Though I have really only been trapped inside for a couple of months, and the weather has only truly been wintry for a few weeks, I feel the distinct mildewed talons of cabin fever slowly sinking into my soul.
The only reading material to arrive in the past week was the new issue of Poetry Magazine, which I hope to read before the end of the year. I have an idea that, instead of books of poetry, for National Poetry Month (April) I will read all of my unread back issues of Poetry and other literary journals.
In reading news, I finished S.A. Chakraborty‘s Empire of Gold, and it was fantastic! Definitely one of the best genre fiction reads of the past few years.
In writing news, I am probably two hundred words from the end of the short story I have been working on for the past four months, and at over 7,000 words, it either needs to be trimmed by a couple of thousand, or turned into a novel. Or maybe both. Then the 7,000 word version can be the Director’s Cut.
That’s it for literary news for the week. Next week is Editing Week for the month, so I expect to find myself awash in heavily marked up piles of paper for a few days. Assuming I can keep up the momentum.
January was a pretty good month for reading. I finished three genre novels, following the three I read at the end of 2021. Having my head in this space feels really good, and I find that my own writing is easier, and occasionally improved, by focusing on genre works for extended periods of time.
The down-side is that I spent so much time reading these books (and the ones which I did not finish by the end of the month) that I completely neglected to read any short prose other than news articles and blog posts.
Books
Roanhorse, Rebecca, Black Sun (2022.01.06) – I really liked this book. Until now I had not read a fantasy story – or indeed any fiction at all, that I recall, that was centered in pre-colonial America. The characters are vivid and immediately interesting, the descriptions are both grand and intimate. Roanhorse writes very well and I look forward to reading the sequel, Fevered Star.
Muir, Tamsyn, Harrow the Ninth (2022.01.18) – I loved this book! Harrow was as good a read as its predecessor Gideon the Ninth. It was a little slower-paced, but this was mostly due to the density of the world building and depth of characterizations. Muir is very good at exploring the mental and emotional states of her characters, and shows distinct empathy toward even the least sympathetic of the necromancers in this story. I definitely would not want to live in the universe of the Locked Tomb, but it is a fun place to visit on occasion.
Mandel, Emily St. John, Station Eleven (2022.01.20) – I finished the Subterranean Press edition of Station Eleven while camped out in a hotel room the night before the 2022 ConFusion Science Fiction Convention. To read a story of the survivors of a pandemic touring the Great Lakes, while waiting for the start of a conference taking place in Michigan the middle of a pandemic, put my mind in an interesting place. Mandel writes beautifully. Her characters are well-defined and consistent, and the story immediately pulled me in. Moments of sharp clarity are mixed with hints of the state of the larger world, and the pages are full of the wonder and terror of living in a time when over 99% of humanity has suddenly died. Highly recommended.
These are my notes from the panel “If You Like That, Read This!” which took place at 7:00 pm on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at ConFusion 2022: Rising ConFusion in Novi, Michigan.
I moderated this panel, which was a somewhat superfluous role as the panel included only myself and Anton Cancre, filling in for Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the panel. Since there were only half a dozen attendees, we decided to keep things informal. We pulled some chairs into a circle and went around and the room, discussing books we had read recently, and books we particularly liked and recommended to the other attendees.
The first list includes recent reads and books which came up in the conversation.
I’ve been busy playing catch-up this past week. Taking two days off of work to attend ConFusion 2022 turned into, as it always does, less of a vacation and more of a deferred workload. That workload caught up with me at 8:00 Monday morning, and was still dogging me when I logged off at 18:00 Friday afternoon. But by several orders of magnitude I am not paid enough to work weekends when the literal end of the world is not at stake.
In writing news, I was thrown off my stride somewhat by preparing (physically, mentally, and emotionally) for ConFusion, so I didn’t accomplish much. This past week I have made some more progress on my short story, and should have it finished next week. Since my new writing routine has the first full week of the month set aside for editing, I still have one more writing week in which to complete some work. Thanks to my weekend of good friends, good fellowship and good vibes, I feel energized to dive back into my creative work.
Though ConFusion 2022 was much smaller than previous ConFusions, many authors still attended so I arrived with high hopes, a pocketful of money, and some bags. I brought a stack of books to get signed, and returned home with those and a dozen more, with the majority of the new books signed as well. Truly, this was a glorious weekend for my collection!
The first photo is the books I brought to ConFusion 2022 which were signed by the authors.
Next are two books by Jen Haeger, Whispers of a Killer and Moonlight Medicine: Onset. Next is Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison, a collection of poetry by Anton Cancre. Cancre was at the signing table filling in for author Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the signing session. As thanks for buying two of Hans’ books, Anton gave me his book for free (!) and was gracious enough to sign it. Later that day Anton again filled in for Hans in a panel I moderated, “If You Liked That, Read This!” which was loads of fun. I will discuss it more in my ConFusion 2022 wrap-up post.
And finally we have Jason Sanford‘s collection Never Never Stories which upon returning home I found is a duplicate. Oh, well. Now I have two copies of this book, in case I want to read it more than once.
A dozen new books is actually a fairly small haul for me at a ConFusion, but again, this was a much smaller than usual version of the event. I should just have time to read these before the next ConFusion in 2023.
As I start writing this post (Thursday, January 20) I have just checked in at the Sheraton Hotel in Novi for the 2022 edition of the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention, dubbed Rising Confusion. I am here as a volunteer and a moderator for one panel, and also an attendee in what is sure to be a fun, if substantially smaller than usual, convention.
Two new stacks of printed-upon tree-derived material arrived at the house this week.
First up is the latest issue of Poetry, the first of 2022 and one of my few remaining subscriptions.
Next is Fateforge vol. 4, titled Encyclopedia, an RPG rulebook for an RPG I have never played, and likely never will. I backed it on the spur of a moment back this past spring. It is gorgeous, as have been all the other RPG manuals I have backed on Kickstarter over the past several years. This may be a habit I need to rein in, as RPG manuals tend to be expensive and take up a lot of shelf space.
And that’s it for this week. More next time, after I have had a chance to reintegrate into the mundane world.
My new writing routine is working! After a week of editing and prep, this week I wrote several hundred words of a short story I started back in October. I am now within a few hundred words of the end. I know exactly how it will go, I just haven’t put the words down on paper yet.
Nothing new arrived at the Library this week, which I expect will increasingly be the state of things as I rein in my book acquisition habits. I have enough here in the house to keep me busy for the next decade, if all I did was read for six hours a day, seven days a week.
In reading news, I am approaching halfway through Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. So far I love this book every bit as much as I did Gideon the Ninth. I may need to hunt up some of Muir’s shorter works and see how she writes when she isn’t writing about NECROMANCERS IN SPACE!
In writing news, as I stated above, I am almost done with the first draft of my short story titled “Octaves.” But already I can see many places where I need to re-write the first part, which will certainly cascade into the more recent work, which ultimately means a complete rewrite. But that is to be expected. After this story I will pick up other, half-finished works and finish those drafts so I can move them into the editing queue.
I’ve been following Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky‘s annual State of the World conversation on the Well. Guest “speakers” this year are Vinay Gupta and Emily Gertz. Much of the conversation seems to center around blockchain this year, which makes sense as Gupta is one of the founders of Ethereum, and Gertz is an environmental reporter. Other topics include COVID (of course), politics (of course), the interaction of the two, and the possibility of a horde of Trumpist bootlicks and coprophages attempting to stage a civil war. The State of the World conversations are always interesting, and past years can easily be found in the index of topics.
ConFusion 2022 Con Chair Lithie DuBois has just posted a transparent, detailed update on the state of ConFusion, which starts in a little less than two weeks. To sum up: ConFusion 2022 will still take place as a live event, and I will still attend as a volunteer and a panel moderator. However, the convention is in a precarious situation due to the timing of the Omicron variant and their contract with the hosting hotel. The post is well worth reading, even if you are not planning to attend the convention. This is truly a make-or-break year for ConFusion.
In more personal news, three new volumes arrived at the Library of Winkelman Abbey this past week.
First up is the latest issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, from one of my few remaining active subscriptions.
Next up is SPFBO 7 finalist Shadows of Ivory by TL Greylock and Bryce O’Connor. I met Greylock at ConFusion back in 2019, when Dyrk Ashton introduced me to a number of self-published authors and thus opened the door to a vast trove of books and authors I likely never would have heard of.
Next is Bastion by Phil Tucker. I met Tucker in the same conversation with TL Greylock, at ConFusion. Truly that was a banner year for self publishing.
Holidays: Play God Day, Martyr’s Day (Panama)
1859 – American feminist Carrie Chapman Catt born, Ripon, Wisconsin
1870 – Russian social theorist Alexander Herzen dies, Paris, France
1890 – “Robot-worker” writer Karel Čapek born, Malé Svatoňovice, Bohemia
1905 – Revolution breaks out in St. Petersburg, Russia
1908 – Philosopher, feminist Simone de Beauvoir born, Paris, France
1944 – Indian-German filmmaker Harun Farocki born, Neutitschein, Sudetenland
2021 – Ultra-leftist gay Israeli human rights activist Ezra Nawi dies, Jerusalem
You get the idea. It’s quite an informative calendar.
I first became aware of Autonomedia when I worked at Schuler Books as the special orders manager. At that time there was no Amazon.com, the internet was new, and the WWW was very much in its infancy. Therefore if people wanted books and didn’t know how to suss out publishers’ addresses and catalogs, they came to me. We had an Autonomedia catalog, and received a small but steady trickle of orders for their titles. I have a few of their books in my library, and I think I had more, once upon a time, but either loaned or donated or sold them during one of my early, ill-advised book purges.
In reading news, I finished Rebecca Roanhorse‘s newest book, Black Sun, and loved it! Highly recommended. I am now a little past page 100 of Tamsyn Muir‘s Harrow the Ninth, and enjoying it every bit as much as I did her previous book Gideon the Ninth. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week, because my pile of unread books is still embarrassingly large.
In writing news, I didn’t do a lot of writing as such, this being the first full week of the month and therefore the week set aside for editing and submitting. I spent all of my writing time organizing and cataloging all of the short stories and poetry which I wrote in 2021, and reviewed several of them to see which ones are worth revising and might eventually be worthy of submitting, or at least putting in front of beta readers. This will undoubtedly be an ongoing, rolling process, as tomorrow begins a week of writing, either creating new works or adding to existing, partially-completed works.
If any of you, my two or three readers, have writing goals, stories, or successes, feel free to leave them in the comments.
And that’s it for this week. 2022 is starting off slowly and carefully, with looming dangers and wonders just over the horizon. Happy New Year, everyone!
About this time last year, when it became apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic would continue for the foreseeable future, I set about putting together a daily routine for the weekday mornings. This routine included working out, reading, writing, playing with the cats, and generally relaxing and preparing for the workday. I managed to stick with this routine until I received my first COVID vaccination shot at the beginning of April, at which point the stress and anxiety which had been powering my life to that point evaporated, and so did my routine. After my second shot at the end of April I tried to pick it up again, but other life stressors appeared and, while I managed to do some minimal workouts and writing, all of this went away at the beginning of September when my mother passed away. The writing picked up again in the beginning of November with NaNoWriMo, but I haven’t had a good steady week of morning workouts in almost a year.
So here I am at the start of 2022, with a renewed sense of purpose, if not exactly renewed energy. I am 52 (and a half!), and don’t have the deep well of mojo I had in my twenties, or even in my forties.
But a routine is a good framework around which to build a day, and mine looks something like this:
5:00: wake up, feed cats
5:10 – 6:30: calisthenics, chi kung, kung fu and tai chi forms practice
6:30 – 8:00: write
8:00 – 8:30: read or more writing
8:30 – 17:00: work prep, work
17:30 – 18:00: stationary bicycle, hand/arm/grip conditioning
For the rest of the day I relax with my girlfriend, read a little more, play with the cats, work on projects around the house, and maybe watch some TV. Repeat each day of the work week. Weekends are open time when Zyra and I do whatever suits our mood.
For writing I also planned a monthly routine, which involves setting aside the first full week of the month for editing and submitting, and using the rest of the month for writing. As this is the first full week of January, I am using my time in the mornings to catalog and sort all the poems I wrote in 2021, as well as reviewing the large pile of short stories, completed or otherwise, which await my attention.
