I have a bit of time before heading over to Pure Speculation, and thought I would quickly post a bit about other things going on right now.
I will be telling nasty, awful, scary stories at Spooktacular again this year, on the 29th and 30th. I don't have any new stories, but am looking forward to spending a couple evenings with Marie Anne and the other tellers. I'm not sure who will be there exactly, but I am hoping David Haas will be back. His renditions of Ambrose Bierce stories last year were fascinating. And of course it would be great to see Jennie Frost too.
My husband, kids, and I took a trip down to Calgary about a week ago and visited Sentry Box. They do still have my book in stock, and I really appreciate their support! I bought two books there. One was The Stars as Seen from this Particular Angle of Night, which is an anthology of speculative poetry that I haven't finished reading yet, but am very much enjoying. The other was Dance of Knives by Donna McMahon, which I have finished, and which I thought was wonderful. I will be reading the second book in the series as soon as I get my hands on a copy. (Too bad Sentry Box is three hours away. . .)
I wrote a little article on homeschooling for the SHiNE (Society for the Homeschooled Network of Edmonton; no the 'i' doesn't stand for anything) newsletter, but used Jennifer Kennedy for my byline since I meet these people socially and want them to put a face to the name. It is a very dull article really, about scheduling in different subjects, but I figured it could be classed as writing news.
Time to be on my way. I'll try to post something about Pure Spec soon.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Story in Neo-Opsis
My science fiction story 'Touching Down' is in the current issue (#19) of Neo-opsis magazine. I've almost finished reading my contributor copy, and am enjoying the stories and Karl Johanson's quirky articles.
To find out more about this Canadian sf magazine check out:
www.neo-opsis.ca
To find out more about this Canadian sf magazine check out:
www.neo-opsis.ca
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Druids Review
Several months ago, I reported on the Edmonton launch of Druids by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston, and promised a review. I don't really like to write reviews, though, and have been procrastinating. Meanwhile, the book has attracted quite a bit of attention, and now has made the short list for the Aurora award for Canadian speculative fiction. You can find out more about this award, and vote if you wish, at: http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca
We don't really know a lot about the ancient Celts, and fantasy novels set in Celtic worlds are often based more on fairy tales than history. Druids, however, does not present us with a misty world of heroes and wizards, but a believeable mosaic of ancient tribes, unaware of the upheaval which their culture will soon suffer from the growing ambitions of Imperial Rome. The druids of the story are the keepers of knowledge within this culture: healers, priests, and judges. Most of the things which they do are things that might really have been done, and the problems which they face are primarily realistic ones. When magical elements are encountered, they are elusive: prophetic dreams, and a queer transformation called woad-sleep which they employ but do not truly understand.
There is a sense of eerie mystery about these parts of the story, and it is clear that the characters take a risk when they trust in such mysteries, even as they take risks in choosing what people to trust. This book alone spans about twenty years and a considerable area of western Europe, and the scope of the series as a whole seems destined to be an epic one. But so far the action is not dominated by historical events so much as by the personal choices made by the characters. As the story progresses, it is not just the tide of history which catches up with them, but the consequences of their own mistakes, particularly misplaced trust. At the end of the book, it is not yet clear what the final consequences of their magical experiments will be.
Altogether, Druids is a complex and dramatic tale, which leaves the reader with a sense that there is still much to be revealed. For those interested in the world of the ancient Celts, it strikes a nice balance, reconstructing a world based on history rather than myth, but not becoming so prosaic as to lose the sense of mystery that makes that world so fascinating in the first place.
We don't really know a lot about the ancient Celts, and fantasy novels set in Celtic worlds are often based more on fairy tales than history. Druids, however, does not present us with a misty world of heroes and wizards, but a believeable mosaic of ancient tribes, unaware of the upheaval which their culture will soon suffer from the growing ambitions of Imperial Rome. The druids of the story are the keepers of knowledge within this culture: healers, priests, and judges. Most of the things which they do are things that might really have been done, and the problems which they face are primarily realistic ones. When magical elements are encountered, they are elusive: prophetic dreams, and a queer transformation called woad-sleep which they employ but do not truly understand.
There is a sense of eerie mystery about these parts of the story, and it is clear that the characters take a risk when they trust in such mysteries, even as they take risks in choosing what people to trust. This book alone spans about twenty years and a considerable area of western Europe, and the scope of the series as a whole seems destined to be an epic one. But so far the action is not dominated by historical events so much as by the personal choices made by the characters. As the story progresses, it is not just the tide of history which catches up with them, but the consequences of their own mistakes, particularly misplaced trust. At the end of the book, it is not yet clear what the final consequences of their magical experiments will be.
Altogether, Druids is a complex and dramatic tale, which leaves the reader with a sense that there is still much to be revealed. For those interested in the world of the ancient Celts, it strikes a nice balance, reconstructing a world based on history rather than myth, but not becoming so prosaic as to lose the sense of mystery that makes that world so fascinating in the first place.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Quick Update: WIP, Spam, and Story Concert.
I should have known better than to make a point out of not posting in November. Lo and behold, I promptly did not post in January either, despite not having any very good excuse. I have been doing quite a bit of writing though, and am still working on that NaNoWriMo novel, which now is genuinely over 50,000 words, since that last un-chapter has been cut out and new material added. (This is the WIP part from the title. The acronym, particularly when mentioned in conjunction with the Cult of Pain Writer's Group, might suggest something racy, but in fact it only stands for Work in Progress.)
I have been having a lot of trouble with spam on this blog. I have just finished deleting the most egregious examples, and have now set the comments so that anybody wishing to post will have to type in the letters from one of those wobbly code things. If that doesn't work, I may end up disallowing anonymous comments (which seem to be pretty much synonymous with spam). I have a certain prejudice against that, as I don't want to exclude people who don't want to sign up with Google. That is a large part of my reason for not joining more exclusive things like facebook.
My storytelling group will be having a concert for World Storytelling Day, on March 21st. Our theme is 'Journeys through Light and Shadow.' It will take place at the Strathcona County Library from 2-4pm, and there will be a break for refreshments. Donations to the library will be collected. The concert will mainly be intended for adults; children can attend, but those under about age 10 are likely to find it a bit tedious.
I have been having a lot of trouble with spam on this blog. I have just finished deleting the most egregious examples, and have now set the comments so that anybody wishing to post will have to type in the letters from one of those wobbly code things. If that doesn't work, I may end up disallowing anonymous comments (which seem to be pretty much synonymous with spam). I have a certain prejudice against that, as I don't want to exclude people who don't want to sign up with Google. That is a large part of my reason for not joining more exclusive things like facebook.
My storytelling group will be having a concert for World Storytelling Day, on March 21st. Our theme is 'Journeys through Light and Shadow.' It will take place at the Strathcona County Library from 2-4pm, and there will be a break for refreshments. Donations to the library will be collected. The concert will mainly be intended for adults; children can attend, but those under about age 10 are likely to find it a bit tedious.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
No-vember
Tasha Tudor's book, A Time to Keep, has the following quote to introduce the month of November:
No fruit, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
-Thomas Hood
And this year November has meant no blog posts from me as well. Why? In one word, NaNoWriMo.
Okay, maybe that isn't exactly a word. It's an abbreviation of National Novel Writing Month, which is an online program where you sign up to try to write 50,000 words in a month. You get a page with a nifty graph showing you how far you are falling behind the necessary daily word count, and a page where you can keep track of how far your Writing Buddies have gone. You can also post things about your novel, and there are a bunch of discussion forums and events, but I've never actually found time for all that.
Now, the usual advice that is given for people trying NaNoWriMo is not to worry about whether your writing is good or bad, just write, write, write, as fast as you can go. I tried that the first two years I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and it totally did not work for me. I should have known better. One of the few things I learned from the one fiction writing course I took in University (by my own observation of the other students) was that there are some writers who tend to write too copiously and need to cut, and some writers who tend to write too briefly and need to pad. And I am very much the second type of writer. If I just sit down and write without any going back or editing, that just means I am lucky if I have used half as many words as I'm going for before I get to the end of the plot.
My third attempt at NaNoWriMo did get to 50,000 words, but could only very loosely be called a novel. I managed to get a novella out of it afterward, which was less than 20,000 of the 50,000. The other 30,000 included a lot of alternate scenes and background material and things like that, that weren't really part of the actual narrative.
This year, my plan was to come up with an idea with so much plot elements in it that I would have to use 50,000 words to get through it all. I actually reused some ideas from my first two NaNoWriMo attempts, though not any of the exact same incidents or charactors, together with a whole mash of bits and pieces from ideas for novels and short stories that have never quite managed to get written. And it actually all fell in together really well. It was like these were all really meant to be part of one story, I just had not realized it yet.
So I got writing, and found that I was really pretty excited about the story. I liked it enough that I couldn't just leave inconsistencies in it, or not go back and make little changes when I thought of them. So I did. I also found that a good way to keep myself from charging ahead too quickly was to regularly stop and go back to work on earlier parts of the story. When I was down to the last chapter I even went back and read through the whole thing, managing to add a couple hundred words a chapter as I went.
By the end of the month, though, I was starting to get a bit burnt out. Finally on November 29th, having got to the end of my plot and put in every change I had managed to think of so far, I just didn't feel I was up to getting in the 3,000 words that I needed by the following night. So I decided to just write an extra chapter of whatever silly stuff came into my head about my charactors' further adventures in life after the main story. I thought it might be fun, and perhaps I'd even come up with something I could use elsewhere.
I did manage to get the 3,000 words done in a little over two hours. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't all that much fun, and there was absolutely nothing in it that I have any intention of ever looking at again. But it did get me to 50,000 words, so I could finally take a break. I have not done any more writing on the novel since then, but have come up with some more ideas. I found last month that when I was stuck in my writing, the answer to my problem tended to come to me when I was not writing, not when I was at the keyboard stressing over how to come up with another thousand words that day. Breaks are important. Of course, it is also important not to let a break grow by procrastination into simply not getting a thing done. So I'm going to try and get back in there soon, and get my 47,000 words up to the length I think this book really needs to be.
If I don't post again very soon, maybe that will be what I'm up to.
No fruit, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
-Thomas Hood
And this year November has meant no blog posts from me as well. Why? In one word, NaNoWriMo.
Okay, maybe that isn't exactly a word. It's an abbreviation of National Novel Writing Month, which is an online program where you sign up to try to write 50,000 words in a month. You get a page with a nifty graph showing you how far you are falling behind the necessary daily word count, and a page where you can keep track of how far your Writing Buddies have gone. You can also post things about your novel, and there are a bunch of discussion forums and events, but I've never actually found time for all that.
Now, the usual advice that is given for people trying NaNoWriMo is not to worry about whether your writing is good or bad, just write, write, write, as fast as you can go. I tried that the first two years I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and it totally did not work for me. I should have known better. One of the few things I learned from the one fiction writing course I took in University (by my own observation of the other students) was that there are some writers who tend to write too copiously and need to cut, and some writers who tend to write too briefly and need to pad. And I am very much the second type of writer. If I just sit down and write without any going back or editing, that just means I am lucky if I have used half as many words as I'm going for before I get to the end of the plot.
My third attempt at NaNoWriMo did get to 50,000 words, but could only very loosely be called a novel. I managed to get a novella out of it afterward, which was less than 20,000 of the 50,000. The other 30,000 included a lot of alternate scenes and background material and things like that, that weren't really part of the actual narrative.
This year, my plan was to come up with an idea with so much plot elements in it that I would have to use 50,000 words to get through it all. I actually reused some ideas from my first two NaNoWriMo attempts, though not any of the exact same incidents or charactors, together with a whole mash of bits and pieces from ideas for novels and short stories that have never quite managed to get written. And it actually all fell in together really well. It was like these were all really meant to be part of one story, I just had not realized it yet.
So I got writing, and found that I was really pretty excited about the story. I liked it enough that I couldn't just leave inconsistencies in it, or not go back and make little changes when I thought of them. So I did. I also found that a good way to keep myself from charging ahead too quickly was to regularly stop and go back to work on earlier parts of the story. When I was down to the last chapter I even went back and read through the whole thing, managing to add a couple hundred words a chapter as I went.
By the end of the month, though, I was starting to get a bit burnt out. Finally on November 29th, having got to the end of my plot and put in every change I had managed to think of so far, I just didn't feel I was up to getting in the 3,000 words that I needed by the following night. So I decided to just write an extra chapter of whatever silly stuff came into my head about my charactors' further adventures in life after the main story. I thought it might be fun, and perhaps I'd even come up with something I could use elsewhere.
I did manage to get the 3,000 words done in a little over two hours. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't all that much fun, and there was absolutely nothing in it that I have any intention of ever looking at again. But it did get me to 50,000 words, so I could finally take a break. I have not done any more writing on the novel since then, but have come up with some more ideas. I found last month that when I was stuck in my writing, the answer to my problem tended to come to me when I was not writing, not when I was at the keyboard stressing over how to come up with another thousand words that day. Breaks are important. Of course, it is also important not to let a break grow by procrastination into simply not getting a thing done. So I'm going to try and get back in there soon, and get my 47,000 words up to the length I think this book really needs to be.
If I don't post again very soon, maybe that will be what I'm up to.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Ghosts and Lost Souls
Well, it's that time of year again. I am going to be back at Spooktacular. Marie Anne is busy promoting her wonderful Storysave CD set (which I highly recommend, especially for the stories about World War Two) but David Haas will be joining me and Jennie, with some backup from Dawn Blue and Laura O'Connor, after they are done telling for the younger set. I am looking forward to hearing his stories. He has a wonderful deep voice, which I am sure will raise more than a few shivers.
I always feel it is a bit of a wasted effort promoting Spooktacular on here, though. Either people are coming to it or they are not; I am sure it makes no difference whether I am there. However, this year I do have another Halloween event, where I am headlining! Sylvia Hertling, Serena Kaba, and I will be telling stories of Ghosts and Lost Souls at the Strathcona County Library at 7pm on Thursday, October 29th. Free passes are available at the Library, which is on the east side of the Sherwood Park Mall.
I am not going to be telling my Spooktacular stories. Instead I'm going to tell a couple old fashioned (well, actually just plain old) ghost stories, which offer melancholy chills rather than all-out horror. I'm brushing up Hoichi the Earless, which is an old favourite of mine to tell, and also working on a new-to-me story about the Legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley. I believe Serena is planning to tell a folktale about death. Sylvia hasn't told me what she will tell yet, so that will be a surprise!
I always feel it is a bit of a wasted effort promoting Spooktacular on here, though. Either people are coming to it or they are not; I am sure it makes no difference whether I am there. However, this year I do have another Halloween event, where I am headlining! Sylvia Hertling, Serena Kaba, and I will be telling stories of Ghosts and Lost Souls at the Strathcona County Library at 7pm on Thursday, October 29th. Free passes are available at the Library, which is on the east side of the Sherwood Park Mall.
I am not going to be telling my Spooktacular stories. Instead I'm going to tell a couple old fashioned (well, actually just plain old) ghost stories, which offer melancholy chills rather than all-out horror. I'm brushing up Hoichi the Earless, which is an old favourite of mine to tell, and also working on a new-to-me story about the Legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley. I believe Serena is planning to tell a folktale about death. Sylvia hasn't told me what she will tell yet, so that will be a surprise!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Druids!
Yesterday, I attended the launch for Barbara Galler Smith's novel, Druids. It was a very successful event, complete with a bard and a druid. The book seems to be off to a strong start, and has even been nominated for the Alberta Reader's Choice Award already. Check it out on the 'long list' on this website:
http://www.albertareaderschoice.ca/
I had already picked up a copy at Pure Speculation, and am about half way through. I managed to elbow in ahead of Nicole and Aaron, and was the first person to buy a copy from Barb! So far I am very impressed. I will post a review once I have finished.
http://www.albertareaderschoice.ca/
I had already picked up a copy at Pure Speculation, and am about half way through. I managed to elbow in ahead of Nicole and Aaron, and was the first person to buy a copy from Barb! So far I am very impressed. I will post a review once I have finished.
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