Suzy Vadori

The next chapter: July 2023 update

/ Melanie Marttila

Welcome to August, everyone! Enjoying your summer?

A picture of clouds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The month in writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filling the well

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I’m watching and reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next chapter: June 2023 update

/ Melanie Marttila

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

Picture of clouds with crepuscular rays.

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

Let’s backtrack a bit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The month in writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think I’m AGM’d out, now.

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

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

I promptly started querying photographers.

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

Filling the well

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Picture of the crescent moon and Venus through smokey haze.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I’m watching and reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now it’s onto The Raven King!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The CSFFA Professional Development Grant

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Much happy dancing is happening.

It’s good to have good news.

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

The next chapter: April 2023 update

/ Melanie Marttila

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

The month in writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just gonna let the Excel speak for itself.

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

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

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

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

Filling the well

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just four more writing-related events in the month.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I’m watching and reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tipsday: Informal writerly learnings, Feb 12-18, 2023

/ Melanie Marttila

Welcome to tipsday, where you can get the best of the week’s informal writerly learnings. Enjoy!

Ann Marie Nieves: so you’re interested in hiring a publicist. Jim Dempsey says, write for that someone special. Then, Barbara Linn Probst wonders what actually makes you a better writer? Writer unboxed

K.M. Weiland offers some tips on writing romance. Helping Writers Become Authors

C.S. Lakin explains what story hooks are all about. Live, Write, Thrive

Stories about stories about stories. Tale Foundry

Elizabeth Spann Craig reviews Amazon’s author page updates.

Roz Morris wonders, will AI writing threaten authors’ livelihoods? Nail Your Novel

Jane says negotiation is the one business skill she could grant all writers. Jane Friedman

Suzy Vadori helps you slay your bloated word count. Writers Helping Writers

Nathan Bransford says don’t dribble out morsels of information within a scene.

How to write dialogue. Reedsy

AK Nevermore defines science fiction and fantasy. Then, Lori Walker interviews Courtney Maum about genre-hopping, process, and time management as a working writer. Karmen Špiljak shares the secret ingredient. Next, Sebastián Calderón offers five techniques to connect with your novel. DIY MFA

Janice Hardy shares three ways “show, don’t’ tell” can strengthen your writing. Then, Lynette M. Burrows helps you create characters your readers love and hate. Eldred Bird lists five ways helping other writers helps you. Writers in the Storm

Jenna Harte explains how to find your readers. Fiction University

Tiffany Yates Martin: when will you be a success? Fox Print Editorial

Chris Winkle helps you judge what information your story needs. Then, Oren Ashkenazi analyzes five stories with disappointing prophecies. Mythcreants

Chuck Wendig considers AI and the fetishization of ideas. Terribleminds

Connor Garel explains why M. NorbeSe Philip declared war on her own book. The Walrus

Amna Khalid: the futility of trigger warnings. Persuasion

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you found something to support your current work(s) in progress.

Until Thursday, keep staying safe and well!

The next chapter weekly: Jan 15-21, 2023

/ Melanie Marttila

Greetings, all!

This week, I pulled the King of Swords from the tarot, and The Horse from the Celtic oracle deck.

The King of Swords represents a catalyst or wise council. This is good, because I’m meeting with Suzy this week, and a mentor at work. But really, I’m thinking that it’s time I seek the wise council within, know what I mean? I really have to develop (or redevelop) my self confidence.

The horse represents Epona, Gaullish horse goddess, the Great Mare. She was the protector of horses and possibly a fertility goddess. She was the only Celtic deity to be worshipped by the Romans as the goddess of cavalry. Unfortunately, her origins are lost because no one recorded the mostly oral Gaullish myths and legends. There is a Roman tale that survives about a guy that, fed up with women, decided that a horse would make a better mate and produced Epona. Typical Greek/Roman stuff.

I did find this on the OBOD web site, though:

“Epona is the Patroness of all journeys, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. She is the Goddess of the Land and its seasons, of fertility in all things. …. I feel Her presence beside me keeping me safe, giving me strength for each day. I see Her touch in every new green shoot of the Spring and in every fruit of the Autumn. I hear Her voice in the whispers of the breeze through the trees and in the song of the river.”

So, I think I’ll take it as a sign that I’ll be going on a metaphorical journey (I have no plans to travel physically). We’ll see where it leads 🙂

The week in writing

Continuing as I have so far this month, I aimed to finish my map for Alice in Thunderland by Jan 20th and then leave the project for the rest of the month before returning to it and finishing the last four chapters. I submitted my fourth assignment to Suzy on the 15th, so I had a few days off Reality Bomb.

But things changed mid-week. It was a busy week with appointments, sometimes several on the same day. It was a bit hectic and thank goodness for Phil, who managed to get me supper on the busy days. I didn’t get any work done on the Alice map after Monday. I decided to take it easy for the rest of the month and get back to it in February.

I met with Suzy on the 19th. Again, it was a fruitful meeting. But just as we were getting some momentum, I had to withdraw (because of that work/financial situation I mentioned a couple weeks back). We were at the end of our scheduled meetings, and I don’t have the disposable funds to continue, though I really want to because I’m learning a lot. The accountability is also great. When I have external deadlines to work toward (i.e., someone’s waiting/depending on me to do the work), I tend to get it done.

She’s going to check in with me mid-April to see if a resolution is on the horizon.

On that topic, I received notification on Friday that I was successful in the assessment process and am now part of a qualified pool of candidates. Though my employer won’t be able to take any action until at least April, the way has been cleared. So, I guess the resolution (partial though it may be) to my financial difficulties has come through within ten weeks. Thanks, inverted ten of swords 🙂

On the downside, my application for an OAC grant was not successful. I received that notification Friday morning. Another Sudbury writer was successful, though. All congratulations to her. She deserves it.

I’m really getting the vibe that I should take December and January off. From big projects, anyway. Mapping in preparation for revision, poetry, short fiction—I think these would all be doable, but heavy revisions or drafting may be out of the question, at least for my neurodivergent brain.

Here’s how the week broke down.

I wrote a net 16 words on RB on Sunday, and then left the project to rest.

I added the last two drafted chapters of Alice to the map and started freewriting ideas for the next chapter before the week got to be too much. That, too, is sitting for a bit.

I blogged 1,731 words for the week.

So, total revision 16 words and total writing 1,731 words for the week and a net -606 words in RB and 5,540 words in the blog for the month.

Filling the well

I attended the Spoonie Authors Network Launch on the 15th. It was a lovely reading, and I won a copy of Nothing Without Us, Too 🙂

I had a massage on the 17th and a meeting with my support group on the 19th. This month’s topic was trauma. Both informative and cathartic.

What I’m watching and reading

I didn’t finish any series this week, but I did watch Where the Crawdads Sing (Amazon). So good. Gave me a Grisham movie (at their best) vibe. Another book that’s moving up on my TBR list.

This week, I finished Stephen Fry’s Secrets of the Roaring Twenties (Audible original). It was an interesting historical podcast and, because it’s adjacent to the time period Alice is set in, very informative.

I also read Lori Devoti’s One Soul to Share. A vampire looking for a soul meets a mermaid looking to make a deal with the sea witch Melusine for the same. A straightforward paranormal romance.

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

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

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 17-23, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 4 Comments

There’s as much for you to watch as there is for you to read 🙂

Roz Morris shares three paradoxes of writing life.

Set up and pay off, the two equally important halves of foreshadowing. K.M. Weiland.

Jan O’Hara explores the ethical implications of the writing life with nods to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a disturbing psychological experiment. Writer Unboxed.

Janice Hardy explains the difference between setting and world building. Fiction University.

Kim Bullock is desperately seeking darlings (to kill). Writer Unboxed.

Chuck Wendig has some thoughts for mid-career authors. Terribleminds.

Carly Watters explains how you can write for the market (not to trends) and write for yourself.

Joanna Penn discusses publishing trends in 2016 with Jane Friedman.

 

Jannifer Garam shares the secret of writing when no one gives a shit. Brilliant!

Hugh Howey offers his advice on how to become a writer. The Wayfinder.

Chris Winkle details the perils of land travel before engines for Mythcreants.

How authors can employ supernatural elements in a non-fantasy story. Authors First.

Carol Daniels shares her experience writing a strong indigenous heroine in response to the pain of history. Quill & Quire.

Iconic science fiction editor David G. Hartwell (yes, the same man who presented The History of SF at CanCon in October) has died. Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Making Light (with links to other tributes).

Kathryn Cramer, David’s wife, wrote this touching post: till death did us part.

Authors call for a boycott on literary festivals that don’t pay. Nadia Khomami for The Guardian.

Jeannine Hall Gailey is disturbed by the plight of the amazing disappearing woman writer. The Rumpus.

Anne Thériault writes about mental illness and the male gaze in the figure of the sexy, tragic muse. Guerilla Feminism.

Plans are in the works for the 162 Arts Hub, a gathering place for artists, centering on indie cinema, right here in Sudbury! Our Crater.

Lisa Cron presents her Wired for Story TED Talk:

 

The storytelling animal. Jonathan Gottschall’s TED Talk at Furman:

 

Shayne Koyczan. Turn of a light. So love this.

 

Mental Floss lists 25 words that are their own opposites. They’re called contronyms.

The Park of Monsters is featured on Atlas Obscura. There’s a literary connection.

Marco Kalantari made this epic science fiction short film called The Shaman. You need to watch it. A-MA-Zing!

When Nichelle Nichols met Martin Luther King Jr.:

 

Fantasy Fiction Focus interviews Suzy Vadori.

 

I hope something gave you that special little bit of writerly advice you need to take your WiP to the next level.

See you Thursday!

Tipsday