Writerly goodness

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Dec 14-20, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s Christmas Day . . . whee! I’ll be sharing a great meal with the family. Hope all of you are similarly occupied today.

Creative people are paradoxical. Who knew? 😉 Fast Comapny.

What it means to have the heart of an empath. Sensitive is also one of the defining traits of the introverted, so you may find some enlightenment here. Elephant Journal.

I have this amazing friend (Hi, Dani!) who’s been teaching mindfulness to her class. They made this video:

 

Have a look at the lovely (and detailed) maps being sent back to us from Mars. Wired.

The huge issues science fiction movies conveniently gloss over. Cracked.

How ancient Romans made stronger concrete than we do. Construction companies, take note. i09.

I’m not even sure where to put this . . . The blood-curdling sound of the Aztec whistle. Dangerous Minds.

A creative musician figured out a way to translate the information contained in tree rings into piano notes. The result is amazing. IFLS

This is awesome. How a 3D printer was used to make prosthetics for a dog born with malformed front legs. Fabulous implications for human application, too, don’t you think? IFLS.

See you Saturday!

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Dec 14-20, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 6 Comments

It’s Christmas Eve Eve . . . if that makes any sense 😀

K.M. Weiland on the difference between theme and message.

An excellent podcast by DIY MFA’s Gabriela Pereira on some of the ways you can outline.

Why a year-end review is important for writers. Jamie Raintree on thinking through our fingers.

And related to that, Dr. Jonathan Ball on how he uses Jamie’s awesome word count Excel spreadsheet to track his writing progress. Whether you think the post is sexy or not (I rather think Jonathan was being facetious with his post title), there are some great ideas in there. And that, to me, is sexy.

Why emotional excess is essential writing and creativity. Do you agree? Brainpickings explores the diaries of Anais Nin.

Common sayings you may be misusing. How stuff works.

The Lord of the Rings mythology explained in four minutes. CGP Grey.

 

Need something to tide you over until Outlander resumes its season? Here’s a sneak peek. E! Online.

That’s it for this week.

All the best of the season to you, whatever that means to you. To me, it’s still Merry Christmas 🙂

Tipsday

Caturday quickie, part the second: Pupdate

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

The last time I offered a pupdate, Nuala had been diagnosed with diabetes, we had a VetPen, but were having difficulty regulating her blood sugar. We’d also stopped the prednisone and started an alternate treatment, cyclosporin.

Well, after three glucose curves, her blood sugar is still not regulated, but the vet feels that clinically, she’s doing fine. The stress of a day-long stay at the vet’s may have an impact on her glucose readings, however. So we’re continuing her treatment of 16 units of insulin twice a day.

We ended up returning the VetPen as the maximum dose on it is 16 units and we may have to increase her dosage again, depending on how her symptoms are managed. Phil and I are much more comfortable with syringes anyway, having had previous experience with our cat, Thufir (the caturday quickie mascot).

The cyclosporin was not working and her ears (which the pred and the cyclosporin were prescribed to treat) were once again full of cysts. She had an abscess in one ear, as evidenced by the amount of pus that came out of it, and so the vet has recommended a return to the pred. We have to monitor her water intake and urination and may have to adjust her insulin accordingly . . . because . . .

Nu is once more a piddle pup, incontinence being one of several side effects of the pred. We now have washable incontinence pads made for humans on the bed and the couch, and are otherwise tolerating the occasional dribble. She can’t help it, poor dear.

Other than that, she’s on Fortekor for her proteinurea.

That’s our complex pup in a nutshell.

After only a few days on the pred, her ear cysts are shrinking again, and she seems quite happy.

Nuala December 2014

This is seriously the best picture I could get of her. She’s absurdly camera shy (!)

Our aim is quality of life. She’s nine and a half, even though we still refer to her as the pup.

I hope this will be the last pupdate for a while.

Caturday Quickies

Caturday quickie: Progress? Not.

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

So . . . when last I wrote about this, Phil and I were optimistic about getting the work on our yard and driveway done. It was October and the road work was to continue until November 15th. We had the beginnings of the retaining wall, and a promise from the city engineer that everything should be completed.

Then it snowed October 31st.

retaining wall

retaining wall 2

retaining wall 3

What we have:

  • a mostly completed retaining wall; and
  • compacting fill in the driveway.

What will be done in the spring (otherwise, Phil and I might not be as understanding as we have been):

  • finish the retaining wall (further wrapping around and steps);
  • install railing on retaining wall;
  • new front steps;
  • old front steps removed from out back yard and disposed of; and
  • driveway paved.

We’re waiting to hear from the engineer about something we’d like to have added to the work order (and which we will pay for because it’s on our property). Since the driveway is all gravel anyway, we’d like to get a contractor to replace the sewer line. We have roots in the line and think it would be a convenient time to get the work done, rather than pay to have the drive dug up, the line replaced, and the drive repaved at a later date.

So that’s where we are.

Will let you know what happens when work resumes in the spring.

Caturday Quickies

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Dec 7-13, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Why every year seems to pass more quickly than the last. The Mind Unleashed. An argument for remaining present in the moment if I ever heard one.

The CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti interviews Bletchley Circle code breaker.

Albert Einstein wrote to Marie Curie and advised her to take heart and ignore the “trolls.” i09.

28 months on Mars. What Curiosity has taught us so far. The New York Times.

Two blue giants engage in interstellar merger. IFLS.

Is there a parallel universe that moves backward in time? IFLS. As one friend commented, science is finally catching up with Merlin (The Once and Future King, T.H. White).

One physicist has a groundbreaking idea about why life exists. Business Insider.

Are there still people out there that think climate change is a conspiracy? Ask them to watch this:

 

Images of Bhopal and its people, thirty years after the disaster. The Altantic.

Rinelle Harper calls for national inquiry into violence against aboriginal women. The Huffington Post.

What an x-ray reveals about the art of Artemesia Gentileschi.

How one boy responded when his friend came out to him. Elite Daily.

Amazing uncensored art reflects modern society. So bad, so good.

Here’s some inspiration for you: Why you will fail to have a great career. Larry Smith’s TEDxUW talk.

 

This is just fun: someone created a map of the UK with only the rude place names listed. *giggles* Buzzfeed.

Ok. Time to get a little weepy over our canine buddies. Why dogs never really die. Tickld.

And on that sombre note, Thoughty Thursday is adjourned.

See you Saturday for all things updatey 🙂

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Dec 7-13, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Hachette wants to turn Twitter into a bookstore. I’m still not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Bloomberg Businessweek.

Do agents Google potential clients? You bet your sweet bippy. Survey conducted by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

The most common writing mistakes series, part 36: Too much introspection and not enough interaction. K.M. Weiland.

Blogging for authors: How to create a blog that will grow with your career. Anne R. Allen.

How to become a writer by Lisa Cron for Writer Unboxed. It takes time and patience, practice and persistence.

Last week, I shared a post about writing in your books. This week, I discovered that monks annotated their illuminations 😛 Catholic Memes.

Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre unearthed. The Guardian.

Margaret Atwood’s ten rules of writing. Brainpickings.

Buzzfeed shares 51 of the most beautiful sentences in literature.

This is the coolness: a periodic table of figures of speech. LifeHacker.

Nearly perfect movies and what they teach us about storytelling. Charlie Jane Anders for i09.

Steven Moffat finally agrees that a woman Doctor is a distinct possibility. Can I get an “Amen” my sisters? Though he also says it’s too soon to think about a new Doctor. i09.

Five lessons Peter Capaldi learned from Doctor Who. Wired.

Beautiful poetry from Shane Koyczan:

 

Neil Gaiman recites “Jabberwocky”:

 

This is going to be one splendid movie 🙂

 

Paftoo’s secret room in Roz Morris’s Lifeform Three was based on this real underwater ballroom. Sunny Skyz.

May your week be full of fantastic nonsense 🙂

See you Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

When Words Collide wrap post

/ Melanie Marttila

So . . . it’s been a few months since I attended When Words Collide in Calgary, Alberta. It was an interesting event. Organizers billed it as a literary festival, but it grew out of a fan con. It was an interesting mix, one part writing conference, one part reader/fan convention.

It takes its organizational model from conventions, asking a nominal membership fee rather than a pricey conference fee. Most of the sessions were panels with a few workshops and guest of honour sessions worked into the schedule.

I enjoyed my first WWC and got a lot out of it, as you may have gathered if you’ve been following my WWC posts over the past months.

One thing I didn’t appreciate was the heavy scheduling. With the exception of the banquet, there were no set breaks for meals, and even during the banquet, which was an optional extra cost, there were concurrent sessions.

It made what was already a difficult decision between a plethora of sessions even more challenging. They should have handed out time turners at the door 😉

I met a lot of authors I had previously only known on the interwebz and I got to act all fangirlish around Brandon Sanderson. I also reconnected with a lot of authors I had previously met at other conferences and stayed an extra day so I could spend some time with an old university roommate hiking at Lake Louise and Johnston Canyon.

There was a book room, and of course, I bought a few books. Not as many as at past conferences, but I picked up enough to keep feeding my addiction and weighing down my bookshelves.

WWCBooks

One of the other bonuses was the writing contest, which I was happy to place second in with my paranormal short story, “On the Ferry.” I got to read an excerpt from my story, meet all the other top ten authors, and the judges of the contest, who also gave all of the top ten their comments.

I am currently revising that story for another market.

Overall, it was a rewarding time. I probably won’t be able to attend every year, however. Like the Surrey International Writers’ Conference I attended last year, the air fare and accommodation costs make WWC an occasional treat rather than a definite must.

And that, as they say, is a wrap.

Next week: I’ll be updating you on Nuala’s situation and the state of things in the yard and driveway.

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Nov 30-Dec 6, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Diana Pitaru of Psych Central wonders, are we afraid of losing our darkness?

TED talks to pick you up when you’re feeling down.

The trouble with bright girls. Psychology Today.

Anita Sarkeesian is just getting started. Bloomberg Businessweek. One of my favourite bits: “Harassment is the background radiation of my life.” And still she fights on. The definition of courage.

Alanah Pearce has started reporting young harassers to their moms. The Huffington Post.

Trauma dog helps victims on the stand during sexual abuse trial. The Huffington Post.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since the Montreal Massacre was perpetrated. Poet Penn Kemp posted about some of the commemorative and healing events taking place.

The world’s oldest engravings found on 500,000 year old shells. IFLS.

Abandoned and tragic places are fascinating to me. Drone footage of the Chernobyl exclusion zone from IFLS.

Thanks to Phil Plait for posting this wonderful video on his Slate Bad Astronomy column.

Cymatics, the science of sound from Nigel Stanford.

 

Cody C. Delistraty of The Atlantic wonders, can creativity be learned? What a new study reports.

The difference between opinion and reaction. Prolost.

Walking helps us think. The New Yorker.

Veritasium. Why innovation in education is not the end of the teacher.

 

Reasons you should move to Finland. Buzzfeed. We have most of this stuff right here in Canada, though, especially in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and many other northern communities where the Finnish have settled. My last name? Finnish 🙂 Yes, my mom has a sauna and makes Finn bun. Om-a-nom-a-nom-a-nom.

I only hope this is true. The Huffington Post.

Kawaii time with Buzzfeed: 21 reasons to be thankful for your dog.

Stanley the Airedale talks to his mom on the phone.

 

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Nov 30-Dec 6, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Here’s another post and podcast on theme from K.M. Weiland. This theme stuff is a little brain-twisty. Katie makes it accessible without getting didactic. That’s exactly what you have to do with your theme.

Jane Kisacky writes about literary hypochondria for Writer Unboxed.

Ruth Harris wrote this wonderful post for Anne R. Allen’s blog on managing your social media for sanity.

Listen to the Creative Penn podcast. This week’s guest: David Farland 🙂

What Catherine Ryan Howard learned about rejection. Catherine, caffeinated.

Karen Thompson Walker. What fear teaches us. TED Talk.

 

11 books aspiring writers should read. Bustle.

25 words you should add to your vocabulary.

Pixar’s 22 rules of phenomenal storytelling.

Chuck Wendig’s simple, no-fuckery plan to write and the no-fooling, fix-that-shit plan to finish your goddamned novel.

Last week, we learned that readers have more empathy. This week, writers are proven to have better coping skills and better physical resilience. Go figure. Arts.Mic.

I think this might go along with last week’s reader discovery. Book ban in prison repealed. BBC.

How not to build a future society. BBC.

If any of you out there are like me, you’re in agony waiting for April and the resumption of the Outlander season. Here’s a little teaser for you to tide you over courtesy of The Nerdist.

I am a BIG B5 fan, so when I read about a reboot movie, I was vibrating on a higher level. Ars technica.

The Saturday Evening Post DC superhero series by Juan Carlos Ruiz Burgos. Deviant Art. I waffled about whether to put this on the Tipsday post or the Thoughty Thursday post.

The Creative Arts Shop on Etsy offers Doctor Who themed merchandise. I kind of like the fingerless gloves meself.

Buzzfeed presents some awesome writing nooks.

The science of Shakespeare on CBC’s Ideas.

Do you write in your books? Consider this post by Tim Parks for The New York Review of Books.

Tipsday

The next chapter: November 2014 update

/ Melanie Marttila / 9 Comments

So. Just to get it out there, I didn’t meet my NaNo goal this year. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a tall order writing 50k words while working full time.

If you remember my pre-NaNo post, I said that if everything went to hell and I only got 20k words written, that I’d still be happy.

Well, I wrote 28,355 words on my new novel idea and I’m more than happy with that.

NaNoWriMo participant 2014

I didn’t do more than maintenance housework.

I did try to live as normal a life as possible.

I did not abandon my blog, though I was less present on social media.

I had two birthday celebrations, two weeks of training (which always drains introverted Mellie), two weeks of travel, a workshop on publishing, a Christmas party fiasco, and a new critique group meeting to attend.

I’m surprised I got as much done as I did.

I’m still in recovery.

So here, briefly, is what the month looked like.

November's Writing Progress

5,269 words on the blog and 28,355 on the new novel.

33,624 words total for the month.

Whew!

I’ve taken a few days’ respite so far in December (sorry about the time warp, folks), but I’m getting back on that wee writing horsie next week.

As Chuck Wendig says, I gotta finish my shit. As Kristen Lamb says, life rewards finishers.

Specifically, I’m not only going to work further on Marushka, which is another YA urban fantasy/fairy tale re-envisioning, but I’m also going to get back to my other draft-in-progress, Gerod and the Lions, my MG fantasy, and work on a few short stories for upcoming contests and anthology calls.

I’ve written Marushka in Scrivener, my first project using that program. To be honest, while I can see the value of Scrivener, I’m organized enough, and well-versed enough in Word that I’m content to return to it.

Unless, of course, Microsoft does what it’s threatening to do and make Office into a subscription-based service. If that happens, they’ve lost a heretofore faithful customer and I’m jumping ship to Scrivener.

I don’t know why MS has to go and screw up a perfectly good office suite.

I’ve had the pleasure of being on the launch team for a fellow author for the past few months as well. It’s been an interesting process helping Jane Ann McLachlan choose a title for her novel, a cover, reading the ARC, and writing the review for her.

I’ve also gleaned a few things for my toolbox. I knew that one must place one’s review to Amazon.com (as opposed to .ca) but now I know that I should also find other reviews helpful and click that little button on as many of them as possible.

Apparently that’s another little tip: Amazon will give preference and weight to helpful reviews, as opposed to reviews on which the button has not been clicked. Amazon also prefers it if you have purchased the book or ebook through them prior to posting the review. A verified purchase carries more weight again.

Interesting stuff. And here I thought I was helping people out by posting my reviews of their books. Now I know how to help them even more.

And that was my month.

I got a little present in my inbox this past week. See that lovely Excel spreadsheet depicted above? That was created by the wonderful and talented Jamie Raintree. I got her newsletter, and a link to the 2015 version (happy dancing commences).

You need to subscribe to that lovely lady 🙂

I spent most of today cleaning the house after my month of sloth. Phil helped (bless him) by doing the pots in the kitchen and cleaning the bathroom.

Now Mellie has to toddle off to Bedfordshire. She has five submissions to critique for tomorrow’s meeting and Christmas decorations to haul out of storage and place artfully around the house.

You know what? I love my life 🙂

The Next Chapter