Happy New Year

And here we are, a new year and new adventures. And hopefully renewed energy, at least for a little while. I know, I dropped off at the tail end of 2014, neglected updates, though I did compensate with cookies… that worked, right? Well, after the Iliad and then diving head first into novel editing, Can-Con and pitching for the first time (stressful yet thrilling) and then handing it off to my critique group (more stress – maybe it sucks – and excitement – maybe it’s actually good), my energy dipped and at least this time I was smart enough to let life calm down a little rather than forging on full steam ahead. I learn my lessons, sometimes, eventually. I continued writing, puttering away at brainstorming and drafting, but without the frenzy of deadlines, and skipped NaNoWriMo entirely this year.

I have to say, I’m glad I allowed myself that bit of down time, because 2015 is quite the little go-getter, out of the gate with a bang and promising many wonderful adventures. I’m working on a short story for Second Contacts. Oh deadlines, there you are again. I have a couple of weeks to finish that up, while keeping one portion of my brain turned to storytelling for Marie and I are at it again. January 27th we return to the Tea Party to tell Twisted Tales: fairy tales re-imagined.

There are other exciting developments for the new year. I am returning to school. Well, for one class. I’ll be taking the Creative Writing Workshop at Ottawa U starting in January, taught by Amal El-Mohtar and focusing on fantasy and speculative fiction. Though I studied English Lit and UofO, I never got around to taking the creative writing workshop while I was there (coop and a minor in theatre get distracting, and too much essay writing killed my own creative writing for a few years).

I’m also going for some training at work in January. January = busy. (I like to do this to myself don’t I? I guess I’ll have to schedule some downtime, maybe for the summer, or next December? lol) And I am already registered for Ad Astra in April and World Fantasy Convention in November. I’ve never been to World Fantasy, or any of the big professional conventions like it, so it’s very exciting.

And… now that I’ve actually written a blog post, it’s about time I get back to work on that short story I mentioned.