Cherie Priest

March 11, 2010

Cherie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:05:24 +0000

Because people often ask me questions about my “writing process” and whatnot, well, here you go. You know those word metrics I’ve been posting for that new project? Forget them. I’ve just trashed those 2500 words. They weren’t going anywhere; they didn’t convey the right feel; they were just not what I wanted. So I’m starting over.

Contrary to the (kind of hilarious and sometimes downright insulting) backlash over on Twitter, this is not a big deal. There’s nothing tragic or lamentable about it. The words were crap, so I got rid of them. Words are not a finite resource, you know.

And crap words are a dime a dozen. I’m sure as hell not going to hoard them.

March 10, 2010

Cherie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:13:01 +0000

Not much to report on this uncommonly glamorous Wednesday evening*, except that lunch with Caitlin did occur earlier today, as well as a modicum of thrifting that resulted in a cute new summer skirt on the cheapy-cheap.

And oh yes, this: After chatting with the very kind folks at VCon, I have gratefully accepted their invitation to be author guest of honor at their convention in October! Vancouver’s VCon will be my second convention in British Columbia this year (thank heavens I got that passport squared away, eh?), and I am totally psyched about getting yet another chance to pal around with some of my neighbors to the north.

* I’m sitting here with a breathe-right strip on my nose, my hair yanked back in a dirty bandanna, and wrinkly pajamas on. Because it is ALL CLASSY ALL THE TIME around these-here parts.

March 9, 2010

Cherie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:28:21 +0000

Amelie is hanging in there. She’s keeping down most of her feedings; she’s becoming a little more active; and yesterday’s bloodwork — though not improved — was not worse, so hey. We’ll take it. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out by throwing money in the tip jar. It added up, and it helped tremendously.

___________________

Links! Just a couple:

Locus Awards ballot - Now with Boneshaker making an appearance, in addition to many, many other fine titles accompanied by ticky-boxes for your clicking pleasure. I honestly feel silly and frankly awkward about shilling for this kind of thing, but I’m told that it’s important to remind readers of their voting options. So here I am. Reminding, with a side mention of the fact that Hugo Award voting closes in another week or so. And Boneshaker is eligible for that one too.
Kitty chaser - To wash down all that self-promotion, here’s a picture of Spain the Cat bogarting the fresh laundry and refusing to let me make the bed.

___________________

Have I been writing every day again, like I said I was gonna? No. I have all the usual excuses, of course. I was out of town. I’ve been sick. My computer crashed and died. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in deadlines and day-job work.

It’s all true, though it’s all insufficient to absolve me.

But now, as I crawl out from under a pile of distractions and stagger toward the light … I’m starting (just starting, mind you) to pull together the projects I want to work on this year (Christ, yes. It’s March already, I know.). I’ve got a couple stories independent of the Clockwork Century stuff that I want to get off the ground, and I’m not sure how well either of them will work but I’m determined to give them a go before the next wave of deadlines hits.

So. Here is the recent and pitiful progress on the new steam-horror fin de siecle project about ghosts, guilt, elder gods, and monster-hunting in the aftermath of two gruesome murders:

Project: (tentative title) What She Had Done
Deadline: None
New words written: 940
Present total word count: 2470 words

Things accomplished in fiction: Revised the intro rather extensively. Cut about a thousand words and rewrote them, came to a quasi-satisfactory level of quality and decided to move along. I can always come back and fiddle with this more later on.

Things accomplished in real life: Everything mentioned in the excuses paragraph above. But today more precisely: got up early and drove Ellen and Amelie to the vet; did day-job work; went to post office; fell asleep briefly on the couch; did light housework; ate some nachos.

Total Official Word Count of 2010: 23,056 words

Adventures with Amelie

Cherie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:12:33 +0000

A large chunk of my afternoon was spent over at Ellen’s place, swinging by to take care of her cat, Amelie. I mentioned the other day that a friend’s feline was having some health problems; well, here’s the story on that — the poor kitty has developed feline hepadic lipidosis, and her liver is failing. At least, it was failing. Ellen seems to have caught the problem fairly fast, and there’s a healthy (no guarantees, but better than 50/50) chance that Amelie will be okay after a few weeks of medication and 4-times-daily feeding through an esophageal tube.

We still don’t know what caused the liver failure and things are still uncertain. But Amelie survived the surgery to insert the tube and she’s been taking her feedings pretty well, even when they come from yours truly. For although Ellen takes the morning, afternoon, and evening dining duties … the lunchtime event has to fall to someone else while she’s at work. Starting tomorrow, Ellen’s parents are going to take over; but today it was my turn.

The process is fairly simple. You unwrap the tube in her neck (which is affixed via a sturdy, sterile collar) and pinch it to keep the air out between deliveries. First, she gets water to flush the line, then she gets a runny mixture of cat food and water about the consistency of baby food, and finally she gets another dose of water to rinse everything down. But all must be delivered very slowly. Her full lunch took over an hour.

The feeding actually went pretty well. She even got bored with me at one point and decided to go walk-about … with me trailing behind her and holding the huge syringe aloft while trying to keep her from tripping over the feeding tube, simultaneously begging her to sit down, please, anywhere, I didn’t care where, just … no … don’t walk away while I’m trying to stuff you with nutrients, what the heck is wrong with you, you crazy cat, I thought you were supposed to be a freakin’ invalid or something auuuuuugggggghhhh okay FINE I’ll put you up on the bed if that’s what you really want, I mean, will you sit still there? Please? Okay. GOOD.

Things this cute and pitiful invariably get their way, and when I left she was resting at the foot of Ellen’s bed on a heating pad, snoring softly until I scritched her ears one last time before going — at which point she gave me the ol’ stink-eye and buried her nose back in the blanket.

Hang in there, sweet wee girlie. We’re pulling for ya.

* * *

I’ve been chronicling my adventures in amateur veterinary services over on Twitter today, where some questions have been accumulating. In order to answer them here, and in quick succession: Amelie is a Washington Long-Haired Random Cat, which is to say she came from animal control a few years ago and claims no formal breed; there is no guarantee that this medical intervention will work, but it was either this or make the decision to put her down, and Ellen couldn’t do that while there was still a shot at giving Amelie a good life on the other side of all this treatment; Amelie is only 6-7 years old; her “big brother,” Java, is confused and upset by the whole thing and he’s being kept away from her for now, in order to give her time to recover without his … shall we say … aggressive snuggling.

And as one last point, to those who asked about how much this was going to cost, the answer is that the final tally isn’t in yet. There will still be at least 3 follow-up appointments (one tomorrow morning), but we’re talking a couple thousand dollars.

If you’d like to throw a few bucks in the Amelie’s Medical Fund Jar, those bucks would most definitely be appreciated. Ellen’s never asked for anything like this before and wouldn’t do it herself, but I have no shame and also I really like Ellen, and I know that times have been tough going for her this last year or so. Furthermore, since it’s on behalf of Amelie, with minimal badgering I conned Ellen into letting me post a tip jar.

The paypal button below goes to Ellen’s account, but if for some reason there’s a problem and you’d like to send something directly to her email, you can do so through this address: graphxgrrl@gmail.com

Obviously if you find this distasteful/don’t know me or trust me/think that cats aren’t worth this kind of money/whatever … then that’s okay. Scroll on by. I don’t take it personally, and I totally understand. The internet is full of open palms and paws, and this is just one more. Except it isn’t just one more to me. This is a friend of mine, and a cat I love — whose wee little tummy I, personally, have filled with gooshy food via a very slow tube.

But I promise not to harp on it, and this will be the last I post of it except for the occasional Status of the Cat update as information becomes pertinent and/or available. So thanks for reading, everyone. And if you’ve got any spare prayers, good vibes, or friendly thoughts for a small, sick cat in Seattle, then Amelie and Ellen would be happy to have those too.

Sunday afternoon wrap-up

Cherie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:57:59 +0000

Things are more or less back to normal over here, in the wake of the weekend’s laptop ‘asplodey. I’m back up to about 98% back-in-business now - largely thanks to my wonderful husband, who did all the repair/restoration work while I hovered behind him, fretting and flapping my hands.

In the end, the carnage wasn’t that bad and everything is pretty much okay.

* * * *

Tonight I’m trying to write a book report on my own freaking book, as requested by the Nebula folks. I’m not really complaining; I mean, if I’m going to have to wax philosophic on Boneshaker, this is certainly the best of all possible reasons. But I’m running out of time to complete the assignment, so I’m going to log off and work while the evening is still young.

But first let me leave you with a couple of quick links:

Joseph Mallozzi sics his readers on me - All in the name of fun and information! Click the link and be enlightened on such topics as who I’d cast in a Boneshaker movie (in that wacky fantasy universe where authors have control over this stuff), and whether or not there’s any such thing in the works. Many, many thanks to the marvelous Mr. Mallozzi and all his readers for picking up my novel and for having me over to chat.
Geek Dad’s best-of poll - Boneshaker is up for best novel over at Wired’s Geek Dad page. My book has some stiff competition but heck, if anyone feels like clicking through there and voting (in this category, or in any of the others) then have yourself a ball.

last night

Cherie — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:34:57 +0000

Last night while following up on an illegal torrent for Boneshaker,* I clicked what looked like a legitimate link in gmail and ended up completely killing my laptop. The link was a switch; malware invaded; and in the end, the only thing we could do was a complete reinstall of the whole damn system.

I lost … well … some stuff. Images, links, downloads. About four years of them - also a little music, but not very much, as it turns out. And because I am a neurotic backing-up fiend, I didn’t lose any of my works-in-progress, which is a relief. Even so, I lost some older material I’d been sitting on — stuff I was thinking about revisiting, maybe. Stuff I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue or not.

Well. Okay then. Clean slate. I probably won’t know the extent of what’s lost for weeks, as little things I want-but-only-sometimes-access are no longer right within reach. Which sucks.

I’m not looking for suggestions. The wipe has occurred; the damage is done; and I’m trying to put everything back in order. Very little that was lost cannot be replaced. I’d meant to do a great cleansing/purge when I finally had the money to pick up a new laptop anyway. I just didn’t want to do one … like this.

Edited to add: We’re about 90-95% back in business over here. Back up early, back up often, people. The restoration went faster than anticipated (only took a few hours). It could’ve been much, much worse.

* When I’m alerted to these, I pass the links along to Tor as I’ve been instructed. On this occasion, I’ve already gone back and warned my contact not to click through or open anything in my last email. I didn’t realize the problem until it was too late.

drive-by update

Cherie — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:52:25 +0000

It’s been a busy couple of days, in good and bad ways. I’ve done a lot of that catching up to which I keep referring, and I started a new day-job project; but much of this morning went to helping a friend with a cat emergency, the nature of which I won’t go into at this time. Suffice it to say, I hope the four-footed girlie in question recovers fully, and goes on to live out her days in the splendor and comfort to which she’s become accustomed. And if you have any spare prayers, fond wishes, or good vibes to send to a beloved longhaired tortie/calico in Seattle, I’m sure they’d be appreciated.

* * *

Today begins the Potlatch conference over in the University District, and I’ll be reading there this evening at 8:30. I’d provide more details, except I don’t have them. I expect to figure it out when I arrive. But if you’re attending Potlatch and you’re interested in swinging by to hear me read, I’d love to see you. (And as always, I’m also happy to answer questions and sign books.)

Following that event, I think me and the hubs might sneak across the street to see Alice in Wonderland. It’ll probably be terrible and give me nightmares about hydrocephlatic toddler-queens with homicidal impulses, but what the hell. I’m game.

* * *

And now, for a couple of links:

My sister’s having trouble with Facebook - Does anyone recognize this issue, or have any advice for her? Please post over on her blog if you can be helpful, and thanks for checking it out.
Library Journal names the 20 core books of steampunk - And Boneshaker is one of them! Many thanks to Library Journal in general and John Klima in particular!

triumphant returns

Cherie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:10:21 +0000

Got back into town last night, after spending the afternoon hanging in the Clallam County’s historical archives with half a dozen library ladies in an out-building behind a haunted old school. Which was yes, exactly as awesome as it sounds. Kat scooped lots of research for her next book, and I mostly hung around and listened to the charming archivists tell the best stories they knew about the weirdest shit that had gone down in their jurisdiction over the last hundred and thirty years.

Following this captivating set of hours, Kat and I joined her mother for supper — then we headed back to the ferry, and retreated to our respective homes.

If it seems that Day #2 of our trip featured a lot less updating and intrigue from yours truly, then your observation is pretty much correct. The relative radio silence was due to the fact that sometime Monday afternoon, a huge forest-full of exciting new allergens attacked my face. Indeed, if you play through some of the spooooky little videos we were taking … you can hear my voice changing over the day as the tree pollen and leaf mold began to overtake me. By evening, I was literally unable to stop sneezing. I was developing a migraine. I couldn’t breathe at all. I did not sleep the following night. Just ask poor Kat, who was trying to nab some rest in the next bed over. I mean, you’d think that three doses of Claritin and six Benedryls might’ve put a dent in it, wouldn’t you? But no.

Next day I invested in (God help me) some Afrin “Sinus Congestion” — the veritable hand grenade of decongestants. It’s terrible stuff; using it feels rather like setting off menthol pipe bombs behind your eyes. But I do declare, when nothing else will penetrate the goop, that shit gets the job done.

Anyway. With the exception of my personal frailties, the trip was oodles of fun. We learned lots of neat things, received many awesome local history leads to chase, and ate at some great little joints (including one mom-and-pop with the best damn waffles I’ve ever had … topped with sauteed apples and candied walnuts). Many thanks once again to Kat for having me along for the ride, and thanks to the ladies of the Clallam Historic Society for the patience, the photos, and the stories.

* * *

I’ve spent my Wednesday playing catch-up, as you might guess. It’s amazing what two business days out-of-town do to my inbox; and I had some day-job work that I was determined to wrap up today. So I took care of all that, and now it’s suppertime. After suppertime, I predict wine and network television, accompanied by further goofing off, just for a little while.

Have a good night, everyone.
I intend to have a lazy one.

assorted highlights thus far

Cherie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:22:53 +0000

The murder which brings us here (more or less).

To see the rest of our silly videos click here.
To see the tweets and/or click through to a whole bunch of pictures, click here.

More to come!

my lifetime love is making music with my friends

Cherie — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:10:47 +0000

This evening things are going to get weird. And by weird, I mean “totally awesome.”

To make a long story vague and somewhat brief, the other day I was lunching with Kat — who was telling me all about a research roadtrip she was planning. Some of the highlights of this investigatory jaunt include a saponified corpse in a lake, a haunted lodge, and an appointment with a special collections local history librarian; so if you’ve ever met me, you can assume that I was all googly eyed and jealous of her impending journey.

And I might’ve said, off the cuff, that if she wanted any company … all she had to do was ask. After all, I’ve been noodling with a young adult project which is mostly set in the very place she intends to investigate, and I’ve never … actually … you know. Been there.

Which leads us to tonight — whereupon Kat is picking me up and AWAY WE WILL GO.

The original plan was for a simple overnight, but we’re headed far enough away that a second night has proven necessary if we’re going to get one whole day’s worth of daylight (such as it is) from this out-of-town adventure. Ergo, we’ll be gone Sunday and Monday evening, and return late on Tuesday. I’m not sure how much internet connectivity there will be, but I’ll at least have email capability on my phone — and you can bet I’ll be tweeting pictures and pithy travel commentary over here at my Twitter feed.

[Edited to add: I might also do the occasional voice post over on my Livejournal. I don’t have the capability to post in such a fashion at my true and proper homepage, alas. But you might want to swing by that other location, if you’re curious about our progress. You might find Bonus! content.]

But for now, I have to get up and around and get productive. I’m trying to get ahead (which is to say, reach the end — or come very close to it) on a day-job project in order to make up for Monday and Tuesday’s travel; and there is still packing and planning and supplies-grabbing to be handled.

Also, I must work on convincing myself that “two women writers traveling alone to a distant, rural location in order to research a gruesome, decades-old murder at a haunted lodge” does not totally sound like the set-up to a horror movie …