This is not the post that I intended to write. I set out to share something entirely different; elucidating gems of data I’ve gathered and rather niftily entitled “Imaginary weapons, and the search for unobtainium”. It was going to be fun. It was going to rock. Instead, I ran face-first into a writer’s block.
If only creativity were an element that could be simply and neatly classified on a periodic table by physical state, deadline pressure and energy level.
Are all those twitter-bots driving you crazy?
Once upon a time and long, long ago, I was a career marketer (picture a very serious young woman, intent on pursuing “success”–that amorphous grail that appears in so many different guises). I have circumnavigated Sol many times since those heady days and I am pleased to report that I’m much younger now. Truly, age and perspective go together like salt and pepper, eggs and bacon, beer and nachos — bad for the health but nice to have.
Armed and dangerous
The arrival of our Calvert Homeschool box is always a big event, as every Calvert family will attest to.
It’s usually a day when everything else gets put aside so we can all dig through the goodies.
Katie is an old hand at Opening Day — always quick to arm herself and attack her school work, in the best possible way.
“Stretch your allegories,” urges Kat Richardson, our lecturer for the Clarion West One-day Workshop: Creating Your Urban Fantasy World.
It is Sunday March 4, 2012. I am in Seattle, for the second time in six months, and thoroughly enjoying myself. There are fourteen of us seated around a series of folding tables that have been circled like wagons. All our attention is focussed on this dynamic and interesting woman and my natural tendency to be laid back–to relax and enjoy the show–is quickly turned on its head.
“Whether it’s a “ghost in the machine” or a “monster under the bed”, you have to learn to see, hear, smell…feel…your real world and tweak it,” continues Kat. ”Take an idea, put your rational mind aside, and feed the Lizard brain.” She gives us all a lovely, if somewhat predatory, grin and right then I know that this is going to be a GREAT workshop.
Evil has its uses
This is the first instalment in what promises to be an intriguing thriller/mystery/detective series set in and around Arcadia, Texas.
There’s no paranormal twist to this story – yet. Author, Gae-Lynn Woods, does tweak the surface of the character “Hitch”–a psychopath who knows exactly where his talents lie–just enough to give us a hint, perhaps a misdirection, as to where she might be heading with this. Given my taste for things paranormal, that hint is all I need to bring me back for the next instalment.
Published by Apex Publications
I’m a big fan of transhumanist fiction. Give me feathers, fur, gills, immortality, extra feel-good bits, mechanical cool and/or animal senses any time – I like ‘em all.
In other words, it wasn’t just the lovely cover that pre-disposed me to enjoy Machine, (although I was diverted by the thought of the irrepressibly enthusiastic and elastic Jim C Hines in that pose. Urban art never looked so good, eh?)
Ahem. Moving right along…
Machine is Jennifer Pelland’s debut novel, published by Apex Publications and released in January this year. Her collection of short-stories, Unwelcome Bodies, was also released by Apex, back in 2008. I liked Machine enough to put it on my wishlist.
One girl, chooses ...
Today, I was inspired. It’s a wonderful thing, to feel thus, and I want to celebrate it. Marti McKenna is a writer, editor and blogger. I’ve never met the lady but today we connected in a very important way. I admire her: she took the words “Be the change you want to see” and did something with them.
Thanks to Marti’s message (read, follow, share Girl, Empowered), I also made a choice. It is not the same one as Marti, but I put into action what I’d been thinking.
Bring out the Grinch, I hear jingly Muzak
I took a deep breath – sometime around the middle of December last year – and have finally let it out. Phew! I have an end-of-year allergy: I just don’t do the ‘season to be jolly’ thing very well and my funk is, by now, traditional.
Despite this, I have an eight year-old child who simply adores Christmas time. It has nothing to do with religion, a lot to do with presents … and something more …
For Katie, Santa Claus is one amongst the plethora of supernatural beings that populates her imagination. Like fairies, she chooses to believe in Santa because believing makes him real, and because one year, he came to her, ‘specially. Continue reading
Participant, but not winner. Maybe next year.
November draws to a close and I must haul myself out from The Zone and take a look at what I’ve achieved. Well, I’m not a winner. That 50,000 word count was a summit I couldn’t reach.
On the other hand, a month’s worth of wordcount has left me with the barebones of a novel draft coming in at just over 30,000 words. In addition, I’ve kept up with my daughter’s education, so she’s not entirely feral. Points for that. I’ve still got a marriage and in a little while I’m going to remind Steve of just that fact. Heck, the rest can wait. Continue reading
Are we having fun yet?
Three days into November and nearly eight-thousand words done and edited. This is may be a track record for me.
Something is in the air.
If this year’s NaNoWriMo serves to identify only one key personal motivating factor – if there’s a special ingredient X to be had, in other words – I will bottle it for future use, and be thankful.
Fretting over whether or not the book will be any good is not an issue for a NaNo participant. Let the “woo woo” (to paraphrase Pat Cadigan), flow.
Check out my stories! Available now at Amazon and Smashwords.
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