Cory Skerry

T A N G I B L E   G O A L S :

• 500 words minimum per day (this one's easy, since i already do this most days)
• Finish at least one short story
• Get Briar Hollow ready for beta readers

I N T A N G I B L E   G O A L S :

• Build and maintain a haunted, ominous mood throughout the book
• Don't judge the validity of my short stories, either by concept or execution
• Get one step closer to sloughing this mortal human lie and unfurling the benthic magnificence that's been incubating in the slippery wet darkness between my organs 

G O A L   P R O G R E S S :

• Week One: re-read/take notes on BH, then get COVID, lol (0/3500 words)
• Week Two: have less COVID & begin "Moonbone" (1685/7000 words)
• Week Three: catching up! more BH, more "Moonbone" (8255/10500 words)
• Week Four: oops, slowed down a bit, more "Moonbone" & switched from BH to Wake  because REASONS (11308/14000)
• Week Five: yikes! will i make it? More "Moonbone," more Wake! (15484/17500)
• Week Six: WOOHOO! Made it on Friday, July 29. I'll keep writing, of course, but this is what it looked like when i crossed the finish line: (21333 / 21000)

M Y    W O R K :

• My probably-complete bibliography is here.

B R I A R   H O L L O W :

• Slow-burn YA supernatural/mystery
• Pitch: Josie and her mother must hide from the FBI in a haunted cabin in a creepy town full of secrets, and some of those are much more dangerous than being chased by agents with guns
• Summary: Every time Josie's father finds them, they have to move again. She can't have friends, long-term plans, or even Facebook. When her mom decides to try hiding in a remote Oregon coastal town instead of a bustling metropolis, now Josie can't even have good takeout or see a band anyone has actually heard of. 
  
  But Briar Hollow is not the boring rural truckstop she imagined. The shadows on the beach stretch toward her even when the light is behind her. Her emaciated, maggot-colored neighbor gets a wheelbarrow of raw meat delivered to the front door every day. And the cemetery in the woods behind her definitely haunted house doesn't have headstones, just a grove of enormous maples decorated in junk like a rotting thrift store. No one will answer her many questions about this mysterious town except a gorgeous girl named Virginia, who looks--and acts--like a ghost. 
  
  Josie knows what it's like to keep a secret. To be a secret. And this town is keeping them for a lot of people, both living and dead. For the first time she can remember, Josie doesn't want to leave their refuge--even when their past catches up with them. And while she and her mom might be able to stay hidden, Briar Hollow's protection comes with a price. 

B I O :

Cory Skerry is a rampantly queer author, illustrator, and editor who lives in the rainy wilds of the Pacific Northwest. His greatest wish is that when his current meat shell falls apart, science will place his brain into the body of a giant killer octopus, with which he will be very responsible and not even slightly shipwrecky. He pinky swears.

S T U F F   I   D O :

• Hunt art for The Deadlands, a bad-ass cross-genre magazine about death and everything death-adjacent
• Occasionally lurk/have lurked behind the scenes at other magazines (Tor.com, Shimmer, Nightmare)
• Go to the beach at low tide and spend hours examining flora and fauna, both living and dead
• Take my aging, high-maintenance dogs on adventures. Rescue is the best breed!
• Be an actual hermit before the pandemic made it cool
• (But still stay in touch with my fellow graduates from Clarion West and Viable Paradise)
• Write lots of novels and trunk them because i don't have the energy to do anything more than write them
• Help other people polish their novels so they can publish theirs and i can get a contact high