Farewell to 2019

For anyone out there interested in what I’ve been up to, writing-wise, I wish I had more publishing news! But that’s the problem with working on novels. They take a long time in development, and a long time to find a publisher.

For a lot of 2019, I continued to send out Bark at the Moon, my 1980s metal/werewolf novel. I also sought feedback on it from beta readers for some aspects I hadn’t given deep enough consideration to, and made revisions to it.

Most of the revising work I was doing, though, was on my other novel-in-progress, A Taste of Home. I often describe it as a Douglas Adams-esque take on Icelandic folklore transplanted to Canada, and if that’s not niche enough for you, it also explores the reasons Icelanders cannot agree on the correct recipe for vínarterta and why family recipes (or at least, one) are guarded jealously.  I was also getting feedback on the MS and some of the history it grapples with from fellow writers and experts, and incorporating their feedback into a massive revision of the entire manuscript.

What else? I also started working on a novel about a haunted theatre, which I will probably blog more about once I can devote more time to both the novel and blogging. I decided to write the first draft of the novel by hand, to see if it had any effect on  the creative process.

Parallel Prairies
Parallel Prairies

One other thing I never did blog about was the publication of Parallel Prairies by Great Plains Publications, an anthology of the weird and bizarre, in which my story, “The Comments Gaze Also Into You,” was included.

So that’s all my writing news for now. I’m not sure much else will happen, publishing wise, before the end of the year, so I’ll just call this my writing-year-in-review post. I’ll blog again! But likely not a lot of news until one of these various projects finds a home.

I’ll ask though — what are y’all up to?  Drop me a line in the comments with any news, writing projects, or things you’re excited about being involved in!

What the hell I’ve been up to in 2013

Well, you can’t do everything at once, and I’m not good at New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m proud to say it’s been a good six months of writing for me — which was my goal for this year. And, oddly enough, all of it was werewolf-related…

Thunder God Thursday: Chadwick Ginther’s Thunder Road

Full disclosure: I’ve not only read Chadwick Ginther’s Norse-mythology-infused novel set in Manitoba, Thunder Road, I got to do so in my capacity as freelance copy editor.  So I felt, having had a part in its production, I shouldn’t interview Chadwick about his book.

But, I figured, there was nothing wrong with hosting him as part of a blog tour. (Info on the book launch can be found at the end of this post; he’ll also be appearing at Thin Air: the Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival this autumn.)

Rewriting, revising, it’s-all-going-to-be-crap; or, to be one of the happy few

"What? ANOTHER revision?"

Revising, like war, is hell.

For those of you stuck in your own Work-In-Progress, or for anyone who wonders why it takes so long to write a novel, I offer up my own (unfinished) experience.