Paulette Dahl

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Feb 7-13, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila

Load up your plates my friends, I have lots of nommable readables here 🙂

K.M. Weiland shares her insights into being a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder and a writer. She also offers some tips on how to remain healthy even if you live at a desk.

C.S. Lakin explains how writers can benefit from outlining their scenes. Her scene structure series continues with the opening hook.

Janice Hardy shares five common problems with novel beginnings and how to solve them.

Jamie Raintree shows how the power of consistency builds writing careers.

Lisa Cron shared an older post with our Story Genius class: Three misunderstood pieces of writing advice that can derail your novel. Writer Unboxed. And here’s her most recent post for WU: Where real drama comes from.

Anne R. Allen lists five reasons writers need to use Google+ even though the new Google+ is awful. I must admit, I’ve fallen out of love with G+ these days. I still post there, but if I’m in a time crunch, it’s the first SoMe to be sacrificed.

Kameron Hurley admits her fallibility: We all drop the ball. Another excellence post on the importance of self-care and forgiveness in times of stress.

Related: Allie Larkin writes about the myth of balance for Writer Unboxed.

Jim C. Hines explores the pros and cons of antidepressants.

Chris Winkle gleans lessons from the cinematic writing of I Am Number Four. Mythcreants.

Local author and writerly friend, Paulette Dahl, publishes Love Letters. The Northern Life.

Ken Pisani says, finding an agent is the worst this ever. Publishers Weekly.

You should read this chat on diversity in publishing from The Toast.

The Kenyon v. Clare court case has been all over the feeds this week. Here’s where I heard about it first. Courthouse News Service.

J.K. Rowling will be publishing the script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Publishers Weekly.

This is cool. Mental Floss lists eight things invented by famous authors.

Mental Floss also lists eleven authors who hated the movie adaptations of their books.

Bitch Media presents, Anya to Zombies, an alphabet of graphic novels by women.

This video is sad and beautiful and all kinds of wonderful: The Life of Death. Great storytelling.

Fantasy Fiction Focus features Tim Reynolds.

 

Historical novelist Tracy Chevalier calls Charlotte Brontë her hero. The Guardian.

William Gibson shares his experience writing Neuromancer. The Guardian.

The secrecy and speculation around the Doctor’s new companion (or not). Radio Times.

A Discovery of Witches series is in development. Deadline Hollywood.

I can hardly wait! Outlander, season two, begins April 9! And here’s the official trailer in case you need a little something something to get excited about 😉

Now, to settle down with some tea and let all this awesome digest!

I’ll be back with some thoughty for you on Thursday 🙂

Tipsday

Caturday Quickies: The Sulphur III launch reading

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Last night, I attended the launch reading for Sulphur, Laurentian University’s Literary Journal, issue III.

Natalie and Kevin

Natalie and Kevin

I’d been invited by 100 thousand poets for change alums Natalie and Kevin.  Natalie had a couple of poems accepted to the journal.

Also in attendance were Kim Fahner (in support of a published colleague) and Louise and Paulette, two of my former collaborators on the Battle Chant project.  Paulette also had a poem in the issue.

The event took place at The Little Montreal in downtown Sudbury and featured many lovely

Paulette and Louise

Paulette and Louise

poets and a selection from a play, another publishing first for Sulphur.

It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed reconnecting with my fellow writers.  Though Tom Leduc was there as a representative of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, several others who had been published in Sulphur III were absent, which was regrettable.

Me and Kim with Paulette and Louise

Me and Kim with Paulette and Louise

Thinkin’ thoughts

There was a little discussion about the relative merits of the arts community in Sudbury, and frankly, I think it’s doing just fine.  It could be better promoted, certainly, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, per se.

It’s long been held that Sudbury, essentially a blue collar town, doesn’t appreciate its artists.  Can I call shenanigans on that one?

There are artistic enclaves all over town: several centered on out institutions of higher learning, the Theatre Centre, several other community theatres, our small presses, the Art Gallery of Sudbury, the Sudbury Arts Council, the Sudbury Public Library, institutions like the Townehouse Tavern, and organizations like the Sudbury Writers’ Guild and the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society.  Several area high schools also produce excellent writers, musicians, and artists every year.

The concern is that many of these organizations, institutions, businesses, and services become insular over time.  When I sat down with Hally Willmott last weekend, she hadn’t been aware of the SWG or that there were any writers groups in town.

It’s not that we don’t talk to one another, attend each others’ various events, or try to cross-promote.  It’s certainly not that none of us have established web presences or hold community events like readings, workshops, concerts, art shows, or plays.  I know that each party does its best to advertise its presence and services and to promote any special events through various media, both traditional and online.

What the heck is it then?  Why doesn’t Sudbury claim its artists and arts community proudly?  I have no idea.

For the average Sudburian, it comes down to participation.  You get what you give.  You have the arts community you help to create.

You must, of course, take this with a grain (or handful) of salt as it comes from someone who hardly makes it out to SWG meetings and is very far behind in her critiquing duties for her guildies.

I say none of this to disparage current efforts, which I know are significant, or any of the organizations or businesses, which I know are doing the best they can.  Ultimately, I have no solution, but I wanted to highlight what some consider a problem in the hope of provoking thoughtful consideration of the matter.

Got thoughts?  By all means, share ‘em!