Flight from Vancouver to Toronto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My flight was seven hours. I had to be at the airport (a 20 minute drive) an hour ahead of time, fly to Toronto and have a brief layover before boarding my connecting flight to Vancouver. There’s a three hour time difference between Ontario and BC.
Having arrived in Vancouver, I had to then make my way to Surrey. I asked hour much it would be for a shuttle. Even the flat rate was more than I was prepared to spend.
So I back-tracked, bought a train ticket, and rode the sky train for another hour and a half.
At the terminus station, I still had to catch a taxi to get to the hotel.
So, altogether, I spent about ten hours in transit and though it was only four-ish when I got here, I was done.
I checked in, got to my room, and discovered something:
I had to pay for internet access, and I could only pay for either in-room or meeting room access. I opted for room access, hoping that my smart(-er than me) phone would have enough connectivity to tweet.
After supper and a bath, I went to bed, about eleven pm Pacific, but about two am Eastern time.
I woke up at 3 am.
Though I did my best, I only managed to send one tweet before my phone bogged down altogether. I haven’t been able to send or receive much of anything since.
Also, Kristin Nelson was unable to attend, her flight from Colorado having been cancelled due to the weather.
I dealt with these small disappointments and have since had an absolute blast (so far). Will be posting the day’s sessions and my notes as I go, but these will likely be at least a day late.
I’m going to be a bit scarce, or scarcer that I have been recently.
I have my time off and I’m going to use it to catch up on a few projects/straighten out my head.
What’s up:
It’s taken much longer than I intended, but I am coming down to the final, final, FINAL revision of Initiate of Stone before I send her off to the editor who expressed interest last year and to a few select beta readers. I’m going to be revising my pitch/query and start targeting Agents and small publishers.
I’ll be attending the Surrey International Writers’ Conference from October 25-7, and I have a pitch session booked with the wonderful Kristin Nelson (squee!) I’m very excited, but after putting IoS to bed (for now) I will likely spend the next week prepping for SiWC. I’m going to be reviewing my idea files for what I want to work on next.
While I wait to hear back from editors/agents/publishers about IoS, I’m going to be starting on/returning to other novel-length projects like Gerod and the Lions.
Come November, though, I’m going to be tackling another project for NaNoWriMo (!) I only have until the 19th off, but I’m thinking it’s time to get something else up and out there. This may be the idea file project I choose to prep for SiWC.
So that’s pretty much my writing ambitions.
I have said that I would participate in Khara House’s October Submit-o-Rama, and even participated in Kasie Whitener’s Just Write 2013 challenge for the purpose, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get a pile of short stories submitted.
If it happens, it happens. I have some markets targeted, but I want to focus on my novels. That’s where I need to be.
On a more personal note, I’m going to be trying to work in a little more physical activity. I’ve gained weight just in the six weeks since I quit smoking. It’s not good. The clothes are tight. And I haven’t been as faithful with implementing new habits as I was with changing the old. I need something that will work with my life when I go back to the day-job. This bears some thought.
I have no doubt that when I do go back, things will be as hectic as ever, so the new fitness routine has to be something that will let me get the sleep I need, get all the housework and daily chores done, and still accommodate work and writing. And then there’s all that TV I like to watch 😛
I need to finish off my household clean-up (which stalled in September) and try to get the gardens into some kind of order before the snow falls. I have a few projects I’d like to get to as well: 2 ceiling fans to install, my office door to strip and refinish, and one of our external doors to repaint. I’m also looking at some storage fixes, cabinets for the bedroom and bathroom, and a new bookshelf for my office.
These last I’m not going to rush, since I think I’ll have enough with my trip to Surrey, another shortish trip to visit a friend in southern Ontario, and all the writing I want to do.
And then there’s Writerly Goodness. I’m thinking it’s time for a face-lift, and maybe a new
English: Epic Win title card. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
name. My domain will remain the same, but I’m thinking that a more appropriate name might be Totally Epic, or Epic Win (for my interest in epic fantasy).
I could go with something more general because I’m not just about the epic fantasy, I have urban fantasy, YA and MG, science fiction, and even some cross-over type novels in my idea file. Plus I still write poetry and short stories, some of which are not speculative at all.
How about Improbable Possibilities (one definition of SF), or Speculations on Fiction? There are some old suggestions: Phigment’s (Phigment is an imaginary dragon—the site would belong to her), or MelanieM/Millennium. This last was from a friend who realized saying MelanieM sounds an awful lot like millennium. Does something else present itself to you as clever? I think I might just put a poll in my post this week 😉
A number of recent writer interviews have been delayed, perhaps indefinitely, so I probably won’t be posting much more than once a week (outside of SiWC, which I hope to blog and maybe even Twitter). If I have nothing to offer by way of updates, I may not post at all in any given week.
Just to let you know. I’m still here, but I’m going to be trying to shift my focus away from the interwebz for a bit and get back to the reason I started this whole platform-building gig in the first place—my writing.
I’ve been seeking balance for some time. Maybe I’ll find it in the next five weeks? Who knows?
I signed up for Kasie Whitener’s Just Write Challenge in December of last year (I think). The goal was to write 13 original short stories in the year.
Later, Kasie amended the rules a bit to include revised stories.
The goal was to have everything ready to submit in the fall. Well, I’ve been submitting my stories all along. I don’t think that disqualifies me, but I just wanted to come clean.
Here is my progress review:
New/original fiction
Nothing’s Perfect – flash fiction – posted to my blog for one of Chuck Wendig’s challenges – January 2013. No acceptance or rejection carried with the challenge.
Beneath the Foundations – short story – completed and submitted to Innsmouth Free PressSword and Mythos anthology, February 2013. Subsequently rejected.
Molly Finder – short story – completed and submitted to In Places Between, April 2013. Subsequently rejected.
The Broken Places – short story – completed and submitted to Fearful Symmetriesanthology, May 2013. Subsequently rejected. I can now say that I’ve been rejected by the likes of Ellen Datlow. Not sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing 😉
Revised fiction
I’m so glad that Kasie changed her expectations, because, whew, I kind of petered out after June 😦
Downtime – short story, revised and submitted to On Spec, January 2013. Accepted! (2014 schedule)
A Terrible Thing – short story, revised and submitted to Tesseracts 17, February 2013. Subsequently rejected.
The Gabriel – short story (approaching novella), revised and submitted to Writers of the Future, March 2013. Subsequently rejected.
Cicadas – short story, revised and submitted to the Rannu Fund Prize, June 2013. Outcome unknown at this time.
Night Traffic – flash fiction, revised and submitted to Mouse Tales Press, July 2013. Accepted! (October 2013)
Killing with Kindness – flash fiction, revised and submitted to Gigantic Worlds anthology, July 2013. Subsequently rejected.
So, with 4 new and 6 revised, I’m up to 10 stories written or revised and submitted, yielding 3 acceptances, 5 rejections, 1 neutral, and 1 outstanding response. That’s not bad.
Previous year’s submissions
Submissions last year resulted in acceptances of my poetry to The Atomy (July 2013) and Enhance (March 2013), the inclusion of a creative non-fiction piece in Spooky Sudbury (October 2013), and the acceptance of one of my photos, also to Enhance (January 2014).
Poetry
My poetry has also been accepted by Sulphur(date of publication as yet unknown). This was the only poetry submission I have made this year.
I have finished what I thought was going to be my last revision of Initiate of Stone before querying, but I’m still quite a bit over the maximum word length generally considered by agents and editors in my genre.
As my goal is to obtain representation and a traditional deal (if I can), I’m parsing again, but am 3/4 the way through that process as well. I may need one more go-though to trim those last few thousand words, though. I’m getting to the point that it seems naked!
Once that’s done, it’s beta time*, preparation of my synopsis and query, sending to interested parties from a pitch conference last fall, and the slow agony of the querying process.
There is another contest in early September for which I will likely revise something.
If I’m able to get a self-funded leave (this is a work thing—lots of stuff happening, or not, on that front, but I’m saving it up until I have a better idea of my fate), I will be revamping my blog and moving to self-hosted WordPress (eek!).
Once my current WIP is into the querying stage, and until I hear from my betas, I will return to Gerod and the Lions, my MG fantasy, just for something different. I’m going to be on the lookout for more anthologies and interesting calls to see if I can get some more original fiction written. Again, this may depend on whether I get my self-funded leave or not.
Once GatL is drafted, I’ll return to my Ascension series, either revising IoS based on beta/other recommendations, or moving on to Apprentice of Wind.
That’s all I have on the go or in the plan for now.
What have you been up to recently? Have you joined any challenges? How is it going? Working on a novel? Short stories? Poetry? Creative or other non-fiction? I’d love to hear about your creative adventures!
*I have several people in mind, but if you are interested in epic fantasy with a female protagonist, drop me a line at melanie (dot) marttila (at) gmail (dot) com.
Just a few words here about my writing life of late.
I am continuing to revise Initiate of Stone, but at least once a week, I can’t seem to get to it after all my other responsibilities. Then sometimes I make a choice. This past Tuesday, for example, I chose to go to North Bay rather than taming my daily dose of the intewebz or write. Though it was well worth it, I still felt odd not writing.
It’s an addiction now. Healthy, but an addiction nonetheless 😉
Acceptances
Since my last update, I’ve received some good news. The Atomy picked up two of my poems, Enhance will be accepting one of my photographs (wow!), and most recently, Sulphur will be accepting three of my poems for its next issue.
I received my contract from On Spec and am waiting to hear from their content editor on next steps (still so excited about this!).
I’ve submitted a couple of flash fiction pieces, but they’re both fairly recent stories and may need to mature (read, to be edited) before they find a home.
Writers of the Future wasn’t fond of “The Gabriel” but I have yet to recieve my personalized response.
Still waiting to hear about a few short story submissions from April, May, and June.
Oh, and I almost forgot. I submitted the first bit of a story to Erin Brady too, and I’m curious to find out what will come of that 🙂
Just as I was linking those publications, above, I noticed that Enhance has a call out for that flashy fiction stuff! Go see!
Conferences
This year’s CanWrite! was a success. I certainly hope everyone got a lot of good information out of my CanWrite! blog posts.
Since I’m now a member of the program committee, which includes responsibility for the conference and the CAA literary awards, I’ll probably have some news forthcoming about next year’s conference in the future. Watch this space 🙂
The conference fee is reasonable in the extreme, but it’s the air fare and accommodation that make the event costly. Domestic flights are quite expensive. I had my eye set on Surrey this year, so I think I’m going to stick with that conference and go to WWC next year. I only have enough Avion points to take 2 trips anyway and one is already spoken for (a friend’s pre-wedding party) so there you have it 🙂
There’s a writing contest associated with Surrey too, so I’ll probably aim to submit something for that as well.
It’s good to keep the creative opportunities lined up and ready to rock.
What’s everyone working on these days? I’d love to hear from you about your creative projects!
You may have noticed that I have been a little quiet here on Writerly Goodness lately. What’s the deal? you ask. Fair question.
One piece of the puzzle is that I am a little overwhelmed right now. I’ve taken on a submission challenge that I probably won’t meet, and several courses, that while excellent, have also eaten up a good chunk of my creative time.
I’m trying to prepare two short stories for submission at the end of the week, and one of them has yet to be finished. I know. I’m stressed. 😦
I’m also working through the next revision of my work in progress and this coming week, I’m on the road for work again. I rarely finish the things I need to get done while I’m travelling.
The other piece is that I haven’t been taking advantage of all the interesting creative things coming my way. I haven’t been motivated. The time issue may be part of it, but I suspect that the overwhelm and stress has left me a bit down in the last bit.
This is about to change. I’m going to make contact with a few people this weekend to see if I can arrange for some interviews, and in a couple of weeks, my creative event schedule is getting underway, starting with Sudbury Wordstock, June 7 and 8, 2013.
Then I’m off to the Canadian Authors Association CanWrite! Conference in Orillia, June
English: Waterfront of Orillia, Ontario, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
12-16. I’d like to catch a Chi Series reading on the 12th as well, because one of my all-time favourite writers, Guy Gavriel Kay, will be reading that night. I just don’t know if I can do both in such a short turn-around.
Other writerly goodness on deck: an interview with Barbara Kyle (which I’m very pleased about), and possibly something of a departure that I don’t want to spill the beans about in case it doesn’t pan out. I’ll also be blogging my experience in Margie Lawson’s course, and, on the learning mutt side of things, my first training for trainers experience (where I’m headed this week).
When I get my outdoor office set up, I’ll probably show that off too, with the new view sans birches.
Later in the summer, I’m hoping to head to When Worlds Collide in Calgary (might be
Chinook arch over the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
hooking up with an editor/writer friend for this and meeting a couple of other writerly friends on site), and in the fall, I’ll be taking off to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference where a whole pile of authors, agents, and editors I follow will be.
Having put off the migration to WordPress.org and a self-hosted site, I’ve turned my attention to adding video or podcast elements to my blog. Not sure how soon that might happen. I have to put my techie hat on for that. And the site revamp is still lurking. Once again, I just need the time to spend a day or two and dedicate myself to the changes.
There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening, I’ve just yet to get excited about it 😉 It’s kind of creeping up on me, though. I just wish I had more time off to get everything done (!)
So I’m not really underwhelmed, I’m just under-invested at the moment.
Summer will be here before I know it!
One Sundog Snippet yet to come this week. See y’all soon!
Always Looking Up 