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. But before I go, I must make a post such as this one – with all the deets for how to reach me and where to find me. So here’s a DragonCon FAQ:

Will you be checking your messages? I will not be taking my laptop to Atlanta, so I am unlikely to respond much to emails. I can check email from my phone – and will likely do so on a fairly regular basis – but please understand that it’s a huge ‘effing chore to reply from a keyboard the size of a credit card. Call me if it’s that important. (And if it IS that important, you already have my phone number.)

Will you be blogging during the convention? See above re: not having my laptop. I will, however, be snapping phone pics and shooting them over to my Twitter feed. Keep up with me there while we’re gone.

What of your kitty? Our home is being watched by three apartment/kitty-sitters in our absence. She and the fish will be just fine.

Will you be selling books at the convention? No. Which is to say, I personally will not be bringing books to sell. However, you will probably be able to find them in the dealer’s room somewhere; and I am absolutely happy to sign any books you’ve brought from home. I do have an autograph session lined up, so either find me there – or catch me between panels. I don’t mind! In fact, it’s what I’m there for.

And now, if you’ll click the jump below, you will find my most recent DragonCon schedule (it’s changed a couple of times since I received the first one). As for me, I’m going to log off and run around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to tackle all those last-minute things one must tackle before jaunting off across the country.

Much love to everyone, and I hope to see some of you in Atlanta!

Keep in mind, this might change again – you never know! Check your schedules when you get to the convention if you want to be absolutely certain.

Panel Info Title: Under the Skin
Time: Fri 05:30 pm Location: Cairo – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Body horror, deformation, and transformation themes in horror fiction.

Title: Steampunk in Film
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: The Learning Center – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Our Steampunk filmmakers and author discuss making a film in this genre, and the state of Steampunk in cinema.

Title: Dragon*Autographs
Time: Sat 11:30 am Location: M301 – M304 – Marriott (Length: 1)

Title: Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century
Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: International C – Westin (Length: 1)
Description: The Nebula- and Hugo-nominated and Locus Award-winning author reads from the upcoming Dreadnought & discusses her Clockwork Century universe.

Title: Supernatural CSI
Time: Sat 05:30 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Investigating crimes with the help of magical and psychic abilities.

Title: Developing Characters Readers Never Forget
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: This panel will discuss strategies for developing characters that readers will talk about for years.

Title: Lovecraft’s Legacy
Time: Sun 04:00 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: The influence of H.P. Lovecraft in horror fiction.

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/09/01/august-1-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/31/august-31-2010/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/31/august-31-2010/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:09:22 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2171 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: 2060 (ugh)
Present total word count: 46,161 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Trudged through the swamp in the middle of the night; finally arrived at the pirate island besieged by Texian forces.

Next up: Dry land, antiaircraft fire, a few stray Lafittes, and some serious field medicine.

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work; hiked down to the bank to cash a check; went to Walgreens; talked to Bantam editor via email for awhile; talked to publicist from Tor via email for awhile; filed paypal dispute re: Etsy fail — long story (NOT from anyone I recommended the other day); paid a few bills; agreed to yet another signing/reading in November, at the Tacoma Public Library; went to supper with husband; cleaned fish tank; did last-minute laundry before DragonCon.

Other: My entire day was nibbled to death by ducks, but I promised myself 2000 words before I called it a night … and I have just now achieved it, at 10:00 p.m. Go me? Of course, this means I likely won’t make 50K before I leave for Atlanta, but I’ll just have to beat myself up about it later.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 174,772 words

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/31/august-31-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/30/no-word-metrics/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/30/no-word-metrics/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:44:43 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2164 Nothing metrics-y to report, aside from my daily run/climb and day-job work … because this was the one afternoon I have every 4-6 weeks wherein I am responsible for exactly NOTHING except sitting still while the nice man (Lancer F.) at Emerson Salon touches up my ‘do.

Is it a lot of trouble to preserve the snazzy blue-and-green peacock hue? Yes. But I think we can all agree that it’s totally worth it. (Click the jump to get a gander.)

DragonCon, here I come …
(Three days and counting!)

Project: Ganymede
Deadline: November 1, 2010
New words written: 1841 (ugh)
Present total word count: 44,101 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Sent a telegram or two; had some bad gossip confirmed; hopped on a boat in the dark in the swamp and prayed for the best.

Next up: NOW it’s time for “gators, Texians, and paranoid privateers.”

Things accomplished in real life: Daily run/climb; cleaned house somewhat; lots of business emails, even on the weekend, yes; a few phone calls; did a whole lot of errand-running for self and others; plotted some of my DragonCon packing.

Other: Piddly word count, yes. The mere fact of a weekend is no freaking excuse. I very badly want to beat 50K before leaving town, and this is NOT the way to go about it. But holy crap, I need a break and oh look, AFV is on and I have wine. Perhaps a break is called for.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 172,712 words

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/29/august-29-200/feed/ 0 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/27/august-27-2010/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/27/august-27-2010/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:46:32 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2156 Here’s today’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: 2153 (acceptable on this occasion)
Present total word count: 42,260 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Docked in Oneida (the old name for Amarillo, Texas) right after a windstorm; got some good gossip that might be bad gossip; answered an interminable stream of questions from a 17-year-old boy who doesn’t get out enough.

Next up: I know I said “gators, Texians, and paranoid privateers” were up next, but I meant for Josephine. Next up for Captain Cly (and the rest of this chapter) – fun with new crew members, a refueling, and a reconsidering of plans.

Things accomplished in real life: Started a new day-job project; did a crap-ton of research; cleaned house somewhat; tackled some logistical arrangements with future event coordinators; did some business email clean-up tasks (putting people in touch with one another, getting requested materials into the right hands, etc.); not much else – but Lordy, that took all day.

Other: My productivity struggles today were not compositional struggles, but logistical ones. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone poking around New Orleans – about six years – and I had to refresh myself with regards to a few things in the Quarter. I also had to look up a bunch of stuff about the Texas panhandle, and figure out some information-sharing juicy bits before writing could begin in earnest today; so although this isn’t a great word count, I’m still fairly happy with it. I’ll try to play catch-up this weekend.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 170,871 words

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/27/august-27-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/26/august-26-2010/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/26/august-26-2010/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:04:51 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2152 FINALLY. Good Lord, it’s 9:00 p.m. here.
Oh well. You do what it takes.

Here’s today’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: 2523 (meh, but acceptable)
Present total word count: 40,107 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Busted past the curfew patrols; made it to the ferry and briefly crossed paths with a Texas Ranger who may well prove familiar to readers (by the time this book comes out); disembarked at the River Road and made a run for the canal – where a skimmer craft will be waiting … or so it is to be hoped.

Next up: Gators, Texians, and paranoid privateers.

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work; daily run/climb; went to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions; exchanged many important emails and a few frivolous ones; went to the post office main branch and was disappointed; consoled self with Trader Joe’s run; came home and stuffed self silly.

Other: More productivity struggles, but I finally reached the end of the chapter. I’d meant to end it at a different point, but realized that wouldn’t work with my timeline – so now I’m faced with thinking of something cool for my air captain to do … just for a few thousand words. Dammit. And I thought I knew what I was going to be writing about tomorrow, too. Yargh. I’ll figure something out.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 168,718 words

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/26/august-26-2010/feed/ 1 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/25/august-25-2010/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/25/august-25-2010/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:06:53 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2140 Before the word metrics – first, a quick note: The cute book widgets on my far right sidebar (on my main page) have been disappearing/reappearing today – due to website difficulties at Macmillan, where they are hosted. So yes, I’m aware of the issue – no need to send me heads-up notes. I’m sure they’ll be back (for good) soon!

Anyway. Moving on.

Here’s today’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: 2518 (meh)
Present total word count: 37,584 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Visited with a fortune-teller friend; received bad news; escaped the French Quarter despite a curfew; made it to Canal Street and had to promise sexual favors to get a carriage ride to Tchoupitoulas.

Next up: Pirates! We’re headed to Barataria Bay, y’all.

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work; daily run/climb; went to Walgreens to refill prescriptions ahead of DragonCon; had errands to run and ran them – was outside for chunks of the afternoon; but not much else, which is ridiculous given how crappy the word count turned out to be.

Other: Really struggled to be productive today. I just wasn’t feeling it – which is no excuse when deadlines loom and I’m not even stuck with writer’s block. Kind of felt a little ill. Not sure why. It’s a real pretty day outside, though. Maybe I was just itchy to go soak up some sunshine while the soaking was good.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 166,195 words

]]> http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/25/august-25-2010/feed/ 1 http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/24/august-24-2010/ http://www.cheriepriest.com/2010/08/24/august-24-2010/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:28:57 +0000 Cherie http://www.cheriepriest.com/?p=2133 No word metrics to post today, alas. It’s been day-job mayhem and writer-business chaos since I woke up – and that’s just how it works out, sometimes. Among the things accomplished are such diverse elements as: a small mountain of important email tackled; two more potential events negotiated for 2011 (but awaiting confirmation); a trip to U-books to sign stuff and sort stuff out with Duane; a trip to the postal place to ship some goodies to a freshly married cousin; and a couple of important phone calls.

And so it goes.

Two last things to report, then I’ll log off and see about being writing-productive this afternoon/evening:

• Steampunk Magazine tackles Dreadnought – Via friendly feminist critique. Thanks a bunch for the review! I’m glad the reader enjoyed the book, and I’m glad to see that people are starting to talk about it.

• New look for fall – As you can already tell if you’re visiting my website directly, I’ve switched things up a bit. I felt the need for something a little brighter and more personalized … and something that would handle the Macmillan widgets with more finesse. If you’re reading this via the LiveJournal crosspost or an RSS feed, feel free to click the link at the start of this paragraph and poke around. Let me know if you spy anything that’s broken.
  

Project: Ganymede
Deadline: November 1, 2010
New words written: 4431 (much better)
Present total word count: 35,066 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Got a gander at the new guy in charge of the city; received bad news; ignored good advice; prepared to visit a pirate bay and stage a rescue.

Things accomplished in real life: Day-job work; daily run/climb; a couple loads of laundry “extras” (bedding, bathrobes, etc.) that didn’t make it into last week’s loads; tackled a mountain of Monday Morning Business Emails; officially bowed out of an event (which had not been announced yet, don’t worry) with much regret, but it had to be done.

Other: Too tired for other – except to note that I have now officially passed the mythical/hypothetical/official third of the way into this book. Huzzah?

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 163,677 words

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