Alexandra Witze wonders, will an artificial intelligence discover alien life? SETI utilizes AI. The picture of ET is a little condescending and, as my spouse reminds me, what everyone’s calling AI is actually an expert system. Nature
Welcome to next chapter weekly, a look at the week in this writer’s life.
This week I drew the three of wands from the tarot and the father from the Celtic oracle deck.
The three of wands represents discovery, negotiation, great effort, and foresight. This felt fortuitous as this is the week that I intended to get back on my writing game in a more serious way.
The father represents the Dagda, the “great god” of Irish mythology and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He controls life and death, the weather and crops, and time and the seasons. He can be equated to Zeus or Odin from other mythologies.
He was married to the Morrigan, but Boann was his mistress, and Brigit, or Brigid, is one of his children.
February 1st was Imbolc, or Brigid’s Day. Brigid is, among other things, the patron saint of poets and scholars. How apropos 🙂
I lit the candles and incense on my altar with special intention on Tuesday. The light has been steadily returning and I’ve had a distinct upswing in energy of late. It’s time to rededicate myself to my creativity.
The week in writing
Last week was all about playfulness and reacquaintance. I may not have written or revised every day, but I read things over, maybe accepted some track changes, or deleted some comments that were no longer needed.
This week, starting on February 1st, I got back into writing and revision more consciously and decisively. At least that was the plan. But you know what life does when you’re making those …
So, yeah. I didn’t get back to Reality Bomb or Alice in Thunderland until the 3rd. That was Friday. Better late than never?
Here’s how the week broke down. To show you the whole week, I have to give you two screenshots. The last three days of January are on this first one.
And the first four of February are on this second one.
Again, I entered my curation posts for the coming week before I took this screenshot. I’ll learn, eventually.
For RB, it was a week of net gains. 45 words on the 31st and 111 words between Friday and Saturday for a total of 156 words. There was some deletion in there, too. In fact, chapter two has shrunk a page. I’m hoping to finish up chapter three and move on to chapter four.
I closed the month with a net reduction of 632 words. I decided to take out the word goal for the months. My ultimate goal is to reduce about 25,000 from the draft. That’ goal is now in my annual tracking page as a negative number, and I’ll keep track of it there. Right now, it’s showing -521 (-632 + 111) words of the -25,000-word goal, or 2%.
On Alice, I finished up my freewritten notes for chapter 26 and I’m moving on to chapter 27 (of 28—getting closer!). I’ve also decided to add an epilogue. Originally, I had intended to begin writing in January to finish off the draft, but that hasn’t happened. So, I took out the wordcount goal for January on Alice as well.
For the blog, I wrote 1,708 words for the week between curations and this update, 1,228 of those in February. I finished out January with 7,306 words, or 104% of my 7,000-word goal.
Filling the well
I took this week as annual leave for myself. I needed to recalibrate after the cold, dark months of the year.
I signed up for a Dan Blank webinar this week: A simple plan to share on social media, in newsletters, and more. Though I could have attended, I chose to watch the replay. I prefer digging into webinars in my own time, when my head’s in the right space for it.
I applied for membership in The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC). It may be a while before I hear back.
I also had my annual checkup with my doctor. I came away with a referral letter for my registered massage therapist, a prescription to help with my next outbreak of blepharitis, and a vaccination for pneumococcal pneumonia (Prevnar 20). I am as protected as I can be until next fall’s flu/potential covid booster.
What I’m watching and reading
In the viewing department, I watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney +). I appreciated Coogler’s focus on grief and the tribute to Chadwick Boseman, but it was a Marvel movie 🙂
I also finished watching season 2 of Res Dogs (Disney +). SPOILERS The dogs finally make it to California and Bear wants to stay. It seems likely since their car and money have been stolen. We’ll see what happens in season 3.
Catherine Called Birdy (Amazon) was a delight. Bella Ramsey is awesome as Birdy (and a stark contrast with her character in The Last of Us). It’s a total fantasy, but I loved it.
Moving on to the week in reading, I finished Jay Baruschel’s Highly Legal (Audible Originals). An entertaining examination of the legalization of cannabis in Canada, and it’s ongoing challenges.
Then, I finished reading Tanis MacDonald’s Straggle. An in-depth consideration of what it means to be a woman walking through the world. This creative non-fiction collection of essays and poetry looks at one woman’s experience through engaging with wildlife, birding, reflections on youthful walks, and some not-so-youthful. Excellent.
And that was the week in this writer’s life.
Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Welcome to February, my writerly friends! It’s time, once again, to get your mental corn popping.
Betsy Golden Kellem: finding Krao Farini. How sideshow “bearded ladies” reveal the racial biases underpinning Darwinian theory and (white) public perception. JSTOR Daily
Welcome back to the next chapter weekly, my personal update on what’s going on in this author’s life.
This week, I pulled the king of wands from the tarot and the eagle from the Celtic oracle deck.
The king of wands denotes inspiration, charisma, and natural leadership. This may be the week where I find my way back into writing, which is my intention, anyway. I don’t know about the charisma thing or the natural leadership thing. Maybe I’ll take control of my own creative ship? Learn to implement some of Suzy’s lessons on my own? We’ll have to wait and see.
Sorry for my lopsided photography.
The eagle is considered one of the oldest and wisest of animals in Celtic mythology, second only to the salmon of wisdom, which I picked last week. The Eagle of Gernabwy features in the Welsh Mabinogion. In the tale of Culhwch and Olwen, one of Culhwch’s tasks, in order to win the hand of his beloved, is to find the missing and magical child, Mabon. He asks a number of animals for guidance, and eventually gets a handy clue from this ancient and wise bird.
One thing I forgot to mention last week was that I did set a new moon intention to get back in touch with my creativity. I’ve had this feeling lately that we’ve been working at arm’s length. Gonna do some courtin’.
The week in writing
This week was about getting back on track in little ways. Touch Reality Bomb and Alice in Thunderland every day, but not force anything. This will be a week of gentle exploration and playfulness.
I also received and actioned the edit notes on “Psychopomps Are Us,” the story that Pulp Literature has accepted. One step closer to publication 🙂
Here’s what the week looked like:
With respect to RB, I cut a net 71 words this week, bringing the word count for the month to -677. That was four days of playing around.
On Alice, I free wrote my way to the end of chapter 25 (of 28).
On the blog, I wrote 1,286 words for the week, bringing the monthly total to 6,826. I remembered not to enter my curation before my weekly update this time, so the numbers on the spreadsheet reflect reality for once.
And … I’m trying my hand at another application for Your Personal Odyssey. Will the third time be the charm?
This week also saw the quarterly board meeting of the Canadian Authors Association.
Filling the well
I signed up for another Tiffany Yates Martin webinar through Jane Friedman, “The Biggest Mistakes Novelists Make.” Because the webinar was during the workday, I watched the replay.
I also signed up for a webinar on revisions presented by Emily Colin through Authors Publish. Again, I watched the replay.
On Saturday, I went out for supper with some friends, and my best friend and her spouse, visiting from out of town, came back to our house for a visit afterwards. It was lovely. A different kind of balm for the soul.
In the self-care department, I met with my Canada Life financial advisor and took stock of my investments. That ten of swords got me thinking 🙂 Fortunately, it looks like we’ll be in decent shape. I don’t have to go to extremes to ensure a decent retirement.
What I’m watching and reading
I did not finish any series or watch any movies this week. It was bound to happen sometime 🙂
In reading, I zipped through The Mistletoe Mysteries (Audible Originals). Fun, flirty, Canadian cozy mystery—they even mention Sudbury (!) And who wouldn’t want to listen to Cobie Smulders?
And then I moved on to Wildlife Confidential (Audible Originals) with Samantha Bee and Andrew Phung. Fun stories of animals, dramatized by intrepid reporter Cameron the Crow (Bee) and researcher Gordo the Groundhog (Phung). Entertaining and featuring a cast of Canadian voice talent as the interview subjects.
And that was the week in this author’s life.
Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
This week, I pulled the King of Swords from the tarot, and The Horse from the Celtic oracle deck.
The King of Swords represents a catalyst or wise council. This is good, because I’m meeting with Suzy this week, and a mentor at work. But really, I’m thinking that it’s time I seek the wise council within, know what I mean? I really have to develop (or redevelop) my self confidence.
The horse represents Epona, Gaullish horse goddess, the Great Mare. She was the protector of horses and possibly a fertility goddess. She was the only Celtic deity to be worshipped by the Romans as the goddess of cavalry. Unfortunately, her origins are lost because no one recorded the mostly oral Gaullish myths and legends. There is a Roman tale that survives about a guy that, fed up with women, decided that a horse would make a better mate and produced Epona. Typical Greek/Roman stuff.
I did find this on the OBOD web site, though:
“Epona is the Patroness of all journeys, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. She is the Goddess of the Land and its seasons, of fertility in all things. …. I feel Her presence beside me keeping me safe, giving me strength for each day. I see Her touch in every new green shoot of the Spring and in every fruit of the Autumn. I hear Her voice in the whispers of the breeze through the trees and in the song of the river.”
So, I think I’ll take it as a sign that I’ll be going on a metaphorical journey (I have no plans to travel physically). We’ll see where it leads 🙂
The week in writing
Continuing as I have so far this month, I aimed to finish my map for Alice in Thunderland by Jan 20th and then leave the project for the rest of the month before returning to it and finishing the last four chapters. I submitted my fourth assignment to Suzy on the 15th, so I had a few days off Reality Bomb.
But things changed mid-week. It was a busy week with appointments, sometimes several on the same day. It was a bit hectic and thank goodness for Phil, who managed to get me supper on the busy days. I didn’t get any work done on the Alice map after Monday. I decided to take it easy for the rest of the month and get back to it in February.
I met with Suzy on the 19th. Again, it was a fruitful meeting. But just as we were getting some momentum, I had to withdraw (because of that work/financial situation I mentioned a couple weeks back). We were at the end of our scheduled meetings, and I don’t have the disposable funds to continue, though I really want to because I’m learning a lot. The accountability is also great. When I have external deadlines to work toward (i.e., someone’s waiting/depending on me to do the work), I tend to get it done.
She’s going to check in with me mid-April to see if a resolution is on the horizon.
On that topic, I received notification on Friday that I was successful in the assessment process and am now part of a qualified pool of candidates. Though my employer won’t be able to take any action until at least April, the way has been cleared. So, I guess the resolution (partial though it may be) to my financial difficulties has come through within ten weeks. Thanks, inverted ten of swords 🙂
On the downside, my application for an OAC grant was not successful. I received that notification Friday morning. Another Sudbury writer was successful, though. All congratulations to her. She deserves it.
I’m really getting the vibe that I should take December and January off. From big projects, anyway. Mapping in preparation for revision, poetry, short fiction—I think these would all be doable, but heavy revisions or drafting may be out of the question, at least for my neurodivergent brain.
Here’s how the week broke down.
I wrote a net 16 words on RB on Sunday, and then left the project to rest.
I added the last two drafted chapters of Alice to the map and started freewriting ideas for the next chapter before the week got to be too much. That, too, is sitting for a bit.
I blogged 1,731 words for the week.
So, total revision 16 words and total writing 1,731 words for the week and a net -606 words in RB and 5,540 words in the blog for the month.
Filling the well
I attended the Spoonie Authors Network Launch on the 15th. It was a lovely reading, and I won a copy of Nothing Without Us, Too 🙂
I had a massage on the 17th and a meeting with my support group on the 19th. This month’s topic was trauma. Both informative and cathartic.
What I’m watching and reading
I didn’t finish any series this week, but I did watch Where the Crawdads Sing (Amazon). So good. Gave me a Grisham movie (at their best) vibe. Another book that’s moving up on my TBR list.
This week, I finished Stephen Fry’s Secrets of the Roaring Twenties (Audible original). It was an interesting historical podcast and, because it’s adjacent to the time period Alice is set in, very informative.
I also read Lori Devoti’s One Soul to Share. A vampire looking for a soul meets a mermaid looking to make a deal with the sea witch Melusine for the same. A straightforward paranormal romance.
And that was the week in this writer’s life.
Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Abelardo Riojas provides a natural language playlist that will generate a playlist you can plug into Spotify based on keywords and phrases you enter. Fun, if nothing else.
Always Looking Up 