Mid June 2022 - a free anthology and writing update
Hello Everyone,
As I write this, I’m recovering from a nasty bit of dental surgery on my front two teeth (I’ll spare everyone with the details). All is well, however my upper lip has swollen up to the point it looks like botched plastic surgery—which I was warned to expect.
I was directed to stay home to recuperate, which I did (and I’m lucky enough to have a day job that let me). For several days, I spent time in my writing chair. It felt delightful to have so much uninterrupted time to think, read and write!
News - Bright Future: An Anthology
First up, one of my Case Files made it into an anthology put together by a bunch of like-minded authors (it’s exciting to be part of this group!). Bright Future: An Anthology is free and well-worth checking out.
Writing
“Every piece of writing is a kind of puzzle.” —Erno Rubik from Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All
I always have multiple projects on the go—although I try to only work on a single project on a time. Usually, I switch to a new project with each new month. The problem I find is that if I work too long on one thing, I stop really ‘seeing it’ —I stop seeing the problems and errors. To keep things fresh, I need to keep mixing things up. Right now, I’m juggling three novel sized projects.
I’ve put aside draft one of Subject 34, the conclusion to the Encoded Orbits Trilogy (I always need a break before editing).
Now I’m editing a stand alone novel set in the Encoded Orbits universe. I stumbled upon an Emily Dickinson poem that stuck with me, ultimately inspiring a whole book. It’s a different kind of story for me—a small cast in a confined space—but it’s such an adventure that I’ve fallen in love with it. It has an appointment with an editor this summer, and theoretically will be ready to share in the fall (I might even try a kickstarter with this one).
Finally, I’m gathering ideas for a new book (another stand alone in the Encoded Orbits universe). Right now it’s a series of sticky notes on my wall, but soon, I’ll mould it into an outline—with I’ll probably draft into a novel during NaNoWriMo.
As a wild card, I just printed out Case File #8: The Boy That Wasn’t Missing for a final read through. Once it’s ready, I’ll be sharing it on the Armchair Alien SubStack (for free) along with Case File #7: The One With All the Elephants and Case File #21: When There Should Have Been Apple Pie. I work on the Case Files for fun (and I’m already outlining Case File #9 and Case File #3).
In other news, gardening season has begun
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before (and a lot of my stories feature some sort of garden in space), but I’m big into gardening—specifically food. There’s a garden on the Wayfarer in Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (one of my favourite books ever), which is presented as chaotic and productive and I’d love for it to be my garden. But, since I live on Earth, most of my garden is in the ground and I’ve been very busy getting everything planted and tended.
But, my whole garden isn’t in the ground—over the last few months I’ve been experimenting with a hydroponic system in my kitchen. For some reason, all my food-growing success here has been with bok choy—but I can work with that.
As a quick tangent, check out these renderings of vegetables—they almost look ready to eat!
My figurative compost heap (to be creative there needs to be a lot of fodder to draw from)
Reading Fiction - Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (this was an awesome space adventure in a really different format). I’m also almost done The Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher, awesome and not too long.
Reading Nonfiction
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari— as I’d thought, the amount of information we receive has massively increased over the decades. I’d thought this was a resent phenomenon, but it turns out this flood of more and more info started in the 1880’s at the same time society decided that we needed to have continually growing economies.
The book paints a very clear picture as to where our focus has gone, it’s fascinating and depressing at the same time. Now I need to step back a bit, just to take time to digest everything (I might write a blog post on my thoughts on this one).
Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All by Erno Rubik. I wrote a post on this over on the blog, but here’s the quick version (complete with a kung fu fighting banana):
Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Edith Widder - research for a work in progress (although it dawned on me it relates enough to my day job, I could justify it as professional development)
What It Is by Lynda Barry which I read in a day and it got me thinking that I need to do more drawing to flesh out my writing ideas.
Watching - Obi Wan Kanobi and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (I’m so glad it turned out to be exactly the Star Trek I’d hoped for!)— plus Westworld season three (which has gone on an extreme tangent I’m not sure about)
we also introduced my daughter to the first Harry Potter movie (I haven’t pushed the books on her due to my concerns around some of the author’s opinions—I feel very mixed about this as I really enjoyed the books and I’m sure my daughter would too—however, there is a ton of good books out there, so she isn’t missing out)
Making (how I stay sane)
I’ve gone deep into doodling in my notebook, deep enough I splurged and got supplies. And for the first time in years, I made a collage (it’s the image above).
As always, I’m curious about you are enjoying right now. Anything worth suggesting?
Cheers,
Jeannette
My Books:
Encoded Orbits
Fractured Orbits - direct or from the shops
The Alien Algorithm - pre-order here
Settler Chronicles
Day 115 on an Alien World - direct or from the shops
Far Sid of the Moon - direct or from the shops
Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds - direct or from the shops
The Alien Artifact - direct or from the shops
Here’s a book by a fellow indie author worth checking out:
Flesh comes cheap in a machine world
Doctor Rick Stenslandt has always advocated against the fusion of man and machine. But after a near-fatal accident, he is forced to accept ocular implants or go blind, end up unemployed, and without social status.
But something goes wrong. Now he remembers people he has never met before—influential members of the corporate elite that governs the world. And they have all been murdered.
Worse, it seems he’s the next target.
On the run from the police and a pair of augmented assassins, Rick seeks refuge in the infamous alleys of the megacity. But to protect the ones he loves, he cannot hide forever. Now he must figure out his borrowed memories and his connection to the victims, before it’s too late.
If you love dark futuristic urban settings and corporate conspiracies, then you will love this cyberpunk read.