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Dispatches from the Word Mines is an irregular blog series about literature and writing from the perspective of writers themselves. This entry comes to us from Nina Munteanu, an award-winning Canadian ecologist and novelist. In addition to eight published novels, she has authored short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which have been translated into several languages throughout the world. She is currently an editor of European zine Europa SF and writes for Amazing Stories. Nina teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Her latest book “Water Is…” (due in Spring 2016 by Pixl Press) is a non-fiction examination of the meaning of water. In this first installment of a two-part dispatch, she discusses intersections between ecology, women, and science fiction. Many thanks, Nina!
It's New Years' Eve, and the most exciting thing I have planned for the day is a little work on the AF1 novel and an evening date with Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves followed by John Twelve Hawk's essay Against Authority. It's been a good year on balance; we lost our beloved cat Winter in January, and we went through a dry spell late this year while Triskele Media navigated out of one tech contract into another, but we also went to England in June (a perfect time to see the country), and I had my best writing year yet.
I've just heard from Rhonda Parrish, editor of the Alphabet Anthologies series, that she has nominated my novelette "C is for Change" for the Pushcart Prize. This story appeared in B is for Broken and is dear to me for a number of reasons, so I'm delighted to receive this news.
Just a quick note here. I chatted with the folks at the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) when I was a guest at Hal-Con, and they mentioned that Cape Breton needed a regional coordinator. Since then, another Cape Bretoner has volunteered, and I've thrown my name into the hat as well, so it looks like we'll probably be splitting the job.
All this by way of saying that if you have any ideas about the sorts of writing events you'd like to see or participate in here on the island, I hope you'll let me know. You can drop me a line via social networking or via the contact page on my web site.
Last weekend, I attended a much-needed meditation retreat, received excellent meditation instruction from a kind and patient teacher, spent time with good people...and outlined a brand-new trilogy in my head. It's the most straightforward thing I've ever considered writing, and it's relatable to a lot of what's already in the market. As it happens, I think these two factors detract from the work, but I like the core idea quite a bit, so I'm going ahead with it.
Dispatches from the Word Mines is an irregular blog series about literature and writing from the perspective of writers themselves. This entry comes to us from Rebecca Buchanan, editor of the Pagan literary ezine, Eternal Haunted Summer. She is also the editor-in-chief of Bibliotheca Alexandrina. She has been published in a wide variety of venues, with most of her work featuring Gods, Goddesses, spirits, witches, and the occasional nereid. In this dispatch, she discusses polytheism in the context of fantasy by walking us through the creation of Gods and Goddesses for fiction. Many thanks, Rebecca!
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Welcome to Issue #17 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Samhain 2015. |
What writers do is hard. We weave stories out of our brains, our hearts and the bits of life we've gathered along our respective journeys. If we're doing it properly, we're also bleeding a little; showing you what we love, what we hate, who we are. And when we're done, we cast our creations out into the world, where they more often than not are rejected, over and over again, sometimes never finding a home outside our own self-publishing efforts.
It's enough to wreck you a bit.