Cherie Priest's Blog: It's awards season, so here comes the shameless self-promotion, page 7

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

Project: The Agony House
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 7646
Present total word count: 61,683



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Became alarmed at some parallels between the comic and real life; studiously avoided ghosts; talked to a woman who knew the folks who used to live in the Agony House; made a phone call; got in a fight in the lunch room; spent the night in a hotel; didn't have asbestos after all.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; more housework and laundry; trips to the bank; trips to Walgreens; trips to grocery store; picked up husband from airport (he was gone this past week); took an old friend out for a birthday supper; hosted a dog playdate.

Book Other: Yet again, I feel like this word count should be higher...but it includes about 25 pages of comic script, which runs much leaner. I'm really closing in on the final stretch; the goal is to have a draft by Friday, read through it all over the weekend, and hand it in on Monday in a slightly less slapdash state. It's only a draft, and the editor knows that this one's going to be rough (long story) ... but I'm actually quite happy with it, so far.

Critter Other: The dog playdates are basically the greatest thing ever. Greyson and Luna, sittin' in a tree...or rolling in the leaves, as the case may be :)



Number of fiction words so far this year: 117,671

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

Project: The Agony House
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 5702
Present total word count: 54,037



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Read some more comics, and the ghosts got crazy; the ceiling fell in and maybe it's time to remove the book from the house, in case it's cursed or something.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; finished cleaning the house and putting away all the Halloween stuff; went grocery shopping; did several loads of laundry.

Book Other: The wordcount for the last two days would actually be higher, except that it includes sixteen pages of comic script. The way it's structured for this project, a little goes a long way - and it takes me longer to write. This one is actually shaping up to have a lot more comic art than Princess X did. It'll probably be longer overall, too.

Critter Other: I caught Spain very briefly grooming Quinn today. It was just a couple of head-licks, but still. It's a milestone. Here they are teaming up to keep me from making the bed. They often team up for evil. It's pretty adorable.



Number of fiction words so far this year: 110,025

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

Project: The Agony House
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 4139 (all today!)
Present total word count: 48,335



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Made a cute new friend and dodged a bullet; walked home with a weirdo; read some more of the comic and wondered if there were goblins in the house because hell, why not?

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; trips to bank; trips to grocery store; trips to Walgreens; cleaned house; attended a kickass Rocky Horror Picture Show event; had a massive and marvelous Halloween party; handed out 28 pounds of candy in that one fine night; oh, there's more I'm sure - but I can't think of it right now.

Book Other: I've been given the go-ahead to announce - my awesome editor has agreed to a name-change for this project! I'd been calling it The Agony House in my head since I started working up the outline, and when I ran it past the editor, she agreed: This should be our title! I'm so tickled - it's so perfect :)

Other: I realize I glossed over the RHPS event and Halloween, and believe me - I'd love to give them each their own post, for they were both outstanding beyond measure. A very good time was had by all, in every regard ... but due to the distraction, I got basically ZERO writing done last week. It's no one's fault but my own. However, this means that I now have ten days to finish a draft of The Agony House, and there's still lots of work to be done. I can do it, mind you. AND SO I SHALL. But it means you'll get little from me content-wise except word metrics for the next week and a half. My apologies.

Bonus Other: My Halloween costume was pretty awesome, though . I accidentally scared away a few kids. Oops. (My Magenta get-up wasn't half-bad either, if I do say so myself.)

Critter Other: Quinn is back to her old self, tearing through the house with such abandon that we've started announcing, "TAKE COVER! INCOMING QUINNADO!" when she starts her laps. Greyson is doing good. Spainy is doing good. Basically, all the four-footed things are good. And yes, sometimes Quinn and Spain sleep like this...usually when Quinn conks out while playing with Spain's tail.



Number of fiction words so far this year: 104,323

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

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 2233 (mostly today)
Present total word count: 44,196



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Went to school and asked the nurse for help, but went away empty-handed and embarrassed; got into a fight, sort of, at least that's what our protagonist texted to her friends back home; kept yet another secret from mom and stepdad.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog, still in the rain, mostly; retrieved kitten from the vet and helped her convalesce by serving as a cat-pillow off and on since yesterday morning; ran a bunch of errands; went to Ace; went to bank; went to post office to mail off some donations for Pat's Worldbuilders campaign.

Other: Go check out the Once And Future Podcast's Great Halloween Special! In it, you can hear me read from the first three chapters of Chapelwood. You'll also hear John Kovalic of Dork Tower and Munchkin fame, military fantasist Myke Cole on what scares him, Christopher Golden’s opening to his latest Dead Ringers, Marjorie Liu’s excerpt from her short story Sympathy for the Bones, Max Gladstone’s opening for A Kiss With Teeth. Just sayin'...

Bonus Other: The Completist over at SFSignal has done a glorious post on the Borden Dispatches. Check it out here! And hey, if you too fall into the camp of hoping there will be more Lizzie Borden books ... well, spread the love. At present no more dispatches are planned - but if sales prove strong enough, I'd be happy to revisit them.

Critter Other: Quinn is home, and she is doing well in the wake of the spay operation. She's not wearing a cone for the time being, but we have a soft one on stand-by should it be required. Mostly, she's just napping off the trauma. On me, when possible.



Number of fiction words so far this year: 100,184

The event at the Fox Tale Book Shoppe was marvelous - thank you so much to everyone who came out to see us! Wonderful store, wonderful crowd, wonderful company.


(L-R: Lila Bowen/Delilah Dawson, yours truly, Kate Tilton, and Victoria Schwab.)


* * *

This morning I dropped Quinn off at the vet's office for The Big Spay. The office called a little before lunchtime to report that everything went great, and she's doing fine - which is marvelous! But it's their standard procedure to keep spay patients overnight, so I can't have her back until tomorrow morning. Monday night won't be the same without my little TV buddy, but it's for the greater good.



* * *

I spent much of yesterday doing Real Hard Work on my yard. In short, the back left corner of my yard is (a). full of tree roots, (b). riddled with boulders, (c). on a semi-steep grade, (d). almost entirely in shadow, and (e). just plain awful. I'd kind of let it go to hell, calling it "the bird corner" because that's where I put out birdseed and a makeshift bird bath. I mean, what else was I gonna do with it? The answer: Make it a nicer bird corner. More deliberate in appearance, if you will.

When all was said and done, I spent about four hours removing rocks and bricks, shoveling in fill dirt to level the space (more or less), installing a retaining wall, and topping it off with annuals. Behold!

The corner went from this hot mess...


To this minor disarray!

(Note: Birdbath/feeders are more level than they appear. It's a trick of the aforementioned grade.)

The wall itself is made of a manufactured stone product that's easy to work with and very affordable; no, it's not as fancy-pants as real stone/mortar but it's much cheaper, and something I could manage myself with just a rubber mallet, a level, and a shovel. Besides, one of these days we plan to replace that super-classy chain link fence - so we didn't want to install anything TOO permanent.

You can find the faux-stone here. You have to order it through Home Depot, but it ships from a small independent company (from Florida, I want to say?). Great customer service, and I strongly recommend it - perfect for raised garden beds, too, if you want that sort of thing. Won't warp or rot like wood. (The wall appears shiny and somewhat more colorful in that pic than in person, for it started raining very shortly after I finished.)

Anyway, the entire makeover cost about $180 - except for the birdbath, which I fell in love with ($70). That includes the manufactured stone kits (2 of them, though I only used 6 of 8 pieces), four bags of fill dirt, three bags of mulch, a flat and a half of pansies/violas, and one of the bird feeders (the other I just cleaned up). I already had everything else on hand. (The planters, shepherd's hook, potting soil, etc.)

Now we'll see how long it takes for the dog to destroy it.


Don't be fooled by this adorable face for it LIES.

* * *

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

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 1887 (cumulative)
Present total word count: 41,963



Things Accomplished in Fiction: For pity's sake, the agent is only trying to help! But paperwork is a bitch, and so is the internet. Sometimes.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunt with the dog, in the rain; took kitten to the vet and left her there and felt like a horrible person, even though it's for her own good; got some awesome stuff in the mail, including a check; so I went to the bank; went to Walgreen's; recorded about half an hour of Chapelwood for the Once and Future Podcast with Anton Strout; proceeded to chat with Mr. Strout re: our pets for another half an hour, probably;

Other: I am so tired. I had to get up so early. The cat clinic is across town, and the vet wanted Quinn there at 7:30 a.m. Oof. I will not be picking her up at such an hour tomorrow, but that's okay - the vet needs to check on her and get her ready to discharge.

Bonus crittergram: Quinn is getting so big! Here she is squirrel-watching with Spainy the other day.



Number of fiction words so far this year: 97,951

Hey everyone! I have word metrics to report, but I'll hold off for now - because it's more important that I direct your attention to the following: You can catch me tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at the Fox Tale Book Shoppe (in Woodstock, GA) ... along with the inimitable Victoria Schwab and the outstanding Delilah S. Dawson masquerading as Lila Bowen!

This is officially a book release party for "Lila"'s kickass new release Wake of Vultures ; and even if you can't make it to the Fox Tale, you should absolutely pick this one up, because it is amazing. Trust me. I've read it. I may have hypothetically even blurbed it. OKAY NOT SO HYPOTHETICALLY. The point is, if you're down with "a ferocious, fascinating take on the magical Old West" then this will most definitely be your cup of tea (or possibly your shot of whiskey).

Hopefully, I'll see some of you there :)

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

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November 16, 2015
New words written: 3209 (cumulative)
Present total word count: 40,076



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Another injury, but maybe we can hide this one; a bargain is struck; suspicions are formed; lies are prepared.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; went out for lunch; went to the grocery store; went to Walgreens a couple of times; got several bits of wonderful news from my agent, who rocks.

Other: Honestly, I spent a couple of days just as sick as a dog, and that word count is almost entirely from today - when I finally shook off whatever was ailing me. It's definitely my strongest word count in quite some time, but I'm pretty proud of it; I feel like I'm finding my groove and hitting my stride, yay!

Other Encore: By the way, the official deadline for this project's first draft is November 16. Word metrics template has been updated to reflect this. I have just a little less than a month to finish this up, and I think that'll be just fine.

Bonus crittergram: Momma's little helper shut down momma's little laptop. Thanks, little helper. [:: sigh ::]



Number of fiction words so far this year: 96,064

Another week chock full of stuff that may or may not interest the reading public, but hey, I have critter pictures - so there's that.



* * *

The weather's been great for the last few days, so I took the weekend to begin shutting down the yard for winter. Oh, sure - there's still another good day or two of manual labor ahead, but I got 2/3 of it sorted out, and I am proud of myself. I am also achy and tired and I think I might be getting sick, but I got a LOT of work done.

Here, have a paragraph recounting my accomplishments: I edged/trimmed the yard, all the way around, including the side strip (we're on a corner lot); added 10 bags of good soil to the new tress/shrubs we added this year; added 11 bags of nice cypress mulch to top everything off; weeded/trimmed/pruned All The Things except for the roses - including two trees, a pair of butterfly bushes the size of trees, an evergreen clematis that secretly aspires to take over the world, and most of the stuff out front; weeded All The Things; cleaned out the crazy old planters out in the front of the house, and added tidy (but colorful) seasonal mums to replace the shit-show of late-summer/early fall overgrowth; cleaned off the patio, including an hour or so pulling little weeds that grow between the paver cracks while you're not looking; cleaned out the dying annuals from the pots in the back yard, and emptied those which (a). still have perfectly healthy stuff and (b). can withstand a freeze while occupied by same; hauled away three piles of brush, each one the size of a Volkswagon (give or take).

Greyson helped. By which I mean, he dug a hole and took a nap.



* * *

Friday night, the husband and I went out to catch Crimson Peak. It was a gorgeous gothic romance, beautifully executed - in short, an admirable piece of work, a case study in the form, and an icon of the genre. My only real quibble is that I would've liked to see ten more minutes of denouement...but that is a meager quibble indeed. (That I should someday produce a work so finely done.)

* * *

My cousin Chelsea got the bright idea (no, seriously - a very bright idea) to invite me and my husband along to The Haunted Cavern at Ruby Falls the other night. She and her boyfriend have made an annual tradition of it, and she's my Halloween buddy, so...yeah. Of course we went!

Haunted houses, or haunted caverns, or whatever ... these things are ridiculous by nature. (In general.) This one is no exception, but it was nicely done - and there are some geography-specific perks that the organizers work to their advantage.

The haunted experience takes place in three parts - the cave (and the elevator trip thereunto), then a bus ride, then a third location on the mountain. When we got into the bus, our guide waved us off by saying, "Enjoy the actual scary part..." and we were like, "Huh?" but then it got underway.

It was nearly midnight, and we were in this school bus on the side of a mountain, surrounded at first by cop cars with their lights and sometimes sirens blaring. Then we hit the road...a very twisty road on the side of a mountain in blustery weather - a road that's not really wide enough for the bus. We could look out the window and see the city in the distance, which was pretty; but we could also see the fact that the tires were about eight inches from a sheer drop-off that would send us careening down Lookout with the slightest miscalculation.

It got really, really quiet.

Anyway. The wait to reach the attraction was kind of crazypants - about an hour and forty-five minutes to get inside, but hey, we went on a Saturday night and didn't arrive at the parking lot until 9:00 p.m.

Next year, I think we'll hit it up on a Sunday or something, so we can be home and in bed by midnight, like the very, very old people we clearly are.

* * *

This is why it takes me a half hour (or more) to make the bed in the morning.



It's Quinn's favorite time of day. She loves being made up into the sheets, then playing tag through the covers and burrowing into the pillows. It is dastardly cute.

In other news, she and Spainy are still generally getting along - so long as Quinn doesn't pull any of The Rock's wrestling moves on her elder sibling. Behold.



Sometimes they even play together.



Then again, sometimes they don't.

* * *

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

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November, 2015
New words written: 3456 (cumulative)
Present total word count: 36,837



Things Accomplished in Fiction: More reading on the bizarre comic upstairs; an alarming and apparently non-accidental injury; a trip to the doc-in-the-box; an awkward breakfast that no one really enjoyed.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; see above; many kitten pictures; general exhaustion.

Other: Oh, the kittengrams .

Number of fiction words so far this year: 92,855

My apologies for the radio silence, but it's been a busy week or two over here - for good, bad, and otherwise.

When I last left you, I was on my way to a hair appointment, and then off to Illinois for a few days ... where I participated in the Anderson's Bookshop Young Adult Literature Conference. The event was marvelous - chock full of outstanding librarians, book-buyers, teachers, and other assorted reading enthusiasts; and it was made all the smoother and grander for the help of a couple of truly outstanding Scholastic publicists. All hail that team over there, for those people are doing God's work.

* * *

I finally arrived home Sunday night - or rather, around 1:30 a.m. on Monday. I've been playing catch-up ever since, trying to get all the laundry and unpacking done, and answer all the skipped emails, and go to the grocery store, and to pick up a prescription or two. Among other things.

I'm still trying to find my place in the Drawing Fire manuscript - working up some of the comic/illustrated sections, and getting back into the swing of things; so I have no further word metrics to report at this time. I mean, I've added a few hundred words to the net total, but it's mostly been editing/logistical stuff for the last couple of days.

And it's not like I got any work done at the convention. Oh, I'd planned to, but such is life. And such is a schedule that came with a six-page (single-space typed) itinerary of travel and panels. So...yeah.

* * *

Monday afternoon, we were freaked out when our friend Vanessa showed up at our back gate - holding our frequent canine guest, The Cooj. She'd had him out for a walk, when he collapsed. After a few minutes of cuddles and treats he rallied a bit, and by the time Vanessa's husband arrived to collect them, we thought maybe he was okay. He was up and around, and peeing on things, so, you know. Normal dog stuff. But it turned out, he had a cancerous tumor inside his heart. This morning, he went to sleep and stayed that way.

He wasn't our dog, but we loved him dearly, and always enjoyed having him as a guest when his people were out of town. He'd been dealt a bad hand, bless his heart, but I won't bore you with the sob story. After all, it ended quite well. Despite a tough start, and the bone cancer that took his leg ... Cooj was a happy, well-adjusted, much-beloved fellow, who made it past his tenth birthday. He was very lucky to have Vanessa and Jimmy, who always went the extra mile to give him the most love and the best care possible.

He was a very good dog. We will miss him.



* * *

In other critter news, the ElderCat and TinyCat have started to play. This is worth noting, because it's literally the first time I've ever seen the ElderCat "frolic" with another feline. She's never really liked them, and thus far, she's been strictly tolerant of the baby ... but lately we'll find them playing a friendly game of chase or tag, and sometimes it stays friendly. Sometimes it doesn't, but it never gets any worse than a hissy-fit and a hasty retreat.



Of course, I've been calling Quinn the "tinycat" but she's getting bigger by the day. She's nearly as tall as Spain, though she only weighs a little over four pounds. (She's shaping up to be a long, lanky beast.)

Later this month - on the 26th - she goes back to the vet to get spayed. It's good and important and the right thing to do, but I'm still not looking forward to leaving her overnight. She's really become my little buddy.

* * *

Greyson continues to do well. He's a little fat and completely lazy, and prone to digging holes in the yard - but we love him to pieces. Even though he totally denies that bit about hole-digging. How dare we. There's no proof whatsoever that he's been snorfling around in the mud. Good day, sir. I SAID GOOD DAY.



* * *

Well, that's just about all I've got for now. I need to get back to work - on either Drawing Fire or some of the housework that piled up in my absence. There's more pet-hair on the floor than on the pets. My bathroom is a horror show. The kitchen is unseemly, and you could write your name in the bookshelf dust. I've got my work cut out for me.

But in closing, here's a shot of my office, where someone apparently set off a sleep bomb.



Have a good rest-of-your-week, everyone.
Thanks for reading.

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

Project: Drawing Fire
Deadline: November, 2015
New words written: 2004 (cumulative)
Present total word count: 33,381



Things Accomplished in Fiction: Waiting for breakfast; reading some comics; testing the theory that all knowledge is contained within the internet.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Neighborhood jaunts with the dog; supper with a friend; more housework; more laundry - as I need to pack for Chicago; went to grocery store; went to post office.

Other: Kittengrams .

Travel Other: Oh yeah, Chicago. Or rather, Naperville - if you want to get particular about it. I'm leaving Thursday for the Anderson Bookshop's Young Adult Literature Conference. Huzzah!

Number of fiction words so far this year: 89,399