Stephanie Gunn

science fiction and fantasy author

Month: June 2012

The week that was

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On June 9, 2012

In links

Image from Karen Salmansohn.

This has been a kind of crappy week, mostly due to minor health annoyances.  I was struck by a migraine one day, and am now dealing with a head cold.  Minor stuff, but still damn annoying.

But I have still been writing, dammit.  Working my way through the edits of Never, albeit at a very slow pace thanks to my brain being slightly mushy.  I also finished beta reading an excellent novel written by a friend.  I’m always tempted to do more beta reading, but my time is fairly precious, and it does take time. It’s always rewarding, though, especially when you’re reading something by someone who is really talented.

Links for the week!

Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot 2012 – all the links!

The art of turning minimalist.

So you want to be a writer?

Dresses made entirely of light.

How to have a near death experience.

We’re breaking our planet, once and for all.

6 things you think you need to get healthy…but really don’t.

Should we eliminate psychopaths from the gene pool?

Great writers believe in themselves (so should you).

Taking the mystery out of query letters.

Five steps towards making peace with criticism.

Writing about race in science fiction and fantasy.  Part Two.

13 things you may not know about agents.

The art of learning your shadow.

 

New to me: The Once and Future Podcast

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On June 8, 2012

In links

So, I listen to a lot of podcasts.  I listen to them while I’m doing housework and while I’m out walking.  I have my regulars that I listen to pretty much as soon as they’re uploaded – Galactic Suburbia, The Coode Street Podcast, The Writer and the Critic, I Should be Writing, Writing Excuses.

I also download a fair amount of other podcasts (hooray for having a huge memory card in my Android!).  Among these, I have the full run of the Once and Future podcast, Anton Strout’s podcast in which he interviews many different authors.

For some reason, I’d never actually listened to an episode of the podcast in full, for all that I’ve been downloading it for ages.  Yesterday, I decided to listen to at least one full episode before deciding whether to keep it in my subscription list.  And so I listened to the newest episode at the time, with Yasmine Galenorn.

Seriously, guys, go and listen to this podcast.

I used to follow Galenorn’s blog ages ago, and had a bunch of her books bookmarked to chase up.  Then I got burned out on a lot of urban fantasy, unsubscribed from a lot of blogs and didn’t end up getting hold of any of her books.

After listening to the podcast, I resubscribed to her blog immediately.  And am probably going to order at least a few of her books.  I was that impressed by her interview and at her sheer determination to get published.

I’m not going to be unsubscribing from the podcast.  And I have a feeling it might be making it into my rota of things I listen to as soon as they’re released.

 

In which I am snapshotted!

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On June 7, 2012

In Uncategorized

The Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot 2012 is a project that aims to produce a view of speculative fiction scene in Australia; as part of the lead up to Continuum 8, interviews for Snapshot 2012 are conducted by and posted at the blogs of Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge,David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Ian Mond, Jason Nahrung, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright.

You can find the past three Snapshots at the following links: 2005, 2007 and 2010

I am somewhat flummoxed (hi, imposter syndrome!) but very delighted to be included as part of Snapshot 2012  – you can find my interview with Ian Mond here.  I ramble about the Aurealis Awards judging, my own inability to write short stories and the projects that I’m working on, pretty much.

 

 

In which I get annoyed at writing advice

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On June 7, 2012

In writing

I was reading through my rss feeds last night, as I am wont to do, and came across a piece of writing advice that I’ve seen many times:

“Don’t have time to write?  Get up an hour earlier – or better, two hours earlier – and write!”

I do know that this works for some people, but it’s just struck me this morning how damn ableist this kind of advice is.

For example, you have someone like me.  I deal with chronic illness on a daily basis, and to manage the worst of the illness, I need to move, I need to eat vaguely decently, I need to rest.

If I forced myself to get up an hour or two earlier to write, I would be a wreck.  I hate that I need more sleep than most people.  Ideally, I need about nine or ten hours a night.  Most nights I get about eight.  I can coast on one night of six or seven, but it hurts.  Anything less than that, and I am not functional.

I know it’s a pretty obvious thing to complain about, but I am complaining anyway.  I always feel like people who dole out this kind of advice are implying that if you can’t sacrifice sleep to write, then you’re just not determined enough to be a writer, dammit.  It’s a great idea if you can manage it without sacrificing your health (and that goes for people without chronic illness as well), but it’s not the only way.

Writing is a priority for me, but so is my family and my health.  There has to be a balance.

Foggy

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On June 6, 2012

In Uncategorized

I don’t know if I hate actual migraines or the fuzzy fog that follows a migraine worse.

I did manage to get rid of the actual pain of the headache mid-afternoon yesterday (painkillers and caffeine = migraine death), but of course the caffeine screwed with my sleep last night.  As a result, I’m somewhat tired and very short-tempered today.

But I have written, even if it was reworking the same words I was working on yesterday.  Yes, I was writing during a migraine.  I have become That Kind of Writer.

I kind of want to write more, but I think it would be foolish today.  I did manage to finish the first chapter, which has been sent off to a beta reader to have a look at.  My plan for this draft is to get one reader to look at each chapter as I finish it, and then I’ll see if I can nab some fresh eyes for the full draft.  Toying with the idea of joining something like the Online Writing Workshop, but we’ll see.

And now, I think it is time to go and rest a bit while the kid naps, and enjoy the sound of the rain outside.  And finish my current book so I can devour Mira Grant’s Blackout, which arrived yesterday in the mail.

Things that make me happy

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On June 5, 2012

In chronic illness

Australian Raven

I woke up this morning with a migraine.  Not sure why – possibly consumption of trigger foods, possibly just incipient Weather.  I stumbled out of bed to take some meds, and the nausea is only settling down enough now to get some food on top of them.  Hopefully I’ve gotten to it early enough that it won’t become crippling.

As a result, I am feeling pretty cranky about life.  And so I make an effort to cheer myself up and list things that are making me happy right now:

  • There is a flock of Australian Ravens that have taken residence here, to the point where I can see one almost every time I look out the window.  Just glanced up now and saw one wandering across the neighbour’s roof.  I cannot express how much I love these birds.  We also have Willie Wagtails nesting somewhere in the garden again.
  • I am so incredibly amazed by the person that my son is becoming.  I cannot believe sometimes that my husband and I made this little boy, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have him (and to have the support I need to be able to be a parent).
  • Never.  I feel like I am learning so much as a writer these last few years, and I really think I’m going to be able to make this book good.
  • My writing group.  We are diminished by one member at present, due to complications in her life, but we are still going.  They feed my soul and I am constantly astonished by how amazing they are as writers and people.
  • My health, which is slowly improving, migraine be damned.
  • Having found a massage therapist who is incredibly gifted at dealing with and easing the pain of fibromyalgia.

I could actually go on for a long time.  Huh, six months ago I probably would have struggled to list even two things.  Take that, depression!

And so it begins again…

By

On June 4, 2012

In never

and so it begins again

And so I print out my outline (all 28 pages!), open a new project in Scrivener, get my music playlist sorted out, and begin the next draft of Never.

Those paying attention will also notice two new Pia Ravenari totem pictures in that photo.  The one half hidden is Magpie as Totem, which I commissioned, and the other one is Australian White Ibis as Totem, which was my birthday present.  I still cannot believe that the universe is so amazing as to let me know someone as talented as P, let alone get to call her my friend.

Today is a public holiday here (which I refuse to call W.A. Day.  It’s Foundation Day!), and according to my own schedule and ethics, I could be taking the day off.  The kidlet is off visiting with his grandparents, the husband is tinkering with the computers and the house is quiet.  And yet I am here at the laptop, beginning the draft.  Mostly because it doesn’t feel like work.  I guess I’ve levelled as a writer or something?

Some music for a Sunday

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On June 3, 2012

In music

You are the only person you can ever be

By

On June 2, 2012

In links

snail love | when you can't say it, show it Adam Foster via Compfight

This has been a very productive week.  Motoring along with my revised outline of Never, getting a fair amount of reading done, and exercise accomplished every day but one (and that was because of a fairly severe storm, and my laziness that made me not want to do anything inside the house.  Must get hold of some weights so I have options on rainy days).

Links for the week:

The Australian SF Snapshot is running again, and the first two entries made me cry: In memorium for Sara Douglass and Paul Haines.

Justine Larbalestier talks about the monsters she has loved.

Finding your voice as a writer.

Dissecting Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech.

Beth Revis talks about how to respond to negative reviews.

A peek inside the notebooks of famous authors, artists and visionaries.

The editing clauses in writing contracts.

Don’t let the writing life kill you.

Every new author’s greatest enemy (and how to beat it).

An interview with China Mieville.

20 things I should have known at 20.

50 geeky things kids should do before they’re twelve.

The self illusion: how our social brain constructs who we are.

10 ridiculously simple tips for writing a book.

Theodora Goss talks about fantasy and biography.

Hacker lifestyle: how I feel satisfied with every day.

6 ways to never run out of ideas.

Use your body to make decisions.

What does a publishing contract cover?

 

Friday

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On June 1, 2012

In Uncategorized

From where I sit writing (where I am now), I can see the shelf holding books in which I have been published.  A shelf to which my copy of Epilogue was added this morning.  It’s a small shelf, but it’s growing.

I wish I wrote more short stories.  I wish I was more of a natural short story writer, I should say.  I think I am learning to write better ones, but I think the novel length is always going to come easier for me.  And I’m still learning there, too.

Still working on my outline for Never.  I think next week may be spent outlining as well – it’s taking longer that I’d hoped, but I want to get it done properly.  I’m having a lot of fun inserting little bit and pieces, adding layers and foreshadowing.  I have a very slow and drawn-out process, but it’s my process.  I’m feeling really confident about Never, and I am looking forward to the point at which I can start sending it out.

Huge storm last night – serious downpour of rain, which led to a lovely leaking kitchen roof, with a bunch of thunder and lightning as well.  The kidlet was pretty amazing and didn’t let it phase him, but the poor kitty was freaked out.  Today has been overcast and foggy, but no rain to speak of.  The human suit is protesting both variants of weather vigorously (made worse by the fact that I didn’t get any exercise yesterday due to the aforementioned rain), and I am looking forward to getting out for a walk later on today, all being well.

And it is somehow almost the weekend again.  Long weekend, too, which is nice.  Writing group to look forward to, and massage and hopefully a swim.

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