I AM PRINCESS X is the latest novel by Cherie Priest, and we’re thrilled she could stop by to chat about writing.
Cherie, how long or hard was your road to publication? How many books did you write before I AM PRINCESS X and how many never got published?
I Am Princess X will be my 18th book, so I’ve been in the industry for awhile. That said, it took me a number of years to break in; I think my first published novel was the sixth or seventh one I’d actually finished. None of those other books have ever been published, and they never will be. Frankly, they don’t deserve to be. They just weren’t good enough; I still needed time to level up.
What’s your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?
Get up in the morning and walk the dog. Answer emails/phone calls/do Writer Business stuff until lunchtime (at least). Break for lunch. Try to write in the afternoon … unless there’s too much business stuff to tackle. Usually I do all the business stuff in my office; but I drag my laptop into the den, because I tend to write while sitting on the couch with the TV on in the background. (Usually music videos, ghost hunting shows, or home improvement shows.) Sometimes this process works better than others.
What are you working on now?
This year, I’m working on a modern dark fantasy for Tor (tentatively titled THE SEVENTH BRIDGE), as well as a historic horror/gothic novel called BRIMSTONE for Roc. With any luck, I might add another YA project to the mix, but we’ll see about that.
ABOUT THE BOOK
I Am Princess X
by Cherie Priest
Hardcover
Arthur A. Levine Books
Released 5/26/2015
Best friends, big fans, a mysterious webcomic, and a long-lost girl collide in this riveting novel, perfect for fans of both Cory Doctorow and Sarah Dessen, and illustrated throughout with comics.
Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure.
Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.
Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window.
Princess X?
When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There’s an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby’s story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon – her best friend, Libby, who lives.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHERIE PRIEST is the author of over a dozen novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures The Inexplicables, Ganymede, Dreadnought, Clementine, and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Bloodshot and Hellbent from Bantam Spectra; Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor; and three novellas published by Subterranean Press. In addition to all of the above, her first foray into George R. R. Martin’s superhero universe, Fort Freak (for which she wrote the interstitial mystery), debuted in the summer of 2011. Cherie’s short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Publishers Weekly, and numerous anthologies. She lives in Chattanooga, TN, with her husband, a big shaggy dog, and a fat black cat.
