Hello world!
Welcome to my new and improved newsletter! And thanks for joining me.
I’m a writer of science fiction and am curious about the world around me. Here I’ll talk a bit about my books, delve into the interesting things I’ve come across, talk about creativity and share other media that I’ve enjoyed (I read a lot!). My intention is to send out a newsletter at least once a month, but maybe a little bit more.
Names with numbers
I recently bought myself a new-to-me tea. Its only description was blend #10 (it’s a green and black tea mix). For some reason, I’m really drawn to that kind of name, one with a number. It’s why I picked up Station 11 at a bookstore in Halifax, why Area 51 seems fascinating by name alone, and why I titled a book Day 115 on an Alien World (and named the ship they crashed on Settler III).
My current series has characters named Theo65 and Nigel 378, along with a military base hidden in a hollowed out asteroid called Rock 13-5A. Also, my main character has a love of numbers.
I wonder if having a number in a name makes it sound more scifi? — Like the movies 2001 (and 2010), and Apollo 18, or the books 1984, I am Number Four, 1Q84 (on my ereader ready to be read, I’ve read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by the same author and found it delightfully weird).
Good news, tea blend #10 is fantastic—as good as my standard tea called Storm Watch.
Speaking of numbers, every wonder why time and angles are in base 60? It’s a holdover from the base 60 number system used by the ancient Babylonians.
Notebooks
I use notebooks as idea incubators, a place to doodle and a way to keep my creativity percolating along (also, taking notes by hand has other advantages). Recently, I’ve taken to doodling in them as I think. I don’t intend for them to reach this level, but I’ve been cracking out my pencil crayons and random stickers I’ve collected over the years (such as the irresistible scratch-and-sniff Kung fu fighting fruit stickers I couldn’t pass up). Drawing is something I used to do, and am enjoying dabbling in it once again—even if it is just in the margins of my notebooks.
Writing Fiction
I haven’t shared much about my writing process in the past because how I go about getting words on the page isn’t static. I’ve read stacks of books on writing craft and there’s some brilliant advice out there and I’ve experimented (did I mention that in my day job I’m a scientist?). I’ve tested making detailed outlines and I’ve tried just writing off the top of my head.
My conclusion: for each story that shows up in my head, how it gets written down is different. Writing is hard and there’s a pain point no matter which method I choose. In my current work in progress, the first draft is coming together painfully slow—while the last novel I wrote I breezed through. Sometimes it’s the editing and other times it's forming the idea.
All this to say, my advice to other authors is to try different things out and see what works for you. Also, just keep plugging away!
I’ve also have to admit that my opinion of what I have written oscillates wildly—sometime I think it’s all just dull drivel, and sometimes I think it’s great, which is why I always have a handful of trusted people read my stories.
Cheers,
Jeannette
P.S. you can get my books direct from me here.