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Happy Spring!
Last Sunday was the Spring Equinox, the inflection point in Earth's journey from winter to summer. Vagaries of Virginia weather notwithstanding (I think we had a 70+ degree day followed immediately by a snowstorm this month), it does feel brighter and warmer as the weeks go by.
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Laura and I enjoyed a brief trip down to the Outer Banks to meet some old friends I hadn't seen in over ten years. While there, we took some time to walk the beach -- even though it's early in the season, it still felt wonderful to smell the sea and feel the sand. I hope you're enjoying this season of renewal and rebirth! It's the perfect time to reinvest in a hobby or passion you love.
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Takeaways from MarsCon
Last weekend, I attended MarsCon 31 in Williamsburg, my first convention in over two years, since The Before. It felt wonderful to be back in the mix of creativity and nerdery that is a science fiction and fantasy con! My main takeaways below.
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Community is key. So much of being a creator depends on the bonds and connections we have to each other. Especially for indie artists of any kind, the cross-pollination of ideas and the cross-promotion of work is essential to sustaining an active and engaged community around doing what we love. Supporting and connecting with fellow creators is always a good investment, and it also feels great!
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Don't neglect short stories. I often get caught up in these grand, sweeping visions of huge worlds and complex situations, convincing myself I can't possibly tell a story in less than a novel length of words. But short stories are faster to finish, easier to experiment with, build readership, develop craft, and serve as an ongoing repository and portfolio of ideas. I shouldn't think of short stories as a "waste" of time.
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I can do this, I just need to do it. In my conversations with writers and publishers, as well as with attendees after the panel discussions, I felt inspired and encouraged that I have something unique to say and that my writing is worthwhile. Sometimes that's hard to remember in the thick of a project where it just feels like a grind of really crappy first-draft drivel. Even when the end goal seems far away, I've got to just keep showing up.
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The next con will be RavenCon 15 at the end of April up in Richmond! If you're in the area, I hope to see some of you there!
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Writing Update
My short story The Karma of Ponds remains under consideration at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, one of the elder statesmen of the SFF publishing world. With submissions, usually no news is good news (it likely hasn't - yet - been binned by a slush reader or junior editor, so maybe there's a chance). We'll see!
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Rassam's Eye is sitting at about 12,000 words. I've rewritten the first scene from the POV of Nimasha, the protagonist, about five times now... but I finally think I've set up the right threads. Two more scenes, one each from the two other POC characters, are also complete. It's been a lot of rework, which can feel like being stuck because the word count isn't going up, but I've been reminding myself that wordcount not a scoreline. I think the work put in making the foundation solid was worthwhile. I'd love to finish this novel this year, and will aim for that -- but I'm also not going to force it to beat myself up about schedule.
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I've also written a first scene of what might become a novelization (or first in a series of novellas) written in the worldspace of my upcoming homebrew D&D campaign, The Heart of the Empire. The scene actually takes a moment from the backstory of Laura's character, Nerea, and explores what it might have looked like as it happened. I've never been as into writing fantasy as I am into scifi, but... I think this actually came out pretty well! I'm likely to continue working on it.
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Content Consumed
- I finished Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself last week. I'd say overall I like it, but didn't love it. I was initially very into it -- I enjoyed the cheeky tone and dry wit that popped up everywhere, even in the midst of gritty combat. However, one main character's arc in particular seemed to start dragging around 60% and I just couldn't get into it. The ending seemed forced, and none of the arcs were really closed. I get that it's the first book of a series... But I definitely believe any book should also stand on it's own. If I had to drop a rating, I'd say 3.5/5.0. I might skip the rest of this series and try his more recent work.
- Finished The Faith of a Writer, by Joyce Carol Oates. I was excited to get some advice from one of the greatest American writers of all time, but came away only mildly enthused. The book is a compilation, each chapter a different essay by or interview of JCO on the topics of writing and/or being an author. The ones that stood out to me as most interesting were "Notes On Failure" and "Reading as a Writer: The Artist as a Craftsman", though I can't say either of these were profoundly revelatory, just good.
- A recent episode of the podcast Throughline, called The Story of Us, resonated with me deeply. It immediately connected in my head to my recently-published short story, Anpo: The Dawn. You can read my blog post on it for more details.
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What have you been reading or watching? Any recommendations for me?
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I do love getting your feedback and comments, so please continue to reach out. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next issue!
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