New Year Resolutions

Holy fluffing meow…it’s been six months already?!

I’m honestly flabbergasted. I always have a “where does the time go?” feeling; but when I give myself time to reflect, I can see just how much I’ve done.

Events

While I stuck my hat in for a bunch of small shows around town, I was only accepted for two, very different, events. I had a “table” at a local(ish) comic store, Gotham Central, for their Halloween Event (the weekend before Halloween). It was a lot of fun to see customers come in all dressed up. Because of limited space and the (super stunning) artists they had lined up, I actually set up at the end of one of their counters. I had a backdrop of Magic the Gathering set boxes which really worked with the Phantasmias cover art. Nino has done work for Magic the Gathering lately, so I’m starting to see how my cover art kind of fits right in (and debating if I should make a card for my book, ha).

The second event was…quite the unique experience. I was, myself, a “book” in Erin Meadows Library’s first-ever Human Library event. Along with other volunteers, I got a table to discuss my experience as a self-published author and editor. Library patrons could come in and reserve a 30-minute “reading”, which was basically a short introduction of who I was and then they were free to ask me any manner of questions regarding my topic. I was amazed by the amount of people who just wanted to know, “How do I start writing?” I took notes so, I’ll definitely be doing a blog post on that. The highlight of this event was actually in answer to that question. It was one of the most organic brainstorming sessions I think I’ve ever been apart of. The reader asked me how they could start writing a memoir. At first, I listed some ways writers tend to draft memoirs (chronologically, by major life event, etc.). They didn’t seem taken by this, so I thought, well, “What’s your first memory?” It was such an ethereal story about this recurring dream they had. They were looking up at all these faceless human-shaped beings dressed all in white. It honestly sounded like something out of a science fiction novel. They said they felt abandoned and scared in this dream. On confronting their parent about this (we’re talking some twenty years after this dream first started), they discovered that they’d been very ill as a toddler and spent many weeks in hospital. I sat there, utterly hooked by this person’s telling of this story, that I couldn’t help but say, “This is how you start your memoir. I’d read it right now.”

I think that aspiring writer was one of three intent on writing some kind of memoir. I’d long ago debated ghostwriting and publishing stories by folks who just…couldn’t or didn’t have the time to sit and write. Everyone has a story to tell, you know? But like I told another person who sat with me that day, sometimes it isn’t about hitting a high word count or sitting down just to write. Much of my writing is done on scraps of paper or on my phone whenever I have a spare moment!

Which segues quite nicely into my next topic…

Short Story Contests

I used to enter short story contests all the time through high school and university. Back when eZines were a thing, I’d submit to any that were remotely in line with what I was writing at the time. I don’t know if it’s just my day job or focus on writing longer formats…but I haven’t entered a writing contest in a while! A friend of mine suggested entering the CBC Short Story contest, which I did, and I’m not sure I can even discuss the topic until it’s judged in May.

The second short story was for WritingBattle.com; a website I had no idea existed. Essentially, you pay a fee to enter each battle—which seem to be quarterly—and have to adhere to a word count, a randomly chosen genre, and two randomly chosen prompts. You can reroll the genre and prompts to some extent, but the word count is mandatory. I joined the Autumn battle which was 2,000 words. I ended up with the “Ride or Die” genre and two prompts, “capturing” and “inner demons.” I may have taken the latter quite literally, and I wrote a cop thriller set in a modern Dungeons & Dragons kind of world. I did not place, ha. With well over 800 stories submitted for this battle (according to a forum post by the owner), I had fun daydreaming about winning but didn’t expect to on my first try. Almost the entire contest is peer-reviewed. So, for everyone who wrote a story, you were expected to judge ten stories in head-to-head battles, choosing a winner between the pairs (but leaving constructive feedback for both). That was quite the experience!

While I didn’t feel an overall sense of community, that’s not unusual as I tend to be rather shy in new social situations (even online ones). It’s obvious frequent forum posters knew each other well. However, what I didn’t expect was the effusive (and largely positive) feedback! My story only won four out of its ten battles…but it went up against other stories that ended up on par (with 4 or 5 wins themselves) or it went up against stories that ended up placing in the finals. That was kind of wild. So, while I thought my score meant those who judged my story weren’t impressed…it was actually quite the opposite. The competition is just incredibly fierce!

I do wish I could have seen the other feedback. What made my story win or lose against the story it was matched with? Sadly, I couldn’t read some of the stories mine lost against. I’m not sure what I would do differently, except maybe write faster. I only had five days and that was after submitting a story to the CBC Short Story contest! I really burned the candle at both ends there…

Anyway, I think I’ve released the story I wrote for the Writing Battle, “The Devil in the Details”, over on my Ko-fi page for now and I’ll share the CBC Short Story contest after it’s been judged.

Inktober

If you can imagine my October wasn’t busy enough with two short stories to write on a deadline, I also decided to join in with Inktober over on Instagram. I followed a prompt list I found and did one drawing per day. Now, in all honesty, I had maybe thirty minutes most days to sketch something, but it was a neat exercise! It made me realize I enjoy drawing, but I need to (1) have a focus of some kind and (2) commit even thirty minutes of my day to sit down and draw. I’d love to carry this into the new year, but it really did get stressful on days when I had so little time!

Here are some of my favourites, and two photos of Alice invading my space…but since she was my model, that makes sense, ha. You can peruse the rest over on my Instagram:

Editing

With my new full-time day job, I’ve only managed to handle one or two freelance projects at a time. ScharaReeves Press continues to take me on as their copy editor for their books. They published The Living Stone (Book 4 in their series) and Battle for the Black Queen (Book 5). I need to do a proper review of the series as it’s been one my favourite, long-term projects so far! Another author I worked with last year, Richard Irving, self-published his memoir, Backwoods Boy, and went on a book tour across Eastern Canada. Irving’s memoir covers his early days living in rural New Brunswick in the fifties and sixties; it’s a little piece of Canadiana that I’m proud to have on my shelves.

Otherwise, well, I’ve worked on more comics in 2023, but since they’re not published yet, I can’t say anything about them!

New Year

And that takes us into 2024! My resolution, as it is most years, is to learn more, be kinder (to myself as well), and keep trying to best my past self by moving forward on my creative projects. I hope you’ve all had a safe and comfortable holiday season, dear readers, and I wish you the very best in the new year!