TWUC

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: April 2024 update

/ Melanie Marttila

National Poetry Month (NPM), a debut poetry collection launch, book signing, interviews, etc. mean a busy month for this writer with a day job.

A picture of the almost-full moon above budding tree branches.

Life in general

The illen turned out to be another case of sinusitis. Yay, a new weak spot in my immune system (!)

This marks the third time that I’ve contracted this particular infection. Last spring, I had thought I had developed seasonal allergies in mid-life, allergies that were exacerbated by the ubiquitous smoke of forest fires from late spring into early summer.

The reason I thought this was because the congestion lasted for months without developing into a serious cold/flu. I was up to date on all my vaccinations. Just to be safe, I tested for covid. The test came back negative.

Then, in late September 2023, I got sick again, and it felt exactly like what I’d had in the spring. This time, it developed into a nasty cough, persistent headaches, and pain in my sinuses. I tested for covid again and the test was negative. I went to the walk-in clinic because I wouldn’t be able to see my doctor in person for at least a month. I came away with antibiotics and a corticosteroid nasal spray. Still, it lasted for two months before it finally went away.

It was only after the fact, when I could smell and taste properly again, that I realized that it was probably the same infection spring and fall, and that it had just gone “sub-clinical” for the summer months. I’d had the taste of infection in the back of my throat the whole time.

This time, I’ve had sinusitis since the second week of March and have been to the walk-in clinic twice. I couldn’t test for covid, because all our kits had expired. I knew what I was dealing with, though, and am pretty sure the test would have returned a negative result.

The first time I went to the clinic, I was sent away with the same prescription as in the fall. I finished the course of treatment and did not feel any better. I returned to the clinic and was given a second, stronger prescription of antibiotics and advised to add steaming to my recovery regimen.

The fact that I’ve been working toward a deadline at work and toward the launch of my debut poetry collection all along has no doubt prolonged my recovery. In particular, the launch, signing, and the few live or online interviews I’ve done have made it necessary for me to mask at a level I’ve not had to since the start of the pandemic. All my energy goes toward that rather than toward my recovery.

Add to that the fact that there is not a lot of blood supply to the sinuses and antibiotics are not efficiently delivered to the source of the infection. On my second visit, the doctor I saw said the infection might be in the bone and even more difficult to eradicate.

Fortunately, by the end of the month, the second course of antibiotics appeared to be having an effect. It apparently stays in your system for about 15 days after the last dose.

The month in writing

Because I was focusing on The Art of Floating launch and all the associated writerly activities, I was less focused on writing and revision, but I still had a short story to finish, one to edit, and some poetry to submit.

Through the fabulous Melissa Yuan Innes (Yi), I managed to arrange for an interview with Derek Newman-Stille about TAoF on April 2nd! Yes, I was on Speculating Canada, the multi-Aurora Award-winning podcast.

Of course, on the 6th my day was devoted to the TAoF launch! You may have seen my brief post about it on the 7th. I tried to treat the day as normally as possible. With the exception of heading out to get my makeup done by Dana Lajeunesse of Fabulous After Forty 🙂 , I walked my dog, visited my mom, and tried to remain calm.

The launch went well, but afterward, on the way home from the event, in fact, my sinusitis rebounded. I could feel the congestion socking in again.

I applied for the Public Lending Right (PLR) program for both the print and ebook version of TAoF.

I now have Amazon (still being reviewed) and Goodreads Author pages (!) Eep! This is all so official!

I submitted my final reports for funding on the 10th and received my reading fee from the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) on the 25th. I’d received my cheque from The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) in the mail the day before and deposited it on the 26th. I have not yet been invoiced by Place des Arts.

I submitted my answers for an interview in periodicities. It should be appearing May 18th or later.

Pulp Literature once again shared the news of my launch in their newsletter.

My recommended reading post went live on the 49th Shelf on the 11th! And not long after, my Open Book piece was also posted! I’ve been working on these pieces over the past months. It’s wonderful to see how they’ve come together!

On the 13th, I had a book signing at the Sudbury Chapters from 11 am to 2 pm. I signed nine books. Well, I actually signed 20, but nine of them were for the lovely people who bought them. The rest will be on the local authors shelf.

Picture of Melanie Marttila and publisher Heather Campbell at Chapters Sudbury.

I submitted a poem to a contest but did not place.

I recorded myself reading two more poems from my collection for a Poetry Pause promotion through River Street Writers. The reel was posted to Instagram on April 18th.

I finished rewriting my short story for an anthology call and submitted it on the 21st.

My interview with Heidi Ulrichsen for Sudbury.com came out on the 23rd. Since the social medias are angry with Canadian news, I can only share it with you here (!) The Art of Floating: Poetry book dedicated to Sudburian’s father.

Then, my piece for All Lit Up: There’s a poem for that came out on the 25th!

I also started my application for Access Copyright affiliation. There are a few things to get together. And I can only apply for work published in 2022 and before … ? Ah, well. I’ve started. Might as well finish.

And then, on the 29th, I was greeted with this amazing review of The Art of Floating by Sara Hailstone.

I revised another story for an open submission period and submitted it on the 30th.

And I wrote a bunch of poems 🙂

Filling the well

The new Alder moon in Aries was on April 8th as well as the eclipse! As usual, it was cloudy here. I ended up watching the eclipse through Time and Date’s YouTube channel.

The full Pink/Sap boiling moon in Scorpio 🙂 was on the 23rd. It was overcast, of course. We even has a bit of a thunder storm. Though the cloud broke up a little around sunset, there was no viewing to be had.

Picture of a quarter moon among wispy clouds above trees.

On the 4th, I attended a Clarion Writers Workshop about “Avoiding common pitfalls in writing climate fiction” with Sarena Ulibarri. Very informative about the tropes to avoid.

I signed up for Cece Lyra’s “Tension, Conflict, and Stakes” on the 11th. This was followed up with a Q&A on the 15th. While Cece’s webinars tend to go long, she shares invaluable information on how to create and maintain tension in your novel. 

The online edition of Can-Con took place on the 20th. I caught several of the panels and will catch the couple I missed on replay. Fabulous con.

And The FOLD online conference was held from April 28th to May 1st. So glad to be able to view the replays.

Finnish classes continued on Monday evenings throughout the month.

I signed up for a CAMH presentation on “Sleep and cancer” on the 24th. Interesting.

Later the same night, my support group met. April’s topic was “Dealing with diminished executive function,” something I’m struggling with right now.

What I’m watching and reading

The first watch of the month was the second part of Invincible (Amazon), season 2. Insane and bloody as ever. Mark makes some critical decisions. He can’t do it all. And maybe he can’t avoid becoming like his father.

Then, Phil and I finished watching The 3 Body Problem (Netflix). I read the first book of the trilogy years ago, and it was again fascinating to see how the adaptation differs from the source material. Also, the DBs produced an inside the episode companion series for further insight. I really enjoyed it. Phil had his usual beef about the misappropriation and misinterpretation of the science, but he also enjoyed watching.

I watched the new (but sadly not improved) Road House (Amazon). Though Jake Gyllenhaal was pleasing to watch as Dalton, he was very enclosed and not very engaging on an emotional level. In the original, Patrick Swayze’s Dalton was clear about his intention to train the Road House’s existing bouncers to do their jobs better. In this version, there is simply a montage showing Dalton training one person on site and recruiting another. Long story short, though I could list all the movie’s faults, it was only mildly entertaining and there was no story at all. I didn’t care about any of the characters.

I finally finished watching the final season of The Flash (Netflix). It was the same old, same old right to the end, even bringing back the Reverse Flash, Godspeed, Zoom, and Savatar to join a resurrected Eddie Thawn, the new avatar of the negative speed force to battle team Flash in the finale. This battle coincides with Nora’s birth. All ends well (of course) even though adult Nora is present for her own birth and even holds her infant self. I guess paradox gives the Allen-West family a pass. About three (of five) seasons too long. A solid meh.

I also finished watching the most recent season of The Witcher (Netflix), the last with Henry Cavill. The series has been pretty hit and miss overall. In keeping with that assessment, there were things I liked about this season, and there were things I didn’t like. The thing that bothered me most was that the three main characters were separated throughout much of the season, and nothing seemed to progress the plot. The plot was largely MIA, and I didn’t care to remember who the principle parties were (i.e., in the war).

Then Phil and I watched the first season of Fallout (Amazon). Phil has played the Fallout games and was interested in what the adaptation would look like. The writers and showrunners opted (intelligently, in my opinion) to tell an entirely new story in the Fallout universe. The characters were complex, and their journeys were compelling. Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended.

I watched Wish (Disney +). I understand the criticism levelled at it, but honestly, it’s a cute celebration of all Disney movies. In fact, while the credits roll, all of the characters from the Disney movies appear. It’s basically an extended metaphor for Disney as an entertainment company. It was enjoyable and the perfect thing to watch while recovering.

Next, I finished Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV +). Loved! Brie Larson is fabulous as Elizabeth Zott. I’m not going to say much about the series except that you should watch it.

My first read of the month was Joanne Epp’s Cattail Skyline. In her second collection of poetry, Epp rambles through the prairies, explores a creek, travels to Cambodia, rides a train, and reminisces about a summer cottage. Again and again, she returns to the Cemetery road as she watches it through the seasons and years. Her keen observations reveal secret insights in every slant of light and experience of place.

Then, I finished Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man. Holy heck is this linked short story collection depressing! I think there was one story that didn’t end in death and horror. Come to think of it, The Martian Chronicles was like that, too. Characters, usually men, make hubristic or fascistic decisions and get their comeuppance. Even the conscientious objectors can’t escape doom. This may be a heretical take, but the book left me feeling meh.

Next, I listened to Callahan’s Con by Spider Robinson. Having now read Legend & Lattes, I can see Robinson’s Callahan series as a predecessor. A hippie, inclusive, punny, and intoxicant-positive predecessor, but a predecessor, nonetheless. The books, whether set at the original Callahan’s Place, Mary’s Place, or The Place, focus on found family, a kind of travelling commune, if you will, and the power of love to overcome all disasters.

I listened to Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters. It might just be the narrator, but I found the main character, Sam, rather whiny, but still bordering on toxic masculinity. Again, the book and its author are products on their time.

Then I read Tanya Huff’s Valor’s Choice. Solid military SF. A marine combat unit is given the “easy” assignment of accompanying a delegation to sign a new member species, the silsviss, into their confederation. When their ship crashes in a “reserve” where young male silsviss are sent until their volatile adolescence passes, and their military transport is suddenly called out of orbit on an urgent matter, Staff Sergeant Toren Kerr must act quickly to protect the ambassadors and find shelter until they can be rescued. Is this the work of the Others or have they run afoul of some other nefarious scheme?

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: February 2024 update

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

February’s the month I emerge from winter hibernation. Yes. I’m a bear.

Picture of a sky of cirrus clouds framed by trees.

Life in general

The light is visibly returning. Even so, most of the days are overcast. It’s still unseasonably warm, with a lot of days above zero degrees Celsius and not as much precipitation as I’d like. Yes, Phil doesn’t have to shovel as much, but I’m worried about the coming year.

Not a lot of snow means a dry spring, unless it rains every day, and even then, it may not be enough to prevent forest fires from sparking. Last year was bad. I expect this year to be even worse.

Work is work. I’m back on the albatross of a project (I’ve been working on it since spring 2022) but the end (for now) is in sight. There’s always maintenance, and the wholesale revision of the other modules in the curriculum, but it should be off my plate by the end of March.

I’m taking a self-funded leave from the Victoria Day (May 2-4, we call it, even though the holiday Monday rarely falls on the 24th) long weekend until the Canada Day long weekend in July. It will be nice to have a stretch off. I want to do some gardening. I want to go swimming. I want to see what diurnal cycle my body naturally settles into. I want to just enjoy myself for a while.

I also want to see if I can dive into one or two new creative projects, revise a novella, and see what I can get done when I’m not spending eight hours a day working for someone else. It’s been seven years—well, six and a half years—since I’ve taken a self-funded leave. It’s the first leave of this nature I’ve taken since being diagnosed as autistic and, most of all, I want to learn if I can adjust my life and the routines I’ve established so they support me better.

We’ll see how things go.

The month in writing

I’m still working on Reality Bomb revisions. My focus changed a bit this month, however. I signed up for Suzy’s Developmental Editing Mentorship in February program and continued to revise and under the auspices of that program.

We did meet on February 1st to review my most recent submission. I’m to the point in the novel where I’m basically rewriting the second half of the second and all of the third act. I had expected to have a rough go with this critique, but it was a lot better than I expected. I’m learning!

As ever, though, learning is never a straight line.

I’ve given up on trying to track my revisions on the spreadsheet. Now that I’m in the second half of the novel, I’m completely rewriting most of it. It’s hard to compare a sprawling, meandering draft with the tighter rewrite. I’m eliminating whole chapters, combining chapters, and making the whole more cohesive. I’m figuring out when to show and when to tell.

I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get some interest when I query, later this year.

I paid for my annual membership to the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and submitted “Psychopomps Are Us” to the nomination list for the 2023 Aurora Awards. I also submitted the story to The Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two, for consideration.

I submitted my final report for the mentorship microgrant I was approved for through The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC).

I applied for TWUC National Reading Program funding and event funding from the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) for my poetry launch.

I tossed my hat into the My Personal Odyssey ring again. I’ll find out some time in March if I’ve made the cut this year.

My associate membership renewal for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) came due in February.

And I continue to work on the launch, and arranging reviews, readings, and so forth for The Art of Floating.

The venue is booked! It will be in the Studio Desjardins of Place des Arts, at 7 pm on April 6th, 2024. Now to get the livecast details in place so I can start promoting in earnest.

Kim Fahner has agreed to a brief casual conversation about my poetic journey to start the launch. I’m so happy she’s agreed to help me out. She’s been such a central figure in my poetic life.

Now … I have to think about what I want to wear. I don’t have any nice clothes left after I lost weight back in 2021. The prospect of some new clothes is pleasing, but I hate shopping with a passion.

My publisher confirmed a book signing at Chapters on April 13th from 11 am to 2 pm.

On the 23rd, I received a lovely email informing me that my application for The Writers’ Union of Canada’s National Public Reading funding was approved!

My poem, “Time and Tide,” was published in Polar Starlight 13 on February 24th.

And I submitted some more poetry to a themed issue of one of Canada’s best known literary journals. I’m not hopeful, to be honest. They had over a thousand submissions (!)

Filling the well

February 1st was Imbolc, but I was so dysregulated at the time, I didn’t get around to lighting my altar or doing my usual, quiet observation until the 2nd (!)

My Imbolc altar.

The new Rowan moon in Aquarius (and beginning of the Year of the Dragon!) was on the 9th. I observed with a guided meditation. It was overcast up here, which it usually is this time of year.

I’m a Rooster and this is what the Year of the Dragon brings for me: Your careful nature and attention to detail will strengthen during Year of the Dragon 2024. You’ll be good at handling difficult tasks with care.

Bodes well, methinks!

The full Snow moon in Virgo was on the 24th. It was overcast, but I got a lovely picture of the moon a couple of days before the full. I again observed with a guided meditation.

Picture of the almost full moon.

As I mentioned earlier, I signed up for Suzy Vadori’s developmental editing course from the 5th to the 29th. Virtual meetups were twice a week, with asynchronous training in between. The course gave me more insight into Suzy’s methodology, and I used the month to once again review the draft-to-date.

I attended the Wordstock and Sulphur open mic night at Books & Beans on the 7th. It was standing room only, but I got to read some of my more recent poetry (i.e., stuff that’s not in The Art of Floating) and promote my launch.

  • Sulphur open mic night at Books and Beans, Sudbury.

The first Success Series webinar from Free Expressions, “Neurolinguistic Programming for Writers” with Beth Baranay was on the 8th. I was dysregulated and watched the recording. NLP, or neurolinguistic programming is all about changing the connections in your brain to learn, improve, and form and break habits. Beth applied NLP techniques for both authors and their characters. We didn’t quite get to habits, but the grounding is there.

On the 9th, Authors Publish presented a webinar on “The Art of Writing Immersive Worlds,” presented by Cat Rambo. Still dysregulated. Watched the replay. The webinar felt intimate, and Cat is always a good presenter.

I signed up for a Freedom to Read Week event co-sponsored by TWUC and the LCP on the 22nd featuring Farzana Doctor and Gary Geddes. It was a lovely evening.

Then, I signed up for a Black History Month poetry reading featuring Ian Keteku, Asiah Sparks, and Damini Awoyiga. Black poets rock, y’all!

On the 29th, there was another Free expressions SSW, “Character Dynamics” with Damon Suede. Because I opted to go to the poetry reading, I watched the replay.

In non-writing-related events, I attended a Toronto Public Library Black History Month presentation about “Reframing History: Newfoundland and Labrador & the Black Atlantic.” Bushra Junaid, Afua Cooper, and Camille Turner each presented pieces of Black history in Newfoundland and Labrador. Compelling and poignant.

I also had an appointment with my therapist on the 28th. I’m trying to work through the idea that I feel, at least recently, that I’m always on the cusp of burnout. I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that it might just be part of life.

What I’m watching and reading

I finished watching the first season of Citadel (Amazon). A second season has been green lit, but I don’t know if I’ll watch it. I was left confused more than anything. Madden and Chopra-Jonas have zero chemistry and even Stanley Tucci couldn’t save it.

Next, I finished watching Little Bird (Crave). Touching and compelling story about a family divided by the 60s Scoop coming together to heal.

Then, I finished watching the third (and final) season of Res Dogs (Disney +). Bear finds his way home after missing the bus. We get some backstory of the Dogs’ parents and elders, and the series ends with Elora meeting her father (Ethan Hawke) and his kids and the Dogs coming together around the funeral of one of their elders before the ancestor says goodbye, Elora heads off to university, and Bear’s mom leaves for a new job. Bear’s in a good place.

I finished watching the first (and only) season of First Kill (Netflix). It was inspired by a short story by V.E. Schwab and is essentially a modern, queer, and supernatural retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Juliette is the youngest daughter of a legacy vampire family who are pressuring her to make her first kill. In fact, she’s on medication to “take the edge off” her bloodlust and the last thing she wants to do is kill anyone. Calliope is the youngest daughter of a monster hunting family and eager to make her first kill. When Juliette and Calliope fall in love…a whole bunch of people die. The series ended on a weird cliffhanger and wasn’t renewed, so we may never find out what was going to happen. Unless Schwab wants to turn it into a comic or something?

Then, I roped Phil into watching The Marvels (Disney +) with me. It was fun. I loved Goose and the flerkin kittens. I loved Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. The rest was okay. It wasn’t as bad as reviews led me to believe, but it was like everyone was too tired to make the film as good as it should have been. I mean, it has the name of the studio in its title. You’d think someone would have cared enough to make it at least as memorable as Iron Man.

When I watched Captain America and The Avengers (each for the umpteenth time) shortly thereafter, I was reminded of the kind of story Marvel is capable of telling. Neither is perfect, but they were both so much better than recent Marvel efforts.

Then, I finished watching the adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix). Loved! Even though it’s a WWII story, the series (and therefore Doerr’s novel) offers a unique perspective. Marie, a blind Parisian girl, and Werner, a German orphan, are bonded through their love of “The Professor,” who broadcasts educational radio programs. During WWII, the two meet in Saint Malo, a coastal French town, where Marie now broadcasts for the French resistance and Werner is a radio operator in the occupying German army. The Americans are coming to liberate the town, but can they do it before Werner is forced to track down Marie for his commander, who has a sinister motive for finding Marie?

I watched The Hate U Give (Amazon). It was a gut punch, but in the best way. Starr Carter is in the passenger seat when her friend Khalil is shot and killed by a police officer. The movie and the book it’s based on by Angie Thomas are a good reminder that systemic racism kills tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Black people a year. Black lives matter.

I finished watching (most of) the first season of The Irrational (network). Alec Mercer is a behavioural psychologist who helps solve crimes. This season focused on Alec’s backstory of being caught in a church bombing. As the season progresses, the man convicted of the bombing proves to be innocent, uncovering a conspiracy that Alec has to unravel to serve justice and gain closure.

Then I finished watching the second season of the new Quantum Leap (network). The third season is still up in the air. I wasn’t too certain about the 3-year time jump after the first season finale. The Quantum Leap project has been shut down, Ben is thought to be dead, and Addison moves on. But Ian hasn’t given up, and when they find Ben, the team regroups, including Addison’s new love interest. Things get sorted out in the end, but I think the uncertainty of the network series machine means that they had to have a self-contained story arc, just in case. Things felt contrived. I’ll leave it there. Still enjoyed it and will watch season three if it comes to fruition.

My first read of February was Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister. Closeted and broke, Jess returns to Malaysia with her family after living in the US for most of her life. She has a degree from Harvard, but that hasn’t translated into success, or even a job. Then, she starts to hear a voice in her head, her recently dead grandmother, Ah Ma, who’s set on getting her revenge on a mob boss. Dark, but very good.

Then, I finished William Gibson’s The Peripheral. I realized I had the ebook after I watched the Amazon series. Once again, it’s an interesting exercise to compare a novel and its adaptation, to see what creative decisions were made and why. Having said that, I enjoyed both equally, though I must say that I’m not as fond of book Flynn as I was of series Flynn. And, of course, Amazon cancelled the series.

Next, I read The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. As a child, Tea (pronounced tee-ah) accidentally resurrects her brother and discovers she’s a bone witch, or necromancer. Feared and ostracized by her family and community, Tea is taken under the wing of a more experienced bone witch who whisks her and her brother away to a foreign land to be trained as an asha. This book is the beginning of a trilogy and is very much just the set up for the rest of the series. Although there is a framing narrative told by a bard, whom Tea has asked to tell her story, it doesn’t give much away. One thing is clear, though; The Bone Witch is a story of revenge.

I finished reading Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Turning Leaves. In this sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow, Nangohns, daughter of Evan Whitesky, begins to see the signs that her people are beginning to exhaust the natural resources around their isolated northern community. She then embarks on a long journey south with her father and several other members of the community. They need a new place to settle. Or an old place. Their ancestral home on the shores of Lake Huron. The problem is, they still don’t know what happened when the lights went out over a decade ago. And the last scouting party they sent south four years ago never returned.

Then, I turned to poetry. Kim Fahner lent me a stack of collections she thought might be in my poetic wheelhouse. I started with Bernadette Wagner’s this hot place. The sections of the collection are named Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and Wagner recounts her life on the prairies in verse. She has a talent for lovely subversions. Verra nice.

I also finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. A retired pirate captain is lured back into the world of supernatural high seas adventure when a northern sorcerer abducts a young scholarly girl. Nothing is as it seems. I’ll leave it there. You should read this.

Next, I listened to Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury. A brilliant supernatural mystery told in dual timelines. Daisy can see the dead. When her mother inherits a mansion just outside of Timmins, they both see it as their opportunity for the life they want. For Daisy’s mother, Grace, it’s to finally be free of the ghosts (figurative and literal) of her past. For Daisy, it’s the chance to escape from her mother’s narcissism. But the mansion is haunted. And now people are dying. Ten years in the future, Brittney, co-creator of the podcast “Haunted,” wants to uncover the secrets of the mansion, which her abusive mother calls the “miracle mansion.” She wants to tell the story of a forgotten Black girl but gets more than she bargained for. LOVED.

Finally, I listened to C.S. Lewis: Writer, Scholar, Seeker, an Audible Original based on The Great Courses series of lectures by Sorina Higgins. Interesting insight into one of my favourite authors.

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

The next chapter: October 2023 update

/ Melanie Marttila

Welcome to November, the month of NaNoWriMo and American Thanksgiving! As a Canadian, I’m legally obligated to specify American Thanksgiving, as Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving the second Monday in October (former American Columbus Day and now Indigenous Peoples’ Day).

Picture of a sunset.

The lovely weather continued through the first two weeks of October—I got out onto the deck again!—but over the Thanksgiving weekend, we had tonnes (again, Canadian, therefore metric) of rain and below seasonal temperatures. But no snow, thanks the powers that be. Well, there was snow, but it melted as soon as it hit the ground.

This was followed by another stretch of above-seasonal temperatures, though with persistent cloud cover and often rain. Phil put away the patio furniture by this time and put the garden to bed for the year.

Life in general

I’ve continued to struggle with dysregulation. I think I’ve been walking on the thin edge of burnout since summer. Also, what I thought were brand new seasonal allergies was, in fact, a persistent sinus infection. It went subclinical over the summer but came back with a vengeance at the end of September.

I was quite sick over the weekend of the 14th and tried to make an appointment with my doctor on Monday, but he was booking in-person into November, so I went to the walk-in clinic and came home with antibiotics and a corticosteroid nasal spray. I may also have brought home another virus from the crowded waiting room.

What followed was a miserable stretch of days while the meds took hold and started to do their thing. I worked (day job and writing), though slowly. The nights were the worst. Gravity works, and infection drains everywhere (ears, bronchus, etc.). I tested for covid twice this time. Both negative, but damn. This was the sickest I’ve been in years.

And then I gave it to Phil 😦 Fortunately, he recovered in a day and a half.

The month in writing

For most of the month, I was once again focused on my new inside outline for Reality Bomb. Having finished writing it out by hand, I then transcribed it. And adjusted the cause-and-effect flow still further, ‘cause I can’t seem to get it nailed down the first (or even fifth) time. Once that was done, I moved onto my next submission.

I’ll have to circle around to do revisions next month (for my NaNo Rebel Combo).

Before the illen truly took hold, I also managed to write 8 poems and 1,392 words on a short story. I’ll take the win!

An Excel spreadsheet showing writing progress for October 2023.

I applied for a mentorship microgrant from The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) and the funds were approved in time for them to be applied to my next six-session package with Suzy. While I’ve paid my next session, I won’t meet with Suzy again until November. This is a good thing. I’ll need the rest of October to get RB reorganized and in shape to resume coaching.

I delivered my fiction writers in the schools visit early in the month. I think it went well. A few students shared their ideas and some of what they’d written. And they asked questions. Mrs. Belanger was helpful and accommodating. I dared to be imperfect, and it paid off.

I submitted some poetry to Polar Starlight and Polar Borealis and two of my new poems were accepted for publication in 2024. Grateful to Graeme and Rhea for their continued dedication to Canadian speculative poetry.

I received edit notes for the short story that was shortlisted. The publisher still has final say, even after I’ve done the requested revisions, so there’s no guarantee, but I’m hopeful.

Filling the well

The vine new moon in Libra was on October 14th and I observed it with a guided meditation. The day was cloudy, so I didn’t get to see the partial eclipse (all of the annular eclipse we’d see up here in northeastern Ontario), but I watched the NASA broadcast.

The full Hunter’s Moon in Taurus fell on October 28th this year. There was also a partial lunar eclipse. Of course, it was overcast again. And I watched the partial lunar eclipse on the Time and Date YouTube channel.

And Samhain (my birthday) was three days after that. It was, as usual, a quiet day. I took it off, Phil made me a full breakfast (pancakes, eggs, and bacon), and we had a Greek feast (souvlaki, lemon potatoes, rice, tzatziki, pita, and salad) in the evening. Phil made me a banoffee pie. We invited my mom.

A picture of a Samhain altar.

As usual, we had no trick or treaters. The are I live in is on the commercial side and kids don’t see it as a viable source of candy. More importantly, their parents don’t see our area as a convenient on to take their kids to. There is a subdivision not far away, and they tend to pack up their kids and go there.

Still, Phil bought a box of chocolate bars “just in case,” and now I’m trying to consume them before he eats too many of them.

Because we received our retro pay, I got myself a new computer. My old one was giving me a CMOS error message every morning on startup. So that’s what I spent the three days leading up to my birthday doing—setting up my computer and making sure all of my documents and pictures and music were transferred over.

Well, the pictures weren’t an issue, because they were backed up on the cloud, but the rest had to be zipped and backed up and copied over. But, in the process, Phil set up a back up server for us. Now, everything’s sorted, and I have a lovely new computer that should last me for a few years.

I started Finnish classes through the Sudbury Finnish School in anticipation of drafting The Fenwoman’s Tale. Eight weeks through October and November. I also returned to the free version of Duolingo to supplement the classes.

I attended the DAW Library Fantasy Book Buzz with Julie Czerneda and Bradley Beaulieu on the 5th. It was a lovely discussion.

The next and final Free Expressions Donald Maass webinar, “Narrative Drive for Sagging Middles and No-plot Novels” also took place on the 5th. Due to timing, I watched the replay. It was a helpful webinar, because my protagonist in my current work-in-progress is trapped in one way or another for a good portion of the book. It’s challenging to maintain agency, but it’s a challenge I set myself.

I registered for a TWUC webinar, “Three Things Agents and Publishers Must See in Your First 30 pages” on October 11th. Barbara Kyle is a great presenter and has a lot of knowledge to impart.

I attended the virtual version of Can-Con from the 13th to the 15th. I didn’t catch all the virtual sessions, but I watched everything I could. An excellent con, as always.

The FOLD Academy offered another webinar on “Writing from Desire and Body” by Linh S. Nguyen on the 14th. Because it was on the same day as Can-Con, I watched the replay once it was posted. It was more of a workshop than a webinar, with practical exercises to encourage you to be present in your body and write what you feel.

I attended Waubgesig Rice’s Sudbury book launch for Moon of the Turning Leaves on the 16th. In person, even! I got a signed copy of the book!

I had registered for the Anne Szumagalski Lecture with Joshua Whitehead back in September, but it was rescheduled to October 20th. A compelling presentation about paranoia as an effect of colonialization and marginalization.

I signed up for “Writing Characters Who Practice Non-Standard Religions” by Nisi Shawl from Writing the Other. The course ran from Oct 28th to Nov 5th. It was a good refresher of being respectful of everyone’s spiritual beliefs.

Thanksgiving was a relaxed affair at my mom’s and the immediate family gathered for ham, scalloped potatoes, turnip puff, jellied salad, and Greek salad. There was apple and blueberry pie for dessert.

I signed up for another Pat Tallman event on mastering motivation. It was mostly practical information and familiar, but it’s always good to refresh and rededicate.

Later in the month, she offered a bonus workshop on forgiveness. Forgiveness is hard, especially forgiving yourself.

What I’m watching and reading

I’ve had a realization. The less I write about something (book, movie, or series) the more I want y’all to experience it for yourselves.

I watched The Whale (Amazon). A lovely, but desperately sad movie that gave me similar feels to Leaving Las Vegas. Charlie is a morbidly obese virtual college instructor who is dying of congestive heart failure (what my father died of, so extra feels there) and refuses to go to the hospital. As the days pass, more and more clues about Charlie’s trauma are revealed. I won’t spoil it. Brendan Fraser earned his awards.

Phil and I finished watching the first season of One Piece (Netflix). Phil says it’s pretty faithful to the manga and anime. It was fun and kind-hearted, which we can all use more of.

We also finished watching the second season of The Wheel of Time (Amazon). They took us on a journey. It was excellent, in my opinion.

The first book I listened to was Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, narrated by Michael York (BBC). The last time I’d read the book was in high school and, to be honest, I didn’t remember much of it. It’s a scathing commentary on a society that is technically utopian but as is usual with utopias, if you scratch the surface, there are flaws. While I appreciated the ending focusing on the tragedy of John Savage, I was left wondering what the ultimate fates of the other two main male characters were. And I was somewhat disappointed that Huxley focused on the dissatisfaction or difference in his male characters only. It seems that there are no alpha females dissatisfied with the utopian world they have been given.

Then, I read A Crown So Cursed, by L. L. McKinney. It’s the third in the Nightmare-Verse series and an urban fantasy retelling of Alice in Wonderland. I really enjoy these books, even if they are young adult. McKinney has made the protagonist’s mother a feature rather than a bug, and in this novel, her grandmother gets in on the action, too.

Next was Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse. A tragic tale of two sisters in a world shaped by angels and demons. When fallen Mariel is accused of murdering one of the virtues, her sister Celeste becomes her advocatus diaboli to defend her. Celeste sacrifices everything to prove Mariel innocent, even when it becomes apparent that Mariel did everything she is accused of and more.

I read Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Library of Broken Worlds. It was a challenging read (in the best way). A lot of dense ideas and rich world building in this tale of a secondary artificial intelligence created to kill a god.

Finally, I listened to the Audible production of Jim C. Hines’ Terminal Alliance. This one was a lot of fun. In a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have gone feral and have been given a second chance by an alien “cure,” Lieutenant Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos leads a rag-tag team of human janitors to clean up after a nefarious conspiracy leaves them the only crew capable of sorting out the mess.

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