregon, with Team Seattle for a massive signing event of epic awesomeness! And no, I do not overstate the situation, thank you very much.

We’re leaving this afternoon, carpooling down to Portland, shopping and goofing off, then crashing somewhere in town; and then come noon - 2:00 on Saturday, we’ll be be at Escape Fiction Bookstore, 3240 Triangle Dr SE, with Devon Monk.

But between now and then, you can expect relative radio silence from yours truly. I’m fresh out of bed. I still need to take a shower, get dressed, pack, and meet the crew around noon — and we won’t be back until tomorrow night. I do not intend to take a laptop.

I will, however, be bringing my phone.
That means I might Twitter.
Just sayin’.

Okay. Time to hustle.
You guys stay out of trouble while I’m gone.
(Yes, yes. Do as I say, not as I do.)

Once more, a lead-in to the metrics: Tonight, 7:00 p.m. at the University District bookstore, Lisa Mantchev will be reading from her brand new book Eyes Like Stars. Team Seattle will be out in force, and there will be merry-making by all and sundry.

Now. Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 3366 (not bad)
Present Total Word Count: 127,639 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job ate the morning; spent lots of time on the phone with my old roommate in London; did some housework; wandered over to Subway for lunch rather than mess up kitchen and have to clean it again; that’s pretty much it.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Yet more zombie-killing. Snarfed ‘em up with a ten-ton snowplow attached to a train.

Reason for Stopping: Need to change clothes/freshen up before leaving for Lisa’s event.

Before metrics: Tonight, at the University District bookstore here in Seattle, Caitlin Kittredge shall present words and signings and all manner of author miscellany. Seven o’clock. Be there or … well. Don’t, I guess. But I’ll be there, and most of the usual suspects will as well.

Right. Moving on then.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 2092 (meh)
Present Total Word Count: 124,273 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Oh God. A little bit of everything. Day-job work, errand-running, housework, and worse.

Things Accomplished in Fiction: Zombie killing.

Reason for Stopping: Need to change clothes/freshen up before leaving for Caitlin’s event.

• Upcoming with the Gang: Team Seattle is off to Salem OR by way of Portland to join Devon Monk for mass signing at Escape Fiction in Salem [3240 Triangle Dr SE, Salem, OR 97302 (503) 588-5865] from Noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 18th. Come on by! We will have fun; and we always do our best to be clever and informative … or at the very least, entertaining.

• New Coilhouse is in production: And I, for one, could not be happier. It’s a damn fine publication — beautiful and smart, and fierce.

• Fifty States Pledge: My lovely buddy Trixie Bedlam (aka Sarah Sharp) has traveled to 36 out of 50 states so far this year. You can see some of her photos from the road in this flickr collection. Now she has 14 states left, and two of them - Alaska and Hawaii - are hard to get to! She’d like to be able to take the rest of them out in a single trip, and she’s looking for sponsors. Check out the link, check out her pictures. See if you’re not interested in helping (she’s really marvelously good).

• More Bling: If you’re a fan of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series, or of Psynde’s bling in general, now’s a good time to get grabby. The themed stuff is sometimes selling out before it even hits the site. (Because it’s just that awesome, that’s why.)

• Clockwork Thanks: Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who’s helped spread the word about my new site and the Boneshaker prologue/introduction. Seriously. I can’t thank you enough. Word of mouth is virtually impossible to buy, which makes you people priceless — and I appreciate every single link. [:: sends everyone virtual cheek smooches ::]
  

I’ve had a Monday. It has been a Monday wherein many things got done, none of them writing. I spent the morning on day-job work (as per usual), then went to Petco for fish supplies, went to (stores redacted) to do some birthday shopping for a couple of relatives, hit up Trader Joe’s for some desperately needed groceries, went to the postal store and bought shipping materials, packed up and shipped off a couple of birthday packages, took out a couple loads of trash, changed the fish tank while doing 2 loads of laundry, then folded/sorted/put away the laundry*.

I’m tired. I don’t want to stand up anymore.
But I still need to clean the litterbox.
*sigh*
I’m thinking maybe that one’ll wait ’till tomorrow.

However, I do want to point you at something new and groovy: The first installation of Boneshaker, live for your reading pleasure.

In my oh-so-copious downtime today [:: eye roll ::] I spent some time fleshing out Clockwork Century — cleaning up my own grammar, adding a graphic or two, and plumping up the “Stories” and “World” sections with more in-depth info on those two topics, respectively.

As I said, I’ll be tweaking, adding, futzing, and poking at the site for some time yet. I might even put up another chapter or two, one of these days. You never know. It’s like the wild wild west. Anything could happen.

---

* As a point of fact, it’s worth noting that the laundry room is in the basement of our building, which means four flights of stairs up and down in a joint with 11 foot ceilings. It’s more than housework; it’s manual labor.

So … I haven’t gotten any writing done this weekend, but I have an excellent excuse. See, for awhile now I’ve been talking about throwing a website up for the alternate-history universe in which my upcoming book Boneshaker is set. This universe also holds a novelette that’s up for free and immediate reading over on Subterranean Press’s website, as well as an upcoming novella through that same publisher (Clementine) and the upcoming novel upon which I ought to be writing right now (Dreadnought).

Since these stories cover three separate fiction forms and two different publishers, I thought that a website dedicated to their world setting would be a useful, unifying device to give curious readers a chance to poke around and try out the idea, just to see if they like it. And then, through a convoluted series of events that do not warrant a dry retelling, it turned out that I might very well need such a site for reference purposes within oh, say … real soon.

Therefore, with some help from the hubs, I got down to business and up to no good. It took a couple of days, some blood sweat and tears, and a whole lot of jaw-clenching, but now it’s live and fully operational — just like something that isn’t a moon. So it is with great nervousness but significant pride that I present to you all:

TheClockworkCentury.com

Please, if you have a minute (and if you are so inclined), feel free to click that link and go poking around the site you find on the other side of it — and then by all means click whatever other links you find. Flip through the tabs. Do a little reading. Tell me if there’s anything else you’d like to see included on the site, and let me know if anything isn’t working.

And if you could find it in your heart to link the site, or add it to your bookmarks, I will love you forever. The Clockwork Century will be updated periodically with artwork from the series, including maps and future book covers, publication and release information, progress on upcoming projects, and anything else even marginally pertinent to the universe. I hope it gets a little love, and maybe inspires a little pre-ordering (though right now, Boneshaker is the only thing available in that capacity).

Anyway, thanks for your time and thanks for reading, and I hope that every single one of you has a most excellent evening. I’ll see you online again tomorrow morning.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 3413 (not bad)
Present Total Word Count: 122,181 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work; cleaned house (even the floors); had drinks with Ellen; visited Caitlin’s cats; began work on secret internet project.

Darling du Jour: “The tunnel gaped and yawned, and devoured the great train slowly — incrementally — like one snake swallowing another.”

Reason for Stopping: Time to take a few minutes to work on secret internet project. Shhhh!

What a most excellent day! Not from a word-progress standpoint, though that’s been respectable, if not grandiose; but there was good mail, and money, and helpful information, and professional invitations too.

To give you the highlights reel: (a). I’ve just found out I’ll be attending the Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Association trade show in Portland come September, which is sure to be a hoot. I’ve done three of these trade shows in the past, and it’s always an awesome, productive time surrounded by books. And then (b). today, at long last, a couple of signed and returned contracts finally made that alchemical transformation into Real Life Money. This resulted in me running around the living room squealing, frightening the cat, and then dashing to the bank with my lovely new check.

Upon depositing same, I (a). set aside a chunk against taxes, and then (b). jumped through the requisite hoops to pay the entirety of my credit card debt.

Yup. That’s right. Killed off every penny.

It feels … strange. I’ve had big fat sums hanging over my head since shortly after college, at which point I found myself without any health insurance and a propensity towards coming down with pneumonia once every few years. Granted, I was also quite simply bad with credit like so many young people are, so I’m not pretending that mine was entirely a virtuous debt; but health issues significantly compounded the problem, taking the figure from being Dumbass Twenty-Something Party-Fund Debt to Serious Crushing Difficulty Debt.

[As a brief aside: Those of you who have recently wondered why it’d been over ten years since I’d been to the dentist … well, there you go. For the last five years I’ve been driving a car with its left headlight held on by packing tape. A routine six-month cleaning was pie in the sky frivolity.]

So yes, this is a momentous day indeed — though to take the edge off my glee, I also got mail reminding me that I still owe over $30,000 in student loan debt (and that’s after spending the last ten years paying on it). So three cheers for two steps forward, and only one step back. :)

* * * * *

And Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 2391 (not terrible, but meh)
Present Total Word Count: 118,768 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work; went to the bank and spent some time on paperwork and bill-paying; spent awhile in the post office mailing things; visited with Caitlin’s cats; killed my third wasp this week (never mind the two over the weekend, WTF?); ran around the house squealing.

Other: Oh God oh God oh God no more credit card bills. Now I kind of want to go shopping … (but will restrain self. I promise.) Oh well. Fingers crossed and spirits high for now.

Reason for Stopping: Need to run another round of errands before hubs gets home. Am also contemplating supper. Hmmm … supper.

Because every day can’t be a zombie walk picture day.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 5192 (SWEET)
Present Total Word Count: 116,377 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work; went to the post office; exchanged writer-work emails and whatnot; not much else. But in my defense, that’s a pretty bangin’ word count I racked up today. So I don’t apologize for my lack of other activity.

Other: Tonight at the University District Bookstore, Seattle — 7:00 p.m. - Elizabeth Bear will be reading/signing/hanging out. I’ll be there. Not sure who else will put in an appearance, but I highly recommend her to all and sundry.

Reason for Stopping: Need to clean kitchen, maybe take care of utterly filthy floors, consider supper before husband gets home and/or I dash out to the U-district in a couple of hours.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 2717 (meh)
Present Total Word Count: 111,185 words
Goal: 140,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work; partially cleaned house; did some grocery shopping; took a very brief nap due to utter exhaustion following lack of sleep last night (allergies, fan, room temperature, etc.); spent some time with Caitlin’s cats while she’s off doing writer things in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Other: Yup. Definitely going to be closer to 140,000 words. Might as well adjust the word meter bar and admit it to self, universe, et. al.

Reason for Stopping: I’m still exhausted, and tonight is Antiques Roadshow and History Detectives (yay, PBS!), so I’m going to wrap up now, take a shower, and settle in for the night.

Long story short — we started out like this (click to view larger):

And ended up like this (click to view larger):

And if you’d like to see more pictures from the big Fremont Zombie Walk ‘09, then you should click the little jump below and oh boy howdy, shall you have more gruesome pictures. This has already cost me about half a dozen followers of this mirror-blog on LiveJournal, but “Go for broke!” That’s what I say.

(more…)

We’re not unreasonable.

As I have been freshly informed, both Wings to the Kingdom and Not Flesh Nor Feathers are now available on Kindle as ebooks. Huzzah and hurrah! I’m glad to know they finally landed, and now the folks who’ve demanded those books in this format can be appeased.

Many thanks to everyone who has shown interest, to those who may show interest in the future, and to YogaGrrl for the heads up.

Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 5203 (a 2-day total, but 4K+ was written today.)
Present Total Word Count: 109,014 words
Goal: 135,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Managed day-job duties; did laundry; went to lunch with Caitlin; exchanged important writer business emails.

Other: I give up. There’s no way this book is going to come in under 135,000 words. My true guess is 140,000+ but I refuse to give in to the inevitable at this time. I still have 1-1/2 major scenes to write, plus the wind-down once our heroine reaches her destination. Oh well. Better too long than too short, and that’s a fact.

Revenge of Other: I also realized that I need to go back and write a short prologue, perhaps in the form of a news article. (For the sake of symmetry, I think a news article might be a good form for the info to take; after all, Boneshaker opens with a helpful expository chapter from a history book. A sort-of history book, that is. One that is in the process of being written by a character from the first chapter. So yeah. I think a news article. Perhaps.)

Reason for Stopping: It’s nearly 7:00 p.m. and I’m exhausted. I didn’t really get any work underway until well after lunch, and had to fit it around laundry … so I wore myself out late today. Yargh.

I got a little writing done today, though not as much as I would’ve preferred — only about 1200 words (which is better than nothing, but still). I ran into that old quandary of Failure To Plot This Far, and needed to take a few hours to sort out what happens next. I mean, I know what happens next, I’m just not sure how to … erm … get to what happens next. But I think I have it figured out now.

Anyway. After spending all morning doing day-job stuff and spending a bit after lunch doing writer stuff, I then wandered around for a little errand running (visited the bank and got laundry quarters; went to the drug store, yada yada yada), and nabbed myself a bit of bubble tea on Broadway (as you do). So as you can see, it’s been a MONSTER day of productivity (insert eyeroll here).

But speaking of monsters, this Friday I’ll be joining the crew at this fine event, doing my best to help the cause. You may ask, “What cause?” to which I will gleefully tell you that some local organizers are trying to break the world record for a zombie mob. I will be in the crowd, tricked out in my undead finery and trying to learn how to do the “Thriller” dance, for the sake of verisimilitude.

While I’m there, I’ll very likely hit up the reading/event with S.G. Browne (author of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament). You’ll find him putting on a show at Fremont Place Books at 4:00 — which yes, puts this reading immediately before the Big Shamble. So come on out and join us! At present, we’ll have the entirety of Team Seattle present (I think), plus an assorted representation of the Cap Hill Crew and heaven knows who else (I think Mark Teppo might put in an appearance?).

And speaking of appearances, plans have finally firmed up for a big Team Seattle event in Salem, Oregon on July 18th. There, you can catch Richelle Mead, Mark Henry, Caitlin Kittredge, Kat Richardson, and yours truly — on that fine Saturday at Escape Fiction (3240 Triangle Dr SE), from noon to 2:00 p.m.

So if you’re in the neighborhood and game for a little bit of literary mayhem and whatnot, please, stop by. We’re always happy to talk to readers, book-buyers, and passers-by alike. Yes, well. We’re a chatty bunch. We often come accessorized with dirty jokes, prizes, schwag, and/or party favors — if that helps influence your decision …