Discussion Post
-
Cosy Season
I’ve been reading for almost 30 years now – god, I feel old – and growing up, when I realised I wanted to write, I always thought the first novel I’d ever finish would be a fantasy one. It was my favourite genre, it was an escape, it was just fun in so many ways. And yeah, over the years I grew more aware of internal biases and representation and the lack of it. I grew more aware of all of that in my own writing (and reframing some of that made something click in my writing that it hadn’t before), and I still thought I’d write a fantasy novel…
-
NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #5
Three quarters into the year and writing blog post intros can still trip me up. I suppose because I don’t want to just rehash the newsletter snippets that will come after this? Ah well, I’ll let them do the talking. You can sign up here! There’s something about the second half of the year that’s just – busy and quick in so many ways. These past few months have seen some travel – I finally went to visit my parents! I also came down with such bad food poisoning two days in that I was hospitalised, but that’s not important. Then there were TWO weddings within the span of a…
-
NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #4
I’ve written four of these now and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. These blog intros, not the newsletters. Those are surprisingly easy, even if I don’t always remember how the entire quarter of the year has passed. This last issue went out with a free short story download and I hope that readers enjoy it. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve written. You can sign up here! My husband and I took our first long childfree vacation in April too. We went to Japan – largely because this year’s Star Wars Celebration was held there and I really wanted to go, but also because his grandmother…
-
Why I’ll Be Reviewing Less Books On The Blog
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a book review on here. A number of months, really, and that’s not been because I haven’t been reading. I have! More than I have in a long while, even. I’ve hit 10 books this year already, and 10 was my aim when I set up my GR Challenge. But the thing is, I set out a few years ago to have my blog posts on a schedule. A slow one – once every two weeks – and the initial plan was for reviews to go up whenever. Plans have a way of not working out, and now I’ve switched things up on…
-
NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #3
The 31st of March saw the third issue of the newsletter – and the first issue of this year – go out. I’ll let the snippets speak for themselves. You can sign up here! These few months have been filled with very high highs – some weddings, a trip we decided to go on last minute with extended family to Cairo and Dubai – and a couple of very low lows – my mother’s oldest brother passed away pretty unexpectedly in early March and barely a week later, our community’s spiritual godmother also unexpectedly passed. The grief comes in ebbs and flows, and it hasn’t really hit, you know? My emotions have therefore…
-
NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #2
The second issue of the newsletter went out on New Year’s Eve – yes, over a month ago! – and, well, looking back at not just the last quarter of 2024 but the whole of it makes me pretty happy, really. On a creative level, I think I was pretty consistently productive. 208,081 new words last year, not counting blog posts, reviews and newsletters, which as a whole? Pretty good, if I say so myself. You can sign up here! I read more in November and December than I have in the rest of the year combined! I fell deeply into the cozy fantasy side of things in November after…
-
NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #1
To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in want of engagement must put herself on multiple platforms. Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself. My first newsletter went out at the end of September. I’m still figuring out what I’ll be putting on there, what the layout will look like – I’ve already made some changes since the first issue went out – but a few things I know for sure: You can sign up here! Reading is one thing I talk about here, so you’re mostly up to date with what I’ve finished this year. I also found an audiobook of Howl’s Moving…
-
July Online Writing Events I’m Looking Forward To
A little bit early, but I’m hyping myself up for a few events that will be happening in the online space this July! These are writing events with an emphasis on community and encouragement, and I’ve had the privilege of taking part in them at least once each before. You can bet I’m taking these events as a way to hit targets I’m setting for myself, and find new writing friends! GWIC – or the Global Write In Crawl – will take place during the first weekend of July. Described as a “virtual event during which participants can visit the virtual writing spaces (Discord) of other regions, participate in writing…
-
The Importance Of Building A Habit
It’s been a little bit since I’ve had the chance – and inspiration – to write a blog post outside a review or prompt round up, so please bear with me. This is a little bit of a ramble, but I swear I have a point! I’ve written a number of blog posts – tips, tricks, things that work for me – on content creation. I wrote an entire series on it, in fact, and one thing that I keep coming back to is that what works for one person may not necessarily work for someone else. Take each piece of advice with a grain of salt – keep what…
-
What’s New, 2024?
It is 2024, and I am equal parts excited and anxious for what the new year is going to bring. I had actually written – a while back! – a post about what I was hoping to bring to my page in the next year, but if you’ve been following this page, you might have seen me mention that those plans have been shelved indefinitely. Personal and health reasons mean that I do have to put those on hold. Fingers crossed for either the mid-year or 2025! That does not mean that 2024 will not see some new plans and projects and aims to reach! No, no, much like the…