Having chatted with several autistic #writers I have a theory that autism writes better in a unique story structure. I would love to talk about this more, especially with ADHD writers, as I think they may blend into this structure.
Would you be interested being in a neurodivergence writing group on Discord?
I also talk about #WatermaidensDay, which will be next week . It shares a date with #Valentine because uh, one of the influences for Watermaidens and Watermyth in general was the fate of poor Ophelia. I always felt she deserved a better life and so I wrote a whole army of watermaidens into my stories. I guess that should be another blog post, huh.
Some time ago now I rather rashly threatened to start blogging again. Not being the sort to back down from such things, and somewhat belatedly (because life) the first post is now live. It's about Candlemas and hope and light and change. I hope you enjoy it! https://loreandordure.com/2024/01/30/candlemas-2024-on-beginnings/
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If your book was a movie, what would it be rated and why?
I'm talking about Blood Orange Orchards this month and it's a short story not a book. The first version of it back in 2014 would likely be R (unsure about newer rating systems so bear with me) because things got a little raunchy there. But the current version has no romance in it except in memories so I would say somewhere between a G and a PG (for descriptions of war and death etc).
One of those days, continued. Finding leaks in rafter bays in the adjacent room, hunting for rotted wood, but it means cutting up a faux painted ceiling of clouds.
Well, it took a bit more effort than I expected, but I'm completely off Substack as of today.
I dunno if Better Bits, the supporting site for my on-again, off-again book will make a reappearance elsewhere. But Net API Notes, the API industry newsletter I've written since 2015, can now be found at http://netapinotes.com.
I rejoined Codex Writer's Group and didn't realise how much I'd missed about being a Codexian
I can't get over the offer to contribute to a potential special issue at one of my top 5 bucket list journals. I feel a bit weird saying this because I know it might all just fall flat; I've been disappointed before. But I'm hoping for the best. It was a good reminder of why I'm in academia, so I will be content with that.
Just found out that a contest I submitted Dionysus in Wisconsin to will be judged by librarians. This is terrifying (there is nothing I want less in the world than to be judged by librarians), but also kind of exciting (librarians and archivists feature prominently, so maybe they'll like it?).
Did you realise what writing was going to be like when you started?
Friends, I started writing when I was around 8 years old so definitely not. I was writing "my first novel" (more like a novelette) which was a gender-swapped Prisoner of Zenda and having a whole lot of fun with it. There was no thinking about what it was like. I was just going to write it and be fabulous, you know. Rich, famous, beauti-ful and all that. pats 8-year old Anita on the head sadly
If only you knew, child. 40 years later you'd be waiting to hit 10 sales on your first published novel like it was the best thing ever.
Got down to #author stuff, now that I'm retired and can devote time to the #business of #writing#fiction. First order of business: catalog the unsold novels from after the burn out that need revision and rewrites.
Turns out that disconnecting my Mac from my work VPN messed up my folders. I had somehow mapped (don't know the Mac term) my work Windows computer folders to the Mac, and when I look in documents it tries to find it on the network and fails. If I reboot, so long as I go directly from my user's directory to documents directory, I'm good. If I click on Documents in Finder, it redirects and I'm screwed.
First thing I did was copy all my writing folders to the desktop. At least I've lost none of my old novels and short work.
I thought there were 7 completed books, and I said so online. There are actually 9, three that form a trilogy and one novel with a sequel in the mix. There are two incomplete novels.
Some works are older than others. Pages refuses to open one novel from 1996, a fun space opera that possibly has the highest chance of early sales. I haven't tried the others. Now I gotta install Word, of which I am not a fan, and investigate programs that'll open the really old files. If anyone wants to chime in with suggestions, please do! (I can always find someone with a Windows machine if need be.) Putting Google on TODO. I actually have original copies of chapters from my Apple ] days, but thankfully I updated those to the Mac and to a new millennium version of Word in what were my PowerPC days.
Incidentally, there really are three novellas in good shape.What surprises me though? There looks like about 15 short stories, many complete because I see multiple submissions in the various folders. I completely forgot about these, and was sure I never wrote short-form.
Only two more days until we open for submissions! If any of you out there have some great short fiction from or about alien perspectives: send it in on the 7th 😄