It was a wonderful night. 20 people in Studio Desjardins and another 20 online. I had a fabulous conversation with Kim Fahner, a great reading, and I signed all the books.
A big thank you to Heather and Latitude 46 publishing, to The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) and the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) for their support, and to all my family and friends who came out to the event, watched online, or were just there in spirit. I love you all!
Sweet Lord, but January’s a hard month to get through.
Life in general
The month started out fine. Daylight hours are growing longer. I’m starting to feel better, come out of my winter shell, but then, I was presented with the prospect of ALL THE THINGS I have to do to prepare for and promote my poetry launch and …
Let’s just say I’m dysregulated now. Meltdowns abound.
I attended my union’s AGM virtually on the 24th.
The month in writing
I was once again focused on Reality Bomb revisions.
I revised and submitted a piece of short fiction to one of my dream markets.
I started revising an old story for an anthology call in April. I know, it’s a ways off, but the story basically needs to be rewritten in its entirety.
I met with Suzy on the 11th. I’m back to struggling with grounding the characters in scene, not giving my disembodied protagonist enough agency, and not providing enough detail. My strengths remain dialogue, clean writing (which makes all my other problems so much easier to find), and my premise, which is complex, but compelling (and therefore incredibly challenging to write).
Our next meeting is scheduled for February 1st.
In other business-y news, I’m working on securing the venue for my poetry launch! While my publisher does have a budget for the launch, I’m hoping to receive some funding from the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) or The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) to cover part of the rental cost and webcasting for the event(!)
Yes. The launch will be in person, but broadcast for those of my family and friends who are in other places in Ontario and unable to make the journey up.
Now, I’m playing with ideas for making the launch a little different/special. I met with my publisher on the 30th to discuss and came away with a list of things to do. I contacted friend and networker extraordinaire Kim Fahner (also former poet laureate of Sudbury and current vice-president of TWUC) and I have several balls in the air with regard to reviews, readings, and one interview.
I’m tempering my expectations. Debut poets generally don’t get a lot of attention.
My publisher has also secured my first reading with The Conspiracy of 3 in North Bay on May 14th at the North Bay Public Library at 7 pm.
Unfortunately, that conflicts with the launch of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild’s Superstack Stories anthology. Can’t be in two places at once (!)
I’m going to have to put up a new page on my web site for appearances and readings!
Eeeeee! Things are happening!
At the SF Canada AGM last month, I joined the board of directors. Our first meeting was on Jan 23rd at 8 pm. We sorted ourselves and I have a better idea of the issues facing the organization and board at this time.
Filling the well
The new Birch moon in Capricorn fell on Jan 11th. Unfortunately, I was working toward a deadline and totally dysregulated after work. Moon did not cross my mind 😦
The full Spirit moon in Leo was n the 26th. I was able to work in a guided meditation.
I signed up for the DAW Fantasy Book Buzz on January 11th. It was a great preview of the coming season and John Wiswell was one of the featured writers.
I took part in the Free Expressions Success Series … on the 18th. I decided to purchase a few webinars from the series.
Back in December, I registered for a workshop called Poetry and Prose: crossing genre boundaries to strengthen your writing with Kate Heartfield and Amanda Earl on the 20th. It was a great session. And I drafted a new poem.
Finally, I attended a three-day virtual writers’ retreat with Suzy from the 25th to the 27th.
In personal events, I finally got into a meeting of my autism support group. It’s been months since I haven’t been put on a waiting list. It was a good session.
I had a massage on the 17th. Much needed.
A friend celebrated her retirement on the 21st. It was a nice afternoon and I got to catch up with some colleagues from my old team.
On the 22nd, I attended a guided meditation with Pat Tallman. It was relaxing.
I booked a virtual appointment with my doctor on the 24th to get some annual insurance referrals, including one for therapy. I’m starting up again. I have more work to do. Then, I booked a follow up, an appointment for bloodwork, my first therapy appointment, and tried to figure out how to get my emailed referrals to my insurance.
Torvi went for her first Furminator of the year on the 27th. The house is still full of fur bunnies, but Torvi’s all a-floof.
I won a year’s free subscription to the Beeja meditation app. I’m hoping it will help me regulate.
Finally, I met with my therapist on the 31st. We decided to stop meeting back in 2022, by mutual agreement. At the time, I was in a good place and didn’t need a lot of support. But winters are hard and I’m realizing in retrospect that I could have used her support when Phil broke his shoulder last year and again when I went on strike. I reverted to my default mode of bulling through the difficulties. Now, I’m paying for that decision.
And I had some well-earned annual leave from the 29th of January to the 2nd of February.
What I’m watching and reading
Phil and I finished watching the first season of Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix). Amazing story of a complex character and absolutely gorgeous animation. The voice cast is great. Hyper-realistic, violent, and mature content, though.
Then, I finished watching The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple +). A good thriller with a bittersweet ending.
Phil and I also watched the second season of What if … ? (Disney +). There were hits and misses among the episodes, but we enjoyed it. It remains one of the better Marvel series.
Next, I watched Bottoms (Amazon). It’s been on my list since Amanda the Jedi reviewed it. Hilarious. Absurd in the same way as Polite Society. Loved.
Then Phil and I watched Echo (Disney +). Echo’s story was great, but we wanted more of it (and less of Fisk). Five episodes wasn’t enough.
I roped Phil into watching The Brother Sun (Netflix) with me. He was reluctant at first, but by the end of the season, he was invested despite himself. A story about a triad family reunited in LA after a lifetime of living apart is going to be dark and bloody, but it also has a lot of heart. I enjoyed it.
My first audiobook of 2024 was Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. An entertaining tale of a goblin named Jig and his pet fire spider and how they are captured by and pressed into service by a party of adventurers.
Next, I listened to Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal. A delightful collection of short fiction including the three stories that gave birth to the Lady Astronaut series. Fidel and Mira’s tragic love story touched me, even as Fidel worked to redirect the asteroid that would crash into the easter seaboard. This was followed by a light story about a fireworks display on Mars that almost goes wrong. And then, the original Lady Astronaut of Mars novelette. Also touching. Kowal is so good at writing strong but complex relationships.
Then, I read Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak, the second book in the Unstoppable series by Charlie Jane Anders. I followed that up with Promises Stronger than Darkness. The whole series is a fun YA, neurodivergent romp. And the worldbuilding is wacky. Terrible things happen, but everything works out in the end because people choose to care about one another. And I’m stealing the phrase, “I’m a slow cooker.”
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until next month, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
Weike Wang: notes on work. “There’s a masochistic pride to overworking. How heavy a workload can I truly handle? How many plates can I keep in the air?” The New Yorker
It’s the first tipsday of 2022! Posts generally decline over the holiday weeks, so it’s a bit of a slow start. Still, get your fill of informal writerly learnings, such as they are. We should be back on track next week.
Ellen Brock provides her advice for the methodological pantser. In case you need a reminder, Ellen presented her four types of writers about a year ago …
September’s almost over (!) Not keen on how time warps these days. In any case, another week has passed and here’s another batch of informal writerly learnings 🙂 Enjoy!
Spring has sprung, the grass is ris’, do you know where your informal writerly learnings is? Sorry. Old rhyme from childhood (if you substitute birdies for informal writerly learnings). I prolly should have left it there, eh?
That included a union election, Public Service Week celebrations, and a pre-Canada Day 150 pot luck.
Needless to say, I’m bushed (!)
First: the fun stuff
I eschewed my post last weekend because I was down in Toronto volunteering for and participating in CanWrite! 2017. I drove down on Friday, after work.
On Saturday, I attended J.M. Frey’s Culture Building Workshop (insightful and thought-provoking), the Publishers Panel, Richard Scrimger’s structure workshop (don’t solve for angle A), and the CAA Literary Awards Gala, all at the lovely Humber College Lakeshore Campus.
My bonus: I won a door prize of shortlisted works, including Alissa York’s The Naturalist, which won the fiction prize and, since she was also the key note speaker, I got her to sign 🙂
Alissa’s key note was inspirational.
On Sunday, it was the AGM where some important professional organization stuff was decided, and then I was on the road home.
Last Thursday, I attended Publishing in Canada, hosted by The FOLD and Jael Richardson, with a panel of publishing experts who included Christie Harkin of Clockwise Press, Heather Campbell of Sudbury’s own Latitude 46, and Jennifer Knoch of ECW Press.
It was a very well-attended event (the library staff raided storage to find enough chairs and still people were standing about) and they even fed us pizza 🙂
The balance experiment
Despite all the events in June, I started the month off trying to revise not one, but two works in progress, finish one short story, revise (rewrite, really) another, keep up with blogging, and compose my next column for DIY MFA.
I don’t even try to do that much in a month without tonnes of writerly events to attend.
I have no earthly idea what I was thinking.
You’ll see the gap in my writing and revision. It was about a week. And still, I figured, at the end of it, I could just resume the juggling. Head, meet desk.
As you can see, my efforts were partly successful, but by the end of the month, I gave my head a shake.
The month in word count
While I didn’t hit most of my goals, I made a decent showing, all things considered.
I finished the most recent run-through of Apprentice of Wind in the first three days of the month and moved on to Wavedancer. Even with the break and sporadic revision thereafter, I exceeded my revision goal on the project for the month.
Although I had a much better beginning for Reality Bomb in mind, I couldn’t seem to execute. This only confirms for me that I can’t work on multiple projects in the same phase of the process at the same time. I can’t switch my focus quickly enough.
Even halving my revision goal for RB, I didn’t come close.
I did better with the short fiction, but didn’t complete the story. It’s a good thing that the deadline was extended to July 15 (!).
I didn’t revise a word on the other story I was hoping to work on.
Blogging was fine. I exceeded my writing goal even though I missed out on a weekend.
Here’s how the numbers worked out:
Ascension series: 62,394 words of my 60,000 revision goal, or 104%.
RB: 1,889 words of my adjusted 45,000 revision goal, or 4% (yes, you may laugh—I am, honestly).
Short fiction: 770 words written of my 2,500 word goal, or 31%. I took out the revision goal from the month.
Blog: 6,187 words written of my 5,800 word goal, or 107%.
Total words revised: 64, 283
Total words written: 6,957
Yeah, I’m a dope.
Moving forward
I’m going to focus on the revision of Wavedancer and get that done before moving onto RB again.
I’m going to finish my new story before turning my attention to revising the other one.
My hope is that simplifying things will keep me from going crazy. Crazy Mel is no fun.
I have nothing planned, event wise, this month—doh! I do have one: a special meeting of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild on the 6th, but that’s it—until I depart for the Writing Excuses Cruise on July 27th.
I’m all about finding my happy place again.
I even submitted another poem for the Rainy Day Poetry Project. My friend, Kim, the Poet Laureate for Sudbury, has obtained the necessary permissions to put poems in invisible, but water-proof paint, on Sudbury’s sidewalks. They’ll only be visible when it rains. My submission isn’t a poem so much as something someone walking along in the rain might appreciate seeing.
In non-writerly news
After losing all its flowers, my fuchsia phalaenopsis (say that five times fast—oh, it’s not that difficult—blushes) orchid has bloomed again, and the one that started growing a stem at work (another phalaenopsis, white, though, I think) is setting blooms!
Phil and I have been enjoying our strawberry harvest this past month and are looking forward to raspberries shortly. The tomatoes, lettuce, and beans have been planted and are growing well, but are puny compared to my mom’s.
Phil built her a series of three raised beds and her tomatoes and cucumbers are going wild!
I hope that tomorrow the weather is clear. It’s been rainy/stormy lately and I’m looking forward to finally getting the rest of the weeding and some transplanting done.
And that’s it for the next chapter until September (combined July and August update). Since I hope to be somewhere on the Baltic Sea the first of next month, I will be taking another blogging holiday. Though Thoughty Thursday should still post on the 27th, that will be the last blog post until I return from Helsinki on August 13th.
I wouldn’t depend on seeing anything until the weekend following, and that will probably be devoted to the cruise.
Until the 27th, however, I’ll continue my regular blogging.
So until Tipsday, be well, be kind, and stay strong, my friends (but don’t be afraid to ask for help, or to re-evaluate if you’re feeling stressed).
Always Looking Up 