kate_nepveu

I’ve been thinking for a while now about what it means to write for the long haul.

I’ve been writing professionally for more than two decades now, rebooting and restarting and rethinking my career–as well as the reasons I’m writing in the first place–many times. I’ve watched other writers do the same, and I’ve wondered at all the varied shapes our careers have taken.

I’ve also watched writers stop writing, and I’ve wondered at that too, because there doesn’t seem to be any one formula for when writers continue writing and when they move on to other things. It’s not as simple as the most successful writers lasting the longest, or the rest of us stopping after we hit some set number of challenges or bumps in the road. Whatever it takes to keep writing, it’s something more complicated than that.

What does it take to keep writing for the long haul? Much of the discussion of writing online is about how break in, or else about how to manage a career for the first few books or the first few years. Those perspectives are valuable, but I’m also interested in seeing an ongoing discussion of how writers survive beyond that–not just from a business point of view, but also from an emotional and life balance point of view.

So I started asking novelists who’ve been in this field for at least a decade (often far longer) why they’re still here and how they keep writing.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll post their responses as part of a new weekly blog series. I’m already enjoying the range of takes that I’m reading, and I’m looking forward to sharing them.

I’m hopeful that, wherever we are in our individual careers, we all can learn from each other.

Mirrored from Desert Dispatches: Wordpress Edition.

Back from a lovely, energizing, soul-filling week at Kindling Words West, in the company of a writing community I’ve not seen for far too long, not setting goals for once but simply (yet not-so-simply) filling the well.

And I wrote today, not because I’m supposed to or because I’ve established useful routines and habits and know how to stick with them, but simply because it’s what I woke up wanting to do more than anything else in the world.

It’s good to be back.

Mirrored from Desert Dispatches: Wordpress Edition.

The Intervision Song Contest (ISC) was the Eastern Bloc equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest. Its organiser was the Intervision, the network of Eastern Europe television stations. It took place in the Forest Opera in Sopot, Poland.

The competition had an interesting way of voting. Because lot of citizens did not have phones, viewers would turn on lights if they liked the song or turned them off if they didn’t like the song. According to load experienced on the electrical network, points were granted accordingly to each contestant.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

Nigel Wright has resigned as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, following revelations he wrote a $90,000 cheque to repay improperly claimed housing expenses for Senator Mike Duffy.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

Total   Female   Male  F/T
  9      2.83    6.17  .31

The Recipients of the 2012 Nebula Awards:

NOVEL: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

NOVELLA: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon)

NOVELLETTE: “Close Encounters” by Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)

SHORT STORY: “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)

RAY BRADBURY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin (director), Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Abilar (writers), (Journeyman/Cinereach/Court 13/Fox Searchlight)

ANDRE NORTON AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOK: Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)

2011 DAMON KNIGHT GRAND MASTER AWARD: Gene Wolfe

SOLSTICE AWARD: Carl Sagan and Ginjer Buchanan

KEVIN O’DONNELL JR. SERVICE TO SFWA AWARD: Michael H. Payne

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

In January, I read The Rifter by Ginn Hale. It's a book in 10 parts, released as a serial in 2011. I was impressed and at times blown away by this story. It's an immersive, compelling, complex portal fantasy. It got a lot of play in the m/m community, and it's published by Blind Eye Books. I'd love it to be more widely known though.

The Shattered Gates is book 1 of 10. We begin on Earth with two main characters: John a ecology grad student whose character is pretty reserved although he seems to feel deeply, and Kyle/Kahlil, his weird scarred-and-tattooed knife-carrying roommate who claims to be a milkman—and who we soon learn is not from Earth at all. Kyle has been sent to Earth to watch over and probably kill John.

I have a bit of a weakness for stories where one hero is supposed to kill the other, but of course doesn't.

It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better. My daughter wasn’t born into royalty, but she was born into a country where she can now vote, become a doctor, a pilot, an astronaut, or even President if she wants and that’s what REALLY matters. I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything. We chose 5 women (five amazing and strong women), as it was her 5th birthday but there are thousands of unbelievable women (and girls) who have beat the odds and fought (and still fight) for their equal rights all over the world……..so let’s set aside the Barbie Dolls and the Disney Princesses for just a moment, and let’s show our girls the REAL women they can be.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

Storm is a novel written by George Rippey Stewart and published in 1941. The book became a best-seller and helped lead to the naming of tropical cyclones worldwide,[...] .