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A Knight Yule Remember: The Green Knight Makes the Cut
A brief look through time at Sir Gawain, and some insight into the new film by David Lowery.
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Work, Write: How to Nurture Your Writing and Still Get a Paycheck
Working is a reality in my life, and it will be for a very long time. I mean the 9-5 variety, specifically. There’s plenty of other work, too. But that’s the work that takes up the big bulk of my time and my brain. I’ve been working full time and writing for a long while, now. Before it was a traditional job, it was working retail and going to graduate school. Then it was freelancing and raising a baby. But regardless of what the job title was, the work was there. But so was the writing. I’ve written before about how you’ve got to change your process sometimes to make things…
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How Pinterest and Process Saved My Novel (And Can Save Yours, Too)
Writing a book, as the old adage goes, isn’t the hard part. I mean, yeah, it’s hard. It’s a butt-ton of work. For me, writing books isn’t the hard part. It’s something I do, more or less, whether or not I want to. But while the writing part isn’t exactly a mystery to me, there have been some real challenges over the past few years that have challenged everything I thought about writing. First thing? In 2008/2009, I was learning to write novels. Like, write them and finish them. I wrote a lot between 08-10, until my hands gave out. Yup, literally my hands stopped allowing me to write, and…
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A great and torturous circle
“Oh, Joss, it’s a great and tortuous circle. We have found each other, time and again, across time and across worlds. Which of us began which poison? I am, and am not, a product of my own mind. I was shaped, as you were shaped. Sraosha trained up Verta, and Verta trained up me—and I found you. And we fight and hate and wound and take down entire worlds with us, century after century. And for what purpose? Do we truly make world better? Or are we simply forces of destruction? I have to believe there is some reason to all of this, some greater plan, some great melody that…
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O For a Life of Sensations
Indeed, I’ve been busy. I started the new job a month ago, and it’s been honestly quite awesome. There hasn’t been much in the way of writing, but I’m okay with that. I’ve found that it’s best to be realistic about these things. I had a brief moment of insanity where I thought that it might be a good idea to try and finish Watcher of the Skies in time for my daughter’s first birthday (marking two books since she was born) and then I laughed a while and poured myself another glass of wine. I had a visit from my best friend, Karen, all the way from Arizona. And she,…
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The Art of the Matter
Since beginning the journey of writing Watcher of the Skies, I’ve spent a great deal of time looking at things. Yes, I did the same for the previous book, especially considering that the main character herself was something of an aesthete. But because this novel takes place over decades, and the first was just a few weeks (depending on your particular perception of time, of course) it takes a different approach. Not to mention it stays in the secondary world the entire time (well, mostly, ha)–and so, where with Pilgrim I was describing the world from her eyes, as a visitor, I’m steeping myself in Regency/Romantic stuff. One of the pathways I’ve…
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Exploring the Edges: Writing Outside the Boundaries
Write what you know may be the most hackneyed advice out there. And, well, it really isn’t that well informed. Yes, writing the things you know about–especially when you’re starting out–are safe bets. Keeping to the zone of your knowledge means that you’ll likely not be called out as a fraud and that you’ll keep going because, well, you already know about it. And as writers we have a tendency to cluster around the things that inform our existence. It’s why I wrote about New England in the beginning of Pilgrim of the Sky, even though I haven’t lived there in over a decade. It was part of my own origin…
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Lightning Strikes: From Whence Inspiration?
Sure, sure. You make your own inspiration and all that. You sit, you write, you create. I get that. It’s 90% of the equation. But what about those moments that are unplanned? I know I’m not the only writer out there that’s found profundity in hot showers or strains of music (in fact, most of the WIP fell into my brain during a shower). There seem to be situations where my brain is prone to wander unseen pathways, where I make connections in stories that, on normal writing days, just don’t seem to happen. No, I don’t believe in Muses, but there is some curious power in the workings…
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Spring cleaning, and making sense of nonsense
I am buried in boxes. Literally. The view from the laptop is approximately 80% box. We’re moving. To a very cool house. And we’re throwing crap away. And, predictably, I’ve decided to tidy up the blog a bit. Why change, you ask? Sure, the last design wasn’t so bad. It had a nifty slidey feature thingie (technical term). But it was a bit too noisy. Functionality is fine so long as it does something, but I’m not a news blog. I’m some writer gal who talks about food and mythology and rock music. I wanted something that was more content-centric, and after trying about fifty different templates on for side,…
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Albatross
From the WIP: There was a time where I could change back and forth to a fish as easily as passing wind, but the years had left me rusty. And I was afraid. Still afraid, after so many years, that I would lose control. And it wasn’t just fear, really, it was temptation. That’s the problem more than anything—it wasn’t that I hated being uncontrollable. There was a dark, welcome power there that would lurk with me always, part of my true self, my ancient self, that craved blood and destruction and death. Knowing that my friend was in danger threw me into action. But I kept turning into a…
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Perception, Imagination, and Experience: “Stairway to Heaven” and Melodies Unheard
What do John Keats and Led Zeppelin have in common? More than you think, if you're me.
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Why I Don’t Give Writing Advice
Maybe I'm not the right person for this job.
