Once again—sorry to be gone so long. I never *intend* to vanish, I just become really distracted by a lot of other things. Then, when I look up, it’s four months later and my house is a mess. As many of you know, there’s been some mention of the faux—“Dime Store” novel I wrote for the new Platinum series GUNPLAY. It was a lot of fun todo, but it’s hardly a “comeback” to comics. First of all, my part of it wasn’t a comic book—it was a novella, or perhaps a long short story. The writer of GUNPLAY is the fantastic newcomer Jorge Vega who, for reasons I’ll never quite understand, seems to be fairly happy to have me all but mock his fine work in my dime novel (the dime novel is a funhuse mirror version of the comic book story).

But, the gig did lead to an interview on ComicBookResources.Com, and a lot of speculation that Priest was returning to comics. Which he is and isn’t. Things are eing discussed, some things are comic-related, some are not. Announcing these things is dicey until deals are firmed up and release dates set. I doubt you’ll see much more from me in 2008, but I anticipate several projects either 4Q ’08 or 1Q ’09.

But, since GUNPLAY has my phones ringing al of a sudden, it’s probably a good idea to make this site a going concern again. I’m imosed some hateful frames and iFrames to compensate for the unmanageable spectrum of monitor resolutions currently available. I mean, when I built this site, monitor resolutions were 640x480 and 800x600. I designed it for the latter, thinking, my, how progressive I am. I moved to 1024x768 only reluctantly, shaking my fist at Bill Gates or whoever wouldn’t leave well enough alone.

But, now it’s all a crap-shoot. What with so many people buying “widescreen” monitors, and the resolutions on those monitors being all over the place. I’m constantly amazed at how utterly wrongheaded the “widescreen” thinking is. Computers scroll up and down. A TALLscreen monitor might actually be useful to someone, but a widescreen monitor accomplishes nothing. People think they get to “see more” on their screen, but then go and open their explorer and app windows full width—covering everything and rendering moot the whole point of a “wide” monitor.

When I built this site, I put in the tag, “Official website of Christopher J. Priest” was, well, a gag. I mean, who on earth could possibly *care* whether this is an “official” site or a “fan” site. I doubt there’s many. Combing over the site today, for the first time in a very long time, the little slogan began to trouble me. I mean, it sounds terrible snooty, like something an IMPORTANT WRITER might do. And the middle initial “J” stuck in everywhere, what’s that all about?

Well, it’s about Christopher Priest, the acclaimed British author whose novel The Prestige” was released as a motion picture last year. From our earliest encounters more than a decade ago, I made it clear my name change had absolutely nothing to do with him—a man I’d never heard of until DC’s Marketing department brought him to my attention. As I’ve said many, gosh, many times, the change was a personal decision, the choice of last name not coincidental or flippant, and, much as I appreciate the headache this must cause Mr. Priest, this is a bell that won’t be un-rung. There are three other Christopher Priests living here in Colorado Springs, a city about the size of a broom closet. I can only imagine there are thousands of other Christopher Priests in the world (including, as Mr. Priest himself brought o my attention, a famous magician in the U.K.). I do, however, make a concerted effort to credit myself as simply “Priest,” and subsequent novels will be credited as something else. Maybe “Sheckie Priest” or something. But that’s the point of using the middle initial all over the place—just to distinguish myself from my friend over the pond and, hopefully, make his life a bit easier.

I’m about as far from an attention-addicted snob as you’ll likely meet. In fact, I bailed out of the upcoming con in L.A. because, honestly, all I did was a little job for Gunplay—a mock “dime novel.” That’s hardly worth a plane ticket, or the hundreds of stares and questions about “where’ve you been?”

I’ve been here. Focusing on ministry and minding my business. I’m a bit surprised there are actually people in the business who (1) have much clue who I am or (2) are still anxious to work with me.

This site is a lot like a time capsule. Whenever I go spelunking thru old code, I see 1997 Priest who wrote all this ugly code, where everything is cross-connected in some arcane fashion. I’ve been sitting here, scratching my head, wondering what on earth I was thinking. It’s interesting to look at old work, to remember ’97 Priest and wonder if ’97 Priest had any inkling at all about ’08 Priest (or, for that matter, Windows Vista).

If I had the time, I’d just build the thing over from scratch. And, yes, I’d use more standards-compliance code (although I remain a standards skeptic; I just refuse to spend all week pulling my hair out trying to code for the three people using Opera). But, for now, more duct tape on the splits and fix as we go.

I just hope nobody thinks I’m a snob. “Official website of…” was a j-o-k-e.