SF Canada

The next chapter: January 2026 update

/ Melanie Marttila / Leave a comment

A new year, zero resolutions, and striving for balance

Picture of a blue sky with clouds.

Life in general

On the topic of resolutions, I’ve learned not to make them. Not that I could keep resolutions in a year like this. It’s more important for me to let my energy level and executive function, AKA my body and brain, guide my work. It’s just like goals. Failing to achieve a resolution is distressing and makes me feel like a horrible person (enter the self-inflicted rejection-sensitive dysphoria), and I don’t want to do that to myself anymore.

The year started with the usual wishes for a fabulous 2026.

The early days of 2026 were clear in the mornings, but cold. It’s a facet of life in a four-season climate. If it’s sunny in the winter, it’s fucken cold. When the temperature is closer to, but still below, freezing, it snows.

The slow return of the light buoyed my mood, and I think I got my daily dose of vitamin D for those few days.

But then, on the morning of the 3rd, Trump attacked Caracas, forcibly extradited Maduro, and held him for trial. He then declared that the US would now “run” Venezuela in a violation of international law.

John Scalzi declined initial comment except to say that the US has done the same thing multiple times over the years. Yes, but in each of those past cases, the government attempted to justify their actions to the UN, NATO, and to the worldwide court of public opinion. Trump didn’t bother with any of that, having only the utmost contempt for all three of those institutions.

I won’t comment on this further, because politics is so not my thing, but I will offer a couple of perspectives from more engaged parties.

For the Canadian angle, Charlie Angus.

And for the American angle, Rebecca Solnit.

I was disappointed in Prime Minister Carney’s tacit approval of Trump’s shenanigans, though.

Here’s a more nuanced discussion of the issues from The Walrus.

Then, on the 7th, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, poet, and community activist, was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Her death sparked protests across the US on the ongoing brutality waged by ICE agents and the Trump administration’s violent attack on communities. Since, many people have been sharing stories of her life and legacy, including her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs,” which won the 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize.

Even more protests followed, as well they should. I had hope that this would be the first crack in the Trump dam, with many more to follow.

Unfortunately, people are suffering in the meantime. Reports from protestors on the ground in Minneapolis are dire. They can’t keep up with the citizen reporting. They’re overwhelmed with the number of ICE agents, and more are on the way. I can only wish them strength to outlast the oppression.

At work, I started a project for the new intake team. It was a refreshing change, a short-term project with existing content that just had to be converted from an instructor-led format into e-learning. My new team lead is high energy, which my neurology absorbs as nervous energy. I have to make myself sit back and ask — is this a suggestion or an instruction? But I adapted.

Then, on the 21st, the week of Blue Monday, the day after Prime Minister Carney’s rousing Davos speech (with which his recent actions and public statements have been seriously at odds with casting doubt on his future actions, see The Tyee for more on that), the day of Trump’s renewed threats against Canada, and Bell Let’s Talk Day, our department was advised that job cuts would begin. Meetings would be held the next day for those affected. I received a meeting notification shortly thereafter.

I seriously tried to remain calm.

Processing by doing seems to help me, so I attended the meeting, met with my manager, made an enquiry with the pension unit, made an enquiry with my HR advisor, made a pension estimate that may or may not be accurate, chatted with my sister-in-law, colleagues, and anyone else who reached out.

The 22nd was exhausting. In the moment, I had to read everything multiple times because I could comprehend nothing. I talked to my manager, I talked to my sister-in-law, I talked to my former team leader, I talked to Phil, I talked to my mom, I talked to a friend, I journalled through it, I RUMINATED.

On the 23rd, I had a meltdown. I realized I was holding my breath, or that I had stopped breathing (usually on the exhale) because I suddenly felt dizzy (!) Not breathing will do that. Sounds were muffled. My ears weren’t ringing, just not earing properly. I was holding so much tension in my body it was manifesting as physical pain. It took me until 2:30 am to feel right enough in my body to try sleeping, which I was thankfully able to do.

This is what a lifetime of masking taught me to do, hold EVERYTHING in. No amount of stimming or breathing exercises or physical activity or tea (I have a selection of adaptogenic teas I employ to combat stress) or anything else I tried brought me out of it. I just had to ride it out.

Symptoms returned in waves in the following days. It was all I could do to try to stay regulated.

And in the middle of my personal crisis Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse just trying to help another protester, was repeatedly pepper sprayed, beaten by multiple “federal officers,” and then shot multiple times. In Minneapolis. Again.

I’ll defer to Heather Cox Richardson, political historian, on this one:

Meanwhile, Maine was dealing with its own ICE invasion, sheltered from media coverage by the killings in Minnesota.

And as January’s final kick in the teeth, beloved Canadian comedian and actor, Catherine O’Hara died on the 30th. This is such a loss.

The month in writing

I focused on finishing the short fiction revisions and submitting another review. As the month wore on and shit continued to hit the fan (see Life in general), writing anything beyond updating this post became impossible.

Toward the end of the month, I touched a short story again, but additional hits of dysregulation pulled me away. The anxiety came in waves and I was tumbled.

On the 5th, my review of Incantations by N. Milanne was published in The Seaboard Review of Books.

On the 14th, Heidi Ulrichsen published this lovely article on Sudbury.com about Super Canucks, edited by Andy Taylor and Mat Del Papa, coming out from Latitude 46 Publishing on March 21, 2026. My story, “Old Crow,” will be in this anthology (in case you didn’t know)!

In writerly business, the SF Canada board met on the 10th to assign roles, schedule our meetings, and discuss what we wanted to do this year. I volunteered for the president’s role, and it looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us this year.

On a personal note, I’m glad it’s the last year I can serve on the board. I need a break from board work. It’s time to reevaluate and reallocate my time and energy to my own creative work.

Filling the well

New Year’s Day was quiet, focused on setting up my trackers and documents for the coming year.

Another discovery I’d made in doing that regarded my poetry. I’d written 16 new poems in 2025, and while I had submitted a few to contests and journals, I hadn’t been able to get further publications. Part of my strategy for 2026 will include sending out more of my poetry.

The full spirit moon in Cancer was on the 3rd. I saw her, late at night while taking Torvi out for finals, with Jupiter alongside. I breathed her in.

The new birch moon in Capricorn was on the 18th, and by then we were into the thick of Trump’s shenanigans and ICE assassinations, and the typically overcast sky made it hard to see much of anything.

Picture of mallard ducks in a winter creek.
No moon pictures this month, but LOOK at the DUCKS!

On the 8th, I signed up for North West Passages, a winter online reading series from The Writers’ Union of Canada. It was hosted by Elizabeth Haynes and featured Anna Elgie, Penny Kome, Lise Mayne, and C.L. Polk (!). A lovely evening.  

I signed up for The Stoplight Strategy for Revision with Natalie Paulson of Six of Wands on the 13th. The event was posted on the Canadian Authors Association Circle platform. It was a technique I’d encountered before, but to have the principles behind it explained was interesting.

On the 14th, I signed up for The Holy Trinity of Fiction: Character, Plot, and Stakes, with Tiffany Yates Martin through Jane Friedman. Fabulous, as always.

The Canadian Artists Network offered a webinar with the Canada Council about their new portal and funding options on the 19th. Great information for when I’m ready to apply again.

On the 29th, I signed up for “Enchanted England: Folklore, Literature, and Landscapes” with Dr. Sara Cleto & Dr. Brittany Warman, a Great Courses Tour promotion that was nonetheless entertaining and informative. If you have any interest in folklore, you should check out the Carterhaugh School. They have a great newsletter and a lot of free resources. It’s also an actual school, though, and there are paid courses.

My monthly therapy appointment was on the 15th. I discussed a few recent issues, and we got through two more values domains, work and education.

My support group met on the 28th. The topic for January was rejection-sensitive dysphoria and rumination, things I struggle with. I’m beginning to think that I’m outgrowing the support group, though. Most of the participants are significantly younger than I am and their interests do not coincide with my own. Now that I have a neurodivergent-affirming therapist, I’m wondering if I still need a support group, or if I can find something else to support me as an autistic diagnosed in middle age.

What I’m watching and reading

My first watch of 2026 was Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV +). This clever detective story starts with a dinner party held by Sarah Trafford and her husband Mark during which an explosion occurs. Sarah’s neighbour Maddie Singleton is killed in the explosion and Maddie’s daughter Dinah is taken to the hospital. When she is prevented from visiting Dinah at the hospital the next day and notices that Dinah is being erased from the media reporting of the incident, Sarah contacts a detective, Joe Silvermann. Joe digs into the situation and reports that Dinah is being moved in secret. Sarah rushes to the hospital but fails to intercept Dinah. When she returns to Joe, she finds him dead of an apparent suicide. Sarah teams up with Joe’s partner and spouse Zoë Boehm to find Dinah and solve Joe’s murder. Excellent!

Then, I finished watching Lisey’s Story (Apple TV +). This adaptation of Stephen King’s 2006 novel, also written by King, is about trauma, its relation to creativity, and the power of love to heal. It’s also about grief, legacy, and what can happen when stalkery fans take things too far.

Two years after her husband, beloved author Scott Landon, dies, his wife, Lisey is still mired in grief. A professor and fan contacts her to release Scott’s unpublished novels. When she refuses to release them, the professor contacts another fan, Jim Dooley, who agrees to “convince” Lisey to relinquish Scott’s unpublished works. Meanwhile, Lisey is also concerned about her sister, Amanda, whose mental deterioration and self-harm result in her institutionalization. Before his death, Scott sets Lisey a “bool hunt,” a kind of treasure hunt and, as she slowly sorts through his possessions, she finds the clues and follows them.

It’s a weird one, but King, in a bonus interview for Apple, said that it was one of his most personal and beloved stories. Imagination literally bestows the power to travel to another world. Enjoyable, but really creepy and extremely violent.

Next, continuing my Apple TV + trend, I finished Pluribus. Carol Sturka is a science fiction romance author on her latest book tour, when everyone around her, including her partner, Helen, begins to seize. While most people recover and gather around her, smiling and asking in eerie unison, “How can we help?” Helen dies in Carol’s arms, and she commandeers a truck to take her beloved home. What follows is a cosmic virus take on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers but if the aliens were an eternally happy extremely pacifist (can’t pick an apple off the tree but will eat windfalls) hivemind whose only imperative is to spread until literally all sentient beings are one. Since the hivemind is a virus, there are a few, like Carol, who are immune, but they’re working on a way to “fix” Carol and the other immune humans so they can join the hivemind … soon. Most of what I’ve shared is in the trailers, so I haven’t spoiled anything. This is a watch that makes you think and surprises you at every turn. The tag line is this: What if the grumpiest misanthrope on the planet tried to save the world from happiness? SO good!

Then I finished watching the National Geographic limited series, Witches: Truth Behind the Trials (Disney +). Interesting background on trials in Germany, Scotland, England, Sweden, America, and Ireland.

I watched The Holdovers (Netflix). This was a Friendly Space Ninja recommendation. At Barton, an all-boy boarding school in December 1970, unpopular and curmudgeonly teacher, Paul Hunham, is stuck with the responsibility of watching the students who must stay at the school over the holidays. Among the students is Angus Tully, who’s been kicked out of four schools already. His mother and stepfather have threatened military school. After a few days, one of the students convinces his father to take everyone on a ski trip — if their parents give permission. Only Angus’ parents fail to respond. Thus begins Angus and Paul’s journeys of self discovery, accompanied by Mary, the school’s cook, whose son, a Barton student, has recently been killed in the Vietnam war. A lovely movie about outsiders coming together to heal past wounds and the sacrifices they make for each other.

Then, I watched Rye Lane (Disney +), another Friendly Space Ninja recommendation. This sweet romantic comedy follows Dom and Yas through a rambling series of events in South London. Yas finds Dom weeping in the unisex loo and decides to cheer him up, showing up at his post-breakup reconciliation lunch with his ex and her new boo, Dom’s best friend. Yas pretends to be Dom’s new girlfriend and the two spin a meet-cute tale of a rave karaoke performance, which they later, inadvertently make a reality. Yas is coming off her own breakup, but lies to Dom, not wanting to seem as pathetic as he was. Mild spoilers, of course the two get together, but not before Dom catches Yas in her lie and the two go their separate ways.

My first listen of the year was the Saga Double Red Star Hustle, a short novel by Sam J. Miller and Apprehension, a novella by Mary Robinette Kowal. I remember seeing paired novels/novellas in the way back times (80s) displayed on metal carousels in my local convenience store. I think Tor published them. On one side was the first novel’s cover and, flipping it over, the second novel’s cover was on the back. Saga is now apparently trying the practice out to see if readers will be attracted.

Red Star Hustle is about a sex worker named Aran with a traumatic past and a set of addictions he can’t kick, who has a side hustle (as apparently all sex workers do) as an intelligence operative. He’s framed for the murder of a filmmaker client of his and goes on the run through the galaxy-spanning system of stable wormhole gates. Security agent and former mech battle star Imadi has been tasked with hunting Aran down, but she has secrets of her own that she can’t risk getting out. The story focuses on generational trauma, addiction and recovery, and queer messiness to the exclusion of the thriller cat and mouse plot. Like its two point-of-view characters, Red Star Hustle is a bit of a hot mess.

Apprehension, on the other hand, is classic Mary Robinette Kowal, featuring a septuagenarian protagonist, Bonnyjean, a grieving mother, neurosurgeon with a bad hip, and former special forces operative returning to Nahatanau, the world where she was a prisoner of war 40 years ago, with her recently-widowed son-in-law, Jax, a former popstar, and grandson Tristan, for a vacation. Things go sideways when Tristan is abducted, drawing Bonnyjean into an assassination plot, but all she wants to do is get Tristan back, if her hip doesn’t give out before she can. Excellent!

Then, I finished reading Artificial Condition, the second in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. After leaving Dr. Mensa and the Preservation Alliance, Murderbot heads to the place where it thinks it might have earned its name. On the way, it’s forced to accept a ride of a research transport, which it calls ART — read the book if you want to find out why! Of course, in order to get to the site of the massacre, Murderbot must masquerade as a human security consultant and accept a job with another hapless group of humans. Things do not go as planned. Loved!

My next listen was The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons from the Sawtooth Pack by Jim and Jamie Dutcher. Ah, my heart! The Dutchers lived alongside three generations of a wolf pack taking video and audio recordings of them for six years. This audiobook is the collected wisdom the wolves taught them. Adored!

I listened to Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes. This Sapphic Holmsian mystery set on Jupiter (or Giant as its inhabitants call it) where humans live on platforms set high in the atmosphere of the planet and connected by rings on which railcars run. The story follows Inspector Mossa as she solves the mystery of a man who seems to have fallen, been pushed, or … leapt off a remote platform and into the storms and crushing gravity of Giant. As the missing and presumed dead man worked in the classics department (dedicated to the study of life on Earth and how humanity might be able to return there) of Veldegeld University, Mossa comes into the orbit of her former roommate and lover Pleiti, also a classisist. Mossa is the Holmes of this mystery, ND-coded, intensely bright, often distracted, and focused on the mystery she must solve to the exclusion of — nearly — everything else. Pleiti is, of course, Mossa’s Watson, as clever in her field as Mossa is in hers. Fabulous world and worldbuilding. Fabulous characters, mystery, and romantic subplot. Just fabulous.

Next, I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I nabbed the e-book on the recommendation of Charlie Rewilding, who embarked on a digital cleanse a few years ago. It’s a good book, even if it is a bit dated now, but I realized something in the reading. I am not addicted to social media. I’m already a digital minimalist in my own way. My phone is more of an e-reader and for listening to my audiobooks. It was validating. However, if you do find yourself spending hours on social media or doomscrolling without purpose, you might want to give this book a read.

Then, I finished reading Shani Mootoo’s Starry Starry Night. Six-year-old Anjula Ghoshal lives with Ma and Pa in Trinidad and does not understand why she must go live with strangers she must call Mummy and Daddy, with Tara and Anil, whom she is told are her brother and sister. Mootoo masters the stream of consciousness of Anju, who much prefers Andru, please, as we follow her through personal upheavals against the backdrop of Trinidad’s political evolution toward independence. Each section of the novel is named for the street on which each successive house Anju lives in through the six years covered by the novel. A compelling coming-of-age story of love and loss and disillusionment, which leaves the reader wondering, along with Anju, “If everything dies, why does it have to go through the whole of living to get to dying?” Excellent.

Next, I listened to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Yes, I’m trying to backfill my classics reading as I can with audiobooks as I find them in the Audible Plus library. I haven’t seen any of the adaptations of the novel either. I enjoyed the story, overall, though I was put off with the underlying (and sometimes overt — the girls “play” Pilgrim’s Progress) religious thrum throughout.

The four March girls are the eponymous “little women,” something their father, a chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War, calls them in his letters home. The March family lives in “genteel poverty,” that is, they used to have modest wealth but have lost it all. Meg is the oldest and a completely traditional woman, interested in making a good match and being a good wife and mother like Marmee. Jo is a tomboy, author, and is hot-tempered. Beth is shy and gentle, plays the piano, must be home-schooled, and is of frail health. Amy is materialistic and too easily influenced by what others think is fashionable. The novel follows them through their youth with rich neighbour Theodore “Laurie” Laurence through to young adulthood in which three of the four girls find love, get married, and have children.

Then, I finished reading Cait Gordon’s Speculative Shorts: Stories that Fell Out of My Brain. This lovely suite of inclusive speculative short fiction explores queer life, disability, neurodivergence, romance, power, defiance, and resilience. A great collection. Highly recommend!

Next, I read Exit Strategy, the fourth book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. You may remember I read the third in the series last year (lol).

Just to remind you what happened in Rogue Protocol, Murderbot makes its way to Milu, hoping to gather more evidence against GrayCris and poses as a security consultant. When battle with a combat secunit reveals what Murderbot is (i.e., also secunit), it changes its cover to a secunit remotely supervised by a security consultant and helps the group recover their abducted colleague. Does Murderbot get the evidence against GrayCris it needs? Boy howdy, does it!

In Exist Strategy, Murderbot is drawn to a corporate hub where its owner/friend Dr. Mensah is being held against her will. Pin-Lee, Gurathin, and Ratthi have also arrived at the hub and are trying to raise the funds to pay Mensah’s ransom. Murderbot must extract Mensah from GrayCris and devise an exit strategy that gets them all off the hub safely. As always, things do not go as planned! Another entertaining read!

Then, I listened to The Film Makers, an Audible Original featuring Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous), Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Poker Face), Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind), Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless), Richard Linklater (School of Rock, the Before Trilogy), and Chloë Zhao (Nomadland, The Eternals). The revelation (for me) was Natasha Lyonne. Such a fascinating background and story! And I loved how Chloë Zhao considered her movies (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider, Nomadland, and The Eternals) in the frame of a classical quartet, that is three tragic stories followed by a parody. You really must listen to her explanation to get the picture. But of course, everyone was fabulous. Enlightening!

When I saw that Ken Cuperus had written a spinoff of the Mistletoe Murders series for Audible Originals, I had to listen! In Middlebridge Mysteries, Violet Wilner, Sam’s daughter and Emily Lane’s former favourite employee, is in her first year of her criminology degree at Middlebridge University, her mom’s alma mater. This is her dream, but a hard-partying roommate, an irritating classmate, a demanding professor, a charming football player, and a series of mysteries conspire to distract Violet from her classes, and there’s nothing that distracts her more than a good mystery! Can Violet juggle everything, find justice, and still pass her classes? A charming cozy. Can’t wait for the next instalment!

I finished the month by listening to Richard Wagamese’s One Drum. Though unfinished at the time of his death in 2017, the three Ojibway grandfather teachings he covers in this book really spoke to me in this eventful month of January 2026. If you haven’t read Wagamese, I’ll encourage you to pick this, or really any of his books, up. I have not failed to be moved by his work, whether fiction (Indian Horse, Starlight) or his non-fiction.

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. https://melaniemarttila.ca

I acknowledge with respect that I am in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, that the land from which I write is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and home of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitae First Nation.

The next chapter: December 2025 update and year-end review

/ Melanie Marttila / Leave a comment

Hi-ho, hi-ho …

A picture of a winter sky.

Life in general

I returned to work on December 1st, after a five-week leave. And discovered things were pretty much as I’d left them. Yes, the training for trainers had taken place and everyone was impressed with my reworking and additions to the Nation Learning Roadmap courses for facilitators. Yes, the pilot had taken place and was a little bit of chaos.

But now we had another slate of recommended changes to be made by the 19th.

I got back to the grind.

Come the 19th, there were still outstanding courses and modules left to be received from the content writers (or rewriters in this case) but I turned on my out of office notification and logged out of my work computer determined not to think about work for the next nine days.

On the 4th, I received an email advising that I was eligible for the Early Retirement Initiative, which was part of the recently-passed budget. Immediately, I went into panic mode. WHAT DID THIS MEAN?! I called my team lead, who’d received the same email. We discussed. Then I did the smart thing and contacted my sister-in-law, who’d been looking into the situation for months.

TL;DR: Hold steady. This is just the first volley of the employer trying to get people to leave without availing themselves of the workforce adjustment provisions in our collective agreement.

I later learned that 60,000 emails had been sent in the hope of getting 40,000 employees to opt in. Another article released in Quebec, perpetuated the rumour that the return to 5 days in the office would start in 2026.

Still later, the news and the union started to report that job cuts would begin in the new year. Management indicated that they had no information to report, but they were committed to transparency.

On the 7th, I slipped and fell while walking Torvi (a combination of unplowed sidewalk and a dancing dog) and sprained the middle finger on my right hand (fuck!). It was purple, swollen, and had limited mobility for the first few days. And boy, did I learn how much I use my right hand to grip, lift, and carry things. A friend suggested that maybe I’d broken it, but I could still move it and didn’t think so.

A picture of a sprained, or possibly broken finger.

Typing wasn’t an issue (thank goodness), but the accident really made me aware of my body, or at least my hand, in a way I hadn’t been for ages.

By the end of the first week, the bruising had worked its way through black to brown to yellow, though it was still painful and swollen. I finally checked Dr. Google, and it is possible that I’ve broken the finger. If I have, it’s a stable fracture (no deformation) and the only thing that might have been done was to splint the finger or buddy-bind it with another finger. Movement would probably still have been advised as a form of physiotherapy. I honestly didn’t think I needed to go to the clinic, though. I would have been waiting for hours in a room with a bunch of people with seasonal viruses I don’t need to catch.

I was still treating my seasonal sinus thing. Once the snow stayed, the allergic triggers shouldn’t have been an issue. At one point, I was feeling well enough to try going without the Ryaltris, but within a few hours, a headache set in, followed by chunks of bloody mucus in my blowings, so I resumed.

It soon became apparent that the bloody snot would continue, regardless. I chalked it up to the dry winter air, inside and out, and let my immune system deal with it as it would with neti-pot and supplemental (Emergen-C and Cold FX) support.

I also deduced that the continued use of the Ryaltris when I no longer needed it may have made my nasal tissues more sensitive. Whatever the cause, the bloody snots slowed down after a couple of days.

Also still dealing with the dregs of the eczema. Though it’s no longer itchy or swollen, eczema’s not really gone until the discoloured, leathery skin returns to normal.

I got the notification on the 9th that I was not selected for the intake unit. There may be opportunities in the future, as I was advised that they may rotate people through the unit.

Which made the Power BI course I took from the 8th to the 11th less relevant/urgent. It’s still an asset, but I might have been able to use the 3 hours of class a day in a more productive manner. Productivity matters at work. A year and ten months until pre-retirement leave. Three years and ten months until retirement. Unless I’m surplussed, and then workforce adjustment provisions should compensate me appropriately.

Then, my team lead advised that, while we still had to fulfill our commitment to the current (albatross) project, we would be the design team attached to the intake unit and would handle any learning materials that did not already have a design team committed to the subject matter. This meant that we would be doing several different short-term projects in the new year.

I was looking forward but still dwelling in the uncertainty of potential lay offs. As a unilingual English employee within five years of retirement, I’ll probably be one of the first to go … after the term employees.

But I was grateful to have the week of Christmas off. After only 3 weeks of work, I needed another break.

The month in writing

After finishing the last cutting pass last month, I took a break from Reality Bomb and let the project simmer in the back of my mind. I’m already mulling over ideas for how to rewrite the first chapter and further tweak the draft.

In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention to working on a couple of short stories for future submissions as well as some poetry.

While I was at my latest appointment with my therapist, I articulated a decision I hadn’t even known I was contemplating. I’m going to put off the cleaning/reorganizing of my office until I have RB in the query pipeline. I’ll have the headspace/spoons to dedicate some time to it without having to worry about a creative project.

Yes, I’ll then have to get back to working on my next creative project, but I figure I can take a week or two to deal with my environment and dive back in refreshed and feeling like I’ve accomplished something. Until then, I’ll just do a few small things. There’s already more candle glass to clean up, more essential oil bottles to clean, plants to repot, a bulletin board and white board I haven’t been using to take down and store, that kind of thing.

On the 4th, Frances Boyle’s lovely review of The Art of Floating was published in ARC Poetry Magazine online. I’m so grateful that my debut collection is still getting attention more than a year out from publication.

I took part in the open mic reading at the Latitude 46 stop in the Downtown Sudbury Art Crawl on the 6th. Had a lovely afternoon chatting with writerly friends.

On the 12th, the revised cover of Super Canucks was released. Apparently, there were problems with the original.

The cover of Super Canucks.

The SF Canada annual general meeting was on the 14th. And it went swimmingly! We have a complete board, internal auditors, and a few ideas for the coming year!

The year in review

In 2024, I started out in the usual fashion, establishing which projects I would work on and word count goals to achieve, and entering everything into my Excel tracker, but something happened early in the year that made me change course. I realized that having these goals was stressing me out. Because of my uneven productivity, I wouldn’t always (or even often) meet these arbitrary goals and every time I missed one, I’d get distressed.

So, in 2025, I just put in the projects I hoped to work on, but no word count goals. Accordingly, my Excel has become a true tracker of my progress, and I can use the totals page at the end to show me what I accomplished rather than flog myself with all the goals I missed in the year.

It’s been a great boost for my mental health.

A screenshot of my writing and revision totals for 2025.

Here’s how the year broke down:

I wrote 58,075 words. 7,549 of them in creative non-fiction. Mostly these were my book reviews, but there was also a CNF flash piece that I wrote and submitted. The remaining 50,510 words were my newsletters/blog posts.

I revised -7,620 words, subtracting 7,301 words from Reality Bomb and the remaining 319 from a couple of short stories I was revising.

I reviewed my annual writing totals since I started using the tracking Excel. In general terms, from 2014 to 2020, I wrote between 150,000 and 300,000 words a year. In 2021, the year I suffered a crisis of creative confidence and obtained my autism diagnosis, my annual writing total was 68,000 words.

That was the first crack in my writerly façade, and the first year of my latest burnout. In 2022, I felt I had recovered, and my total went up to 100,000 words, but it’s clear that was unsustainable. Since then, I’ve written between 45,000 and 60,000 words a year, most of them on my blog/newsletters. But my focus has also shifted from drafting to revision, with regard to my novels and short fiction.

My word for 2026 is balance. I need to find the balance between creative production and rest and work. My autistic brain needs it.

In terms of reading (paper, e-book, and audiobook), I read 97 books this year! I’d actually set my goal low, at 60 books, raised it twice, and still read more than my goal.

A note about my reading habits. Because I work, I’ve structured my reading time around my lunch and breaks, and I usually have 6 books on the go at any given time. A paper book, a kindle e-book, a Kobo e-book, a pdf e-book (usually a review book these days), another book that could be a reread, and therefore paper, or research, and likely a library e-book loan, and an audiobook that I listen to while I walk Torvi and do random tasks.

This is why I appear to be a fast reader, but am, in fact a very slow reader. Sure, I go through audiobooks at a rapid pace, but reading a paper or e-book takes time. Sometimes a lot of time. This is low-key distressing, because in my youth, I used to read very rapidly. A book a day sometimes. I can’t do that anymore in middle age.

Also, I’ve tried to continue reading when I’m not working but find it’s difficult to fit reading in when I don’t have a designated break or lunch within which to read. I’ll have to figure out a system by the time I retire but, for now, it’s easier to read in short bursts while I’m working than when I’m off.

This year has not been a productive one. Because I’ve been struggling with burnout, I haven’t produced a lot. I only have one publication this year (aside from reviews) and that is a very short poem, “Pocket Dimension,” that was published in Polar Starlight 17 in February.

Still, I’m going to submit it for consideration for the Aurora Awards and to Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 4 for consideration. I had hoped that Super Canucks, and therefore my story “Old Crow,” would have been published in 2025, but due to various factors, it could not be added to Latitude 46’s 2025 release schedule.

With my publications over the past few years (at least one story and several poems) it’s felt weird to have a “fallow year.” But I recognize that I must be gentle with myself. If I push and try to produce while my brain is giving “hard no” vibes, it’s not going to do me or my creative work any favours.

Filling the well

The full freezing moon in Gemini was on the 4th. Though it was a sunny day, it was dark by the time the moon rose.

A picture of the three quarter waning moon.

The new reed moon in Sagittarius was on the 19th. It was raining and melty, which was a bit of a downer at this time of year.

And winter arrived on the 21st with the solstice. After this, the light slowly began to return.

A detail from my winter solstice altar.

The final class of Unmasking through our writing with Muratroyd Monaghan was on the 4th. It was a great course, and I would highly recommend it to any ND authors. She’ll be offering it again in 2026. Stay on the look out. The organizer is Off Topic Publishing.

I finished the Christmassing on the 11th! I’ve been a little slower this year than in the last couple getting the tree and decorations up.

My next therapy appointment was on the 15th. We chatted about my plans for the holidays and when I outlined my week ahead (three appointments during the week while working, hair appointment and Mom’s birthday dinner on the 20th, and a cookie exchange on the 21st), she asked me how I felt about that. In the moment, I’d said that I was trying to spread things out and that the appointments during the week were focused on self-care. Once my very busy week had passed, though, I realized that I hadn’t done myself any favours. I think she was trying to cue me to the fact that I was doing too much. In retrospect, I agree, but hindsight is always clearer, especially when you have trouble living in the moment.

I had another glorious massage on the 17th.

Also on the 17th was my support group meeting. The topic this month was family. Good preparation for the holiday season. This time around, I was the odd one out, having a small family and no real family conflicts at this time of the year.

Torvi got her regular touch-up on the 19th.

On the 20th, I took my mom out for a pre-holiday trim and then Phil and I took her out to her favourite restaurant to celebrate her birthday.

My sister-in-law hosted a cookie exchange on the 21st. It started at 1 and Mom and I left at 3:30. It was a very social afternoon with mimosas to start, a buffet-style assortment of finger foods and appetizers, and, of course, cookies.

One thing I realized after the fact, as I was recovering from my “social hangover,” was that these kinds of events are not my cuppa. Too loud, too many people talking all at once. I’ll probably go again, but I may have more of a strategy around it. Prep for a few days before (and clear the decks of all other obligations, appointments, etc., if possible) and make sure I have time and space after to recover.

We celebrated Christmas on Boxing Day, to allow my sister-in-law and mom-in-law to attend their in-law celebrations on Christmas Day. It was a nice, family-focused evening, but stormy weather added to the stress of travelling (even a relatively short distance), and I found myself in recovery mode again, following.

Finally, friends from out of town visited on the 27th. Unfortunately, because my brain was mush, I wasn’t a particularly good host, but I enjoyed the evening.

What I’m watching and reading

The first series I finished watching in December was the full run of Inu Yasha (Netflix). It’s taken years, y’all! I used to watch episodes on YTV … way back, and when I saw that the whole series was available, I started a rewatch. This is another comfort watch for me. The whole series is too involved to get into any detail. Suffice it to say that Kagome falls through the Well of Bones back in time to feudal-era Japan, where she teams up with a half-dog-demon (Inu Yasha), a fox demon pup (Shippo), a lecherous monk (Miroku), and a demon hunter (Sango) to collect the scattered shards of the Shikon jewel before the half-demon Naraku (with whom everyone has beef) can. There are lots of recurring secondary characters that are as interesting as the main cast. Very fun. All the nostalgic.

Then, I watched Wake Up, Dead Man (Netflix). Rian Johnson’s latest Benoit Blanc mystery is engaging, amusing, and all kinds of awesome. Father Jud, a former boxer from New York, is assigned to the rural parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude after he punches a deacon. Even the bishop agrees that the deacon was a jerk, but it’s probably a good idea for Jud to get out of the city for a while. Father Jud is immediately at odds with Monsignor Wicks, the parish priest who insists on the title of monsignor. Wicks has driven away almost all his parishioners with his condemning sermons. On Good Friday, Wicks retreats into a closet to “recover” from his homily, and Jud takes over the service only to hear a clatter from the closet. Opening the door, Jud finds Wicks face down and stabbed in the back. Jud is the prime suspect, for reasons (watch the movie, people!).

The ultimate locked room mystery causes the local police to call in the renowned Benoit Blanc, who is as over-the-top and overconfident as ever, to solve the murder. Great performances from a stellar cast, and a twist that will have viewers wondering whether Benoit Blanc has at last met his match. Loved!

After I finished the latest season of Only Murders in the Building last month, Disney + recommended the Only Murders in the Building Official Podcast. It was apparently intended to be viewed as the new episodes were released, but I found the behind-the scenes interviews with the cast, writers, and showrunner interesting and entertaining.

Next, I finished watching The Bad Guys series and seasonal specials (Netflix). I started with Haunted Heist, moved through the Breaking In series, and finished with A Very Bad Holiday. These are all prequels to the first movie and lead up to the Bad Guys becoming the less-Bad Guys – Lol! Mostly, the series focuses on the gang trying to make the list of the baddest of the bad. And failing. But they each have their own journeys preparing them for the first movie switch.

Then, on the recommendation of Friendly Space Ninja, I checked out Kill Boksoon (Netflix). This is a dubbed Korean movie that’s basically John Wick with a single mother as the protagonist and no dead puppies.

Gil Bok-soon is a professional assassin working for the MK company. She has this skill, much like Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, where she runs through the possible outcomes of her actions before she decides what to do. Bok-soon tries to be a good mother and protect her daughter, Jae-yeong, from the dark life she leads. She considers leaving the business, but when Jae-yeong stabs a fellow student in the neck (not fatally) and is under threat of expulsion, MK’s director convinces her to take on another contract, or show. In the middle of Bok-soon’s show, Jae-yeong calls her to confess why she stabbed her fellow student and Bok-soon decides not to complete the contract. Things devolve from there, forcing Bok-soon to kill her way free of MK’s current management. A little slower than John Wick, but the fight scenes are excellent, and the story is more compelling.

I watched the first season of The Mighty Nein (Prime). I tried to get Phil interested, but he wasn’t as keen on this Critical Role offering as he was on The Legend of Vox Machina. Most of the season was about the group coming together while the Trent Ikithon stole the Beacon from the Kryn Dynasty. The two storylines are brought together when the Gentleman hires the Mighty Nein to steal the Beacon from Trent. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Because I’d enjoyed the first The Bad Guys movie, series, and seasonal specials, I decided to watch The Bad Guys 2 on Prime. Picking up after the events of the first movie, the Bad Guys are having a rough go trying to find work with criminal records. After serving their time, they’ve gone straight, but no one is willing to give them a chance. They try to prove themselves by bringing in the Phantom Bandit. Instead, the Phantom Bandit blackmails them into performing one last heist. She has footage that identifies Diane Foxington, now governor, as the Crimson Paw and will release it, ruining Diane’s career, unless the Bad Guys comply. All sorts of call backs and shout outs to various movies and series. It’s a lot of fun.

Then, I saw Hazbin Hotel Live on Broadway was out on Prime (!) and had to watch it. Like the OMitB podcast, it was intended to be viewed before the second season aired. Regardless, it was a beautiful fan-fest with cosplayers and musical performances of songs from the series. I may have to get the soundtrack.

I finished watching season 4 of The Witcher (Netflix). Liam Hemsworth makes a nearly seamless new Geralt (I feel I should not be surprised, but I was). Ciri has relinquished her powers and taken the name of Falka, joining The Rats, a gang of thieves. Thinking that Ciri is in Niflgard, Geralt, Jaskier, and Milva fight their way there. Yennefer gathers the remaining sorcerers and initiates in an attempt to defeat Vilgefortz. The end of the season sees Ciri in the hands of Bonhart, a witcher-killer, Geralt sworn to Queen Neve’s service, and Yennefer off to confront Vilgefortz alone.

Finally, on December 31st, Phil and I watched the finale of Stranger Things (Netflix). The Duffer brothers managed to bring everything around to a satisfying close. Hawkins is occupied by the military and “rockin’” Robin and Steve take over the local radio station to keep the residents informed and secretly organize Hopper’s “crawls” in the upside down in search of Vecna while El trains to confront him. Then Holly Wheeler is abducted and Vecna’s plot is slowly uncovered. I won’t get into the rest of the season, because it is a worthwhile watch, if you’ve been following the series. Mind you, if you’re a fan, or just a completionist, you’ve probably already seen it.

Yes, there are a fair number of pivotal events that happen off screen. Yes, there are plot holes and unresolved plotlines. But it’s an entertaining and dynamic season of an entertaining and dynamic series with much nostalgia and 80s fan service. The ending is bittersweet, with the older gang members reminiscing and making plans to keep in touch, Hopper proposing to Joyce, and Mike’s post-D&D storytelling making hopeful, if fictional, sense of everything. It was also nice to see the next generation of gamers taking over the table.

My first listen of the month was another Great Courses/Audible original collaboration, Witchcraft in the Western Tradition by Jennifer McNabb. From the witch hunts of early 15th century Europe through the “satanic panic” of the 80s to the current moment of neo-paganism, McNabb examines not only what happened, but the causes and the sometimes-surprising results of witch hunts through the ages.

Then, I listened to Mistletoe Murders 4 by Ken Cupris. Mild spoilers for MM3 if you haven’t listened yet. After finding the body of her former lover and fellow agent under her Christmas tree, Emily Lane is forced into hiding for 11 months with only a voicemail to Sam, the police officer she’s falling in love with. When she returns to Fletcher’s Grove, the entire town is undergoing a facelift, Sam has a new girlfriend, and Sam’s daughter Violet has left for college. Everything’s changed, except murder. This edition features three new mysteries for Emily to solve. Fun, cozy, and just the thing to put you in the mood for the holidays.

My next listen was Grimm’s Fairy Stories, translated by Margaret Hunt. These are all the traditional tales, Little Snow White, Thumbling and Tom Thumb, Brian Rose, Cinderella, Little Red Cap (with alternate ending), The Frog Prince (which is more bizarre than I remember), and more. 25 tales that will give you all the background on the Disney princesses you’ll ever want. Just kidding. A classic.

I also listened to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Yes, another classic I hadn’t read! I loved this gentle fable about the power of nature to heal. When Mary is the only survivor of a cholera outbreak that sweeps her home in India, she is sent to live at her uncle’s house in Yorkshire. She arrives a thin, jaundiced girl with a sour disposition, having only ever been waited on hand and foot by Indian servants while her parents lived their lives as if she didn’t exist. Her uncle, Archibald Craven, is often away and his housekeeper meets Mary at the train. In her first days, she’s told the tragic tale of how her uncle’s wife fell out of a tree in her favourite garden and died, prompting her uncle to lock the garden and bury the key. She soon becomes obsessed with finding the secret garden. It’s absolutely lovely and I really enjoyed the authentic Yorkshire spoken by the narrator. It added so much to the tale.

Then, I read Incantations by N. (Nicole) Milanne, the first self-published book in her projected Jeannie’s Bottle series. This sweet middle-grade tale follows 12-year-old Jeannie, whose mother Clara, disappeared and is presumed dead. After her father’s dental practice fails, Jeannie, her dad, and her little brother move to Shallow Cove to live with Aunt Marid (in Islamic tradition, a marid is a demon like an ifrit), whose vegan cuisine Jeannie considers a trial. At her new school, Jeannie makes friends with UFO-obsessed Rita but is also harassed by “Glam Girl” Leah, and her English teacher, Mr. Queue, gives her the creeps. While helping at Aunt Marid’s second-hand shop, Mr. Queue shows up with a box of donations and Jeannie finds a brass bottle inside, which she promptly takes when it begins to glow.

Later, when she deciphers the inscription and recites it, Anpudru (Dru) the jinn emerges from the bottle. Bound to the bottle, Dru must obey many rules, like speaking in awkward forced rhyme. He can also grant Jeannie one wish per day. Jeannie’s first wish? That Leah can’t talk anymore. That goes about as well as you might expect. The story follows Jeannie as she learns to use her wishes more responsibly, while trying to solve the mystery of why Mr. Queue seems to have an interest in her. The crisis culminates on Halloween night under a blood moon lunar eclipse, and Jeannie learns who Mr. Queue really is.

I finally finished my reread of C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy. As lovely as I remember. One of my foundational series that got me into writing fantasy.

Next, I listened to Mur Lafferty’s Station Eternity, the first in her Midsolar Murders series. Mallory Viridian seems to attract murders wherever she goes, and she only failed to solve the first few — including the murder of her mother — because she was too young to put the pieces together. But as she grows up, her talent only seems to put her on the list of suspects, and the authorities actively block her from becoming a police officer or private detective. She can’t go to school or hold down a job because if she’s around people, they eventually get murdered. Stuck volunteering at an animal shelter and writing novels about the mysteries she solves to earn a living, Mallory eventually witnesses one murder too many and appeals to the alien-only sentient space station Eternity. If she can live someplace where there aren’t humans around, maybe she won’t be responsible for any further death. Unfortunately, Eternity subsequently accepts human tourists and before they even arrive, another murder — that of Eternity’s alien symbiont, or host — throws Eternity into chaos and threatens the life of every sentient species aboard. Can Mallory solve the murder before Eternity self-destructs? Awesome in every way. LOVED!

I loved it so much, in fact, that I immediately started in on the next audiobook in the series, Chaos Terminal. Mild spoilers for Station Eternity follow. Mrs. Brown, Eternity’s new human host, must travel to Eternity’s home world to learn how to be a proper host to a sentient space station. She takes Eternity’s daughter, the shuttle Infinity, depriving Xan, a former soldier claiming sanctuary on Eternity, of both his living quarters and his symbiotic partner. She also leaves Mallory in charge because of her symbiotic bond with the wasp-like sundry, who maintain Eternity’s systems. Eternity herself will be dormant for the duration of her host’s absence.

When another shuttle from Earth arrives with the new human ambassador, Mallory is completely blindsided to find the other passengers include the SBI agent who claimed the credit for all of Mallory’s solved murders on Earth, Mallory’s best friend from high school, now a quantum physicist, and her brother, Mallory’s high school crush — who, until the moment she saw him again, she had completely forgotten existed (!) Of course, murder follows on the heels of the shuttle’s arrival, and Mallory must try to solve the murder on a dormant station. Worse, she discovers bodies of hundreds of sundry and loses her connection to their hive mind, the very connection that allowed her to solve murders in the first place. How will she solve the murder during all this chaos? Another amazing listen.

So, of course, I headed right into book three of the Midsolar Murders, Infinite Archive. For a few months, Mallory is blissfully murder-free, but her time is taken up with raising the sentient ship Moebius and trying to reconnect with the sundry hive mind. She’s so absorbed in these tasks that she misses a visit from Queen Tina and Ferdinand, her nice (a rock-like alien species, not the adjective) friends from Bezoar … and a bunch of messages from her agent telling her that he’s coming to Eternity on a murder mystery convention on a giant, one-of-a-kind sentient ship called Metis and wants to talk about her next novel and, oh, and by the way he’s signed her up to be the keynote speaker and participate in a murder mystery LARP. By the time Xan prompts her to check her messages, Metis is already in transit. Never having delivered a keynote, Mallory panics and then enters research mode. When she meets with her agent, he wants her to write a cozy mystery instead of waiting for the next murder to happen, causing her to spin out further.

Then Tina returns with a “new friend,” an unknown alien, from Bezoar, and Moebius goes missing, and Mallory’s agent turns up dead in the ladies restroom where his newest author has also been assaulted, and Metis, who contains a copy of the entire internet in pocket dimensions, starts to malfunction, and things get more chaotic from there. An interesting commentary on the writing life, the publishing industry, and fan fiction. Wild but fun. I hope she continues the series.

I’ve listened to Mur’s podcast, I Should be Writing, for years, and she did a lot of research to learn how to write a mystery, like studying Agatha Christie’s entire oeuvre.

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. https://melaniemarttila.ca

I acknowledge with respect that I am in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, that the land from which I write is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and home of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitae First Nation.

The next chapter: August 2025 update

/ Melanie Marttila

If I don’t accept your “gift,” it’s yours to keep.

A picture of a blue sky with clouds.

Life in general

I was introduced to a story about the Buddha. It goeth thusly: a man goes up to the Buddha and calls him a fraud. The Buddha says nothing. The man angrily demands to be acknowledged, to hear the Buddha’s response to his accusation. After a while, the Buddha asks the man, “Who does a gift belong to if it is refused?” “To the person who gives it,” the man replies. “I have refused your anger. You may keep it,” the Buddha says and returns to his meditation.

This story is about not taking on other people’s opinions of you, not taking on unnecessary emotional (or other) labour, and about maintaining healthy boundaries. This is my current challenge.

Things were going well, but by the middle of second week of full-time work, I could feel the tired creeping up on me again. I could feel my level of meh and frustration with the ongoing project rise. It didn’t help that the goalposts were moved again. I wondered if I’d ever get out of the seemingly endless cycle of eternally revised content.

I tried some additional accommodations in the interest of conserving spoons during day job hours to devote them to my creative work. I have a new kitchen timer, so I can put it on for 20 minutes to give myself a reminder to step away from my desk when I need to. I don’t even mind the ticking, because it keeps me from going down the hyperfocus rabbit hole.

It works well … if I remember to use it, which is the problem.

I started standing for my workday. I have an adjustable desk at home and can raise and lower it as needed. Again, it helps keep me present … but my feet, knees, and lower back don’t enjoy it.

I use the fitness ball to balance and bounce around during meetings, but there haven’t been many of those this month with summer holidays and all.

It’s a work in progress. I’ll keep trying things until I find a system/structure that works.

Another lovely bit of good news, though. I was able to apply for another self-funded leave from the last week of October to the end of November. It’ll be another stretch off for self-care and maintenance. Recovery is all, folks!

In other wellness news, I’ve been swimming once a week since July 1st, building up my stamina and refamiliarizing myself with the strokes. It’s been lovely getting into the water again. I paused in the second last week of August when the weather went from sweltering to below seasonal. Call me a chickenshit, but I’m getting too old to swim when it’s chilly. I know that, technically, the water should feel warmer when the air is cool, but I’m considering my sensory capacity and relative comfort.

I think I’m done lake swimming for the year, though.

The month in writing

After finishing the first cutting pass of Reality Bomb, I took a break to finish up some reviews, a creative non-fiction flash piece, and some poetry (I have a looooong backlog of ideas yet to be committed to the page).

I wrote 6 poems and finished drafting my CNF flash piece.

In late July, I was presented with the possibility of a September poetry reading through the Apposite Poetry Series in London, Ontario. I didn’t announce anything at the time because the organizers were still trying to confirm another poet. They’d let me know once they heard back from the other poet.

Not wanting to miss the LCP poetry reading series funding deadline on August 1st, I applied. I could always withdraw after if the opportunity didn’t pan out.

But on the 4th, I received the confirmation! I would be the featured reader on September 10th! And on the 15th, I was advised that my reading funding had been granted! Leave from work granted. Hotel and rental car booked. I’m all set.

Apposite Poetry Reading Series open mic featuring Melanie Marttila. Wednesday, September 10th at 6:30 pm. 572 Adelaide St. N.

Also on the 10th, this lovely review came out in On Creative Writing: Neurodivergent author Melanie Marttila on the power of reclaiming your authentic voice. It’s de-gorgeous, and I’m so happy.

On the 9th, I received an invitation for one of my poems published in 2024 to be included in a year’s best anthology! Eeeeeee! Contract is signed, but I will have to wait on announcing anything further until the publisher begins formal promotion.

The SF Canada financial review meeting was on the 8th. Just preparing all the financial materials for our auditors and addressing a couple of bits and bobs.

On the 30th, I put my name in for the Wordstock festival planning committee. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to help, but I’ll do what I can.

Filling the well

August 1st was Lughnassadh. It happened to be the last day of a break in the heat. It was a lovely first harvest and I thought about all the things I’ve done for myself, my mental health, and my creative life in the last couple of months, lit my altar, and focused on gratitude.

The full ricing moon in Aquarius was on the 9th. Super hot. Did a guided “Lion’s Gate” meditation.

The news holly moon in Virgo was on the 23rd. Things were cooling down. Did another guided meditation.

I registered for the League of Canadian Poets open mic night on the 6th. It was lovely to read and to hear all the wonderful poetry on my fellow LCP members.

On the 15th, I attended Practical Tools to Help You Write Layered Stories, Not Stereotypes with Ángela Álvarez Vélez, an Authors Publish webinar. It was an excellent presentation.

I signed up for the Worldshift Speculative Fiction Writers’ Summit from the 20th to the 23rd. A lot of my favourite writing craft experts were speaking, and I watched everything on replay because work.

My first in-person appointment with my new therapist was on the 7th. Mostly, it was me, talking her ear off, but I did receive a handy guide called the ND polyvagal ladder. I’m to monitor where I am on the ladder daily as a form of mindfulness and to check in with myself so I can hopefully detect and deescalate meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnouts in the future.

I had a massage on the 13th. Ahhhh! Rest and digest, baby! Parasympathetic nervous system win!

My last appointment with my EAP therapist was on the 20th. It was a lovely farewell to a therapist who helped me a fair amount in a short period of time.

Then, I signed up for The Force of Choice: Mastering Your Emotional Reactors with Pat Tallman on the 30th.

What I’m watching and reading

Phil and I watched the final season of The Sandman (Netflix).

I debated whether I’d even mention this because of the substantiated accusations of SA against the author and the possible complicity of his then partner. It is deeply disappointing to me that a person capable of writing such beautiful stories could also be capable of such abuse … and that he attempted to use his neurodivergence as an excuse for said abuse. ND people are, first and foremost, people, and everyone has the potential for evil within them. I believe the women who have come forward. Phil is still in denial. It’s a difficult circle to square. In the end, I’ve decided to try appreciating the art of this problematic man separate from him, but also to attempt to see if I can find signs of the truth in his work.

Morpheus/Dream creates both beauty (dreams) and terror (nightmares). In retaliation for his decades-long imprisonment, Dream traps his captor’s son in an eternal dream. That he later, at Death’s prompting, releases the young man several decades later, doesn’t erase the lost years of life the now-octogenarian must contend with in the time he has left. Dream creates the Corinthian, a nightmare who becomes a serial killer. That he eventually destroys his nightmare and later recreates a moral version of him to help Joanna Constantine find and protect Daniel (Dream’s successor) doesn’t erase the deaths the Corinthian caused or Dream’s responsibility for letting them happen. And having the reformed Corinthian and Joanna get together in the denouement is all kinds of ick. Dream sentences the woman he supposedly loves to hell for 10,000 years because she rejected him. That he later attempts to free her (only to discover that Lucifer has abandoned hell and by default released her before Dream got there) is a totally insufficient act that he only takes because Death (again) nudges him. He declines to help his son, Orpheus, resulting in the events of Orpheus and Euridice, and Orpheus’ living for 2,000 years as an immortal, disembodied head. That he, (again) at Death’s urging, decides to grant his son’s wish and kill him … too little, too late, really. Even though it results in his death—suicide by Fury for the crime of shedding family blood—which he first avoids, nearly resulting in the destruction of his realm and all its dreams, and then neatly sidesteps by voluntarily giving himself into his sister’s care, really falls short of true repentance or change. When the new version of Daniel/Dream attempts to recreate Fiddler’s Green as he has with several other dreams destroyed by Lyta Hall, the Furies’ catspaw, the dream declines. Dream will have to get along without Fiddler’s Green and his sage advice. There must be consequences. In all, Dream perpetrates all kinds of evil and though a Big Deal is made about how much he’s changed, he hasn’t learned a thing by the time he takes Death’s hand. His siblings and subjects tolerate his abandonment and abuse and continue to advise and love him. This is the author’s wish fulfillment coming through. Newsflash: no one gets away with abuse forever.

This is just my opinion, at first blush, within a couple of days of finishing the series.

Then, I finished watching the first season of The Librarians: The Next Chapter (CTV Sci-fi). It wasn’t bad. A new librarian displaced in time who wants nothing more than to return to his beloved Anya 200 years in the past. A new guardian-in-training, desperate to prove herself, and two new sidekicks, one of whom owns the castle the current annex is in, and a former university professor kicked out of academia because of his social media influencer/conspiracy theorist obsession with the library. Stone even returns to bookend the series. They neatly tied off the time issue and storyline at the end of the 12-episode run, which was a smart move in case they weren’t renewed, but reports are that filming of season 2 began in May. Goofy shenanigans abound. I’ll watch season 2.

Next, I watched K-Pop Demon-Hunters (Netflix). I saw an interview with the Huntr/x voice cast on New Rockstars. Arden Cho (voice of “Rumi”), May Hong (voice of “Mira”) and Ji-young Yoo (voice of “Zoey”) were absolutely lovely! Zoey is the most clearly autistic-coded. But Mira has a flat affect and shows signs of rejection-sensitive dysphoria. And Rumi’s secret, half-demon nature is something she’s had to mask her whole life. The tiger demon, Derpy, is OCD. I’m obsessed.

The story is all about overcoming shame and learning to love yourself. That’s all I’ll say. Cause this one’s a feel-good banger and so is the soundtrack.

Then, I finished watching the first season of Revival (CTV Sci-fi). It’s based on a comic I haven’t read. In the small town of Wausau, Wisconsin, recently deceased people resurrect. Police officer Dana Cypress learns that her little sister Martha (Em) is a Reviver, and they try to find out who killed Em and how Revival Day happened. There’s a lot more to the series, but it was good enough to withhold the details and invite you to watch. This is not your typical zombie story.

I finished watching the Disney + limited series Eyes of Wakanda. The animation was great, and so was the story about the War Dogs and the recovery of vibranium artefacts through the ages. And an Iron Fist! And a time travelling Black Panther queen! And a fabulous tie-in to the first Black Panther movie! They packed a lot of lore into these four half-hour episodes.

Finally, I watched Thunderbolts* (Disney +). This is the best Marvel movie I’ve seen in years. It’s the perfect exploration of what it means to be a hero. It’s not about the fight scenes, though there are those. It’s about helping each other weather turbulent times and the mental health challenges that inevitably come with them. No notes (from me … others have done their analyses—look ‘em up if you’re so inclined).

My first listen of the month was The Bridge Kingdom, the first in the Bridge Kingdom series by Danielle L. Jensen. I read the 5th book in the series back in May and decided to catch up. In this book, Princess Lara and her 12 half-sisters have been indoctrinated into a deep hatred of Ithicana through a regimen of torture over the course of 15 years. One of them will be chosen to become the wife of the new king of Ithicana, Aren, and deliver the Bridge into their father’s hands. But when Lara overhears her “mentor” discussing how everyone but the chosen bride will be killed to prevent word of the plot from getting out of their isolated desert compound, she concocts a scheme of her own to spare her sisters’ lives and sacrifice herself to the mission.

When she arrives in Ithicana, though, Lara learns that everything she was taught about Ithicana is wrong, but not before she inadvertently sends her father the key to Ithicana’s destruction. As I observed back in May, the series is written in a series of duologies. The first book brings the protagonist and their budding romantic relationship to the breaking point before resolving it in the second book. An enjoyable, but dark series.

I decided to finish the Bridge Kingdom series (whatever was available on Audible, anyway) and continued with The Traitor Queen. Lara is the eponymous queen, living in exile after she handed her father the key to possessing the bridge. Ithicana still fights, but when Lara learns that her father has taken Aren captive, she braves the Tempest Seas to return to Ithicana. She has a plan to free Aren and defeat her father, and no expectation of redemption.

I kept rolling with Audible into book 3, The Inadequate Heir. This one dials back the timeline to the onset of Maridrina’s attack on Ithicana, which started when crown prince Keris made an agreement with King Aren to use the bridge to travel to university in Harendell. It was a ruse and Keris an unknowing dupe. His escort viciously murders their Ithicanian guards and begins the invasion, Keris bound to prevent his interference. Keris has a reputation for being bookish (the worst insult in a kingdom of warriors) and of spending his nights drinking, gambling, and womanizing. The only reason he is heir is because all his older brothers have either died in the war against Valcotta or have been killed, often by one another, in their attempts to win their father’s favour. But after this incident, Keris, never his father’s greatest supporter, decides to actively work against him.

Zarrah has been chosen by her aunt, the Empress of Valcotta to be her heir over her cousin Berman. King Silas of Maridrina murdered her mother and bound Zarrah, then a child, beneath her mother’s crucified body, her mother’s head in her lap. Now she wants to kill every Maridinian, starting with the crown prince.

Both Keris and Zarrah are inadequate heirs in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy.

Next, because I’m also reading print and e-books, just at a slower rate, I finished Birch and Jay by Allister Thompson. This post-apocalyptic novel is framed in a fictive future present in which a new group of Seekers is graduating in the community of Norbay decades after climate crisis has left the world in ruins. Jay and his partner Birch, elders of the community, tell the tale of his first mission to the graduates. Jay is sent to Queen’s University but is captured by the militia of Great Toronto—a newly-risen fascist state ruled by The Six—and tried as a spy. Birch, though not a Seeker, follows Jay and runs into troubles of her own.

The worldbuilding in this novel is great. Norbay (North Bay) was founded by women and like-minded men who wanted to learn from the mistakes of the past and rebuild human society in a sustainable way. But they need information to do that. Hence the Seekers, who go out into the ravaged world, by bicycle, and travel to former cities and universities in search of knowledge.

Though secondary characters, the elder women of the novel, Cedar, an elder of Norbay, Elm, a rogue Seeker, and Ning, a toughened lone survivor who saves Birch from a gang of young men, are the real stars of the novel. It’s their hard-won wisdom and tenacity that help Birch save Jay from Great Toronto.

Then, I finished reading Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. This was part of my research for my alternate history solarpunk, which is set in 1936, in between the two world wars. I wanted to find out how the political stage was set at the end of WWI. And boy howdy was this book informative. The decisions taken in Paris in 1919 would not only set WWII in motion, but we are still dealing with the fallout of some of them, like giving Palestine to Israel. It was a difficult read, but I’m glad I persisted.

It’s time to return to Narnia, though. I need a palate-cleanser.

Next, I finished reading Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao. Zachary Ying is just trying to survive school and not stress out his mom too much. And play Mythrealm, an AR game. Simon Li is the new Chinese kid at school—of course, the Chinese kids would become friends, eye roll—and it’s not long before Zach learns that he’s the reincarnation of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who really needs him to seal the portal to the Chinese underworld before all the spirits escape and wreak havoc on the world. When demons steal Zack’s mom’s soul, he has no choice but to agree because the place he has to go to get his mom’s souls back is—you guessed it—the Chinese underworld. Simon is the reincarnation of Tang Taizong and the third member of their team Melissa Wu, is the reincarnation of Wu Zetien. Together, they travel across China, heist magical artefacts, and defeat figures of myth and history to achieve their goal. A great, fun read!

Back with Danielle L. Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom series, I finished The Endless War. When I read The Inadequate Heir, I felt Jensen took a slightly different tack with the relationship. Unlike Aren and Lara or later, Ahnna and James, Zarrah and Keris did not overtly or purposely betray one another. They didn’t even appear to betray each other. They met anonymously, though it was clear that she was Valcottan and he was Maridrinian. They bonded over their shared dream of peace between their countries, and when they’re identities were revealed, they initially presented a united front against his father, King Silas Veliant and her aunt, Empress Petra, who are the real perpetrators of the endless war.

Unfortunately, in book 4, Keris becomes king of Maridrina, and his father’s spy master sends evidence to Petra of his relationship with Zarrah, and Petra sends Zarrah to Devil’s Island, a nigh on inescapable prison where the inmates have divided into factions that are continuously fighting one another, and the desperate have resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. So, despite the passionate devotion Zarrah and Keris show one another, this, too, is a grimdark book. The climax and denouement are pretty clever, though.

Finally, I finished the month with The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Yes, this is a MG book, but it’s so wonderful. Roz wakes up on an island, surrounded by the parts of her (Brown himself characterizes Roz as female) fellow robots. She explores the island, learns the animal speech, and fosters a gosling whose family is killed in an accident.

There are distinctions between the book and the movie (that I watched last year), but they both stand on their own. Lovely, gentle, and life-affirming.

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. https://melaniemarttila.ca

I acknowledge with respect that I am in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, that the land from which I write is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and home of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitae First Nation.

The next chapter: January 2025 update

/ Melanie Marttila

As the light returns . . .

Image of Junction Creek on a bright winter day.

And 2025 begins . . .

Trump was inaugurated and issued so many damaging executive orders, defining only two sexes (look into the wording of that one, it says “at conception,” which, as any high school biology student should know, means everyone’s female-lol), walking back civil rights and DEI, endangering trans people, immigrants, the health care system, and releasing all his Jan 6 “supporters,” among other heinous things. He’s also imposing insane tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, which will honestly harm Americans as much, if not more, than us, and generally letting his tech bro buddies have their way with the world. And don’t get me started on his, erm, problematic nominations.

Meanwhile in Canada, our PM finally took the hint and stepped down, prorogued parliament, and even though a new Liberal party leader will be chosen, he’s basically handed the country to the Conservatives, who will not hesitate to call an election the instant prorogation ends. And now the Ontario premiere has called an election, seeking a “strong” mandate for his ridiculous plans.

The federal Conservative leader is promising to eliminate 100,000 federal public service jobs, threaten women’s healthcare, dismantle pharmacare and the new dental benefits plan, and I don’t know what else, because he won’t say anything definitive about his platform or plans. He’s a meme machine, but not much else.

Record wildfires have done more damage than ever, climate change has progressed too far to rein in, and covid continues to mutate.

I mean, it’s never not been a bad year in my recent memory. Last year, the Israel Hamas War dominated the news (and continues to do so). The year before, it was the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, which is still ongoing (and still hateful). Before that, it was two years of pandemic. We could go back as far as written history will take us, and something horrible has always been happening. We just see it every day now because of social media and near-instantaneous international news.

Personally, I worry about my job. I worry about arts funding cuts and the loss of years of advocacy work regarding the Copyright Act and Public Lending Right. I worry about trying to bring a novel into an increasingly destabilized publishing industry. But those problems are small compared to what’s happening in the rest of the world.

Food for thought: John Scalzi’s take on how Trump’s tariffs, etc. are affecting his career.

And yet . . . I have hope. Grassroots organizations and unions are rallying. Creative communities are rallying. Charities are doing their best to help the people most in need.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones, people. We are cursed to live in interesting times.

Life in general

It’s no longer quite as dark outside when I go for my afternoon walk with Torvi, and every day, it’s a little brighter. I seem to be emerging from my burnout with the New Year and the return of the light.

I’m continuing to support my immune system with Cold FX, Emergen-C, and twice-daily neti-pots (really, I couldn’t do it more often—someone in my support group called it soothing, but it’s sensory torture for me). I’m still a bit stuffy, but I think it’s just seasonal due to the winter temperature. I can’t really say it’s cold. The lowest daytime temperature we’ve had here is -15 Celsius. Even with the wind chill, it’s manageable. Especially when you’re used to -30 and colder.

I felt well enough, in fact, to wean myself off the supports, but within a few days, my symptoms returned, and I learned my lesson. I will continue to support my immune system throughout the winter.

And when the weather breaks into spring, I have renewals of the Ryaltris to add to the mix.

Something shifted around the 20th. I think I uncovered a resistant pocket of infection somewhere in my sinus. *TMI warning.* I had bloody mucus from the right nostril and yellow lugies from the left. In the following days, I was hacking up/choking down/blowing out much of the same. So, I started the Ryaltris, in addition to everything else. By the end of the week, things seemed to be clearing up (again).

The mom situation has been resolved. For now. Thought small, troubling things continue to occur. It’s just the way things are with aging parents.

And I’m managing work stress better. I can only do what I can with what I have, and it is enough. So am I. Is my mantra these days.

I’m writing again. I’m not caring so much about the quality of the work. The words are wording. Everything else can be fixed in post, as they say.

The month in writing

Got back to Reality Bomb. I was determined to finish it by the end of January. I didn’t quite get there, but I’m soooooo close!

I reached out to Suzy early in the month, but she didn’t respond. I hope it’s just because she’s super busy with her new podcast and ongoing events and that she just doesn’t have space in her schedule for me. Of course, my brain is telling me that she’s cut off all contact because of my over-long absence. Or that she’s facing family/personal problems of her own and can’t reach out until they’re resolved.

On the 2nd, I submitted my application to the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity Science Fiction program 2025. The deadline isn’t until April 16, but with the amazing faculty they have on tap, I didn’t want to wait until the last minute.

As a result, I’ve decided not to apply to Your Personal Odyssey this year. I just can’t deal (right now) with the whole application process, finding references, etc., only to be rejected twice, for the early bird and the regular deadline. They’ve added an instructor to the course, but I think there are still too many applicants for me to make the cut.

But I submitted a couple of other small grant applications around mid-month.

There were a couple of poetry contests I submitted to, as well.

My Dispatches critique group dissolved (also in the week of the 20th). There were only five of us and one member left in December. Another withdrew this month, and the three remaining members had to decide what to do moving forward. We decided to discontinue. It was a good run, but it was time to move on.

And a local literary festival has been cancelled due to lack of funding. Arts funding in Canada is decreasing and a lot of lovely smaller festivals are in danger. It’s a sad truth. Support your local festivals, if you can. They may disappear.

I just had a couple of writerly-business things to attend to in January.

I attended The Writers Union of Canada Town Hall on the 16th. Interesting issues raised, questions answered, and an opportunity to see fellow TWUC members.

The SF Canada post-AGM board meeting was held January 20th. Essentially, we shuffled into our roles (I’m Veep this year!), settled a few outstanding pieces of business from last year, and presented some ideas about what we wanted to tackle this year.

Filling the well

The first full moon of the year, the Spirit Moon in Cancer, was on the 13th. As is usual for the time of year, it was overcast. I warned you about the infrequency of moon pictures, yeah?

But I took a nice one a couple of mornings later. And there were more clear mornings as January progressed.

The first new moon, the Birch moon in Aquarius, was on the 29th. It was also Chinese New Year. Welcome the year of the SNAKE!

I opted for few webinars this month. Trying to mind my spoons rather than spend them all—even on fun learning opportunities—and end up back in the depths of burnout again.

I signed up for an Author’s Publish webinar, “How to craft an emotional journey for your readers,” with Erin Swann on the 10th. She leveraged from Donald Maass and Lisa Cron, two of my favourite writing craft experts.

On the 15th, I signed up for The FOLD Academy’s “Pitching Perfect” webinar. It was a panel of past participants and how they benefitted from the event as opposed to how to construct your package.

The FOLD academy offered a great webinar by Catherine Hernandez on the 18th. I waited for the recording to be posted on their YouTube page. It was interesting. Hernandez is now working on screenplays and constructs dialogue intuitively. Most of the webinar was focused on her process.

In the non-writerly realm, I had my doctor’s appointment, by phone, on the 8th, had to arrange for follow up bloodwork (on the 14th) and to pick up my refill of Ryaltris.

I took my mom to her first hair appointment at the hairdresser’s since her surgery in September. This is a big deal because there is a set of stairs that, even before her surgery, she had difficulty with. But she conquered them like a champ!

My support group met on the 22nd. The topic this time was late diagnosis. There was a lot of food for thought this month. Would I have wanted to be diagnosed when I was a child? Probably not. It was in the 70s and would probably not have done me any good. If I had been born in the 90s or later, diagnosis could have changed my life and potentially led to a better outcome for my dad’s mental health journey.

I wanted to mention a professional kudo. On the 20th (it was a pivotal week in the month!), I was notified that I received a King Charles III Medal at work. These medals were awarded not only because of service excellence within the public service, but also for our activities in our chosen communities. For me, it was my creative career and involvement in the ND community.

I’ll share a picture of the medal when I receive it. It may be a while.

And I’m realizing that I should probably add these professional awards to my CV 🙂

What I’m watching and reading

First something from last month. There were only six episodes before the holidays, and I wasn’t sure if the series was finished. Turns out it was. I watched the series version of The Mistletoe Murders (Amazon/Stack TV), based on the Audible series of the same name and written by the same author, Ken Cupris. The first mystery was the same as the audio series, but the rest were newly scripted for the show. There are necessary differences, but it was an enjoyable, undemanding watch.

I gave up on Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and on AMC’s Mayfair Witches and Sanctuary. Life is too short.

I’d enjoyed Marquez’s novel, but it did not translate well to a series. I think it may have been a problem of adaptation.

I mentioned my disappointment in the first season of Mayfair last year, but thought I’d give season 2 an opportunity to redeem itself. Alas, no. At the end of the first season, Rowan found herself suddenly pregnant with . . . Lasher. After a rapid and secret pregnancy and childhood, Lasher, who gave all his power to Rowan so he could be born and experience life as a human, starts stalking and killing the women of the Mayfair clan. Just no.

Sanctuary showed promise in the first episode or so as a supernatural murder mystery set in the isolated town of Sanctuary, where witches are celebrated rather than reviled. But then, the main witch character, Sarah, whose daughter Harper has been accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend, who was a popular sports star, is targeted by her supposed best friend, the mother of Sporto, because she won’t resurrect the kid? Who’s been days dead and buried? And just as her BFF regains her senses and reconciles, Sarah’s daughter reveals that Sporto drugged, raped her, and recorded the whole thing to share on the internet. Which sends BFF over the edge and into a vengeful rage. I would have thought Harper or Sarah more justified for the rage, but no. OMG. So. Much. DRAMA. Hard no to continuing.

Onto the stuff I did watch in January.

Phil and I watched the third and final season of What if … ? (Disney +). Good, but I found the second and third seasons not quite as good as the first season. Still, seeds were sown, questions answered (and more posed), and we enjoyed.

Then, I finished the second season of The Rings of Power (Amazon). Better than the first, but I still found myself wanting the story to just get on with it. The pacing was off, and I can’t really put my finger on how. Several characters were ensorcelled, imprisoned, or otherwise lacking in agency, which may have something to do with it. But the story has proceeded. And I’ll probably watch the next season when it comes out.

Next, I watched the whole of the first (and only) season of The Spiderwick Chronicles. CTV Scifi showed it two episodes a night over four nights. Friendly Space Ninja rated the series one of the worst of 2024, and at first, I wasn’t sure why, but after a few episodes, I figured it out. The characters are so inconsistent and illogical. I’m sure that this has to do with the choices made when adapting the book, but to present what I think are supposed to be complex characters, you need to ground their emotions. That was largely absent and so every time a character did a 180, it felt totally unearned and totally out of character. And then, they had to explain everything (at one point we have to endure a puppet show dramatization that’s really an infodump), but that irritated me because if they set things up properly to begin with, there’d be no need to explain. Now, I haven’t read the books, so I have nothing to compare the series to. I liked Christian Slater’s ogre/Dr. Brauer, but other than that, no one really captured my attention. And even then, Slater was just “chewing the scenery,” as they say. And he had no chemistry with the actor playing Helen.

Finally, I finished the second season of Pachinko (Apple TV +). It continues to be a generational epic moving between two timelines. In the past, Sunja and her family survive WWII, and she works hard to ensure Noa gets into university. In the present, a widowed Sunja finds new love, while her grandson, Solomon plots revenge against a business rival that puts his relationship in jeopardy. Looking forward to finding out what happens next.

My first read of 2025 was actually a listen: Goblin War, the third in Jim C. Hines Goblin Trilogy. Vika has gone off to magic school and has been replaced by Relka, who, after being saved by Jig at the end of the last novel, will stop at nothing to shout (literally) his virtues and those of Shadowstar at every opportunity.

This time, the goblin mountain has been invaded by humans, the sister of the ill-fated adventurer from the first book, in fact, and Jig’s been recruited by an orc chieftain to fight in her army against the humans. But the war is merely the ruse of a scorned goddess, estranged spouse of Shadowstar, Jig’s forgotten patron god, to call forth the god of death (by sacrificing all the orcs, hobgoblins, and goblins in her army) and defeat him, thus ending her forgotten status. More foolish humans, more stumbling Jig antics, and more Smudge! It was fun.

I followed that up with Goblin Tales, a short anthology of tales around the Goblin Trilogy by Jim C. Hines. There are a few stories that precede the trilogy, including how Smudge became Jig’s companion, one featuring Vika at magic school, and one following the events of the trilogy. Another fun, light listen.

Then, I finished reading the Aurora Award-nominated The Fountain by Suzy Vadori. I figured it was about time I read it 🙂 Ava’s the new kid at an exclusive boarding school. Her family isn’t particularly well off, but both her parents are alumni, and Ava earned a scholarship. Courtney makes Ava’s life hell in the first days, telling Ava the wrong time for swim practice so she shows up late, changing the lock on her locker, so Ava has to dash across campus in her swimsuit, and planting performance-enhancing drugs in Ava’s locker so that they fall out when the school’s maintenance worker opens it for her. She’s only been at the school for two days and already she’s under threat of expulsion. It’s no wonder that when she finds a fountain in the woods near the school, Ava tosses in a coin and makes a wish that the school never heard of Courtney or her family. The problem is that the fountain is magic, and Ava’s wish comes true. A bittersweet YA novel about the choices we make, and the wishes we can’t undo.

Next, I finished Kelley Armstrong’s Cursed Luck. Kennedy is the middle of three sisters who are all curse weavers. Aiden Connolly is a luck worker—do not call him a leprechaun—who wants to hire Kennedy to unweave the curse on the necklace of Harmonia, one of the most famous cursed objects in history. When Kennedy’s sisters are kidnapped, she and Aiden must depend on each other and navigate the dangerous world of immortals—do not call them gods. Fun and sweet. Aiden is autistic-coded (IMO).

Then, I read another Jim C. Hines book, Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen. Tamora is 12 and known as T-Rex on her roller derby team. One night, after practice, she finds goblins going through the dumpster behind the arena. She captures one and he tells her that they came through a magical portal to escape war in their world. As she learns more, Tamora and her non-verbal autistic brother Mac (LOVED!), embark on a series of adventures to rescue three of their friends who disappeared two weeks ago, around the time the goblin says he and his people arrived. Quite a complex story for a middle grade novel. Fabulous.

My first non-fiction read of 2025 was The Green Witch’s Herb and Plant Encyclopedia by Rowan Morgana. Most of it was a listing of 150 herbs, plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees with all their magical correspondences, growing, and foraging instructions. It rekindled a long-held dream of mine to have a house and yard with good soil large enough for me to have a full garden and sacred grove.

Next, I read another of Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, Being a Green Mother. Orb is born with the ability to hear the songs of the world and see fairies and other supernatural creatures. She has a vision that she will marry Satan, or see the world devastated. Soon, she becomes obsessed with finding the Llano, the ultimate song (of life, the universe, and everything?), which promises a cure for her vision/curse. She journeys with the gypsies (sorry, its what Anthony calls them) and eventually joins a circus and meets Mym, who will become the incarnation of war. Her quest lands her with the band The Living Sludge, with whom she performs, and they live in Jonah, a legendary fish, cursed never to swim in the water again. And then there’s Natasha (Ahsatan—cue eye roll), who sings almost as beautifully as Orb herself. When Orb becomes the incarnation of Nature, Natasha reveals his true identity and proposes. Orb’s childhood vision is about to come true.

I didn’t mind the story, but Orb was a dithery woman, despite her power and abilities. She doesn’t pick up on several significant cues and ends up impulsively igniting a chain reaction that dooms the world. There is a happy-ish ending, but the novel was just okay.

Then, I listened to the short Audible and The Great Courses collaboration, Find Work-Life Balance by Christine Carter. I’m already doing most of what she suggests, but it was a good reminder and a validation that I’m doing what I can to remain productive and mitigate burnout.

Next, I finished Kim Fahner’s The Donoghue Girl. Chef’s kiss! An amazing historical novel focusing on the mining town of Creighton. Lizzie Donoghue seems to have been born out of her time. She wants more than what her Irish-Catholic upbringing offers and is, by turns, headstrong and deeply empathetic. She’s also attracted to Michael Power, her sister Ann’s boyfriend. Family tragedy, mining corruption, and Finland’s Winter War figure prominently in Lizzie’s story in which her whirlwind romance causes as much destruction as it brings joy. The bittersweet ending will leave you wanting to know what happens next. Couldn’t recommend it more. And yes, Kim’s a friend, but that doesn’t change my recommendation.

Finally, I read T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Grace. Stephen is a paladin whose god died, and that’s a problem because the Saint of Steel was the only thing keeping Stephen’s berserker rage in check. Grace is a fugitive perfumer who’s been accused of murdering a visiting royal. Both resist their attraction to one another because they feel unworthy (for different reasons) but eventually, they realize that love is the answer to their problems. This cozy romantasy was just so adorable. Loved!

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. https://melaniemarttila.ca

The next chapter: December 2024 update

/ Melanie Marttila

Settling into recovery mode … (cue olde-timey modem squealing)

Picture of the quarter moon above a tree.

Life in general

The illen settled in, but I hadn’t yet gotten headaches, facial pain, or any of that ilk, so I continued on with the neti-pot, Emergen-C, and Advil Cold & Sinus. If things got worse, I figured I’d go to the clinic as I’d done in the past and see what came of it.

If I made it through to my January doctor’s appointment (not my preference—I really didn’t want to be sick over the holidays) I’d see what he’d say about it.

In the meantime, I’m trying to take care as best I know how. Staying hydrated, eating well, getting as much sleep as I can, though I rarely get the sleep I need during the work week. And that’s the blessing and curse of working from home. I can still work while I’m sick without exposing anyone else to what I’ve caught, but sinus infections aren’t contagious, per se.

There was work to be done, though, and so work I did.

I sought the advice of a pharmacist who recommended Cold FX. So, I tried that out. I thought the illen was too far advanced for it to help but combined with meds to reduce symptoms and the irrigation of the neti-pot, it seemed to help with sleeping through the night. I also added hot toddies in the evening (tea with honey and rum). I’m pulling out all the old home remedies and supports I can.

And…toward the end of the month, after some narsty nights plagued with coughing—more the result of stubborn snot clinging to my airways and turning my throat into some bizarre mucus air harp (wheeze, whistle, gurgle) than anything else—I finally managed to sleep through the night.

Things seemed to be turning the corner in a positive direction.

I’ve discovered that if I have anything other than work scheduled on a weekday evening, be it a critique group meeting, support group meeting, haircut, taking Torvi to get her nails ground—anything, I’m out of spoons for the day.

I’m trying to respect my energy levels, day to day, and I’m learning that my executive function and support needs also vary daily. What I was once able to do easily, I may now struggle with. It’s a difficult lesson to learn.

Thank…whatever, I have some time off over the holidays.

The month in writing

Getting back into writing mode is an iffy proposition. I worked on some edits for a short story early in the month and that seemed to go well.

I wrote a poem. Not sure of its quality, but it felt good in the writing.

But when it came to Reality Bomb, the going was tough. I got back to it on the 9th but managed maybe half a page. Still, I touched it!

The next day, I had an appointment after work and my Dispatches meeting, so I wasn’t able to get to RB.

I did a little more work on it the next evening, but the following two days were challenging at work, and I had no energy to speak of in the evenings. I also had a sneezing fit (one every 10 to 15 seconds for about a half hour) the first night and that took all the fight out of me. The second night it was coughing fits over the course of an hour, which aggravated my GERD. I’m sure both helped to usher out infection (it’s what they do, after all) but both were exhausting and not conducive to trying to write (or do anything else).

But I finally finished rewriting the troublesome chapter I started working on last month and moved on with my re-read. I finished that in a couple of evenings, with minor touch-ups.

When I got back to the drafting of the final two chapters, though, I stalled again, but just for a couple of days while I was focusing on recovery, finishing up the Christmassing, and doing some associated running around.

The going was slow, but I got back to it.

Along with preparing my application to the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity SFF Program, and some grant applications.

Something I neglected to mention last month was that an old friend of Siobhan Riddell reached out to me and offered to send me one of the sketches she’d done for him. I couldn’t justify accepting one of his remembrances, but I did accept a couple of pictures. They’re lovely.

This has happened periodically over the years, and it gives me all the feels to know that Siobhan’s wondrous work has touched other people as deeply (or deeper, frankly) as it’s touched me.

Then, I received some news about Through the Portal. Apparently, their website was down, but it’s back up and running again.

And they are planning two in-person events for the anthology, both in Toronto. One was on December 28th and the other in February 2025. I can’t participate in either, so I’ve been kept out of the loop on the publicity.

I received an opportunity mid-month to submit my work to the poetry in Canada poetry bookshelf. I’ll let you know when The Art of Floating makes its appearance.

There was an SF Canada board meeting on the 3rd to prepare for the upcoming AGM. It was an efficient meeting, and all the necessary decisions and arrangements were made.

The AGM itself was scheduled for the 28th. There were a few technical issues and delays, but everything worked out in the end.

The year in review

This has been a momentous year for me in terms of writing. My debut poetry collection! All the promo and signings and reviews and events around that! More poetry publications! A cli-fi short story publication! Another acceptance of a poem and a short story for future publication!

Given that I’ve been in burnout since September, that’s not bad!

In terms of words written or revised in the year, I:

  • wrote only 1,553 words of short fiction and revised 187 (that I tracked),
  • wrote 3,232 words of creative non-fiction,
  • wrote 28 new poems, and
  • wrote 39,059 words in this blog/newsletter.

I stopped tracking my revision efforts on Reality Bomb partway through the year. It was getting complicated. But if things progress as they have been, I should finish with a 120k-word draft. I’d wanted to bring it down more than that, but I still have a listening pass to go, and hope to find a few more places to trim then.

In writing-related events, my ongoing, though stalled, work with Suzy Vadori, and the Stillwater Writing Retreat are highlights.

In retrospect, though I took my six-week, self-funded leave as a means to recover from the flurry of activity around the launch of The Art of Floating, I now recognize that I was probably anticipating burnout even then. I could not have anticipated the accidents and illnesses of either my mom or my mom-in-law, but I could probably feel the impending exhaustion.

I’m grateful I took the leave and that my employer offers the work arrangement, but it means that I won’t be able to take another until the latter part of 2025.

At work, I was able to accept an acting position as an instructional designer on a new team, and though the transition has been a bit fraught, things are finally coming together on the one major project.

In terms of reading, I set myself the goal of reading 50 books this year. In fact, I’ve read or listened to 93 books, 186% of my goal. Admittedly, reading several poetry collections, a fair amount of short non-fiction, and listening to audiobooks helped to increase the number of books I read this year, I still outpaced my goal by quite a bit. And I’ve read a bunch of books that I wouldn’t normally.

Filling the well

The new Reed moon in Sagittarius was on December 1st.

The full moon in Gemini was on the 15th.

Winter solstice fell on the 21st. Did my altar thing.

And the new Elder moon in Capricorn was on the 30th. I know the second full moon in a month is referred to as a “blue” moon, but I had no idea that the second new moon in a month is called a “black” moon. It’s not official astronomy terminology, but that’s what’s out there on the interwebz.

I had no writerly events this month, to my great relief. I needed the relax and to focus on getting my words back.

I did meet for a final time this year with my Dispatches critique group on the 10th. It was a relaxed evening.

I had a massage on the 4th. Bliss.

My support group met on the 18th. This month’s topic was shame. And hoo-boy is this a big issue for me.

And I finished the month with some well-earned and desperately needed annual leave. I was off from the 21st through to January 1st, 12 days off for the price of 5.

My bestie and her partner came up for a visit on the 28th. Phil made cookies and apple cake. They went home with the remainders.

What I’m watching and reading

I watched the fourth and final season of Superman & Lois (CTV SciFi). Yeah, they did the death of Superman. Last season, Lex Luthor turned Bizarro into Doomsday by injecting him with a serum that resurrects him and then killing him repeatedly (I know, I know). Doomsday kills Superman in front of his family, ripping out his heart. Jordan gets him to the Fortress and into suspended animation, but he can’t heal without a heart. So, General Lane sacrifices himself after injecting himself with the serum that resurrected Bizarro so that Lois and the boys can use it to heal Clark. But having a human heart is enough to make Clark age and slowly de-power.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Final showdown with Doomsday (again) and Lex in John Henry’s suped-up suit. Superman saves the day. In the aftermath, Lex goes to jail for good, several couples are united, Jon (who developed powers) and Jordan get married and have a passel of kids. Lois’s cancer returns, she dies, and then Clark’s human heart gives out. Clark and Lois are reunited in the afterlife.

Having said that (and rather snarkily), S&L was one of the best series to emerge from the “Arrowverse” (even though it was supposed to be in a separate timeline). All the other series got old after a few seasons of retreading the same ground, although most were entertaining, initially.

Charlie Jane Anders has an interesting take on why the Arrowverse, as a whole, was the best set of superhero series on TV. I don’t know if I agree with her, but she says that superhero stories, having come from the comics, are inherently episodic and focused not on superheroic antics, but on the emotional entanglements and journeys of the characters. They’re soap operas. I see her point, but I was never fond of soap operas. Maybe that’s why the various Arrowverse series got old for me, real fast, and why S&L, at only four seasons, comes out ahead of the pack.

Then, I watched the first season of Time Bandits (Apple TV +). I watched the original Terry Gilliam movie so long ago that I don’t really remember it, but I enjoyed this new adaptation. History nerd Kevin is bullied, and his family doesn’t understand him. When the self-proclaimed Time Bandits enter his room through a portal in his closet, pursued by the Supreme Being (who wants his map back, thankyouverymuch), Kevin is swept away into time travelling adventure, while the bandits try to steal treasures from everywhen they visit. Fun.

Next, I finished Black Cake (Disney +) based on Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel of the same name. Byron and Benedetta (B&B) are estranged but come together when their mother dies of cancer. In a series of pre-recorded statements, the siblings learn that their mother, who they knew as Eleanor, was actually Coventina. As they slowly learn the truth, they begin to work through their own secrets and trauma. I enjoyed it (especially Nine Night and duppies), and I have the ebook, which I’ll now have to read 🙂

The series ended on a cliffhanger as B&B’s recently revealed half-sister begins to listen to her separately-recorded message from Eleanor/Coventina, but Hulu cancelled it, so the book may be the only place I can find out what happens next (!)

I also finished watching the latest season of Only Murders in the Building (Disney +). The gang is excited because an OMitB movie is being made, but it’s not long before they figure out that Sazz, whose murder was revealed in the last moments of last season, is missing. When they find one of her prosthetics in the apartment’s incinerator, they have their next season of the podcast. Charles’ serial killer ex escapes prison, Oliver and Loretta navigate their long-distance relationship, and poor Mabel ends up squatting in a dead guy’s apartment. And, of course, another murder was revealed in the last minutes of the season. Fun, as always.

Then, I watched The Lost City when it was shown on the CTV Scifi channel. It’s been on my list of fun movies to watch for a while, but I haven’t been able to find it on any of the streaming services. I guess it will be on Crave now, but I was happy to have a relaxing evening of enjoyable and undemanding viewing. Sandra Bullock stars as Loretta Sage, a former archeological researcher and reclusive romance author on a book tour with her cover model Alan played by Channing Tatum. When she’s abducted, Alan ropes in former Navy SEAL and CIA operative Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) to help him rescue Loretta.

Phil and I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, Joy to the World (Disney +). It was a lovely, sentimental story, and I loved the idea of the time hotel, but the story could have used more Joy in it 🙂 The character was a bit sidelined in the story, but I guess you only have so much runtime to fill, and you have to make cuts somewhere. Watch it and see what you think.

Finally, Phil and I finished watching the third season of Bleach: The 1,000-Year Blood War (Disney +). Yhwach tricks Ichigo into killing the Soul King, though one of the soul reapers sacrifices himself to become the Soul King’s right hand. Various factions of the soul reapers fight various members of the Stern Ritter. At the end, Uryu’s plan to infiltrate the Stern Ritters and stop Yhwach is revealed. He stays to fight Haschwalth, who is endowed with Yhwach’s Almighty while Yhwach sleeps, and sends Ichigo to kill the sleeping Yhwach. One more season to complete the story arc!

My first listen of the month was the Audible Original Goblin Hero, the second in Jim C. Hines’ Goblin Trilogy. The reputation of “Jig the Dragonslayer” draws a desperate ogre to the goblin caves. Pixies have taken over the ogres, literally, and they need Jig’s help. The goblin leader is all for it, wanting to rid herself of Jig and all the goblins who want him to be leader instead of her. And Jig’s not too sad to go, either. Vika, obsessed with the hero’s journey, has been bothering Jig to teach her magic, but he doesn’t know how.

Things get interesting when Vika decides to embark on her own hero’s journey and follows Jig into the heart of rainbow-coloured, mind-controlling, pixie madness. Fun!

Then, I read Legacy, the second in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife series. Dag and Fawn return to his home, uneasy with their anticipated reception. Dag warned her that it would be more difficult than sorting things out with her family, but Fawn doesn’t realize how hostile the Lakewalkers are until Dag’s brother Dar refuses to recognize their marriage and insists that Dag turn around and deliver Fawn back into the uncaring arms of her family. Things get complicated when Dag has to lead a rescue mission to a northern town overrun by a Malice and it’s mudmen and mind slaves, leaving Fawn to face the hostility of the Lakewalkers alone. Very good.

Next, I read The Heart Forger, the second book in Rin Chupeco’s The Bone Witch series. It’s the continuing story of Tea, The Bone Witch. Each chapter continues Tea’s past adventures as she relates them to the bard she initially compelled to tell her tale and jumps into the present as the bard witnesses what she does as a result of all she learned. A complex plot and intertwined characters. I loved it.

Then, I finished my reread of C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. There was a time when I used to read the entire Chronicles of Narnia about once a year, sitting at my desk in the evenings, but it’s been decades since I thought to pick up some of my childhood favourites. As good as I remembered it.

I also read The Shadow Glass by Rin Chupeco, the third book in The Bone Witch series. There seemed to be some issues with bringing the story full circle with the dual timelines and some critical events/information were glossed over toward the end, relying on revelations from the beginning of book one and narrative summaries from earlier in the book to fill in the gaps. It was a bit disorienting, but the author ultimately stuck the landing with a bittersweet ending that was worth it.

I read Kelley Armstrong’s Tales of the Otherworld. This collection so shorter tales focuses more on the Cabal than on the werewolves, but vampires make a couple of appearances, and we get the backstory of how Elena and Clay met and fell in love.

Next, I finished That Hideous Strength, the third in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. Having read the full trilogy now, I’d say they’re more in the way of science fantasy than science fiction.

Unlike the first two books, which focus of the adventures of Ransom as he travels first to Mars and then to Venus to fight the evil spirits of the universe, this novel begins with the tale of Mark and Jane Studdock, as Mark, a sociologist and academic, is seduced into the ranks of the NICE. Jane, lonely and rudderless as she tries to orient herself to married life when her husband is so often absent, begins to have visions, which draw her into the community of St. Anne’s.

NICE aims, through eugenics and fascism, to control humanity. Weston, Ransom’s antagonist in the last two novels, is mentioned as a martyr to their cause and other of Weston’s co-conspirators from the first novel have been given new names as they seek to corrupt the social and intellectual foundations of Britain. At St. Anne’s, Jane meets the director, who is, in fact, Ransom, and who has an odd affinity for animals. In a final battle for free will and humanity, Ransom’s people find Merlinus Ambrosius, whom NICE operatives are also seeking. Merlin is sent into the NICE stronghold to disrupt their plans, free their prisoners and animals, on whom they experiment, and lead the internal revolt.

Perelandra, or Venus, comes to take Ransom to his heavenly reward, Mark is freed from the machinations of NICE, and Jane welcomes her wayward husband home. The characters are mostly passive, with the exception of Merlin, but even he is counselled not to murder anyone, but to let them be hoist by their own petards. Not for everyone, but enjoyable.

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 https://melaniemarttila.ca

The next chapter: June 2024 update

/ Melanie Marttila

I just may be more burnt out than I thought I was.

Picture of a cloud-speckled evening sky above trees.

Life in general

Though I knew I needed to rest during my six-week leave with income averaging (LIA), I thought it would only take a few days and then I’d be ready to hit the ground running with some planned activities.

I was hoping to:

  • Recover my garden from two years of neglect and three of minimal effort before that.
  • Paint the outside door (to match the other that has been painted for, like seven years now?).
  • Give the house a thorough cleaning.
  • Rearrange my office.

But the most I was able to accomplish in May was to repot some plants and get my bird feeders and bird bath set up. I bought the paint for the door, but never got around to the repainting.

Also, I was still seeing signs that I was dysregulated. Stumbling around and bumping into things; forgetting that I had something in my hands (like a freshly-emptied incense holder) and carrying it with my into another room only to realize I had it in my hand, putting it back, and forgetting why I was walking into another room; forgetting my meds; forgetting components of my rituals. And the list goes on.

As a result, I thought I’d let my recovery process guide me until after the Stillwater Writing Retreat (see below) on the second weekend of June. The retreat itself would be a bit of a reset with minimal/no access to social media, streaming, and my favourite time-waster game.

No revenge procrastination (though there’s no longer anything to revenge?) for two days. I was hoping that might help to reset my internal clock.

Since the onset of my LIA, I’d been routinely staying up until 1:30 or 2 am and sleeping in to compensate the next day. In June, that naturally started to sort itself out and I was getting to bed at midnight or 12:30 am.

I did get to bed earlier at the retreat, but it was only two days and as soon as I was back home, established habits took hold. I slowly came to the realization that I may not get many (or any) of my big goals completed during this leave.

And then a heatwave arrived. In a house with no central air, it was a miserable few days.

Just focused on recovery. And revision/writing.

But … I seem to have recovered from my sinusitis (at last). The third course of antibiotics was finished the day I left for the Stillwater Retreat. And I decided to discontinue both the antihistamines and the neti pot while I was away. I would have been too much to manage while travelling.

I resumed the neti pot when I returned but stopped it again after another week. I never got used to the sensory ick of it. Yes, it was effective in clearing out my sinuses, but my eyes watered, I drooled (!), and I sneezed multiple times during each session. Even if the water was cool, the saline solution felt like it was burning my nasal passages. Thoroughly unpleasant.

I am keeping the neti pot and remaining saline solution sachets as well as the remaining month of antihistamines in case the seasonal allergies return in the fall. A few days of discomfort is worth fending off another bout of sinusitis.

And I have a follow up appointment with my doctor on July 2nd. We’ll see what he says.

The month in writing

The month was devoted to continuing revisions/rewriting of the third act of Reality Bomb, as well as the work I committed to when I enrolled in Ariel Gordon’s workshop.

A gentle reminder that I’ve stopped sharing screenshots of my Excel writing and revision tracker because I’ve stopped setting goals in it. It’s purely the tracking of the writing and revision I accomplish within the given months and year. And I’m not tracking RB at all. At this point there’s more rewriting going on with that project than straight revision, and it’s had to compare previous drafts with this one, particularly when I’m combining bits of what were separate chapters in the last draft and then shifting bits around so that none of it even vaguely resembles what went before.

It’s actually made writing and revision easier. I don’t feel the pressure of not meeting a particular goal. I used to revise my goals multiple times a year because I wasn’t “up to par,” which is ridiculous. I’m feeling better about my writing and revision progress now. I’m flowing with highs and lows of my energy. I do what I can, when I can, with the energy I have, and it is enough. So am I 🙂

June 6th was a good news day. First, my poem, “Vasilisa,” was published in Polar Borealis 30.

The cover of Polar Borealis 30 featuring artwork by Derek Newman-Stille.

Then, I received an email that work was proceeding on the anthology that one of my stories was accepted for last year (!). I can’t talk about it now, but I’ll share what I can, when I can.

On the 13th, I received an email from a reader telling me how much they appreciated “The Art of Floating.” It warms an author’s heart to know that they’ve touched someone with their words.

On the 14th, The Temz Review released this thoughtful and thorough review of The Art of Floating. It gave me all the feels. But mostly gratitude.

Then, of the 15th, Trish Talks Books posted this lovely review on Instagram.

On the 18th, I received the notification that my reading fee and travel reimbursement for the Conspiracy of 3 reading last month would be deposited by the end of the week.

I only had one meeting with Suzy this month because I had to work around the Stillwater Retreat (see below). We met on the 20th. It was a good meeting. I’m still getting many of the same comments, but I’m anticipating them now, and I have a better idea of the revision I need to complete after each session. We’re moving on to the climax. The end is in sight. Exciting!

On the 21st, I received notification that I have been accepted as an Access Copyright Affiliate.

And then, on the 28th, The Wordstock Sudbury literary festival announced its lineup for this year’s festival, including me (!), Kim Fahner, Ariel Gordon, Danielle Daniel, Drew Hayden Taylor, Hollay Ghadery, and more! So honoured to be included in this stellar 11th edition of Wordstock! Here is the article by Heidi Ulrichsen for Sudbury.com, and the Sudbury Star’s coverage.

Press release image for the 11th edition of the Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival.

In the area of the business of writing, the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) town hall was on the 18th and their AGM was on the 25th.

In between, on the 23rd was the an SF Canada Board meeting.

And the Canadian Authors Association AGM was on the 29th.

I am definitely AGM’d out!

Filling the well

The new Hawthorn moon in Gemini was on the 6th. It was not only overcast but raining as well.

The summer solstice was on the 20th this year. The heatwave we’d been suffering through all week finally broke. It was still hot, but overcast (surprise, surprise!). I lit my altar and followed a guided meditation.

And the full Strawberry moon in Capricorn was on the 21st. Another overcast day.

A picture of the waxing moon among dynamic clouds.

My intention was to keep my learning light this month and I think I managed it, despite myself.

I registered for the virtual Nebula conference and awards weekend from June 6 to 8, but then (and this is just one of the many symptoms of my ongoing dysregulation) I signed up for Lauren Carter’s Stillwater Retreat from June 7 to 9. Fortunately, I was able to catch the virtual sessions in replay.

ICYMI, here was my post about the Stillwater Retreat.

The second session of Ariel Gordon’s Dispatches from the World workshop was on the 11th and the third and final session was on the 25th. I wrote 2 poems for the 11th, which I revised into 1, and then I wrote and revised a creative non-fiction piece for the 25th. 

The next Free Expressions webinar I signed up for was Fate vs. Destiny with Donald Maass on the 13th. Interesting and thought-provoking, as usual.

And on the 17th, I virtually attended Imagining the Future We Want to Live In at the Sudbury Indie Cinema. I had intended to go in person but, at the last minute, I noticed that the event would be livecast on Facebook, and I attended that way. Minding my spoons 🙂

The Locus Awards weekend started on the 19th and went through until the 22nd. I caught several readings and the awards ceremony on zoom or Youtube and hope to catch the rest on replay.

Finally, I registered for a webinar on “Writing and Pitching your Hybrid Memoir” with Courtney Maum (!) through Jane Friedman on the 26th. I wasn’t back from walking Torvi in time, so I watched the replay when it was released. As I continue to toy with the idea of a hybrid memoir, this course was invaluable.

In personal care, I had a support group meeting on the 12th. The topic was emotional regulation, and it was a good session, though the last until September.

I took Torvi for a Furminator groom on the 21st. This was her second with the happy hoodie. She’s still stressed but I like to think the happy hoodie helped.

On the 27th, my mom’s sister and her daughter came to visit. Phil made a lovely bruschetta and salad, and Mom cooked a frittata. We hadn’t seen each other is years, and it was nice.

A white Finn rose in bloom.

What I’m watching and reading

I watched the first season of Hazbin Hotel (Amazon). Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, has opened the titular hotel in hell with an eye to rehabilitating sinners and getting them into heaven. At the same time Adam (yes, that Adam) and his inquisitors (essentially Valkyries) are increasing the frequency of their culls (read massacres) of hell’s denizens from annually to every six months. Every episode features several musical numbers, so be aware of that, or skip if that’s not your jam, but the performances are quite good. Intended for adults.

Then, I finished watching The Second-Best Hospital in the Galaxy (Amazon), about two alien doctors, Klak and Sleech, who incite all kinds of medical and relationship hijinks while trying to protect the secret of a parasitic lifeform that eats its host’s anxiety…until it departs explosively, killing the host. Very fun, very adult.

Next, I watched Chevalier (Disney +). The movie focuses on Joseph de Boulogne’s attempt to run the Paris Opera House, a position that was chosen by a royal counsel. Though he was an accomplished composer, because he was the son of a slave woman, Boulogne was prevented from taking the position. The end of the movie predicts the next phase of his life in which he fought on the side of the Revolution. Very good.

Phil and I watched the most recent season/series of Doctor Who (Disney +) with Ncuti Gatwa. Phil wasn’t that enamoured, but I enjoyed it overall. There was a little unevenness in the season, but it came together in the end.

And I finished watching the final season of The Crown (Netflix). It focused on the events leading up to Diana’s death through to the marriage of Charles and Camilla. Overall, I think the series was an interesting interpretation of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, though they declined to carry the story through to her death, which may have been a more complete rendering of events. I’m sure they wondered how to address the later scandals of the Royal Family and how to make the last years of Elizabeth’s reign dynamic as health concerns kept both her and Phillip more and more secluded until their respective deaths.

I watched the second season of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV). Yes, this is a kids’ show, but it’s rich with nostalgia for me. This season focused on the gardening crisis of the gorgs obsession with strawberries and use of chemicals to increase the size of their yield, leading to the disappearance of the radishes and the depletion of the soil. Meanwhile the human doctoral student is trying to perfect her floating wind turbine design. And yes, the series is a little heavy-handed on the moral lesson side, and events can seem either contrived or completely random, but everything comes together at the end. This won’t be everyone’s cuppa, but I love me some Muppets.

I also watched Iwájú (Disney +). It was a lovely fable set in a future Lagos. Tole is a child whose father is a busy inventor. He cannot spend time with her because of work pressures, though his primary goal is to create a robot lizard to protect Tole because children have been disappearing in nearby Lagos. Sadly, the robot isn’t working properly.

Tole and her friend Cole decide to take a trip to Lagos, Tole with the goal of proving to her father that she is a big girl, and Cole with the goal of turning Tole over to the man who’s been abducting children in order to secure care for his sick mother. Because this is a kids’ show, all works out in the end. It was an enjoyable, if short, series.

Finally, I watched Interview with the Vampire, Part II (AMC). Sadly, I missed the first season and since AMC wants viewers to subscribe to AMC + to see it, I missed out. But I now understand why everyone is raving about this series. It’s really good.

A note on the month in reading before I get to the books. Had intended to make time to continue reading my print and ebooks during my leave but ultimately did not. My recovery took precedence. So, all of these books are audiobooks.

My first read of the month was Tomorrow’s Kin, the first novel in Nancy Kress’s Yesterday’s Kin series. I read this series out of order and my head didn’t explode 🙂 In this novel, we’re introduced to Maryanne Jenner, her three children, and the complicated series of events around the Worlders first visit to Earth. But that’s all over by the midpoint of the book, when Noah departs with the World ship. The rest of the novel addresses the fallout of the spore cloud and its effects on the ecosystem (it kills almost all mice and so disrupts prey and predator populations as well as agriculture and the economy, also, Russian and east Asian populations prove not to be immune, also, also, it alters the genome of fetuses making a generation of super-hearer kids, of whom Colin, one of Maryanne’s grandchildren, is one). This novel focuses on the science and the billionaires competing to build the first starship based on the plans the Worlders left behind. Like I said last month, an interesting series.

Then, I read The Men of the Otherworld, by Kelley Armstrong. This collection of linked short stories focuses on Clay and Jeremy. It was nice to get some backstory and context for the werewolf men.

Next, I read Oathbreakers, the second in the Vows and Honor series by Mercedes Lackey. Tarma and Kethry, still intent on earning enough money to open their own schools of battle and wizardry, respectively, join a mercenary company. When their leader disappears, they depart to investigate and enter a world of regal intrigue. There’s still one more book in the series, so I anticipate there will be more adventures in store.

I read Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff. It’s the third in her Keeper series (another disordered read—what’s going on?). Diana has graduated high school and finally come into her power as a Keeper. Her first summons? A mall in Kingston in the process of succumbing to the other side. And hell is trying to get a foothold in the real world. Her older sister, Clair, is away on a summoning of her own and Diana dived in, eager to prove herself. Entertaining.

Then, I took a brief break from fiction with The History and Enduring Popularity of Astrology by Katherine Walker. It’s a The Great Courses course converted into an Audible Original. Interesting insight into an art I’ve always dabbled in.

Next, I read Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer. Dr. Sarah Halifax, a preeminent SETI researcher, is in her eighties when the response to a message she sent to an alien civilization arrives. A billionaire benefactor steps in, offering Sarah the titular procedure, which will reset her body to its biological age when she was 25 and enable her to remain alive long enough to continue the conversation with the aliens, the one-way transmission of which takes 18 years. She agrees, her only condition that her husband Don receives the treatment as well. In a cruel twist, the procedure works on Don but not on Sarah. She must duplicate the decoding miracle that she accomplished nearly forty years ago, while Don comes to terms with his restored youth and the inevitability of losing the love of his life.

I listened to Habits for Good Sleep by Timothy J. Sharp, an Audible Original. Nothing new or startling, but a lot of good advice that I could stand to hear again.

My last read/listen of the month was another classic, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This novel seemed to be a response to Melville’s Moby Dick, starting with the narrator, a French naturalist, his servant, and a Canadian harpooner boarding The Lincoln in search of a mysterious sea monster, responsible for the sinking of several ships.

The sea monster comes for The Lincoln, and the narrator and his two companions are thrown overboard, only to be brought on board The Nautilus (AKA the sea monster) by Captain Nemo. From there, Nemo declares that they may never leave his ship, and they embark on the titular adventure. The novel shares many of the conceits with Melville’s, including long digressions into the nature and function of The Nautilus, the various sea life the narrator documents in his travels, the occasional people they meet (Nemo is a misanthrope), and the details of their navigational journey. It was okay.

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: January 2024 update

/ Melanie Marttila

Sweet Lord, but January’s a hard month to get through.

Image of a winter sky with sun and clouds, through tree branches.

Life in general

The month started out fine. Daylight hours are growing longer. I’m starting to feel better, come out of my winter shell, but then, I was presented with the prospect of ALL THE THINGS I have to do to prepare for and promote my poetry launch and …

Let’s just say I’m dysregulated now. Meltdowns abound.

I attended my union’s AGM virtually on the 24th.

The month in writing

I was once again focused on Reality Bomb revisions.

I revised and submitted a piece of short fiction to one of my dream markets.

I started revising an old story for an anthology call in April. I know, it’s a ways off, but the story basically needs to be rewritten in its entirety.

Image of an Excel spreadsheet.

I met with Suzy on the 11th. I’m back to struggling with grounding the characters in scene, not giving my disembodied protagonist enough agency, and not providing enough detail. My strengths remain dialogue, clean writing (which makes all my other problems so much easier to find), and my premise, which is complex, but compelling (and therefore incredibly challenging to write).

Our next meeting is scheduled for February 1st.

In other business-y news, I’m working on securing the venue for my poetry launch! While my publisher does have a budget for the launch, I’m hoping to receive some funding from the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) or The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) to cover part of the rental cost and webcasting for the event(!)

Yes. The launch will be in person, but broadcast for those of my family and friends who are in other places in Ontario and unable to make the journey up.

Now, I’m playing with ideas for making the launch a little different/special. I met with my publisher on the 30th to discuss and came away with a list of things to do. I contacted friend and networker extraordinaire Kim Fahner (also former poet laureate of Sudbury and current vice-president of TWUC) and I have several balls in the air with regard to reviews, readings, and one interview.

I’m tempering my expectations. Debut poets generally don’t get a lot of attention.

My publisher has also secured my first reading with The Conspiracy of 3 in North Bay on May 14th at the North Bay Public Library at 7 pm.

Unfortunately, that conflicts with the launch of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild’s Superstack Stories anthology. Can’t be in two places at once (!)

I’m going to have to put up a new page on my web site for appearances and readings!

Eeeeee! Things are happening!

At the SF Canada AGM last month, I joined the board of directors. Our first meeting was on Jan 23rd at 8 pm. We sorted ourselves and I have a better idea of the issues facing the organization and board at this time.

Filling the well

The new Birch moon in Capricorn fell on Jan 11th. Unfortunately, I was working toward a deadline and totally dysregulated after work. Moon did not cross my mind 😦

The full Spirit moon in Leo was n the 26th. I was able to work in a guided meditation.

I signed up for the DAW Fantasy Book Buzz on January 11th. It was a great preview of the coming season and John Wiswell was one of the featured writers.

I took part in the Free Expressions Success Series … on the 18th. I decided to purchase a few webinars from the series.

Back in December, I registered for a workshop called Poetry and Prose: crossing genre boundaries to strengthen your writing with Kate Heartfield and Amanda Earl on the 20th. It was a great session. And I drafted a new poem.

Finally, I attended a three-day virtual writers’ retreat with Suzy from the 25th to the 27th.

Image of a sky with cirrus clouds.

In personal events, I finally got into a meeting of my autism support group. It’s been months since I haven’t been put on a waiting list. It was a good session.

I had a massage on the 17th. Much needed.

A friend celebrated her retirement on the 21st. It was a nice afternoon and I got to catch up with some colleagues from my old team.

On the 22nd, I attended a guided meditation with Pat Tallman. It was relaxing.

I booked a virtual appointment with my doctor on the 24th to get some annual insurance referrals, including one for therapy. I’m starting up again. I have more work to do. Then, I booked a follow up, an appointment for bloodwork, my first therapy appointment, and tried to figure out how to get my emailed referrals to my insurance.

Torvi went for her first Furminator of the year on the 27th. The house is still full of fur bunnies, but Torvi’s all a-floof.

I won a year’s free subscription to the Beeja meditation app. I’m hoping it will help me regulate.

Finally, I met with my therapist on the 31st. We decided to stop meeting back in 2022, by mutual agreement. At the time, I was in a good place and didn’t need a lot of support. But winters are hard and I’m realizing in retrospect that I could have used her support when Phil broke his shoulder last year and again when I went on strike. I reverted to my default mode of bulling through the difficulties. Now, I’m paying for that decision.

And I had some well-earned annual leave from the 29th of January to the 2nd of February.

What I’m watching and reading

Phil and I finished watching the first season of Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix). Amazing story of a complex character and absolutely gorgeous animation. The voice cast is great. Hyper-realistic, violent, and mature content, though.

Then, I finished watching The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple +). A good thriller with a bittersweet ending.

Phil and I also watched the second season of What if … ? (Disney +). There were hits and misses among the episodes, but we enjoyed it. It remains one of the better Marvel series.

Next, I watched Bottoms (Amazon). It’s been on my list since Amanda the Jedi reviewed it. Hilarious. Absurd in the same way as Polite Society. Loved.

Then Phil and I watched Echo (Disney +). Echo’s story was great, but we wanted more of it (and less of Fisk). Five episodes wasn’t enough.

I roped Phil into watching The Brother Sun (Netflix) with me. He was reluctant at first, but by the end of the season, he was invested despite himself. A story about a triad family reunited in LA after a lifetime of living apart is going to be dark and bloody, but it also has a lot of heart. I enjoyed it.

My first audiobook of 2024 was Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. An entertaining tale of a goblin named Jig and his pet fire spider and how they are captured by and pressed into service by a party of adventurers.

Next, I listened to Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal. A delightful collection of short fiction including the three stories that gave birth to the Lady Astronaut series. Fidel and Mira’s tragic love story touched me, even as Fidel worked to redirect the asteroid that would crash into the easter seaboard. This was followed by a light story about a fireworks display on Mars that almost goes wrong. And then, the original Lady Astronaut of Mars novelette. Also touching. Kowal is so good at writing strong but complex relationships.

Then, I read Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak, the second book in the Unstoppable series by Charlie Jane Anders. I followed that up with Promises Stronger than Darkness. The whole series is a fun YA, neurodivergent romp. And the worldbuilding is wacky. Terrible things happen, but everything works out in the end because people choose to care about one another. And I’m stealing the phrase, “I’m a slow cooker.”

And that was the month in this writer’s life.

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

The Next Chapter: A month in the writerly life. melaniemarttila.ca

Join me for a webinar!

/ Melanie Marttila

I’m excited to be presenting a webinar for the Canadian Authors Association and SF Canada. Here are the deets:

The #ActuallyAutistic Author: Neurodivergent Self-Care for Every Creative
After a lifetime of writing (and masking), Melanie Marttila was diagnosed as autistic in 2021. Speaking from personal experience, she will cover various issues faced by autistics and how to mitigate them in a creative context. After the last three years of #pandemiclife, other creatives may experience many of these issues. Packed with actionable information and resources, The #ActuallyAutistic Author will introduce you to creative life on the spectrum, with all its benefits and challenges.

Presenter: Melanie Marttila
Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 pm (ET)
Length: 90 minutes (including Q&A)

About Melanie Marttila

Always looking up, eyes on the skies, head in the clouds, #actuallyautistic author Melanie Marttila writes poetry and speculative tales of hope in the face of adversity. She lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario, in the house where three generations of her family have lived, on the street that bears her surname, with her spouse and their dog.

Her first poetry collection, The Art of Floating, will be published in 2024 by Latitude 46. Her poetry has appeared in Polar Borealis, Polar Starlight, and Sulphur. Her short fiction has appeared in Pulp Literature, On Spec, Pirating Pups, and Home for the Howlidays.

You can sign up (for free!) on the Canadian Authors web site. Even if you can’t make it, you can get the recording and watch it later. What do you have to lose?

The next chapter: August 2022 update

/ Melanie Marttila

Ah, the weather’s already getting cooler. This summer was a good one up in northeastern Ontario. I’m sad to see the shortening days, this year.

Having said that, it’s pumpkin spice latte season!

Your monthly PSAs:

All lives cannot matter until Black, Indigenous, and people of colour lives matter.

Continue to observe public health guidelines (washing hands, maintaining physical distance, masking where you can’t, getting your vaccinations as recommended). Covid is endemic and new variants continue to crop up. Take care of yourselves and the people you love.

Russia’s unprovoked war in the Ukraine continues and continues to be deplorable. It’s been six months and there’s still no end in sight. I stand with the Ukraine.

Reproductive rights are everyone’s fight.

The month in writing

I was all over place in August. Some revision on Reality Bomb, a little short fiction, a little poetry, blogging, a little work on the Ascension series, some review of Alice in Thunderland (my alt-history/steampunk project), and I worked on a beta review as part of an exchange.

In terms of projects I’m tracking, here’s how the month worked out:

For RB, I didn’t put a revision goal up, but my main thrust is to cut 25k words from the last draft while also strengthening the plot and character arc. I didn’t count the days when I cut but noted when I added words. I’m still in the first half of the novel, which doesn’t need a lot of cutting.

I added 626 words but reduced the overall wordcount by just over 200 words. Not bad.

In terms of blogging, my massive July update contributed to achieving 142% of my 5,500-word goal (7818 words).

Short fiction stalled partway through the month after only writing 232 words. That’s 15% of my 1,500-word goal.

I set my poetry goal at 10 poems again and only wrote 8 (80%). I’m trying to turn my hand to capturing my autistic journey in poetry on the recommendation of a friend, but the result isn’t satisfactory. They’re all rather pedestrian. Lists of events, symptoms, reactions. I’ll have to revisit the lot of them at some future time. They’re not coming to life for me. Maybe poetry isn’t the medium for this? I don’t know.

With regard to projects I’m not tracking, I worked a little on the Ascension series master document based on the reading I’d completed to date. Then, I set it aside once other priorities started to take precedence.

I worked on my critique for the author I’d agreed to do a critique exchange with. It’s almost done. I’m hoping to be finished in the next day or so.

And I worked on my OAC grant application (see next section for more on that).

On Friday, August 12, I read an excerpt of “Torvi, Viking Queen” at the launch of Pirating Pups at When Words Collide (WWC). It was a lovely, intimate reading, done virtually. More on WWC in “filling the well.”

I also started my search for an editor/book coach to get RB ready to query. I’m now thinking that I’ll be ready to work with someone in October. There have been emails, intake forms, zoom meetings, and all kinds of administrivia going on around that effort.

I attended the CAA Board orientation on August 22nd. It’s the first time I’ve actually been able to attend one of these. Informative, but intimidating.

And I attended a special general meeting for SFCanada focused on the implementation of a new anti-harassment policy and amendment of the bylaws on August 27th.

Filling the well

I attended an information session from the Ontario Arts Council about applying for grants on Tuesday, August 9th. And … I started working on my application (!) for a literary creation project grant.

On the weekend of August 12 to 14, it was WWC 2022. I actually signed up for a couple of workshops on Thursday and Friday, and watched a few sessions live over the course of the weekend. I’m hoping that this year, more sessions will be made available on their YouTube channel, because there are always 10 sessions going on at the same time, and I can’t attend everything.

I signed up for a CAA/SFCanada webinar on August 17th with the intent of attending but didn’t have the spoons and ended up watching the replay. The session was presented by Den Valdron on publishing contracts, and he sent an impressive array of samples and resources.

Then, I attended a webinar about writing interiority delivered by agent Cece Lyra of PS Literary on the 18th. It was a-MA-zing. I found out about it after starting to listen to “The Shit No One Tells You About Writing” podcast. I think I’m going to watch the recording a few more times before I lose access.

I also signed up for a Mary Robinette Kowal webinar called “Earth’s future climate: a proactive SF approach” with Dr. Tom Wagner on August 23rd.

The next Tiffany Yates Martin webinar hosted by Jane Friedman focused on suspense and tension. It was during the day on August 24th, so I watched the replay.

Finally, Jane Friedman hosted a free roundtable discussion about the Department of Justice-Penguin Random House antitrust trial on the 26th. Again, it was during the day, and I watched the replay.

I also had an appointment with my optometrist and got myself some new (very expensive) glasses. Progressive lenses, anti-glare, and transitions. I’ll probably take a new headshot when I get them so y’all can see.

What I’m watching and reading

In the viewing department, I watched Lightyear (Disney +). It was fun and, as with most Pixar offerings, sentimental. Poor Buzz is so focused on completing his mission, he doesn’t realize he’s failed to live. The reveal of who Zurg is—I’ll leave that to you to find out. A recommended watch.

Then, I rented Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Oh. My. God. So good. Everyone’s already said all the things about the movie that I could and then some, so I won’t waste your time. Best movie I’ve seen all year. This is one I want to own. Love and google-eyes, y’all.

The Groot shorts on Disney + were cute. I felt sorry for the … squirrel-bird? And the bonsai. And the mimic. And the little whatever-they-were. Admittedly, in the last instance, Groot felt bad about squishing them, too. And he tried to make it up to the bonsai. Emphasis on tried. Just a root-ball ‘o’ chaos, Groot.

I watched the last episode of season 4 of WestWorld on August 14th. The writers’ collective fondness for not letting their audience know when they’re watching continues to be irritating. Everything comes together, eventually, but until it does, the viewer is left feeling confused and stupid.

Dolores is now Christina, who works at a gaming company, writing stories for in-game characters. Her alternate, Charlotte Hale, has now *SPOILERS* created a world in which most people have been infected by what I assume is a technological virus, which makes them subservient to the AIs. There’s a resistance cell of people who’ve managed to avoid or are resistant to the virus (delivered by fly—I get it, but ew!) and they’re trying to defeat the AIs and free the humans.

Caleb, who died last season, appears to be back, but his consciousness has been repeatedly uploaded into a host body, which we know from past seasons never works out well. His daughter, Frankie/Cookie/C, leads the outliers as the resistance is called, and one of her main missions is to find her father.

Bernard returns from the Sublime, having run infinite simulations about how things in the world outside will turn out. Stubbs has been his faithful guardian in the meantime and the two set off to find the outliers, resurrect Maeve, who was killed early in the season (and then again later—but what is later, really?), infiltrate Hale’s city to rescue what’s left of Caleb, and set the next iteration of WW into motion.

Almost everyone dies in the end, but Christina is returned to the Sublime by Hale (after which Hale commits suicide) and begins her final, most dangerous experiment, which looks suspiciously like the original WW she was built for. Frankie gets back to her people, which are the only humans left alive after AI-William sets every other AI and human into a homicidal/suicidal frenzy. *END SPOILERS*

I guess we’ll see what Dolores has in store for us some time in 2023 or 4, now that Ed Harris spilled the beans that filming on season five will begin next spring.

I watched Luck (Apple +) next. I like anything Simon Pegg’s in, even if he’s a cat 🙂 It’s a cute story. Sam is the unluckiest person in the world. She’s just aged out of an adoption centre but wants better for a young friend (a forever home). She has her own apartment and new job. We follow her through a typical day, just to set up the fact that if any can go wrong for Sam, it will. Until she shares a panini with a black cat and finds a lucky penny for her friend when it leaves.

The next day, penny in pocket, Sam can do no wrong. Despite enjoying the hell out of her new luck, she’s going to give the lucky penny to her friend. Until she accidentally flushes it down a toilet. Re-enter the black cat, to whom she tells her tale of woe. And when he demands, in a Scottish accent, “What did you do that for?” Sam’s whole world changes. Fun and sweet and feel-good.

Phil and I watch Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar (Netflix). This is the second of the live-action FMA movies and does follow the FMA: Brotherhood series of events. Phil and I have seen all the iterations of the anime, animated movies, and now the live-action movies. If you’re a fan, you’ll want to watch it.

After a month of being locked out of Goodreads, they’ve finally fixed the issue. And I’m still five books behind in my reading challenge, even after entering the books I read during the outage 😦

I read Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. While it appears to be the first book published, it’s the third in the series (as its title implies). On his site, Gladstone says each book is standalone and I found this to be true. There was only a little bit of disorientation, but I find that I like books that expect me to figure things out on my own. I enjoyed the legal/spiritual/craft interweave in the novel and the world building, based on the magic system, is superb.

Then, I finished Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. It’s been a while since I watched the series on Amazon, but, in this instance, I like the book better. It’s cleaner than the series and more direct. Cora’s journey is Cora’s alone and the cruelties of the slave owners and catchers aren’t explained. There’s no need for explanation.

Next, I read The North-West is Our Mother by Jean Teillet. It’s a non-fiction book about the history of the Métis Nation. It was an interesting and informative read.

I read Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds in gulps (it was just so tasty!). Traversers are recruited for a peculiar reason: they die a lot—in alternate realities. Because you can’t traverse to a world in which your alternate exists. The multiverse kills you for the offense.

Earth Zero identifies worlds that are similar enough to have the same resources and similar technologies because the main thrust of the traversers is information. Once the prospect world’s resources and technologies are identified, automated missions extract them to enrich Earth Zero.

I don’t want to get into the plot because it would be major spoilage and I don’t want to deny you the treat of reading this book for yourself.

Then, I finished Elan Mastai’s All Our Wrong Todays. I’ll be brief about this one too. It’s another fabulous read.

Tom Barren is a chrononaut, but he’s also a fuck-up and after he manages to derail the inaugural time travel mission, he breaks his timeline. How he tries to fix it is the story. And it’s hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.

And that was the month in this writer’s life.

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

CanCon 2015 day 1: How to pitch

/ Melanie Marttila

Panellists: Hayden Trenholm, Gabrielle Harbowy, Robert Runte, Elizabeth Hirst, Marie Bilodeau

PitchPanel

Q: What do you want to see/hear in a pitch?

EH: Enthusiasm. If the author loves their book and believes in it, that’s a good sign. Make sure the book you pitch is finished.

HT: Don’t lie. If the book isn’t finished, be up front about it. If the finished book comes in nine months later, that ship has sailed, though.

GH: First impressions count. Don’t ignore the guidelines. One guy wiped his nose before he shook my hand. It didn’t matter what he did after that.

EH: Presentation is key.

HT: I have to know I can send you to a high-end book store. Publishers don’t buy books. We buy authors.

RR: Different editors look for different things. You want to get rejected as quickly as possible. If you’re not a fit for the editor, you have to feel good about that and move on. You’ll find the editor who’s as passionate about your work as you are. I polled my SF Canada colleagues and asked them, ‘what’s the longest you’ve waited for a response?’ Eight years was the longest. That’s a huge chunk of your life.

HT: Pitching is like a job interview. Treat it like that.

EH: I wish the authors well. If it’s not for me, I might suggest someone else.

GH: Don’t argue. All decisions are final.

HT: Some people try to tell me why I’m wrong. It’s like asking for a second date after a failed first one.

EH: You should ask as many questions as they ask you.

HT: You have to make sure it’s the right fit.

EH: I might recommend self-publishing to some pitchers.

GH: But I can’t take a book that’s already been published.

RR: You have to make sure you match your capabilities. Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver.

HT: We don’t know everything. We all do what we can. Self-published books are a tough sell. 55% of Americans won’t read an ebook. Think about what you want. Your expectations should be clear. A bestseller in Canada is about 5000 books. When you choose a small publisher, you have a personal relationship. Our goal is to make the best book we can. If that’s what you want, pitch to a small press.

GH: Bigger presses look at Dragon Moon’s catalogue. We’re happy to send authors on to bigger and better things.

RR: If you’re asked for a synopsis, it’s a blow by blow of everything that happens in the novel, including the end. I need to know the ending. You have to tell me what your book is about.

EH: The ending is not as important to me as the main conflict. What’s interesting about the book? What’s the intrigue? That’s the reason people read.

GH: Premise and plot are not the same thing, though.

HT: People think the book has to be perfect. No. The book has to be interesting. If the book is a shambles in terms of spelling and grammar, we can fix it.

RR: I have to love your book to put the four- to five hundred comments on it that I do on most books. I’ve been giving these talks forever, but I finished my first book and went to pitch it . . . and blew it.

HT: The last person who knows what the book is about is the author.

Q&A ensued.

And that’s the end of day 1. Between Nina’s workshop and this panel, the opening ceremonies took place and after this panel, I went to the Bundoran Press book launch and SF Canada party, where I got to hear GoH Ed Willett read from his latest novel and network with my writerly peeps.

So that was all I did on Friday.

Next week: Asteroids.

Note: I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post on Saturday or if it will have to be pushed to Sunday. Family shenanigans. You know the holiday drill 🙂