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cheriepriestIt's been a minute, yeah. I know. I've been busy and things have been happening, you know how it goes. 2018 has been a messy year for me, honestly - messier even than 2017, which featured a massive cross-country move with my husband and four animals. I'm glad that it's winding down.
I only had a couple of things hit the street from a publishing standpoint this year: The Agony House and a single short story, Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse from Apex Magazine. So it feels like I have not-so-much to show for it, and that kind of sucks - but that's not to say that I've been sitting on my hands, over here.
At present I have one partial* sitting with my YA editor at Scholastic, one full YA project being shopped around elsewhere, two partials sitting on my Tor editor's desk, and a full mystery project on my agent's desk. Maybe none of those projects will land. Maybe all of them will. You just never know. (Speaking of, yes - I finished my draft of Far-Fetched. That's the mystery project, and it topped out at 95,291 words. I'll add that to my total of fiction words composed this year, at the bottom of this post.)
And yes, I've started working on something new. I'm frankly excited about it; it's an idea I've been camping on for the last year or two, and it finally gelled to the point that I could get a draft underway. This will be a tricky one, and I only hope I have the chops to pull it off...but I'll go nuts if I don't try.
I'm not yet sure how long it'll run, but my gut says it won't be more than maybe 90k. Eh. I've been wrong before. Maybe it'll go bananas and run over 150k, that'll show me.
At any rate, here's progress on my modern gothic ghost story about a large old school that was boarded up after a shooting 22 years ago, told from the POV of two survivors, their now-teenage children, and their own parents - with Bonus! memories both faulty and true, intergenerational violence and grace alike, and thirty-one ghosts who know something the police never figured out. One part The Haunting of Hill House, one part The Frighteners, and one part Bowling for Columbine...so...wish me luck.
* For non-writing/publishing folks, a "partial" is sample content and a proposal for a full project, generally speaking. My partials are usually in the 100-150 page range plus outline/proposal/etc.
I only had a couple of things hit the street from a publishing standpoint this year: The Agony House and a single short story, Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse from Apex Magazine. So it feels like I have not-so-much to show for it, and that kind of sucks - but that's not to say that I've been sitting on my hands, over here.
At present I have one partial* sitting with my YA editor at Scholastic, one full YA project being shopped around elsewhere, two partials sitting on my Tor editor's desk, and a full mystery project on my agent's desk. Maybe none of those projects will land. Maybe all of them will. You just never know. (Speaking of, yes - I finished my draft of Far-Fetched. That's the mystery project, and it topped out at 95,291 words. I'll add that to my total of fiction words composed this year, at the bottom of this post.)
And yes, I've started working on something new. I'm frankly excited about it; it's an idea I've been camping on for the last year or two, and it finally gelled to the point that I could get a draft underway. This will be a tricky one, and I only hope I have the chops to pull it off...but I'll go nuts if I don't try.
I'm not yet sure how long it'll run, but my gut says it won't be more than maybe 90k. Eh. I've been wrong before. Maybe it'll go bananas and run over 150k, that'll show me.
At any rate, here's progress on my modern gothic ghost story about a large old school that was boarded up after a shooting 22 years ago, told from the POV of two survivors, their now-teenage children, and their own parents - with Bonus! memories both faulty and true, intergenerational violence and grace alike, and thirty-one ghosts who know something the police never figured out. One part The Haunting of Hill House, one part The Frighteners, and one part Bowling for Columbine...so...wish me luck.
Project: Kill Me Now
Deadline: none
New words written: 2554
Present total word count: 2554
Things accomplished in real life: (In the last couple of days) Put up the Christmas tree and wrapped presents; cleaned house including a crap-ton of laundry; walked the dogs; gave the eldercat her fluids; went to post office; went to Walgreens; went to grocery store; vacuumed four times because the dogs and the pine needles and ugh.
Things accomplished in fiction: Finished a draft of the first chapter, and I actually like it.
Number of fiction words so far this year: 122,680
* For non-writing/publishing folks, a "partial" is sample content and a proposal for a full project, generally speaking. My partials are usually in the 100-150 page range plus outline/proposal/etc.
