Another short update, due to some intense family stuff.
This week saw two new bundles of pages arrive here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. On the left is the latest issue of Poetry. On the right, fresh from his latest Kickstarter, is Rudy Rucker‘s new book Juicy Ghosts.
In reading news, I am closing in on the end of S.A. Chakraborty’s The Kingdom of Copper, and still enjoying it immensely. I am now about halfway through George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, and I consider it one of the best books I have read this year, and one of the best writing books of the many such I have read.
In writing news, as usual, there is no writing news. Perhaps next week. Or the week after.
I hit the ground running this month with a pile of unread anthologies, which I tend to collect more of than any other type of book. The only books I read to completion this month were the two anthologies listed below, which contained almost all of the short prose which is listed after. Despite some significant chaos in my personal life, it was a good month for reading, with 37 short stories, which brought me into the triple digits for the year. Still less than half of what I had hoped at this point, but many more than I completed last year.
The last three, in the short prose list are from George Saunders’ magnificent A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. I am less than halfway through, and already it is one of my top five writing advice books.
Brief update this week. I am tired and burned out, and need to focus my attention elsewhere.
The only new pages to arrive in the past week belonged to the latest issue of The Rain Taxi Review of Books, which never fails to be interesting and full of compelling titles. I considered cancelling this subscription as part of the Great Expenses Purge of 2021, but as it is only $24.00 a year, and the magazine takes up less than a quarter inch of shelf space, it easily made the cut.
In reading news I am about 200 pages into S.A. Chakraborty’s The Kingdom of Copper, and it is really good! I read the first book in the series, The City of Brass, well over a year ago, and I now regret not immediately diving into Kingdom.
I am also somewhat over 100 pages into A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. So far he has gone through Chekhov’s “In the Cart” and Turgenev’s “The Singers”. We have just started Chekhov’s “The Darling”. I don’t think I have read any of these stories previously. Saunders is brilliant at showing how the stories are constructed without resorting to jargon to deconstruct the text. Though ostensibly aimed at undergrad or graduate level readers, these essays/teachings/contemplations are accessible and well worth the read.
In writing news, still not a lot to report, though I do have some more notes jotted down. I doubt I will find a useful intersection of time and energy for creative pursuits before the first of November.
This is my last post of the year wherein the days are longer than the nights. In just three days Autumn will arrive, and with it the slow slide into the winter months. Though if the outside temperature of the past month is any indication, we may well still be able to visit the beach well into December.
Three new volumes arrived in the Library of Winkelman Abbey in the past week.
On the right is the new issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which is one of the few remaining subscriptions I have kept, though through the intermediary of their annual Kickstarter event.
In reading news, I finished Derelict, which I found to be an excellent collections of stories, and am now about 50 pages into The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty, the second book of her Daevabad trilogy. So far, I quite like it!
In writing news, I now have a plan for NaNoWriMo, which should give me the interest, the latitude, and the momentum to pump out at least 50,000 words in November, assuming the world does not, to be blunt, get even worse in the next three months.
This morning (Friday, as I write the first draft of this post), for the first time since early May, I had to put on a sweater in order to practice on the porch. It didn’t last long; tai chi and chi kung, though they are slow and gentle, heat up a body almost as well as a hard kung fu workout.
In any other year I would be happily sunburned and exhausted after a summer of hitting the lake at least once a week. This year (and last year) I managed to dip my toes in Lake Michigan maybe four times. And that’s in the entire year. Disruptions in my schedule (and also my partner’s schedule) due to the ongoing COVID pandemic meant that leisure time, once available in small amounts, is now a precious commodity to be hoarded for special occasions.
But as we all need to re-learn every day, time is not fungible. A little saved here can’t therefore be used there.
But enough of this navel-gazing nonsense!
This week two books arrived at the Library of Winkelman Abbey.
On the right is The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal, which I picked up after it popped up in a Metafilter thread discussing the odd circumstance that some GamerGaters have approached Brianna Wu, asking for forgiveness. The conversation therein was, as always, interesting and nuanced, and I imagine this little book will hit the top of my to-read stack well before the end of the year.
In reading news, I am still immersed in short stories. I finished Worlds of Light and Darkness and am now on Derelict, another anthology published by the talented folks at Zombies Need Brains.
In writing news, still not a lot to report. Recent family events have sapped most of my energy, and even now I have my doubts about being able to rally myself in time for NaNoWriMo. Time will tell.
Last week was the first week since mid-July to consistently have nights cool and dry enough to be conducive to comfortable sleeping.
The past week was a slow one for the acquisitions department here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. Pictured above are the most recent issue of Poetry and the new shipment from my subscription to the catalog of Two Lines Press, Kaya Days by Carl de Souza, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman.
In reading news, I finished Skull & Pestle and immediately picked up Worlds of Light & Darkness: The Best of Dreamforge and Space & Time, vol. 1 which, being true to its title, is full of extremely good writing.
I also started A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, which is absolutely brilliant, and already one of the top books on reading and writing I have read in the past decade. I can see myself returning to this one, again and again.
In writing news, I have nothing to report. Family events took up all of my time and energy this week, and will likely be disruptive for some time to come. I hope to have equilibrium regained before the start of NaNoWriMo.
Welcome to the monthly Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. This month’s question is the following:
The question: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?
“Success” has had many definitions over the course of my writing life, depending on a wide and constantly changing variety of circumstances, and also my experiences in life (generally) and with the literary world (specifically).
“Make a living as a writer” was probably my first goal, and likely the one most popular with beginning writers.
“Become a famous author” was the next goal, and it is not at all the same as the first definition.
“Publish a book” was next, and by now you can probably see a trend in the targets at which I have aimed.
“Complete a final draft” could have been a goal, but it must necessarily follow “complete a first draft,” which I have yet to do. And no, I don’t consider my output from NaNoWriMo to be first draft material.
Here in September 2021, well into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and with a significant uptick in cases thanks to the Delta variant and the nihilistic arrogance of people who think it Won’t Happen To Them, I define success as writing for at least a few minutes every day, no matter what form that writing takes.
To that end, I have been moderately, well, successful. Eight months into 2021, I have written about three dozen poems, created rough outlines for half a dozen short stories, and jotted down rudimentary notes for three novels. I write in my journals every day. I update this blog at least once a week. And yesterday I started planning out what I am going to work on during NaNoWriMo, which starts two months from today (egads!)
Success as a writer depends on prior successes, whether or not you define them as such. Effect follows cause. You can’t have a final draft without first having a first draft. And in order to do that, you need to, you know, write.
As we like to say in tai chi class, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
And a side note, because we are 20 months into a pandemic with no end in sight: It’s okay to be exhausted. It’s okay to be burned out and frustrated, and to not be able to focus on your writing. The world is a stressful place in the best of times, and these are far from the best of times. Be gentle with yourself.
I finally dove back into short fiction this month, mostly thanks to three anthologies: Portals,Skull & Pestle, and Worlds of Light and Darkness. All three Are good reads and contain some hits and some misses, but overall the anthologies are well above average, so time spent reading through them was time well spent.
The Berardi was dense and complex, being critical theory, and seemed to lose focus at the end, though overall it had very important things to say and the knowledge contained therein will likely affect my world view in unexpected ways for some time to come.
Michael Sullivan’s Theft of Swords was a rollicking good read, and I look forward to reading more of his work. Fortunately I have at least three other books by him on my TBR shelves.
Two of the short fiction authors in this list – Szmerelda Shanel and Jessamy Corob Cook – have no personal web presence that I could find, so I included links to their entries at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database instead.
In reading news, I finished Portals, and it was pretty good! The stories were wide-ranging in subject and (sub) genre, but they tended to be better than average, with several being very good, and only one or two feeling like clunkers. Once again, the team at Zombies Need Brains has turned out a solid, enjoyable anthology.
I am now working my way through Skull & Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga, published by World Weaver Press. Back in early 2018 I wrote most of a story which I intended to submit to this anthology, but as I was in the beginning couple of months of a new relationship at the time, my priorities were elsewhere. So I never completed the story, but on a recent re-read I felt that what I had written still had promise, so I may finish it one day and see if I can find it a home somewhere.
In writing news, I don’t have much new to report. After transcribing my National Poetry Month poems last week, I spent some time this week organizing my poetry folder on Google Drive. This included linking each of the poems to a master list and adding tags for the type and theme of the poem, as well as a few keywords to help me find appropriate poems for themed calls for submissions, in case any of these ever move beyond first-draft status.
With the arrival of September in three days, I plan to start writing a new short story for an anthology which has a submission deadline of December 31. Four months should be enough time, I think.
