I'm in the middle of a long Linux HPLIP installation, so I thought I'd write a quick catch-up post. Last weekend, I attended the gala event and Saturday workshops of the Cabot Trail Writers Festival and had the privilege of learning from Canadian writer Anne Simpson. She facilitated two excellent workshops; 'The Image at the Heart of the Poem' and 'The Story in a Box', which I used to practice my realism skills, having not participated in a literary writing workshop for some time. Here's the little poem I wrote for the first workshop:
clipped from a cooling body
black raven feather
fanned on a wing
moments ago
in flight
This weekend, I'll be attending the Singing Storytellers Symposium in Sydney. I've been looking forward to it for some time, not only because I love and sing traditional Scottish Gaelic music, but also because I'll be drafting a novel this winter that has at its heart an ancient storytelling tradition. It'll be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the bardic arts all over the world, and I plan to record as much information as I can.
I'm writing the climactic battle scene for the B is for Broken story and enjoying it more than I've enjoyed any piece of writing I've undertaken in recent memory. Battle is hella fun to write. Seriously. Once I'm finished there, I'll write the rest of The Vegan Pagan blog series so those entries are ready to go, and then I'll move on to some audio recording in November, after the World Fantasy Convention. As it turns out, the work I did on Grandmother Mælkevejen's Belly doesn't meet Audible ACX standards, so I'll need to re-record it. I'll also be recording the audio for The Ruin of Beltany Ring with plans to release both in the early part of 2015.
In spite of the behemoth my B is for Broken story has become and the need to re-record Grandmother Mælkevejen's Belly, it's been a good writing year. That said, I'll be glad to see the back of The Vegan Pagan series in February. There are things about that situation I don't feel comfortable discussing for fear of losing the opportunity to complete the work, but I am disappointed at the response it has received, not in terms of readership (it's been popular enough), but in terms of mean-spirited commentary on the part of some readers and a dogged effort on the part of one individual to emasculate the series altogether. At the same time, it's been a joy to see so many vegan Pagans speak up for their ethics in response, and I hope in the end The Vegan Pagan will stand as an answer to anti-vegan sentiments in the Pagan community.
Still, if things keep going the way they are, I might put that blog on a shelf for awhile afterward. It's an awful lot of work every month that might better be directed at my novel-to-be.
That's it for now. My Linux installation is complete, my husband is cooking lunch and my tea is cold. Cheers!