The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them).
After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.
Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).
MY CHECK-IN
What am I working on this week?
Heading down to the GANZA conference on Tuesday, which means the first half of the week will be spent putting the final touches on my conference paper and working out transport logistics (I’m not looking forward to the 5:30 start on Tuesday). Planning on a day to recover, which leaves me with a very short working week on Friday to get writing projects kickstarted.
What’s inspiring me this week?
My head’s been in a lot of reference books that I’ve read a hundred times before this week, but writing the final stages of the conference paper has given me a new appreciation for Elizabeth Bear’s New Amsterdam stories–there’s some structural choices she makes that really underpin the immortality of her vampire in some really interesting ways as the series moves towards the final novella, without making it the centre of the narrative.
What action do I need to take?
So much of my attention has been focused on the paper part of the conference that I’ve neglected a lot of the travel logistics, and there’s . distinct lack of post-conference planning at work. Both are on my list now that the conference is so close
I’ve ended up taking a short, unscheduled break from writing newsletters over the last fourteen days. Regular GenrePunk Ninja transmissions will resume
Like many of you, I have good weeks and bad weeks on the writing front. This week has been rocky, and if
Welcome to GenrePunk Ninja supplemental, where I occasionally post foundational essays written before I launched the GenrePunk Ninja newsletter, especially if they’re
2 Responses
I love it here, though my lack of writing confidence has kept me away. I guess I just needed time, or to hit bottom of not writing, i.e. when a thing becomes more painful to not do than to do. The pain and relief feel like being broken open all new and shiny.
Thanks, Peter, for including the inspiration from reading Elizabeth Bear’s stories. And for your blog, and the Sunday Circle. I’m thinking it’s time to open a new blog, if for no other reason than to get responses and criticism from others to what writing I’ll putting on Medium.com.
What am I working on this week?
Line edits of Book 3. I’m a third of the way through. Crushing my errors. Driving them before me. Hearing the lamentations of my bad sentences.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Last week, when I missed checking in here, it was in-world field notes/monster manuals. Phil Williams has Apothel’s Miscellany in his urban fantasy novel Under Ordshaw. The Spiderwick Chronicles has this too, which I liked, but that was appropriate to YA. This is like you went underground and saw things in the tunnels that belonged in first-person shooter games like Doom and Quake. And then wrote a book about how they hunt you and how to fight them when you can’t avoid them.
I’ve downloaded the sample of Bear’s first New Amsterdam book. Sounds promising.
What action do I need to take?
It’s really time to get the ball rolling on redoing the covers of my novels. I want the new covers in time for Book 3’s release. I’m also having Book 1 looked over by a proofreader. I then plan to start hitting up reviewers with it. I’d like all the upgrades in place by then.