“The Nearby Death” The nearby death is an EMP. You go dark and silent. You, and you, and everyone in range. Your functions shut down. This is simple. The simplest. All the noise goes quiet. Remember where you were. Remember where she was, at the epicentre. Her loss, the pulse. Here is the pause. Remember where you are. Your generator, here: You left it ready for this. You knew this dark would come. Fire it with your arm. Its fuel is old and stale. It makes noise and light. You make light, with your body, with your old and filthy fuel. Start up again. […]
Setting Myself Up for the Win
2016 is going to be a huge year for me, with the release of Spells of Blood and Kin in June. And 2014 was a huge year, too: the year I signed with my wonderful agent Connor, the year he made the sale. A year of leveling up. 2015, then, was a bridge year in some ways: a year to consolidate my gains, to do all the work I could to make sure this next phase in my writing life will be a successful one. Timelines in writing are very long compared to some kinds of work: even more than a year, in my case, between deal and launch. I came to learn that it’s very useful time! Edits, proofing, and a lot of other associated tasks took a lot of it. And of course, other projects need to be in the pipeline–my next book, plus some short stories, although the time I’ve spent on those has dropped a lot since the novel has to take priority. Like most working writers, I also have a day job–which is understating it a bit; I have a career which I love, and which is sometimes demanding. Between this, family events, and cons, […]
2013 in Review(s)
2013 has been an excellent year for me, writing-wise. I’ve sold more stories this year than the last three put together. I’ve learned how to finish stories faster, instead of letting them linger for months in the second-draft stage. I’ve cracked some new markets—really aspirational ones, too. I have also had at least one entire month go by without writing at all, and I’ve failed to make any progress on Draft 2 of my second novel, although I did cap off Draft 1 in an awesome two-week binge last winter. I continue to spend too much time looking around the internet for mentions of my work, time that I should spend honing my craft and reading others’ stories instead. I have a lot to learn about this business. Each hill I crest shows me a wider landscape to map. I’m pretty proud of my 2013 output though. Here are the new stories of mine that came out this year: “The God-Seed” (Crossed Genres, July)Walking up Genesee Road in the country dark, I thought I was seeing the northern lights. Rose-coloured streaks, twisting upward, half-obscured stars on the far side. I stopped and threw my head back to look. Then I […]
2012 in Review
Some statistics from the writing trenches this year: Rejections nearly tripled vs previous years. Not an accident–submissions also nearly tripled. Acceptances dropped, with no new pro sales in this calendar year–only reprints. Of course I feel less than happy about that, but I see it as a result of a strategic change I made: I focused on my novels in the early part of the year, and didn’t finish any new stories until quite late in the year (and still haven’t finished the final drafts of a couple of them). I now have a nice crop of things that are ready, or almost ready, to submit in the new year. I got to see my work reprinted in not one but two print anthologies, which was pretty exciting–I now have two lovely paperbacks on my desk, between bookends which are optimistically huge and heavy, built to bracket a whole lot more books. I remain less prolific than I would like, and too easily derailed by life events. My goals for 2013 include constructing a writing plan that will hold steady not only in the weeks where everything is golden, but in the weeks where I have a three-day migraine, a […]
Another State of the Nation post
It’s my birthday today. Last night, in between drinking boatloads of Death in the Afternoon*, I told my friends about a plan I made ten years ago. I planned to save enough money to pay myself a year’s salary for a writing sabbatical. I figured that at my rate of savings I’d have enough by the time I was 35. Here I am, 35, and that money is actually in the bank. It’s not a year’s salary at my current pay grade, but it would be enough to feed me and cover the vet bills. And I’ve discovered that in fact I’m not going to take the sabbatical. Why not? The pieces are in place. I’ve started selling stuff, I have a finished novel manuscript to shop, and I’m partway through another, with a publisher already expressing interest in that one. This would be a perfect time to break. Why not? Because my job wouldn’t be there when I got back; and I’ve discovered I love it, and I’m conservative about giving away things I love. I think that’s the only reason, though. I’m a lucky, lucky person. This is the kind of choice many writers don’t ever get to […]
And at my feet, eternity draws ever sweeter plans for me
I began the New Year this way: scribing words upon myself and my friends. My own word was “Strive”, from Tennyson: “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.” And now, to go forth and publish. […]