Category: A to Z Challenge

I did it! Well, mostly. The A to Z Challenge is a crazy challenge to write 26 blog posts, each one about a word starting with a different letter of the alphabet, during the month of April. It means blogging every day except for the Sundays during the month, which is the most I've committed to blogging during any month ever. And I did it, except for the bit at the end where I waited too long to write my Z post and didn't have time to do it on the actual day because I had about 50 million other things to do(or, more accurately, three things which involved a buttload of travel time). It was a lot of fun and despite not getting as many comments as I hoped to…

The A to Z Challenge is almost over! Thanks for sticking with me through this crazy month!  Y is for You. I've written before about the importance of self care for writers and I'd like to reiterate it today. Writing can be incredibly fun but it is also often incredibly difficult. A great many writers struggle with mental health issues, making self care even more important. The majority of writers I've had the pleasure of meeting have also been women, a group of the population who is utterly notorious for neglecting self care. So today i want you to think about self care. When was the last time you had a hot bath? Got a massage? Read a book purely for pleasure? Actually took time to just sit by yourself in a…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! X is for Xenophobia. I spent a great many days pondering my X word before finally settling on xenophobia. Xenophobia is the intense and irrational fear of people from other countries and cultures. It's a word that is uncomfortably relevant thanks to the horrific mess we're calling the American election campaign. I think we're all well aware of this campaign though and I don't think I have anything new to add. So I'm going to take your attention away from the horrors of our world and discuss how xenophobia can…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! W is for Waiting. Trying to become a professional writer involves a lot of waiting. Waiting for people to read your stories and hopefully let you know whether or not they liked it. Waiting for people to respond to your emails. Waiting to see when the people who took review copies of your book are actually going to review it. Waiting to find out whether or not any of your marketing efforts resulted in any sales. Waiting for the royalty check when you finally earn enough money to get one.…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! V is for Video Games. I've been looking forward to this one since I started the alphabet. Video games have been a big part of my life as far back as I can remember. As a little kid I remember playing a lot of co-operative games with my parents and one thing that really makes me sad is the disappearance of local cooperative multiplayer from most mainstream games. My fiance is a bigger gamer than I am and being able to game together is one of my favourite things…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! U is for University. As I'm sure some of you are aware, I did not actually attend university and I don't have any plans to attend university in the near future. I've spent far too many years reading the life stories of successful authors who didn't attend any kind of post secondary education and many, many authors who recommended staying away from going to university for creative writing. My interest in writing led me to a marketing internship with Musa Publishing and from there it became clear that social…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! S is for Steampunk. This word was definitely one of the easier choices for me since I have a mild(not really) obsession with the steampunk aesthetic and many of my favourite games, movies and shows incorporate it. I consume a lot less straight up steampunk and a lot more stuff that blurs the lines between steampunk and other genres. I think the thing that has really drawn me into steampunk is the DIY culture that's sprung up around it. While there are obviously people who make their own costumes in…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! R is for Rewriting. We knew we had to come to this word eventually, the same way serious writers know eventually their work must be rewritten. In most cases, it must be rewritten over and over and over again. The novella I recently submitted has been rewritten at least thirty times and was originally a short story. Moonshadow's Guardian, the novel I'm about to start sending out, has been through over a dozen edits, most of them full rewrites. Some writers adore rewriting. I think they're nuts(yes, more nuts…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! Q is for Questions. Questions are the building blocks of every story. Many stories begin with the question "what if". Other stories begin with different questions. I often see characters before I see anything else, so my first question is usually "who are you". From that first question, the way to build your story and your world is by asking questions. Sometimes you ask the characters directly, other times you're asking the little voice in your head that feeds you stories(or, at least, this is how it works for…

Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month! P is for Possession. I'm pretty excited about this word. As a fan of horror, fantasy and history, I'm utterly fascinated by the concept of possession and how it's been treated both in stories and in different time periods. To me it doesn't much matter whether or not possession is real. Both ideas are fascinating and horrifying in very different ways. Real possession is terrifying in the most obvious way: you lose control of yourself and your body is forced to do terrible things by some kind of demon.…