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The Toll hits the streets!

It feels like such a long time coming, and the day is finally here: The Toll has finally landed! A million thanks to all the folks who preordered, shared links, and generally have been so wonderfully supportive through this book’s journey to publication. It was a bit fraught, and the book is a bit late (no drama or anything, just Stuff That Happened) – but I’m so glad it’s finally here.

I first pitched it to my editor as “Night Vale Radio meets the Dirty South,” and I still stand by that assessment. This is a story for anyone who’s ever lived in someplace small, somewhere out-of-the-way, or somewhere insular with loads of secrets that aren’t readily shared with outsiders. It’s also a story for anyone who finds that stuff Creepy As Shit.

As a point of note, before I start getting emails about some of the more peculiar details in the book… most of those odd details are directly taken from places I’ve called home. For example, there’s a dog in a tree. There’s nothing wrong with him, he’s happy as a clam, and he’s always in the same spot. People give directions and say things like, “Turn right at the dog in the tree.” Well, that dog’s name was Eddie and he lived in Saint Elmo.* The uncanny valley of doll collections was inspired by something in rural Washington. The Very Strange Town Square (and many of its features) – prompted by something near my parents’ place in rural Kentucky.

The bridge itself? A one-lane jobbie out near Snoqualmie, which both charmed and horrified me the first time I drove over it. Weirdly, I’ve been out there several times since and can’t find it. I’m sure it’s there, don’t get me wrong. Just… not where I remembered it, I guess.

So the little town of Staywater is an amalgam, yes – but it’s entirely true, for all its strangeness. Hell, some of my long-time readers will even recognize the ghost at the haunted bar stool. He’s a very old, dear friend of mine who passed away a handful of years ago. I wrote him and his dog into some of my first books, and dedicated one to him after he died. Why not keep him around? (I think it would give him a giggle.)

At any rate, Publishers Weekly gave The Toll a starred review, calling it “Moody and mysterious, this gothic tale touches the heart even as it wraps chilly fingers around the spine.” And Tor.com says “If you’re looking for a summer read featuring swamp monsters, haunted bar stools, a creepy doll museum, a town populated with charmed weirdos, and two absolutely badass old ladies, well, welcome to Staywater.” I’m especially fond of those old ladies. Don’t underestimate old ladies. They know shit, and they are absolutely prepared to throw down in ways nobody expects when they know what’s at stake.

If you’re so inclined, here are some links where you can order this freaky little project that’s been so long in the making. And if you do give it a read, please leave a review at your preferred spot! Reviews are like ammo in a zombie game. They’re like Pac-Man pellets for authors. They’re power-ups in a retro side-scroller. We love them!

Preorder The Toll at Amazon.com [trade paperback or Kindle] Preorder The Toll at Barnes & Noble [trade paperback or Nook] Preorder The Toll from an independent retailer near you

Thank you so much, everyone. I couldn’t do this without you!

* He was a little shih tzu who climbed up a five foot fence every day, and then scaled another half dozen feet to reach his preferred vantage point. He was also elderly and almost completely blind, but that never stopped him.

The Toll hits the streets! was originally published on The Haunt*

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Finding my feet in 2019

Good heavens, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I had all these PLANS for my late winter/spring of ’19, didn’t I? Ah, well. It’s a funny industry, and I sometimes have trouble saying “no” to projects, even when I’m well aware that I ought to. SPEAKING OF. The secret project mentioned in my last (now surely long forgotten) post was handed in early this month, and later this week I should get my notes for revisions. Then next month, it’s more secret project grinding and yes, one day this should probably be announced. April, I’ve been told. We shall see.

I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I’m free of this one and back to the thing I tried to start, but then put down; also some rewrites on my wacky little mystery project that still needs to make the submission rounds; and furthermore some fleshing out on Cinderwich because I’ve finally come to peace with the idea that it needs to be a full length novel, drat it all; and I’m noodling with some thoughts for another Wild Cards project, but that one’s on the back burner for now (by necessity).

And to think, I had plans to take a break this year and maybe just work on, like, one thing.

::shrug::

On the home front, things continue as things are wont to do. In sad news, we lost our beloved eldercat early in the new year. She was quite ancient and dearly loved. We found her one morning atop her favorite heating vent, having settled in for a nap and never awakened. (That we all should be so lucky.) We had her cremated, and her tiny urn is on the mantle with her collar and tags wrapped around it – because we’re sentimental, that’s why. She lived with us for nearly twenty years, and she was an adult when she arrived in our home. You’re allowed to be sentimental when you’ve had a really great roommate for that long.

Shortly thereafter, we lost the fish, too – so we are now a tank-less household. I could’ve restocked that tank, but it felt like too much effort after we lost the little old lady. Now it’s in the garage.

In the wake of the eldercat’s passing, Quinnie has decided to become The Cat, rather than the smallest and least respected dog – so it’s been a social adjustment, but it’s gone smoothly for the most part. Lucy is learning to pay the House Yeti a little of the respect that she used to show the little old lady cat, and Greyson doesn’t really seem to have noticed that anything’s different.

Of course, Greyson is also trying to eat his own tail at the moment, so I won’t hold him up as a bastion of wisdom or anything. He has a little cyst toward the end of his tail – far enough down that he can still reach it with the cone, ugh. It’s no big deal, but he won’t leave it alone. The vet and I are in the process of deciding whether to remove it or just try to keep it wrapped up until he forgets to gnaw on it.

As for Lucy, she’s doing quite well. Why, just yesterday she horrified me by either finding or catching a large black coot. (A water bird about the size of a duck.) There’s always the chance that it died on the property for some reason and she found it; we aren’t terribly far from a lake, so it’s not like it’s a total freaking mystery as to how the poor thing got here – but Lucy can’t possibly have caught it out of the air (she’s rather fat, tbh) and it didn’t hit a window, that’s for damn sure. That bird was big enough to take out an airplane engine, and there are no signs of cracks, breaks, or splats.

Anyway. Yesterday was gross and bad. Let us speak no more of it.

In other news, I’m still working on the house in my copious downtime. I’m down to three sets of ugly light fixtures to be removed and three lovely new fixtures with which to replace them. They’re going to be a BEAR to install, courtesy of some ridiculous ceilings. But I have a ladder and when I have the motivation, I’ll put the last of these ugly 1990s cheap-ass builder grade rusted-out lights to the curb. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

Tomorrow I’ve got a guy coming over to take something off my hands via NextDoor, and I’ve got a couple of new things coming in. I also have picked out some vinyl flooring for my bathroom, and if I like it, we’ll do the kitchen, too. I will get this house looking like civilized adults live here and care about our surroundings if it freaking kills me.

And oh yeah – publishing news. My southern gothic project The Toll will be dropping in July instead of this coming fall. I know, right? Cool and a tad scary – because I’ve been eyeballs deep and it’s not that I’ve forgotten about it, but it was easier to worry about when it was still happening all the way out in November.

But no. July. It got a starred review from Publishers Weekly and everything. You can read that starred review here, if you like.

They called it “Moody and mysterious…[a] gothic tale [that] touches the heart even as it wraps chilly fingers around the spine.” I’ve been calling it a low-brow southern gothic meet-cute between Welcome to Night Vale and William Faulkner, so … your mileage may vary.

If you’re the generous, lovely, pre-ordering type – please feel free to click whichever of the following is most relevant to your interests:

Preorder The Toll at Amazon.com [trade paperback or Kindle] Preorder The Toll at Barnes & Noble [trade paperback or Nook] Preorder The Toll from an independent retailer near you

At any rate, thanks so much for reading, and as always – I’ll try to do a better job of updating this thing once in awhile. I promise.

Finding my feet in 2019 was originally published on The Haunt*

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Never mind for now

Things are strange over here, so I’m going to put down the thing I mentioned in my last post. Not forever, but for now. I still dig the project and I have it more or less mapped out – but this isn’t the time for a variety of reasons, not least of all the fact that I’ve had something potentially time-sensitive and time-consuming land on my plate. It’s not set in stone yet, but if it all comes together it’s going to eat my life for a couple of months and there won’t be room for anything else from a creative standpoint.

Anyway, my agent is working on it. We shall see what happens. No, I won’t tell you what it is yet (or maybe even ever! you never know…).

Besides, I don’t know. I was on fire for the story for a few weeks, but I’m losing steam – which usually means that I’m coming at it from the wrong angle. Maybe I should’ve actually taken the break I promised myself, rather than jumping into something new right away.

At present, I have five projects hanging about on my agent’s desk and on the desks of a few editors here and there; there’s no way to know which of these – if any of them – will find a home and need my attention for awhile in 2019, but maybe that’s enough just for now. Come the New Year, I’ll reevaluate and maybe sit down with my agent for a “What next?” conversation. For now, I think it’s time to recharge.

Be well, everyone. I’ll be around, but I need to declare at least a semi internet hiatus through the holidays. Follow me on Twitter for your daily recommended dose of adorable animal pictures, if you like. Otherwise, I’ll see you next year!

Never mind for now was originally published on The Haunt*

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One taught me love, one taught me patience

It’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.

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.

One taught me love, one taught me patience was originally published on The Haunt*

[cmpriest]

The Agony House has Landed!

Landed in the marketplace, I mean. Not, like…landed on a witch or something.

AT ANY RATE. The Agony House is here! And you can BUY IT! RIGHT NOW! Should you wish to order a copy, then I’d like to help – and if you (and/or your relevant young adult readers) liked I Am Princess X, I do dearly hope they’ll be on board for this one, too.

[Just a friendly side-note about these things: if you would be so kind as to drop a review or two, when you’re finished…well. I’d love you forever, pretty much. Reviews feed algorithms and word-of-mouth, two of the unpredictable, fiddly things which drive sales the most these days. Authors appreciate your help in this regard – more than you know!]

If you’d like a SIGNED and/or PERSONALIZED copy you can purchase The Agony House via the University of Washington Bookstore. Don’t worry – it’s not complicated!

Follow the directions here.

As you can see, you can order any other signed books [of mine] to be signed [by me] courtesy of that same set of instructions.

It might take an extra few days to ship, depending on my availability for darting over to the U-District to sign stock…but I’ve even included a handy-dandy phone number in the directions to magically grant you free media rate shipping [in the continental 48 states only, I’m so sorry]!

::throws confetti::

The Agony House at Amazon.com (also for Kindle)

The Agony House at Barnes & Noble (also for Nook)

The Agony House at a local independent bookstore near you

The Agony House at the University of Washington Bookstore

The Agony House at Goodreads

The Agony House has Landed! was originally published on The Haunt*

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Trust me when I say I know the pathway to your head

Before I get to the word metrics, don’t forget – Seattle-area folks: This Friday evening (9/21) I’ll be at the University Book Store in the U-district with Shaun Hutchinson at 7:00! Come out and see us, and see the previous blog post for details, instructions, and so forth. We’d love to meet you there :)

* * *

Here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: October 1, 2018 New words written: 11,631 Present total word count: 61,960

Things accomplished in real life: Well, it’s been another few days since I posted – but in my slight defense, I’m keeping pace with my “1000 words a day, bare minimum” even though more production stuff on other projects has landed in my lap and eaten more of my time. Heck, today alone was a 5100 word day (which is *really* good for me). Real life has been housework, and a sick husband, and yet more audiobook work, and so forth, and so on. But I’m still getting it done, goddammit.

Bonus Things accomplished in real life: I know I said I was “done” with the audiobook tweaks and so forth, but I turned out to be wrong. Another dump of auditions to review landed and ate up some time, and then – because why not, right? – the copyedits for The Toll hit my inbox. I haven’t started those yet. They’re not due until 10/8 and I’m just…pretending they don’t exist until the end of this month. Yes I can do them in a week. No it won’t be a problem. One thing at a time, yanno?

Return of Bonus Things: Tomorrow I have a hair appointment eating up much of the afternoon; Thursday is housework + lunch with a friend; Friday is the reading/signing at U-Books; but I WILL keep cranking out the words, you just watch me.

Things accomplished in fiction: Interviewed our final witness/suspect at the downtown library, and got a little bit more information – then got a phone call that Bad Things were going down at the home of another witness (previously visited) and now we’re en route to that fine gentleperson’s home, where a break-in has occurred.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 86,795

Trust me when I say I know the pathway to your head was originally published on The Haunt*

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Coming soon (like, reeeeeally soon): THE AGONY HOUSE

Heads up all you Seattle-area folks: Next Friday, September 21, you can catch me at the University of Washington Bookstore with Shaun Hutchinson! We’ll be reading and chatting and signing, starting at 7:00 p.m.

Come out and see us!

*Technically* The Agony House doesn’t come out until September 25th, but I’ve been most heartily assured that there will absolutely be copies available. Breakin’ street date, y’all. That’s how we do it in the 206. [::busts into poorly executed and highly embarrassing dance moves::]

I don’t have any other Seattle appearances /signings on deck (at this time) and there’s no tour planned; so if you want to get the jump on all your friends and/or you have anything else you want signed…here’s your chance :)

As usual, I’ll be happy to sign other books – so if you have any copies of I Am Princess X or whatnot sitting sadly unsigned on your shelves…bring them in! I’ll scrawl all over them, as you like.

P.S. For what it’s worth – you can also pre-order this book (or any others of mine) via the University Book Store. Click right here for instructions and details. Don’t worry! It’s very easy, and it doesn’t cost extra (except shipping – and there’s free media rate shipping available for buyers in the continental US).

Anyway, thanks so much for reading…and I’ll probably throw up more reminders as the event draws closer. I hope to see you there!

Coming soon (like, reeeeeally soon): THE AGONY HOUSE was originally published on The Haunt*

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We can stay awake in steamy glitter dreams

Here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: October 1, 2018 New words written: 11,252 Present total word count: 50,329

Things accomplished in real life: It’s been a minute since I updated here, my apologies. I’ve had a lot of things going on – not least of all, Greyson got a bit sick and had us worried for a few days, but a vet visit and some meds fixed him up and he’s fine now. The rest of it doesn’t really bear a dry retelling.

Bonus Things accomplished in real life: As you may recall, when we did the audio book of I Am Princess X…the comics portions were presented as radio plays – with sound effects and such, etc. Well, we’re doing the same thing for The Agony House but we’re taking it up a notch with a narrator and multiple voice actors (I believe). Naturally, this means a whole lot of extra fiddling on my part, but it’s done now, hallelujah. Anyway, that’s the main reason I’ve been quiet over here for the last week or two.

Son of Bonus Things: Despite the stuff mentioned above, I managed to get at least a little work done on Far-Fetched every day, thus the cumulative total. However, since I wasn’t expecting the new audio work to come down the pike so soon, I’ve adjusted my self-imposed draft due date to October 1. I can actually finish a draft of this by then, I know it for a fact…except…the copyedits for my next Wild Cards piece just landed, so that’ll be a small hitch in my plans. But if I’m lucky, I can knock those out in a few days.

Bride of Bonus Things: If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.

Things accomplished in fiction: Interviewed another witness or two, wreaked a little havoc, got a great psychic flash that may tie two cold cases together, hurrah. We’ll see if it checks out.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 75,164

We can stay awake in steamy glitter dreams was originally published on The Haunt*

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A built-in remedy For Khrushchev and Kennedy

Here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 15 New words written: 8163 Present total word count: 39,077

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; went to the grocery store; went to the mall; went to Target; a bunch of other stuff that frankly isn’t springing to mind right this second, oh well. I’m tired.

Things accomplished in fiction: Tagged along for an informal interview with a person of interest from one cold case; did not freak out, high-fives to self!; went to the bar for some Klairvoyant Karaoke and found out that the bar’s owner wants to change it to ‘Psychic Psongstress’ and had mixed feelings about it; reviewed and tidied the murderboard; got left out of an informal interview with a retired cop who’d worked on a different cold case which is sure to be related to the first one – but our heroine wouldn’t have been much help, anyway.

Other: I wrote all of those words in two days – after taking a couple of days to sit down and plot my ass off. Man, it’s almost like…when you work this stuff out ahead of time…you can write a lot faster. If this sounds obvious to you, I mean, that’s fine. I’m usually a gardener,* but for a straight-up mystery like this I’ve learned that I need to have my ducks in a row a more than usual.

Bonus Other: Well, I’m trying a spiffy new word meter because my trusty stand-by of oh-so-many-years (via Writertopia) seems to be…not so much working, all of a sudden. Also, I adjusted my goal deadline by a week. Even at this pace, I don’t think I could make 9/8.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 63,912

* “Gardener” = someone who writes by figuring it out as she goes, and tends to the plot/characters more like a garden to be grown than a puzzle to be solved. GRRM said years ago (in an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald) that writers tended to be gardeners, or architects. The architects are the folks with all the outlines and index cards; they like to know where everything is going before they get started.

A built-in remedy For Khrushchev and Kennedy was originally published on The Haunt*

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The devil may care but I don't mind

Here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 8 New words written: 5797 Present total word count: 30,844

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; went to the grocery store; cleaned the whole house; did some laundry; went to the post office; went to the picture framer; etc. etc. etc.

Things accomplished in fiction: Met up with nice cop dude to explain self re: freakout; agreed to an unholy trinity of Leda, Niki, and Grady for the purposes of snooping around these two cold cases – and, it is to be hoped, figure out how they’re connected; visited an old witness to see if he had anything new to add to his original story.

Other: Oh hey, I cracked 50k+ words for the year so far. In August. Ugh. That number should be…oh, about twice that. Oh well.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 55,749

The devil may care but I don’t mind was originally published on The Haunt*

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It's a rich man's game no matter what they call it

Here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 8 New words written: 6729 Present total word count: 25,047

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; talked the vet out of some med refills; went to grocery store; went to liquor store; hung with and/or played tour guide for my brother – who came into town for a few days; cleaned whole house; did a bunch of laundry after brother left.

Things accomplished in fiction: was semi-useful at cold case crime scene, at least until the good-bye handshake – when our heroine had a psychic flash that [gasp!] suggested the Nice Cop Dude was somehow connected to the murder of her fiance 4 years earlier; cop went home and tried to unpack events, was counseled by teenage daughter of dubious helpfulness; heroine went home and cried on the phone to her best friend.

Other: Not a terrible multi-day total, but I didn’t get any work done while my brother was visiting. Still averaged *almost* a thousand words a day, so I can’t complain. I’m almost caught up! Sort of. And hey, I cracked 25k, so that’s nice. Almost a third of the way through the draft, huzzah!

Number of fiction words so far this year: 49,952

It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it was originally published on The Haunt*

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I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva

Here’s today’s progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 8 New words written: 2517 Present total word count: 18,318

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription; fielded some emails; took a bunch of pictures of my pets; went to supper with husband.

Things accomplished in fiction: Finished that Klairvoyant Karaoke set; got paid in booze, but word’s getting around; agreed to meet cop to discuss cold case crime scene, which is a first for our heroine and is therefore somewhat stressful.

Other: Much better single-day total, though tomorrow’s will likely be light – as I’m going to be out of the office for part of the day. Oh well. I’m getting there, and I’m almost on target, and I’ll catch up later. One way or another. Even though I also have a hair appointment on Wednesday and on Friday my brother and his fiance are coming into town for a couple of days. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, etc. etc. etc.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 43,223

I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva was originally published on The Haunt*

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April Fool in big black letters on a Dead End sign

Here’s today’s progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 8 New words written: 2625 Present total word count: 15,801

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; cleaned the whole house; did several loads of laundry; picked up my contacts; went to the post office; lunch with a friend; started playing We Happy Few with my husband and it’s buggy/glitchy as hell sometimes – but overall a fun game so far.

Things accomplished in fiction: Klairvoyant Karaoke!…wherein our heroine takes requests for personal objects, and chooses/sings a song for their owners based on whatever her feeble clairsentience tells her when she handles them. Practice makes perfect, and her skills are gradually improving.

Other: That’s not a multi-day total, but I flaked out yesterday and didn’t get any writing done. I’m trying to average at least a thousand words a day, but I really need to work faster if I want to finish this early in September. Eh, I can do it. I just have to buckle down and make it happen. If the rest of my life would quit getting in the way, that would be awesome.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 40,709

April Fool in big black letters on a Dead End sign was originally published on The Haunt*

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Many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

Here’s today’s progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: September 8 New words written: 2169 Present total word count: 13,176

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs; went grocery shopping; watered all the things (the yard is positively tragic right now); fielded some emails; dealt with pest control gent for our routine anti-ant spritz-down; grabbed lunch even though I had food at home because I am the literal worst but I was hungry and it’s hot and I didn’t want to cook.

Things accomplished in fiction: Negotiated meet-up for unofficial police business that everyone is prepared to lie about, if confronted; went to a vintage Vegas-themed bar on CapHill called “Castaways” for a little clairsentience practice on the karaoke stage; drowned some sorrows; other sorrows invested in life jackets and made a nuisance of themselves.

Other: Finally got a real toe-hold in this one, and I’ll do my best to keep up the momentum. Present goal is at least 1000 words a day – many more if possible – regardless of whatever else is going on. I’ve been sitting on this project for about four years, so it’s had plenty of time to gel in my head; let’s hope it finds its way out in a timely and relatively painless fashion. I’m setting the deadline for this first draft at my dad’s birthday, September 8. Arbitrary? Yes. But for real, I work better with fixed goals. So here goes.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 38,084

Many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse was originally published on The Haunt*

[cmpriest]

If I can't have everything well then just give me a taste

Hey there! I know it’s been a minute, but you know how it goes, eh? So much has happened since last I posted … that I’ll never pull off a decent recap now, but there are a few highlights I need to hit – for the sake of my sanity, and also because, shoot. I don’t know. Maybe some of you want to hear about it.

First up – as you know, The Agony House is coming soon from Scholastic! By soon, I mean NEXT FREAKING MONTH which is both exciting and a little alarming, but here goes nothing, eh? Trade reviews have been rolling in, and here are a couple of the highlights thus far:

Via Booklist – a starred review! They called it, a “sharp, satisfying, and engrossingly spooky story.”

Via Kirkus – The reviewer really dug it, noting that the “Conflicts, ectoplasmic and otherwise, [are] laid to rest in a deliciously creepy setting.”

If you’d like to pre-order a copy, then I’d like to help. Pre-orders are crucial in publishing, and the more I can drum up, the merrier. If you (and/or your relevant young adult readers) liked I Am Princess X, I do dearly hope they’ll be on board for this one, too:

The Agony House at Amazon.com (also for Kindle)

The Agony House at Barnes & Noble (also for Nook)

The Agony House at a local independent bookstore near you

And to this, I must add another link or two. If you’d like a SIGNED copy, you can pre-order The Agony House via the University of Washington Bookstore. I do not live terribly far away from this bookstore, and it’s my shop of choice for this kind of thing. Don’t worry – it’s not complicated! Follow the directions here.

As you can see, you can order any other signed books [of mine] to be signed [by me] courtesy of that same set of instructions. It might take an extra few days to ship, depending on my availability for darting over to the U-District to sign stock…but I’ve even included a handy-dandy phone number in the directions to magically grant you free media rate shipping! ::throws confetti::

* * *

In other news, let’s see. In the last few months I cleaned up Cinderwich and got it rejected from a couple of places, oh well, no biggie. I only wrote it for funsies. Anyway, I’ve shelved it for the moment, though I’ll very likely haul it back out again this winter. I think it needs to be a full-length project after all. (To make a long story short.)

In other long stories made short, I had a piece come out in Apex Magazine in May, and you can read it for free right here: Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse. It’s um…kind of different, for me. Broadly speaking, its reception fell into two camps: (1). OMG this SPEAKS to me, and (2). Seriously, WTF?

Perhaps tellingly, those reactions largely break down along gender lines. Make of that what you will.

I’m pretty proud of it, anyway.

* * *

In other news, I’ve started a new project for adults.* It’s one I’ve been talking about for years, but it only really gelled a few weeks ago – so here goes nothing. I’m really excited about it; it’s lighter and more fun than [the bulk of] what I’ve worked on for the last few years. Lately I’ve felt like maybe the world was dark enough already, you know?

Yeah, you do. I know you do.

So here’s recent progress on my comedic murder mystery about an inconsistently clairvoyant travel agent who prevents a Seattle detective from participating in a plane crash – and together, they fight crime! Now with Bonus karaoke parlor tricks, a snarky best friend in a cast, and a fish named Brutus:

Project: Far-Fetched Deadline: We shall see. New words written: 11,007 Present total word count: 11,007

Things accomplished in real life: Walked the dogs every morning; handed in rewrites for The Toll; had a couple of rounds of house guests; went to NOLA for a YA writers shindig; started taking day-job contract work again; finally got my car’s blown headlight fixed and now they’re hilariously uneven like a bad boob job, but I give up.

Things accomplished in fiction: Kept a cop from getting on a doomed plane, against his wishes; cop figures out that his travel agent is Special; cop looks up travel agent because he wants some discreet assistance on a cold case, and he’s desperate enough to take it from her; travel agent is dubious but kind of game, as long as she can bring her best friend along for the ride.

Other: This project was inspired by something that actually happened to me a few years ago, and I’m glad my husband was looped in on the text messages and travel updates as they occurred – otherwise no one would ever believe me. If Far-Fetched ever gets published, I’ll go on tour and tell you all about it.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 35,915

* As opposed to “young adults.” It’s not, like, porny or anything.

If I can’t have everything well then just give me a taste was originally published on The Haunt*

[cmpriest]

I read you books and talked for hours

Here’s recent progress on my modern gothic about two lady academics investigating the case of a mystery woman who was murdered and stuffed in a tree forty years ago – with Bonus! lovely ghosts, sinister messages from beyond, creepy small town shenanigans, and a New Southern Weird vibe (as inspired by a true story that happened way the hell elsewhere):

Project: Cinderwich Deadline: April 30 [self-imposed, and oh well] New words written: 13,935 Present total word count: 54,308

Things accomplished in real life: Since last week? Much of the usual: walked the dogs every morning; cleaned house a couple of times; lots of laundry; had a houseguest for a few days; bought a power washer and now I am unstoppable; etc. etc. etc.

Things accomplished in fiction: Wrapped up a Draft Zero! It’s fairly solid, all in all (IMO), though I’m going to let it cool off and then clean it up and see how I feel about it. I’ll probably need to trim 3-4k words, if I know me. (I tend to overwrite in first drafts.)

Other: This is basically a gothic novella chock full of fan-fic about friends – one of whom appears as a ghost. I got everybody’s permission, don’t worry; but this is really a quiet, weird little story that I wrote expressly “for funsies”…and I’m not sure where it’ll find a home. If nobody wants it, maybe I’ll set it up behind a Patreon or something. I don’t know yet. We will see. I’m not ready to show it to anyone yet, anyway.

What’s Next: This coming week will be spent eyeballs deep in the final (I hope) rewrites for The Toll. It’s a polishing round, but it’s fiddly – and it’ll definitely take a few days of focus.

After That: After that, I’ve got a couple of things I want to develop. We’ll see which one bubbles up to the top, eh? I’ll keep you posted.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 24,908

I read you books and talked for hours was originally published on The Haunt*

[cmpriest]

When you go, you're gone forever

Here’s today’s progress on my modern gothic about two lady academics investigating the case of a mystery woman who was murdered and stuffed in a tree forty years ago – with Bonus! lovely ghosts, sinister messages from beyond, creepy small town shenanigans, and a New Southern Weird vibe (as inspired by a true story that happened way the hell elsewhere):

Project: Cinderwich Deadline: April 30 New words written: 1973 Present total word count: 40,373

Things accomplished in real life: Took the dogs on their morning jaunt around the neighborhood; went to grocery store (yet again, but it’s just around the corner); went through and responded to all necessary queries in the pass proofs for The Agony House; received/read through/rejoiced re: the last round of edits for The Toll [or so it is to be hoped].

Things accomplished in fiction: Went looking for an unmarked grave in an abandoned cemetery. Get your stamping pens ready, because that one’s on your Gothic Cliche Bingo Card.

Other: Over the weekend, the weather was nice so I got started on a little bit of spring yard work. At least the patio area now looks like civilized people are taking care of it, as opposed to a couple of slackers who just let everything die and then get dug up by a pair of dogs. Ahem. Next weekend [maybe]…the back yard, which will be quite the undertaking. It’s actually pretty big, and it’s a wreck. [We don’t have a front yard, per se.]

Number of fiction words so far this year: 10,973

When you go, you’re gone forever was originally published on The Haunt*