The next chapter: August 2023 update

September 3, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Welcome to September, the meteorological beginning of fall (and the return of all things pumpkin spice).

The weather in August was indeed lovely. Despite that, I did not get out to the patio to write. I kept updating my laptop. I intended to go out. A few days, I only opened the documents that are on the hard drive of my desktop, but eventually gave in and opened up the rest, as needed, and did my usual.

I have been enjoying longer walks with Torvi, looking at the houses, imagining what it might be like not to live on a busy streetcorner, to be able to sleep in the quiet, or for Phil to have a dark night sky to take out his telescope and actually do some astronomical observation.

Yes. I’ve been daydreaming.

The big project at work was completed early. And it’s been a huge relief. Despite that, my brain is definitely not braining. Executive function is compromised. Dysregulation is the rule of the day. I’m taking time off as I need to and I’m practicing self-compassion. Or trying to.

It’s one of those things. After a protracted period of hyperfocus, you need to rest and recover. This is even more important for an autist (or other neurodivergent).

The second phase of the big project is yet to come, and with it, more stress, but this is the career I chose.

The month in writing

I had two more meetings with Suzy Vadori on the 10^th and the 31^st. Our meeting on the 10^th was a bit of a revelation. I had to restructure and compress the timeline at the start of Act 2. I thought I had done it, but I hadn’t gone far enough.

In our meeting, I said I’d have to think about how to do it. Delayed processing. It’s an autistic thing. And I told Suzy, I’d restructure the piece in outline and move on.

Reader, I did not do this.

Having restructured, I realized I needed to know the specifics. I couldn’t write forward until I knew the content of this section. I am not the kind of writer who can write out of order. At least, not right now and not with this project.

After a day, I had my strategy in hand and went through the draft-to-date again, trimming where I could. I also asked for an extension. I was supposed to have my next submission ready to go August 20^th but was still struggling with the previous session’s revisions.

My extension was granted. Still, I struggled with the rewrite until the day before my next submission. I’m not happy with it, but it’s time to move on. I can’t spend any more time on it now. I have to get to the half-way point, story wise, if I hope to have a reasonable-sized draft by the end of my sessions with Suzy.

Our meeting on the 31^st led to discussion of just that—the size of the novel and how to mitigate the growing wordcount. I’ve decided to redo my inside outline. There have been a lot of changes and there will probably be more to come. Having a smaller document than my map will help me to manage things better, I think. I hope?

I’ve already committed to another 6-session package with Suzy (to finish off the revision), but I may take a wee break in between. I have to write my grant report for the CSFFA, work on my short fiction presentation for my fall writers in the schools visit—which has been approved; more on that in a bit—and submit another grant proposal.

An Excel spreadsheet that tracks wordcount.

I set up a Substack account on the 7^th. This month, I played around and set things up. I’m starting my newsletter in September. Basically, it’s going to be this update with a few strategic additions. I’ll keep publishing news and announcements on my blog/web site and try to figure out how to get a signup set up on Always Looking Up.

I’m also going to keep posting these updates to my blog. I’m going the free route with Substack. If I decide to move into paid territory, I’ll have to think of something sweet to put behind the paywall!

I may move back to weekly updates at some point in the future. And I may add a limited amount of curation into those, like a top five blogs/articles I read this week, or some such. Right now, there are a lot of things happening and I’m not quite in the right headspace to commit to a weekly newsletter.

On the 9^th, I received a lovely email to let me know that one of my stories has moved to the shortlist for an anthology I submitted to earlier in the year. I’ll find out more in September. Watch this space!

I had my photo session with Gerry Kingsley on the 16^th. I arranged to have my makeup done by Dana Lajeunesse and reported to the park just before 7. It was my first photoshoot and Gerry was very kind about my awkwardness.

The pictures are fabulous, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

The end of the month was a bit of a momentous rollercoaster with regard to acceptances, non-acceptances, and other publishing news.

On the 29^th, I was notified that one of my grant applications from the spring was not funded. So that means one funded, one approved but not funded, and one not approved or funded. One more to go, and I should hear about that in September.

Also on the 29^th, one of the two creative non-fiction pieces I submitted earlier in the year was not accepted.

Then, I received a TWUC newsletter indicating that the writers in the schools (WITS) approval notifications had all gone out. I hadn’t received an email one way or the other. I also thought, things come in threes, so this is it. I haven’t been funded for this, either.

But I enquired and, of the two WITS visits I applied for, one was approved—yay! Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough funding to award all applicants for all WITS visits. I’ll take the win!

And then, my publisher got back to me about the cover for The Art of Floating. We had chatted about requesting a print from Gillian Schultze, who just happens to be my cousin (second, in fact), and she agreed. The draft cover looks amazing!

Again, watch this space. I will be doing a more formal cover reveal when the final cover is approved.

Filling the well

Lughnassadh was a quiet affair. I lit my altar and did a guided meditation for the full sturgeon moon in Aquarius, which was the same night.

The new Holly moon was on the 16^th, which was also the evening of my photoshoot. It was lovely being out at a park on the shore of a lake.

Then, the full blue supermoon in Pisces arrived on the 30^th to finish off the month in lunatic style. The moon was gorgeous as I watched her rise during my evening walk with Torvi. Sadly, my phone camera has proven that it isn’t good enough, even in night mode, to capture a picture of the moon without significant lens flare. I partook of another guided meditation.

My pagan practice is quite simple.

My weekly card pulls tended to be positive this month and in general, I’ve felt positive. I’m seeing it all as a good sign for the future.

July was FULL of online writing events. I dialled back a bit for August, because I was kind of overdoing it. Enjoying it, but definitely overdoing it. Also, big project at work continued, and I need to be mindful of my energy levels.

I started the month with an Authors Publish webinar presented by Ley Taylor Johnson about creating a dynamic act one. It was in the middle of the workday on August 2nd, so I watched the replay, which came with a free ebook by the presenter (on the same topic).

Then, in anticipation of taking the dive into Substack, I attended Dan Blank’s “Launch & Grow Your Email Newsletter with Substack.” A lot of good information.

The next Free Expressions webinar in the Donald Maass series was “Advanced Microtension” on the 10^th. Because my meeting with Suzy was on the same day, I watched the replay. Excellent, as always.

On August 13^th, I had the opportunity to attend “From Helplessness to Habit: Backstory as Behavior,” a webinar by David Corbett offered exclusively to past applicants and current students of the Your Personal Odyssey program. Really good.

I signed up for a DIY MFA webinar on “Unleashing Your Platform’s Storytelling Superpower” on the 22^nd. It’s an extension of the storytelling superpower quiz, taking the four archetypes and extending them to authorial personas.

I signed up for “Hiding Exposition in Plain Sight” with Mary Robinette Kowal on the 27^th. I really just vibe with her teaching style.

On August 28^th, I lucked out on a webinar with Beth Revis about plotting your novel offered through Inked Voices. I really like her system. It’s intuitive.

I attended a Cross-Pollinations reading offered through the League of Canadian Poets on the 30^th. The specific topic was about organ donors and recipients. Interesting reading.

Finally, I signed up for a CAA/SFCanada webinar on Pushing the Boundaries of Urban Fantasy with Jes Battis, another autistic author, also on the 30^th. It was a fabulous presentation.

Something that I neglected to mention last month was that I seized the opportunity to take a pilot course from Taylor Heaton (Mom on the Spectrum) about unmasking. It’s self-paced with video, transcripts, worksheets, and other resources. I enjoyed it. I’m still on a long journey to true unmasking. I learned the skill early and practiced it diligently until I received my autism confirmation in 2021.

I will recommend it to any adult or late-diagnosed autistics, though. We need all the help and support we can get, and MOTS is a great online community to be a part of.

This month, I signed up for Patricia Tallman’s Wake up with Me! I subscribe to Pat’s newsletter and have flirted with some of her offerings in the past (e.g., Tame Your Fear Dragon). And yes, Pat is the actress from Babylon 5 and a former stunt woman. I already have a morning routine, but figured it could use some tweaking 🙂

What I’m watching and reading

I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (Disney +) when it came out on streaming. And then, Phil and I watched it the next night together 🙂 It was a fabulous conclusion to the trilogy, and I got teary at several points. Teefs, Floor, and Rocket go now! Finding a litter of racoons! The release of the animals! The High Evolutionary was a little one note, but every heavy or dark scene was undercut with GOG’s signature humour. One of the better Marvel movies of recent years.

I watched the season two finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (network). I really think it’s the best ST series to come out in recent years. The Lower Decks crossover was hilarious. And the musical episode was fun. Very enjoyable, all around.

I finished watching the final season of Nancy Drew (network). I started watching this series in hope, but it soon became apparent that ND suffered from the same deficits as most other CW shows of recent years. It was a supernatural soap opera for teens. The final few episodes rushed to tie up lose ends and send the Drew Crew off into their separate lives.

Then, I watched Z for Zachariah (Amazon). This 2015 adaptation was a radical departure from the book, and starred Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine. In the novel, Ann Burden lives alone with her dog and believes she is the last survivor of a nuclear war. Somehow, the valley in which she lives was protected from the fallout. John Loomis is a scientist travelling in a “safe-suit” of his own design. He comes upon the valley and Ann and though he suffers with radiation sickness, she nurses him back to health.

As soon as Loomis recovers, he begins to direct Ann—what to repair, what to plant. It’s clear he wants to rebuild and part of that includes producing children with Ann. She runs away, there is a confrontation (during which Ann must kill her dog—*sob*), and she leaves the valley in the safe-suit in search of other survivors.

The movie starts out the same, but Loomis isn’t half as odious as he is in the book. Then another survivor, Caleb, shows up (even though everything outside the valley is supposed to be radioactive) and there’s an awkward love triangle. It’s implied that Loomis kills Caleb, and the movie ends with Ann playing a hymn on an old organ. The dog disappears partway through the movie with no explanation. It was not good.

But then, I watched Polite Society (Amazon). OMG, so hilarious. And kickass. Ria wants to be a stunt woman and her sister Lena wants to be an artist, but after an EID Mubarak party, Lena begins to date the host’s son, Salim, and Ria acts out of jealousy, going so far as to attempt to smear Salim’s reputation with Lena. But Ria soon finds evidence of a more insidious plot and must rescue her sister from her own wedding. Excellent.

The first book I read in August was Shveta Thakrar’s novella, Into the Moon Garden. A lovely paranormal romance about a young scientist trying to come to terms with her mother’s death. The story alternates with chapters from a book about the moon gods and goddesses from around the world, each with a lesson for the protagonist as she navigates her grief.

Then, I listened to Robert A. Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. The book was noted as a “fix up” of a 1941 novelette and a 1963 novella. Interesting premise. A mutiny kills the skilled crew of a generation ship and the ship floats aimlessly in space while generation after generation is born, lives, and dies on the Ship, which is all any of them know of the universe. When Hugh learns that everything he’s been taught is wrong and that the Ship is actually intended to reach a destination, he tries to convince the current captain to let him pilot the Ship.

The book itself is hugely problematic. Civilization on the Ship has devolved into a patriarchy where the captain and crew are figureheads and the scientists have more in common with clergy. Children born with mutations are killed. The “muties” who survive are at war with the rest of the Ship, and none of the people on the Ship are depicted well. The muties practice cannibalism. Women, when they appear, are hysterical slaves, and men practice spousal abuse and bigamy. I must confess to being terribly disappointed.

Next, I read Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. Yeah, I’ve been on a classic SF kick recently. It was better than the Wells and Heinlein books I recently read, but it was pretty much a sausage party with nary a female character in sight. I appreciated Lewis’ take on the typical male explorer, however. At least Ransom got to know the various peoples of Malacandra (which he later figures out is Mars) and actively prevented his fellow humans from exploiting them. It seems to me that this book was in part written out of colonizer guilt.

Then, I listened to Powerful Women Who Ruled the Ancient World, a The Great Courses lecture turned into an audiobook, by Kara Cooney. It wasn’t just Cleopatra. Cooney unpacks the gendered rules of the ancient world and then profiles women rulers from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China and how they worked around those rules to seize power. Verra cool.

I read Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor. I’d previously read the first in the series, but unintentionally skipped over the second to read this one. I didn’t realize my error until I was already into the novella. Though it bothered my autistic sensibilities, I persisted, and was rewarded. Loved it.

I read J.A. Andrews’ Pursuit of Shadows. I read the first book in The Keeper Chronicles a couple of years ago. She was part of my critique group, but already not active when I joined. The first book focused on Alaric. This book was Will’s story. Will considers himself a second-rate keeper, but he’s out searching for the next generation—and his sister, abducted when they were both children. Good story, solid character arc, nice romantic subplot. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

And I finished my reread of The Raven King. Did I ever mention how much I love these books?

I’m taking a break for a few days, and then I’m picking up another favourite series: The Fionavar Tapestry.

My next listen was another Heinlein novel, Double Star. Not as bad as the other Heinlein, but there was all of one female character in the whole thing. Also, the protagonist, a down-on-his-luck actor, was demonstrably racist. Yes, it was against Martians, but still. The actor is hired to be a politician’s double after the politician is abducted. Not bad. It won the first Hugo Award. It was written in 1956. Makes me wonder what I’d think if I read Stranger in a Strange Land again …

Then, I read Callahan’s Legacy by Spider Robinson. A good friend is a big fan, but the only other Spider Robinson book I’ve read is Variable Star, which was actually a Robinson completion of a book Robert Heinlein left unfinished.

Callahan’s Legacy is filled with pun and pathos. A nigh on unstoppable enemy is headed for Earth and Jake and the gang at Mary’s Place have no choice but to come together around the birth of Jake and Zoe’s child, achieve telepathic communion, and stop the creature in its tracks with an offer of … freedom and friendship?

Finally, I finished off the month with Bellwether, by Connie Willis. The protagonist, Dr. Sandra Foster, studies fads for a corporate research facility called Hi-tek. The plot is largely absurd, centring on the influence of a Hi-tek employee named Flip, who brands her forehead, wears duct tape as a fashion statement, and feels she is being abused in her position as mail clerk, though she is basically lazy and incompetent.

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!

The next chapter: a month in the writerly life.
melaniemarttila.ca

The next chapter: July 2023 update

August 6, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Welcome to August, everyone! Enjoying your summer?

For me, the answer to that question is yes … and no. I am enjoying the summer in the sense that I still get out twice a day to walk Torvi and I enjoy the light and the warmth and the activity. The no part of the answer comes in with the long stretches of higher-than-seasonal temperatures we’ve been having.

It’s too hot most days to enjoy the patio/summer office during the day and, by the time it cools off in the evening to the degree I could enjoy the office, the insects emerge and cause a whole new kind of misery.

And the days when it isn’t unseasonably hot, it’s overcast and raining.

Have picked raspberries, though. It’s a decent crop this year.

The other complication to my summer is work. I should really learn to take more time off in the summer. I could avoid a lot of aggravation if I did. Unfortunately, I need to take more time off in the fall and winter. I’m a hibernator. And I’m not due more vacation for a few years yet. Almost when I’ll be thinking about retirement. Le sigh. First world problems. Privileged white woman first world problems.

And, as July ends, we’ve had a lovely break in the weather. Maybe I’ll be able to get out and enjoy the rest of the season 🙂

The month in writing

In general, I’m keeping on. I’ve narrowed focus to Reality Bomb, which I’m revising in 20-page chunks with Suzy Vadori’s guidance.

I have a side project in the form of revising a short story, but there’s no deadline for it. It’s just something I can dip into from time to time when I need a change of pace.

In other news, I’m really enjoying not curating content and moving back to monthly updates (with the odd addition of posts about writerly news, which tend to be short). It’s been a relief, which tells me that it’s been more onerous than I thought. It also gives me more time to write, which is what I really need to be doing right now.

Also, work is kicking my butt with another big project. This seems to be the way of things in the summer over the past few years. We may need to do some strategic thinking about workload. What this means in practical terms for my writing is that I’m often out of spoons by the end of the workday and weekends are focused on recovery. When do I write? When I can, which is not as often as I’d like, but often enough to make progress.

I’m trying to have compassion for myself. It’s harder than it sounds.

Welp, I was informed by email on July 5^th, that while my Access Copyright Foundation Professional Development Grant application was recommended by their assessment committee, there were not enough funds to award all the applicants who were recommended. I did not make the cut. So, a bittersweet notification.

I will definitely apply again in the future. Maybe not for the PD grant again, but we’ll see what else is on my creative horizon the next time I wade into the grant waters.

On the 5^th, I also met with a professional photographer, Gerry Kingsley, and we discussed getting a shoot together. We’re starting with a vision board but hope to have the shoot scheduled by the end of the month/early next month, and the photos ready for use by mid-August.

Unfortunately, another project took precedence for him and we’re kind of in limbo.

I had my second session with Suzy on July 6^th and my third on the 19^th. Things are progressing. I still feel that I’m not picking up on her methodology as quickly as I should. But that’s on me. She reassured me that I’m doing fine.

I have over 150 pages of revised novel now, though (from the work I did with her Oct 2022 to Jan 2023 and now). I don’t know if I’m actually going to cut any words/pages in the end. Most of Suzy’s suggestions have me adding words, not cutting them, or cutting and then adding in more 🙂 I’ve currently overcome the cutting I did earlier in the year, and I’ve added more than 3,000 words (!) It was the middle and the ending that were bloated, though, so I could end up cutting a bunch later on. We’ll see how it goes.

On July 31^st, I received an email that I’ve been accepted into the League of Canadian Poets as a full member! So now I’ve dipped my toes in (almost) all the professional associations. Updated my website and CV. I am now qualified as all get out 🙂

Filling the well

I enrolled in a longer Writing the Other course, Crafting Diverse Relationships, which ran July 1^st to the 23^rd. It was awesome, and I’m beginning to think I may be asexual, or maybe grey ace. I’ll have to delve into it more. It was also helpful for interracial relationships, polyamory, and character arcs in general.

I met with my publisher on the 2^nd, and we discussed the publishing process for The Art of Floating from here out. I have some time to work on some of the promotional materials she requested, but I had already taken a run at it and I’m not sure how much of what I submitted is usable and how much I’ll have to rework and resubmit.

I signed up for a webinar on the 11^th about writing characters intentionally and respectfully by Jenny Kleiman through Chill Subs. It was good, but WTO is the premiere purveyor of this kind of content.

I also registered for a Tiffany Yates Martin webinar through Jane Friedman. How to Write Powerfully in Deep Third POV was on July 12^th. Because it was during the workday, I watched the recording. Excellent, as always.

Augur Magazine presented Writing YA in SFF with Sarah Raughley on July 15^th. Very good.

Over on Free Expressions, Tiffany Yates Martin presented Five Steps to an Airtight Plot on the 20^th. The work/spoons situation I realized that I’ve actually taken this course before, through Jane Friedman. Ya know what? Repetition is reinforcement. I clearly still feel the need to absorb more information from this one.

I signed up for another Mary Robinette Kowal webinar on Middles and Try/Fail Cycles. That was on July 23^rd. This is kind of what I need right now as I wade into the middle of RB.

On the 26^th, it was Author Platform Building with Catherine Baab-Maguira. I’m still trying to figure out platform, especially now that I’m moving toward the launch of The Art of Floating.

Also on the 26^th, but in the evening, Graeme Cameron, publisher of Polar Borealis and Polar Starlight, who’s published one of my short stories and quite a few of my poems, offered a CAA/SF Canada webinar on getting published.

The next in the Free Expressions series of Don Maass webinars was DIY Archetypes on the 27^th. It was all about how characters become iconic.

Then, thanks to my virtual attendance of the Nebula conference weekend, I was able to attend a Connecting Flights Panel on Sticking the Short Story Landing on the 29^th.

Good Company interviewed me for the new facilitator position, but ultimately went with another candidate. To be honest, this is a good thing. As I mentioned last month, I may have been taking on more than I should.

Due to stresses at work, I’ve stalled a bit in my smoking cessation journey. I’d made it as far as 6 or 7 cigarettes a day, but then couldn’t hack it. I’m back up to 12 a day, which is about half of what I was smoking. I might hold here until the big project is done.

Füm released three new citrus flavours for their cores. I quite like the orange vanilla, but don’t care for the sparkling grapefruit or the raspberry lemon flavours. Think it’s going to be orange vanilla, crisp mint, and maple pepper from here on out.

I had a massage on July 20^th. Desperately needed relaxation, that.

On July 27^th, I saw my doctor about a mole on the side of my nose. It’s right under the nose pad of my glasses, and there are issues. He chose to freeze it, and now it’s swollen worse than before. The swelling subsided by the end of the month, but now the problem is that the nose pad of my glasses rubs on the scab and keeps on tearing it open.

On the 29^th, I took Torvi for a Furminator bath and brush. The house is basically wall-to-wall fur right now. In her absence, I de-furred the house (AKA vacuumed).

What I’m watching and reading

Before I start in on the month in viewing, I would like to express my solidarity with the Writers’ Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild strike. They deserve better pay, protections, conditions, and job security. Like many other employers, the Hollywood machine seeks to maximize profit and disenfranchise their most vulnerable workers.

Having said that, most of what I’ve watched this month was written and produced long before the strike began, and none of it is paid promotion. Just my own opinion 🙂

I watched Nimona (Netflix). A movie based on a comic property I’ve never read. It was awesome. A futuristic world, but still based in magic. A young knight is set up for the murder of the queen and only an immortal shapeshifter can help him prove his innocence.

I finished the first season of Shrinking (Apple +). Entertaining. Harrison Ford is surprising as an embittered therapist with Parkinson’s trying to help his colleagues sort their sh*t out as a means of avoiding his own. And there’s a lot of sh*t to be sorted. The cliffhanger promises an entertaining second season, too.

Then, Phil and I watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Netflix). I didn’t think it was as bad as the reviews imply. It’s the best of the D&D-related films I’ve seen. The whole Hasbro/Wizards fiasco (which is still ongoing) may have contributed to the poor reception, but we enjoyed it.

I started off the month by reading Mira Grant’s (Seanan McGuire’s) Rolling in the Deep. It’s pretty much straight up horror, which I’m not a super fan of, but it was well-written and short 🙂 A research ship is sponsored by a “reality” TV channel when it travels to the Mariana Trench to find evidence of mermaids. Unsurprisingly, the “mermaids” find the ship and its crew, first.

Next, I listened to the Audible Original, The Original, by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal. Holly wakes up and is informed that she is a Provisional Replica, or PR, and that she is tasked with finding and killing her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. She has four days to do this, or the nanites in her system will kill her for her failure. Very cool SF thriller.

Another short Audible Original was John Scalzi’s Murder by Other Means, the second of his Dispatcher novellas. It’s set in a world where people who get murdered tend to wake up, naked, in their beds (or wherever they feel safe). Natural deaths, accidents, and suicides seem to be the exception to the rule, but there is a small chance that you actually stay dead when someone kills you. Enter the Dispatchers, a service to fit the times. Dying of cancer? Call the dispatcher and have a second chance at life. Accident leave you in a coma? Your spouse will call the dispatcher to set things right.

But after 12 years, it’s getting harder and harder for dispatchers to find legitimate work. And Tony, the protagonist, has taken to accepting questionable jobs to pay the bills. When several people he’s recently worked with start committing suicide, one by one, Tony’s implicated, and he has to find out what’s really happening and who’s responsible before he’s murdered by other means.

Then, I read Passing by Nella Larsen. Irene encounters an old friend, Clare one afternoon and, before long, Clare has insinuated herself into Irene’s life. Both light-skinned Black women, Irene embraces her Black identity, while Clare has chosen to pass and has married a racist white man. As the relationship progresses, Irene has to face some tough truths about Clare … and herself.

Passing was one of the novels to come out of the Harlem Renaissance.

As part of my WTO course, I read ACE: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen. Excellent. Well thought out, compassionately argued, and hella interesting.

I read another of Adrian Tchaikovsky book: Walking to Aldebaran. A ship and crew are sent out to investigate an anomaly in the Oort cloud beyond Pluto. Told in alternating timelines, the sole survivor of the ill-fated landing crew wanders “the crypts” meeting aliens, stumbling upon gateways to other worlds, and eating just about anything he stumbles upon … or kills, and recounts the events that brought him to this juncture. A fun/weird/horrific read.

Then, I read H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. It is a classic, but I found it just a bit boring.

Next, I listened to the third novella in the Dispatcher series, Travel by Bullet, in which Tony gets himself into a lot of trouble trying to help his friend Mason. The title is a conceit used in both Scalzi novellas I listened to this month. If you’re far from home and want to get back there, fast, or if you need to escape a difficult situation while far from home, you just have to get someone to shoot you in Dispatcher world. If you’re not one of the small percentage of people for whom death is permanent, you wake up, naked, at home.

Another book I read for my WTO course was Stant Litore’s Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget. Solid craft advice about characters and character arcs. I’d purchased this book the first time I took Stant’s Character Arcs Course through WTO, but hadn’t actually read it until now (!)

Then, I read Sarah Gailey’s Upright Women Wanted. In a future American Southwest, Esther stows away in a librarian’s wagon, escaping the horror of her father hanging her beloved, Beatrice. Gailey’s librarians draw on the history of the packhorse librarians, who were hired by Roosevelt Franklin to distribute reading materials in Appalachia during the depression (remember The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek?), but she subverts them by also making them queer activists who distribute non-approved reading materials and escort persecuted queer people to safety.

Finally, I listened to Erin Macdonald’s The Science of Sci-Fi, a Great Courses course offered through Audible Originals. Absolutely fabulous! Lots of help/ideas for my current work-in-progress.

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!

Image of an open book with mist rising from it.
The Next Chapter: A month in the writerly life.
melaniemarttila.ca

The next chapter: June 2023 update

July 4, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

I should have posted this on the weekend, but I was having trouble getting into my WordPress account. Turns out all I had to do was delete cookies and history on my browser. Sometimes it gets backed up like that. My apologies.

Picture of clouds with crepuscular rays.

And welcome to July! The year is passing so quickly.

Let’s backtrack a bit.

This has been a weird spring. After a brief few days of above-seasonal temperatures (I wore shorts in March!) it got cool and rainy. Then there was the strike (more news on that in a bit). Soon after, the temperatures began to rise again, and the last part of May was essentially a heat wave. The first part of June was seasonal, but just in time for the Solstice, we got our second heat wave, and now a third. Thanks, global warming.

Since we don’t have central air conditioning, this meant closing up the house to the degree possible during the day in an attempt to keep things cool. After the first week, the house got hot no matter what we did. And I started to get heat edema (swelling of the extremities due to heat). This meant that I wasn’t keen to go outside and do things except to make sure Torvi got her walkies.

This year has also meant something completely different for me—seasonal allergies (!) I’ve never been so stuffed up before. Complicating this may be the smoky haze blown into the area by the surrounding forest fires.

So, I haven’t been posting/reporting on the seasonal changes as much as I have in past years.

Rest assured; the monstrous rhubarb is still monstrous. We’ve been inviting everyone to come and take what they want. There’s always more than we can use.

The pin cherries blossomed at the end of Victoria Day long weekend. The lilacs followed a week later, and the honeysuckles bloomed a week after that. The pines candled brilliantly. The Finn rose is thriving.

Phil dug up and replanted our strawberries in the fall and, while we lost a few, we had flowers, and the berries began to set. Unfortunately, birds and chipmunks got to them before we could harvest one berry. I’m so disappointed.

The raspberry patch survived the winter and should produce fruit. Now if we can only remember to get out and pick the berries!

And Phil has planted our garden again this year. Swiss chard, beets, some carrots, and radishes, and he’s even giving peas a chance 🙂 We have one tomato plant and hope to soon have more.

Phil’s also set up the patio set and solar panel. He had to rework some of the ‘lectrics, but my summer office is technically open for business. Now if I can just pry myself away from my desk and get out there.

In an update from last month, the tentative contract was ratified by the membership. We’ll get out retro pay, etc. in about six months. So, either a nice Christmas present or a fabulous start to the New Year.

The month in writing

Second round revisions of The Art of Floating (yes, my poetry collection has a name!) were completed by the 4^th, and I sent the revised manuscript off to Heather at Latitude 46. She wanted to read it through before we discussed next steps.

On the morning of June 5^th, I received an email from one of the granting bodies I applied to informing me that the status of my grant application had changed. I figured I’d been screened out, and logged into the site, hope and dread warring in my gut. But it was good news! My application is moving forward to the assessment process! There’s still no guarantee. I just made it past the initial screening and my application may ultimately not make the grade, but I think moving on to formal assessment by committee is impressive for a first-time applicant (!)

Later that same day, SF Canada member and Aurora Award recipient Graeme Cameron reviewed Pulp Literature 38 in Amazing Stories and had some lovely things to say about my story, “Psychopomps Are Us.”

Sorry, but I just have to copy from the review:

“Premise: Psychopomps are guides leading souls into the afterlife. Leave it to science to add the profession to the ranks of social workers. Not an enviable job.

Review: This story has interesting concepts to express about astral forms, ghosts, spirits, and how they interact. All quite plausible, given the premise.

What is particularly interesting is that the job involves a certain amount of B.S. in that no one has any actual experience of what the afterlife offers, such that all promises made to the reluctant departed as to why they should continue their journey are pure speculation. Can’t tell the “client” that, of course, as it would fail to convince them to get on with it. So, a series of no nonsense and hopefully convincing lies are in order.

The story is a delightful exercise in extrapolation of certain implications in the underlying belief system of modern spiritualism. Turns out the job of Psychopomp is more akin to that of a psychiatrist than a social worker. You not only need to understand the newly dead, but also how to manipulate and motivate them. Challenging, to say the least.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but their point of view, if they were to exist, is well laid out and makes for an amusing contest of wills. I quite enjoyed this story. I believe you will, too. Just plain fun to read.”

Needless to say, June 5^th was a very happy day.

On June 10^th, I applied to the League of Canadian Poets on the advice of my publisher, whom I met at Ann-Marie MacDonald’s event (see below). I was a member, back in the 90s. We’ll see if they accept my application (again) in 6 to 8 weeks.

I also sent out some initial enquiries about setting up some writers-in-the-schools visits in the fall and winter. I got a response from a teacher in the Catholic board pretty quickly and she arranged to firm things up with me later in June after the crazy ended. She’s now been in touch and firmed things up. Now, I’m just waiting to hear if anyone in the public board is interested. The application is due on July 17^th.

My first submission to Suzy was due June 11^th and we met on the 15^th. It was a good session, but I was frustrated with myself because I’m not internalizing Suzy’s methodology as quickly as I’d like. I’m trying to be gentle with myself, treat myself like I would a good friend. I can do the thing! I will be successful! It’s hard, though.

I finished another creative non-fiction piece for a call on the 15^th and submitted it. Again, as I’m such a noob in the CNF sphere, I have no idea how I’ll do. The good thing is that the more I write in the genre, the better I’ll get. Practice makes better. So, no pressure on either of these CNF pieces. It’ll be great if something happens, but I think it’s more likely they’ll both be rejected.

Screenshot of an Excel tracking sheet showing my writing and revision progress. — As in recent months, you may peruse if you wish.

The Canadian Authors Association scheduled its annual general meeting (AGM) on the 24^th.

Then, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s AGM was on the 25^th.

Think I’m AGM’d out, now.

On impulse, I applied for a facilitator’s position with the therapist who organizes my support group. Eep! I’m beginning to feel like I’m taking on too much. Again.

At the end of the month (26^th), Heather sent me the first of the next step emails with respect to The Art of Floating. This one was about filling in the marketing information for the collection, including supplying a headshot.

I promptly started querying photographers.

And … I delivered my #ActuallyAutistic Author webinar on the 28^th! I think it went well. The feedback I’ve received so far has been positive.

Filling the well

I went to an in-person (!) event on June 5^th. Ann-Marie MacDonald came to Sudbury for the Canadian University Women’s Federation’s Celebrate Women 2023. It was wonderful. MacDonald is hilarious. And, of course, I got a signed copy of Fayne.

Free Expressions offered a webinar by Eric Maisel, “Writing Your Book from Beginning to End,” on June 8^th. Due to a big project at work and relatively few spoons, I watched the replay. I have several of Maisel’s books and wanted to see what one of his webinars was like. It was good.

I signed up for the video only option for Stant Litore’s “Write Characters Your Readers will Love,” a Writing the Other offering. It was a full day workshop over June 10^th and 11^th and I needed the weekend to myself to recover. I watched the workshop in parts from the 13^th to the 19^th. Stant’s one of those presenters with an absolute wealth of knowledge. I took the workshop in the pre-times and just wanted to brush up.

I signed up for another Free Expressions webinar by Janice Hardy, “Make the Most of Your POV,” on the 15^th. I didn’t think I’d have the spoons to both meet with Suzy and attend the webinar on the same day (and I was right), so I once again watched the replay. It was one of Janice’s posts on Fiction University that twigged me to the real meaning of show, don’t tell (a lesson I’m still learning). Her webinar on POV was just as valuable.

The Locus Awards weekend was from the 21^st through the 24^th. I had to miss the readings on the 21^st (see below) and 22^nd but caught the Friday readings and attended the sessions on Saturday leading up to the Locus Awards ceremony. It was my first time attending virtually and I think their first time producing a hybrid conference. There were some technical glitches, but it was good overall.

The second of Donald Maass’s Free Expressions Webinars took place on the 22^nd. Our World in Your Nutshell was a bit more of his usual fare. Making the specific universal.

Then, on the 28^th I attended a TWUC webinar called Intersectionality Tomorrow with Tanis MacDonald, Nisha Patel, and Carla Harris. It was fabulous.

I went to Little Current to attend friends’ 25^th anniversary celebration on June 21^st. They renewed their vows with family and friends. It was a lovely evening.

It was too hot (see above) to light up all the candles on the altar for the solstice, but I took an eerie-cool picture of the moon and Venus through the haze.

Picture of the crescent moon and Venus through smokey haze.

The Sudbury Writers’ Guild’s summer social was at College Boreal on June 29^th this year. Met up with several friends.

In health news, I’ve purchased a Füm. I’ve finally had it with cigarettes. I hate the taste and the way they stain my teeth and fingers. Füm is a habit alternative. A metal and wood holder for essential oil infused cores. They taste much better than cigarettes and still allow me to satisfy my oral and fidget fixations as well as to satisfy my need to do something socially with Phil and my mom when they smoke.

I’ve been doing some thinking and I didn’t start smoking until I was 25 and away trying to make it through the coursework requirement for my master’s degree. My mom smoked throughout my childhood, and I didn’t start smoking. Phil smoked when we started dating (and still does), and I didn’t start. I’m pretty sure that I started smoking not only because of the stress of my degree, but also because I needed a substitute for stimming.

When I was a kid, I’d chew pencils and pens (and pen caps) to pieces. I think this was one of my stims. But in university, I stopped using a pen outside of lecture notes and started using a computer. The clack of the keys occupied my fingers but did nothing for my oral fixation. Enter smoking.

After the first week with the Füm, I managed to halve my cigarette consumption. And I haven’t had a major nicotine fit … yet. Think I’m going to hang here for a while before I take the next step. A 27-year habit is not broken in a week. And there is a component of addiction that has to be overcome.

Phil had his bone scan scheduled for June 2^nd. It went without a hitch. He was advised that they’d be in touch if there was anything of note in a few days. He’s heard nothing, so we’re assuming no news is good news.

What I’m watching and reading

I watched Judy Bloom Forever (Amazon). She’s had a fascinating life! Loved.

Then, I watched Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney +). I remember the first Avatar. At the time, I was blown away. Then I became aware of the problematic nature of the story (white saviourism) and remembered is a bit less fondly. TWoW suffers from some of the same issues, compounded by the fact that despite being in an avatar, Jake Sully’s managed to transfer enough human genetic material to his kids that they all have four fingers. Worse is that Quaritch, killed at the end of the first film by Neytiri, has been cloned into a Na’vi body and his son, left behind with the scientists who were allowed to stay on Pandora, is a kind of adopted son to Jake, though Neytiri can’t forget his origins and rejects him as a part of their family.

I enjoyed the movie, but not as much as I might have if I didn’t know what I know, know what I mean?

Next, I watched Women Talking (Amazon). Based on the novel of the same name by Miriam Toews and on real events (!) In a Mennonite community in Latin America, women and girls were drugged and raped for years. The real case resulted in seven of eight charged men convicted of rape. In the movie (and, I assume, the book) the women gather and decide to leave their community to protect themselves and their children. It’s compelling and terrifying and totally worth watching. The performances are amazing.

I finished the second (and final) season of Warrior Nun (Netflix). All loose ends were tied up. Ava may or may not be dead as she was taken to the other side, halo and all, after defeating Adriel. Fans are apparently trying to revive the series, but I don’t know if they will be successful.

I watched Moonage Daydream (Amazon), a surreal documentary about David Bowie. It was interesting to hear from Bowie in his own words. The last part of his career wasn’t covered in as much depth, which was disappointing because that’s the part of his career I was most interested in.

I seem to be in a docu-mood. My next watch was Stan Lee (Disney +). A fascinating look at a fascinating life in a fascinating industry 🙂

Next, I watched the season three finale of Superman & Lois (network). Lois gets cancer (and survives), Clark and Lois try to take down Bruno Manheim (and they do), and, in the last two episodes, Lex Luthor is released from prison and comes after Lois, but he starts by stripping her of her protection. He gets the General out of the way with a honey pot, and then finds the now-feral Bizarro, torturing him until he becomes Doomsday, and sends him after Clark. It was quite a cliffhanger.

Finally, I finished the first season of Gotham Knights (network). I think this is the best of the DCEU series to come out recently. But of course it got cancelled. Bah.

In reading, I finished Kate Heartfield’s Armed in Her Fashion. In this historical weird, the devil’s wife, only known as the Chatelaine, traps her husband deep within the hellbeast that is their living home. She takes over and brings the hellbeast to the surface in the hope of becoming a ruler in a time when women cannot rule. Enter Magreit and her daughter Beatrix, trying to survive in Bruges after the Chatelaine and her forces attack. The Chatelaine is doing this to win the favour of the French King and win the city as her own kingdom.

Her main force is composed of chimeras, people combined with beasts or objects, or both, in the hellforge to become her faithful warriors. The rest are revenants, killed by the chimeras but somehow brought back to half-life. Magreit’s husband is a revenant, and when she discovers him taking a hidden chest from their home, she demands her rights, and her daughter’s. He is dead. What’s in that chest belongs to his family. It could mean the start of a new life for Magreit and Beatrix.

Though she has contracted the Grief, a wasting sickness that infects revenants’ loved ones, Magreit will go to any lengths before she dies to get her daughter’s inheritance, even into the bowels of the hellbeast.

Next, I read Nalo Hopkinson’s short story collection Skin Folk. Soundly entertaining and a wonderful peek into the Caribbean diaspora by one of our best storytellers.

Then, I finished my re-read of Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. I realize I’ve just been raving about how much I love the series and not offering anything in terms of the plot. Let’s fix that now, shall we?
The Raven Boys — Blue Sargent, who’s always been told that if she kisses her true love, he’ll die, is drawn into the orbit of Gansey and his friends Ronan, Adam, and Noah, as they search for a mythical Welsh king who Gansey suspects is buried somewhere in Virginia. In order to find Glendower, they must revive the ley line, but someone else is on the same quest and wants to beat them to the punch.
The Dream Thieves — Ronan Lynch is a dreamer, that is, he can pull things out of his dreams and into reality, like his pet raven, Chainsaw. The ley line is awake, but still needs to be healed, and Adam made a deal with the mystical forest Cabeswater to be its eyes and ears. But someone called The Gray Man’s come to town in search of an artifact called the greywaren which has the power to make dreams real, and Ronan learns he’s not the only dreamer in Henrietta. They’re both in danger.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue — Blue’s mom has disappeared and left a cryptic note: Glendower’s underground and so am I. The Gray Man’s employer has come to town determined to find the greywaren, and Gansey’s mentor Mallory has come to help the gang finally track down Glendower. Blue doesn’t care about any of that unless it helps her rescue her mother.

And now it’s onto The Raven King!

Next, I finished William Gibson’s Idoru. Rez, of the rock duo Lo/Rez, has declared his intention to marry an idoru (idol, in Japanese) an AI entertainer. No one understands how this is supposed to happen, including his staff. So, they hire Colin Laney, a man with an uncanny and inexplicable ability to find nodal points in any data stream to find out if anyone is manipulating Rez. At the same time, Chia Pet McKenzie, a member of the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club is sent to Japan to investigate.

The next book I read was Patricia Briggs’ Fire Touched. It’s number nine in the Mercy Thompson series. I’ve only read the first book in the series before. Mercy and her werewolf mate Adam must protect a human changeling who has escaped Underhill, where he lived for a very long time and was imbued with the elemental power of fire. The Gray Lords of the fae want Aiden, though, and some of them will stop at nothing to get him.

I also read Nalini Singh’s Angel’s Blood. It’s a steamy paranormal, so be aware of the potential of explicit sex. The world building’s a little weird, but in Singh’s world, angels create vampires as servitors or slaves. Humans, trained or with innate hunter talents, hunt rogue vampires for the angels. Elena is a born hunter and one of the best in her field. She’s called upon by the archangel Raphael to hunt not a vampire, but a corrupted archangel whose bloodlust could consume every mortal in existence.

Then, I read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Once again, I am struck by how much I like Dickens. Just in general.

Finally, I read The Prynne Viper by Bianca Marais. Bianca’s the co-host of The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing podcast and I was curious. Solid courtroom drama set in a futuristic world in which predictive algorithms determine who gets to be born. Naomi Prynne has been to court three times and lost. Now, she’s pregnant again and desperate not to lose.

Intriguing worldbuilding, most of which I can’t tell you without spoiling the story, but I will note the use of Prynne as the protagonist’s last name (harkening to Hester, methinks), and let you know that viper is a short form/portmanteau of viable person.

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!

Picture of a book with mist rising from it.
The Next Chapter
A month in the Writerly Life
melaniemarttila.ca

The CSFFA Professional Development Grant

May 15, 2023 / Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

This is the news I was teasing in my last update!

On April 30th, I received notification that I was the spring recipient of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA, AKA the Aurora Awards) Professional Development Grant!

Now I can resume work with Suzy to revise my novel in a more focused and accountable way. W00t!!

Sorry, the cheque’s already been deposited and I forgot to take a picture before I went to the bank.

The CSFFA asked that I hold off until they made the official announcement in their next newsletter. Now they have, so I can spread the word!

In case you’re curious, there are two submission periods in the year, spring and fall. So, If you’re interested you can find out more here: the CSFFA Professional Development Grant.

You won’t know if you can succeed unless you apply.

So, maybe go do that. The next submission period opens June 1st.

Much happy dancing is happening.

It’s good to have good news.

Until next time, be safe and stay well; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

The next chapter: April 2023 update

April 30, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Welcome to the first next chapter, back in its monthly format. This means it will be epic. Sorry, not sorry.

The month in writing

I’ve had to completely revamp my annual plan. Well, not completely, but mostly 🙂

My original plan had been to finish mapping out Alice in Thunderland in January and finish the first draft in February and March while continuing to work with Suzy on Reality Bomb. But a budget situation at work and the attendant loss of income meant I couldn’t continue working with Suzy. We parted ways at the end of January.

I then thought I’d continue working on my own and sign up again once my position and salary had been restored, but Phil had his accident (on Valentine’s Day, I’ll remind you), and all writing work was suspended until such time as he recovered.

In the interim, I got the hare-brained idea to start applying for grants. All of them.

Now that Phil’s recovered, I’ve committed to …

Finish my #ActuallyAutistic Author presentation script and resources,
Revise my poetry manuscript from now through June (in progress),
Write a creative non-fiction (CNF) piece for a call due in early May (in progress),
Work on another CNF piece,
Revise a short story for an anthology call later in May (started),
Start working with Suzy again (come hell or high water, as they say),
Revise another short story for a potential project,
Apply for more grants in May and June (working on one, now),
Deliver my #AAA presentation in June or July,
Revise yet another short story for future submission,
Revamp my web site (some of it’s already done—just bits and pieces left),
Work on new poetry,
Work on a CNF project,
Start work on my new fiction project in September, and
Apply for more grants, September through November.

You can see why I’ve decided to cut back on blogging in the interim.

Alice is taking a back seat, for now. I think it was a good project, but I don’t have the head space or energy to get back to it right now. I do have the outline finished and a solid idea of where I need to head when I do get back to revisions. So, it’s in a good place.

That was the only big change from my original plan, aside from pushing out some timelines because life is what happens when you may other any plans.

So far, the experiment in rearranging my creative life (i.e., giving up curation and returning to monthly updates) seems to be working. I’m a lot less stressed out, that’s for sure. Or I was.

Just gonna let the Excel speak for itself.

Unfortunately, the universe couldn’t take it easy on me. An added stress is that a general strike was called on April 19, 2023. I’m showing up and showing solidarity, but the first day was bitterly cold and I had to take a nap after I got home (which I never do) to warm up and recover. Subsequent days weren’t any easier, though I planned a bit better each day.

My executive function is definitely compromised. Meltdowns each morning, naps most afternoons, and I’m having trouble functioning on any level. At least I didn’t have to picket on the weekends. As of today (April 30, 2023) there’s a new offer on the table, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I expect we’ll be back on the picket line tomorrow.

In other developments, I’ll be one of three judges for the K. Valerie Connor Memorial Poetry Celebration contest held by the Leacock Museum in Orillia this year. I’m honoured to have been considered.

I received another bit of amazing (ah-MA-zing!) news this morning, but I’ll have to wait a bit before I make that announcement. Stay tuned! And yes, I’m a tease.

Filling the well

Just picking up from where I left off in my next chapter weekly updates. I’m not recapping the whole month (!) As you’ll see, it’s been a month FULL of events.

I attended the online book launch for Fonda Lee’s The Untethered Sky on April 10^th. A great conversation between Fonda and Andrea Stewart about all aspects of the creative process.

I had signed up for a FOLD Academy webinar with Liselle Sambury on April 8^th, but was unable to watch it live, because recovery. I watched the replay once it was posted to their YouTube channel. It’s an interesting method, and Sambury offered a lot of alternatives for outlining and tracking your novel.

I signed up for an Authors Publish webinar on a new (to me) poetry form, the zuihitsu, with Eugenia Leigh. Because it was held during the workday, I watched the replay. Zuihitsu is a fascinating form, but I don’t know if I could manage the consciously disordered nature of a zuihitsu collection. It does track with some of the ideas I’m hoping to play with poetically, though. We’ll see where it leads.

I met with my poetry editor, Tanis MacDonald, on the 12^th. It was less fraught than I thought it would be (and that would have been on me—Tanis was lovely). Now I have my marching orders and some work to do 🙂

I attended the Writing Success Series Discovery Night on April 13^th. I’ve signed up for the Donald Maass six-webinar package and will return for individual sessions by Eric Maisel, Janice Hardy, Tiffany Yates Martin, and Beth Baranay.

I signed up for another Dan Blank webinar about defining your identity and creative voice on April 14^th. Again, because it was during the workday, I watched the replay. Dan has a lot of good information about how to engage with social media on your terms and it all begins with defining your identity and creative voice.

On April 15^th, my friend and former poet laureate of Sudbury, Vera Constantineau, launched her poetry collection. Enlightened by Defilement is a collection of haibun inspired by the 108 defilements of Buddhism. It was a lovely afternoon at the Hilton Garden Inn, good food, and a lot of familiar faces that I haven’t seen in a while 🙂

That was a big week of writing-related events, I realized, and dialled it back a bit. Yeah, all of the above was in one week. I might have overdone things a bit.

Just four more writing-related events in the month.

I purchased a Rambo Academy webinar on revision that I could watch at my leisure, which I did.

I attended Mary Robinette Kowal’s Barriers to Writing webinar on Sunday, April 23. It was extremely helpful in a few different ways.

Finally, I registered for a TWUC webinar on marketing and self-promotion presented by Rod Carley and Ali Bryan, which I also watched in replay. With my debut poetry collection coming up next year, it was very helpful!

I almost forgot! The FOLD started on April 30^th, but as the bulk of the event is in May, I’ll leave the details until next month’s update.

In the self-care department, I had an appointment with my doctor because of a bump on the inside of my wrist. It’s a ganglion cyst and nothing to worry about unless it gets bigger and/or starts causing pain or impeding my range of motion. Something to monitor for now.

Phil had another physio appointment and an appointment with an endocrinologist for his type II diabetes. Unfortunately, the diabetic clinic is being shut down. It’s disappointing because he was finally getting the treatment and support he needed. And then his appointment with the endocrinologist was cancelled. Super frustrating.

I took Torvi to the vet for her annual exam and flea/tic/worm medication. An expensive trip, but she was her crazy, adorable self for Dr. Andrews, and she’ll be protected for the coming year.

What I’m watching and reading

I finished watching The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix). An interesting origin story for the witchers, with great characters, fight scenes, and a tie-in to the main series. Also, it was only four episodes, so it didn’t have time to fall prey to some of the gaffs other series suffer from.

Next, I watched The Wonder (Netflix), based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue. Mystery and pathos. Lib Wright is a nurse who is called upon, with a nun, to perform a 14-day watch on a girl is a small Irish village who hasn’t eaten in four months. Ah, my heart.

I finished watching the first season of The Peripheral (Amazon). Bizarre and brain-twisty, but I loved it. Virtual reality isn’t just VR. It’s time travel and the creation of alternate realities called stubs. A VR gamer and her ex-military brother are inducted into a program with new technology, and a whole new world of complex future and present political and corporate intrigue changes their lives.

I also finished off the first season of Extraordinary (Disney +). In a world where most people develop powers (some of which are bizarre, and others, totally useless), protagonist Jen is powerless. She’s also a horrible person who has no money to pay for the expensive treatment that could rectify the situation. Growth happens. British series. British humour.

Then, I watched Ghosted (Apple +). It was the fun escape I needed after three days of picketing. Lots of cameos by popular action actors. I was laughing out loud. It might have been the dysregulation, but I enjoyed it. There was some problematic content, though, like the white male protagonist getting all stalkery (repeated texts, tracking her, a surprise trip to see her) on his love interest after she apparently ghosts him. Unfortunately, the stalking is critical to the plot. Like, there would be none without his intrusive and unwanted behaviour.

In reading, I finished T.J. Klune’s Wolfsong. The protagonist, Oxnard, or Ox is clearly autistic coded. And bisexual (pan?). I loved the book for that alone, but it was a love story between a human boy and his wolf pack. Correction, packs. There are some explicit sex scenes if you’re not into that kind of thing. My heart (again)!

Then, I finished The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson. A fascinating historical fiction based on true events. Look up the blue people. They were an actual thing. And the packhorse librarians. Loved it!

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!

The next chapter weekly: Feb 19-25, 2023

February 26, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Greetings, my writerly friends, and welcome to week eight of 2023 🙂

This week, I again had a repeat pick, this time from the tarot: the king of wands. Just a reminder, then, that this card represents inspiration, charisma, and natural leadership. I chose to focus on the inspiration aspect of the card last time, largely because I don’t think I’m that charismatic, nor do I exhibit natural leadership.

This time around, I think I’ll focus on the imagery in the card, rather than the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck images that I’ve been sharing. The tarot deck I’m using is the Somnia Tarot by Nicholas Bruno. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful deck and I’d rather you check out his work for yourselves.

The card shows a figure draped in white cloth sitting in profile on an austere throne in the dark. The cloth flows out from the figure to cover the floor where a candelabrum, a fallen chandelier, and several candlesticks are lit. There are two more candles at the top of the throne and a sconce extends from the king’s covered face. In the king’s hands is a book and they read by their own light. Haunting image.

It speaks to me, though. I’m in a place where, though my mind is still brimming with ideas and I have the sincere desire to write, life circumstances leave no room for creative pursuits.

I’ll have to keep my candles lit until Phil’s recovered.

The Celtic oracle card I drew was the Boar. Boars are fearsome beasts and Celtic legend is filled hunts for magical boars, and people being killed by boars (I believe Robert Baratheon’s death by boar in GoT was inspired by this tradition).

The sow is associated with the goddess Cerridwen, the Welsh goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration. Her cauldron, Awen, is one of poetic inspiration. She consumed her servant, Gwion Bach, and later birthed him as Taliesin. From the Mabinogion is Hen Wen, the oracular pig, who ate the beech nuts of the tree of wisdom.

Either way, the boar/sow represents power, something I’m in need of, right now.

Monday was the new rowan moon in Pisces. I spent some time on my intentions for the coming weeks. I want to focus on supporting Phil in his recovery and not stress about not being able to write. But … if the opportunity to write presents itself, I want to run with it.

The week in writing

As you might guess, not a lot of writing or revision happened this week. But I did manage to fit some in (!)

I received a kind rejection of one of my stories. Once again, feedback says it reads like the beginning of a longer story. It’s not, though. So, I’ll have to figure out how to tweak it into story shape. I has some ideas 🙂

Here’s how the week went.

On the 22^nd and 23^rd, I worked on Reality Bomb. I cut another 721 words, bringing the monthly total to -1,049, and the total to date to -1,681. It’s still a far cry from the 24k words I want to cut, but if I keep up in this vein, I should be able to make it 🙂

I also, on the 22^nd, finished my freewritten outline for the remainder of Alice in Thunderland. Now I just have to go back and add in the bits and pieces the last four chapters plus epilogue require in my revision notes, and I should be good to go for the writing. If I can make the time.

I had thought that I’d already be writing the last part of Alice by now, but it wasn’t to be, so I eliminated my February writing goal for this project. We’ll see what March brings.

On the blog, I wrote 1,649 words for the week and 6,382 words for the month to date, exceeding my goal of 6,000 words. And there’s still one more tipsday before the month ends.

Filling the well

I didn’t have any writerly events to attend and tried to focus on reinforcing my reserves of energy, creative and otherwise.

I still haven’t watched the replay of the TWUC tax strategies webinar.

I’m just trying to take it easy and keep up with the household chores and errands.

What I’m watching and reading

In the viewing department, I finally finished The Rings of Power (Amazon). I see the criticisms levied against it (harfoots abandoning their people on the road, ill-timed cavalry charges, too obvious Gandalf tease), but I enjoyed it.

Then Phil and I finished season one of Lockwood and Co. (Netflix). An interesting and light YA horror series. A mysterious event in the past has turned the world (or at least the UK) into ghost central and only young people have the gifts to fight them. Most companies are headed by adults, but Lockwood and Co. is an independent, and Lucy, their newest recruit is a star who’s afraid to shine.

Then, I watched The Woman King (Crave). A-MA-zing! Viola Davis was robbed.

Moving on to the week in reading, I read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Loved! The human race (being the human race) is on the decline. Earth is uninhabitable and off-planet settlements are struggling. In a last-ditch effort to save humanity, several teams travel to candidate planets to terraform them to support the dwindling human race. One ambitious project is seeding new life in the form of chimps (they’re only called monkeys) and a nanovirus intended to bioengineer them into a better version of humans. Only something goes wrong, and the monkeys die, but the nanovirus makes it to the planet and finds the next most intelligent creatures it can. Spiders.

Don’t let that put you off. Tchaikovsky (brilliantly) makes spiders empathetic (!) even though he writes them in omniscient.

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!

The next chapter weekly: Feb 12-18, 2023

February 19, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Greetings, all, and welcome to week 7 🙂

This week, I pulled the seven of cups from the tarot. This card represents temptations, choices, or bewilderment. This week, I was supposed to have a poetry reading, and a special general meeting for one of my writing organizations to attend. It was also predicted to be a hectic week at work with a very important project (not mine, thankfully) that had to get done.

I was thinking that I’d have to make some tough decisions and maybe not work on either Reality Bomb or Alice in Thunderland for a couple/three days. Turned out to be more than that due to an unfortunate accident (see below). This was a good reminder to be cognisant of my energy levels and plan accordingly.

In the Celtic oracle, I drew The Bride of the Waters, or Boann, goddess of the Boyne River and or poetry, fertility, and knowledge. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, when I first drew The Father/Dagda, that Boann was his mistress. It was a good omen for the poetry reading.

Here’s a little more information on Boann from the Discover Boyne Valley site.

It’s been a pretty tight grouping of interrelated cards for the past few weeks. Interesting …

So. Before I get to the week in writing, I want to tell you what happened. On Valentine’s Day, Phil slipped on some black ice in the driveway and fractured his shoulder. When he came in and told me what happened, I dissociated and went full on factual Mel. It’s how I handle crises.

I got him to the hospital, he got x-rays, a sling, and a prescription for pain, and an appointment with a specialist on Friday. He’s in a lot of pain and has to sleep (or try to) in our La-Z-boy recliner.

On Friday, the specialist confirmed that we’re doing everything we can. Surgery, thankfully, is not necessary. We’re in a holding pattern for two weeks until he’s reassessed, and physio begins. Six weeks after that, Phil might be in a position to transition back to his regular level of activity.

And he has arthritis in his shoulders, too.

Family has arranged for a snow plough to keep the driveway clear, and everyone has been offering us food. Phil just did a fairly big shop last weekend, so we have food that needs to be cooked and/or eaten first.

So, I’m doing the cleaning and some of the cooking. Phil’s stubborn that way. I’ll also be shopping, running my mom to any appointments she needs to go to, and all that jazz.

Needless to say, I have had to redirect from creative pursuits. It’s just the way it is.

The week in writing

My intention was to proceed with the next chapter/group in RB, but I decided to divert to some work in the map, reworking it to match my revamped chapters so far. I figured it would be easier to work on that periodically and then get back to working of chapter four after the hectic of the week was over.

I managed to get this done on Monday.

The good news is that I don’t have any other events or meetings scheduled for the month. Things should open up after this week.

I also wanted to finish freewriting the last chapter and epilogue for Alice, and then go over what I had and tweak until I was satisfied.

Welp, the work emergency (mentioned above) turned out not to be (an emergency), so that was a relief. But then Phil’s accident turned the rest of the week on its head. I thought I’d picked the wheel of fortune last week!

Here’s how the week turned out.

As I mentioned, I reworked the RB map for the three chapters I’d already rewritten on Monday. But I only worked on RB one day this week, the 14^th. And I only got that work done while I was waiting for Phil to be released from the hospital. I reduced a further 38 words on the draft, making the monthly total -328 and the year to date total -960.

I finished freewriting chapter 28 of Alice and moved on to the epilogue (also on Monday), but I haven’t touched it since.

On the blog, I wrote 1,890 words for the week, bringing the monthly total up to 4,733.

Filling the well

I attended a Mary Robinette Kowal webinar on Diagnosing Story Problems on Sunday afternoon. The more I attend her sessions, the more I learn.

As I mentioned off the top, I had a reading on Valentine’s Day, but with Phil’s injury, I had to cancel.

I signed up for a TWUC webinar on Tax strategies for writers but will watch the replay in the future.

And then, I had a special general meeting (SGM) for SF Canada to attend. They were in need of one more board member. As I’m already on one board, I did not put my name forward. We didn’t get quorum, so we’ll be trying again in three weeks, as per the bylaws.

And … I applied for associate membership in the Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA). It may be up to 30 days for them to assess my qualifications. I’ll get back to you about that.

What I’m watching and reading

I watched The School for Good and Evil (Netflix) on Saturday night. An interesting take on the YA magical school trope. The school teaches heroes to be heroes and villains to be villains, with an eye to maintaining balance. Occasionally readers of fairy tales get thrown into the mix, as is the case with Sophie and Agnes. And of course, there’s something wrong at the school … Entertaining. I enjoyed it.

I have to backtrack a bit for the week in reading. That I forgot I finished reading The Spectral Arctic by Shane McCorristine may tell you something about what I thought about the book. The topic was interesting enough. It’s about how ghosts, dreams, Inuit shaman, remote viewing, and other psychic phenomena played into the search for Franklin’s expedition and shaped the whole tenor of Arctic exploration for ensuing adventurers. But the book was clearly an academic dissertation and while the author included colourful citations from the likes of Charles Dickens and Margaret Atwood, it was … just … boring. Sorry.

Definitely not boring was Luane G. Smith’s The Vine Witch. A sweet paranormal romance about a winemaking witch, who, after freeing herself from a cursed life as a toad, returns to her vineyard to find it sold and the grapes suffering under several vile spells. Multiple mysteries, adventure, and, of course, smoochies.

I also finished my re-read of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys. You already know I loved the book, and the series. I didn’t mark up the book as much as I intended, but I did note some structural and stylistic patterns. It was a rewarding exercise.

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!

The next chapter weekly: Feb 5-11, 2023

February 12, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

Welcome to week six of 2023!

This week, the tarot card I drew was The Wheel of Fortune. This card symbolizes infinity, boundless energy, turning point, destiny, life cycle, endless possibility, and purpose. It can represent unexpected changes, in either a positive or negative direction.

I’m seeing this card as a positive change in my life, both at work and creatively.

From the Celtic oracle deck, I pulled The Father/Dagda, for the second week in a row. And I shuffled that deck.

Pairing The Wheel of Fortune and The Dagda seems portentous.

The 5^th was also the full cold moon (and moon in Leo for the astrologically inclined). I renewed my goal to rid myself of a certain kind of autistic inertia and get to bed at a reasonable hour. It’s getting better, but I’m not as rested as I need to be.

The week in writing

I worked most days on Reality Bomb and finished freewriting ideas for chapter 27 in Alice in Thunderland. I’ve moved on to chapter 28, but I’m thinking I have to rework these last four chapters before I get to the actual drafting. But I will get to it before the end of the month (!)

I took Friday and Saturday off after a full week of work. I just needed a break.

Copy edits for my forthcoming story in Pulp Literature arrived and were actioned promptly.

My application to the Writers Union of Canada (TWUC) was accepted (very quickly—within a week). I’m updating my CV, etc. today 🙂

Here’s how the week broke down:

I managed to reduce RB by a net 401 words for the week, a net -290 words for the month so far, and a net loss of 922 words on the draft overall.

I’m moving on to the next chapter using the pattern I started with Suzy, i.e., combining three chapters and paring down to a reasonable length. In RB, I have this nasty habit of repetition, like everything has to happen three times before I move on. I also write events in an inefficient order. Working on cleaning those issues up.

As I mentioned, I finished chapter 27’s freewritten outline and moved on to chapter 28 in Alice. This week, I hope to finish chapter 28, sketch out the epilogue, and tweak the whole climax and denouement in preparation for finishing the first draft.

In creating my map for Alice after drafting most of it, I’ve been marking in each chapter how it needs to change, what foreshadowing needs to be added, and how cause and effect can be strengthened. I think it’s a good approach. We’ll see how it works out and whether I want to use it for future projects.

I’ve blogged 1,615 words for the week and 2,843 words so far in the month.

Another Shaelin Writes video cracked open the concept of subtext for me. Look for that on tipsday. I really relate to her process and way of thinking about writing, even though she writes literary fiction and I’m a genre writer.

Filling the well

I attended a FOLD webinar, “How to Write a Great Book” presented by Evan Winter on February 11, 2023. It was a good presentation. Unfortunately, Evan’s journey to publishing was anomalous, i.e., he self-published his book, attracted the attention of a publisher, who helped him get an agent before moving forward with the deal.

I had my biannual appointment with the OBSP, AKA the booby squishing, on Monday. Not as bad as the first time.

I took my mom to our next hair appointment on Saturday.

What I’m watching and reading

In the viewing department, Phil and I finished watching The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon), season 2. The series really strikes the perfect balance between comedy and drama. And most of the characters progressed in their arcs/got their moments to shine.

I also watched The Banshees of Inisherin (Disney +). Good movie, but it made my poor heart hurt.

Moving on to what I’ve been reading, I finished Sue Lynn Tan’s The Daughter of the Moon Goddess. There’s a lot of fighting and battles, but the story had an overall dreamy feel to it. It was gentle and lovely. I really enjoyed it.

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!

The next chapter weekly: Jan 29-Feb 4, 2023

February 5, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

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 1^st 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 1^st, 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 3^rd. 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 31^st 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!

The next chapter weekly: Jan 22-28, 2023

January 29, 2023January 30, 2023 / Melanie Marttila

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.

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!

The month in writing

Filling the well

What I’m watching and reading

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