I am embarking on a whistle-stop tour of upstate New York this weekend, reading and signing at the Barnes and Noble in Amherst Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and at the B&N in Rochester, at Pittsford, on Sunday, also at 2:00 p.m. If there’s a single soul whom I know anywhere within range of these stores, I would love to see you. If you want to know me and you’re in the area, here’s your chance! We were in Vancouver so long that popping down to Seattle and even Portland had become, in some sense, routine. We had been through the Peace Arch border crossing dozens of times, and there are points on the road past Bellingham where I believe I could sketch every shrub in the ditch from memory. This trip is all new, all the time. Where will we gas up? Where will we buy fruit? (Actually, we’ve figured that part out already). What will we see? Is the flagship B&N in Pittsford as big and Disneylandlike as it’s made out to be? Soon I and followers of our Instagram feed will know.
Author Archives: Alyx Dellamonica
That Escalated Quickly…
Me: Maybe this is a hoaxy thing, but Orlando Jones just sent me a friend request on Facebook.
K: Really?
Me: His page looks pretty legit.
Both: Random murmuring about Sleepy Hollow and how would we know if it was a real page or not. Then…
K: Maybe he read your book!
Me: Maybe he wants to play Parrish!
Both: Faint, coo, imagine the advance money, giggle, realize this is ridiculous, climb back up off the kitchen floor and sit back down to breakfast.
K: Orlando Jones is too old to play Parrish.
A: Sadly, yes. Pretty enough, but a little too old.
K: He could play Cly though.
Both: OMG OMG Eeee! Die.
Kittens: ?
Yes, we are deranged.
Oh, Tish! No new business!
The phrase “Project Gomez” has solidified within my mind as a catchphrase or mantra for not embarking on any new non-fiction or blogging projects until I’ve cleared away at least some of the things I’ve already agreed to. Since I like to say yes to everything, this means I need to kick it into gear. Two things must be done for every new thing I agree to!
Luckily, Kelly and I have tasked ourselves to a whole lot of chilling out and self-care this weekend: writing, yoga, perhaps the occasional nap. This should mesh well with clearing away a little of the mental clutter.
It has, at times, been a challenging week. I’ve already told you all about the clusterfrack of petty annoyances that was my Monday. Tuesday the floor got fixed (win!) but in the process the floor dudes solved the mystery of why our front door jams… by jamming it so hard that, in the end, we had to break into the apartment. The door got broken in the process, so there will be unexpected expense. (Fail.)
Wednesday we found out that the audit of our 2013 moving expenses had gone reasonably well (win!) and I got soaked to the skin in a thoroughly exhilarating rainstorm (tie! Because I was cold, but it rained so hard I couldn’t see. Which was amazing! But, boy, I was wet all the way to the back of my belly-button!)
Wednesday was also a three-event circus of day–I went to see Caitlin Sweet answer questions about her writing process at the U of T (she has blogged about the experience here), and then bolted home because the cats had a play date with their fairy godmother, a.k.a. the woman in whose grandma’s yard our babies were born. To cap the day we got to go to Charlene Challenger’s book launch for The Voices In Between
Here’s a super-brief snippet of her awesome reading.
CHS Review @Quillandquire
Yesterday was one of those days. The kind where the computer attempts to die and the kittens take a leak on your dirty clothes, and when you go downstairs to pitch the reeking laundry hamper, the dumpster full of compost belches unspeakable fluids all over you. Plus the building’s hot water is down for the day for necessary annual maintenance.
You remember this last bit after you’ve peeled your clothes and begun attempting to decontaminate.
Then, in the evening, you hit yourself in the front tooth with a salad bowl without any idea of how you actually achieved that.
I spent much of the day alternating between grading student exercises and deconstructing my office, so the floor repair could get done today. Having to fix the floor so soon after having put it in has been a bit of a morale dampener. (Then again, so was having those boards crackle underfoot.) Having to put the house back in a state where it looks as though we’re only half moved in has also been less than joy-inducing.
But! Kelly fixed the computer, I kinda hated that hamper, there was (after a disheartening interval) just enough hot water even though the “Hey, we’ve turned on the fire again!” announcement didn’t come until two hours after I got in the shower, we’ll feel better when our floor no longer crackles, I might rearrange my office, the tooth didn’t chip and yoga, as always, heals much.
My dear friend Fearless wrote to say she loved my book, and the Quill and Quire did too. Which means, on balance, the day was definitely a win.
Tag, I’m It: Writer’s Process Blog Tour
In our last exciting episode, the kittens continued to be incredibly adorable, while Caitlin Sweet tagged me and Kelly in the Writer Process Blog Tour. She’s posted her answers to the questions in that meme here.
What Am I Working On?
I’m currently waiting for other people to get back to me on a few things, so in the meantime I’ve been writing short stories, putting together grant proposals, and looking over old projects. I wrote the first chapter of a mystery novel to see if I liked the voice and the direction I was considering. This week I reread a horror novel I drafted in about 2011, but haven’t yet rewritten. There are a couple anthologies I’d like to submit stories to, but I’m not happy with any of the ideas I’ve had for them.
(Yet, she said hopefully.)
In other words, I’m sort of snuffling around to see what grabs my imagination hardest. This is less fun than it probably sounds.
How Does My Work Differ From Others In Its Genre?
Early in my career a writer friend praised me for, essentially, having a wild imagination. Now, whenever I’m stuck, that’s where I try to push things. I’m not saying my work is more imaginative than anyone else’s–that would be insanely egotistical and untrue–but lately I’ve been getting praise from reviewers about the worldbuilding in Child of a Hidden Sea
By that token it could mean that imagining stuff means, for me, going out of my way to make it horrifically over-complicated.
Why Do I Write What I Do?
The only thing I don’t write much of is straight-up literary fiction, so the answer to this is: because I’m greedy! I want my mysteries, my horror SF, my seafaring adventure crime procedurals, my magical toxic spill sexfests, my thinly veiled Vietnam War stories. I write because I feel driven to write, unable to stop.
And I write all sorts of things because that’s part of what makes it fun.
How Does My Writing Process Work?
I write drafts longhand, except when I type them directly into the computer or dictate them into a note on my phone. From there they go straight into a properly formatted manuscript document on a simple word processor–no Scrivener for me!–and I rewrite them from beginning to end. Then I rewrite them again. And again. And, OMG, again. And then I get someone to read it and I rewrite it again. And again. And again…
I often do over twenty passes on a single project. Sometimes I reach a point where I’m convinced it’s irrevocably broken, but I’ve invested too much time to quit. (Sometimes it’s irrevocably broken.) Other times, there’s a moment where the clouds part, and I see a fine thing shimmering just beyond my grasp, and I run after it like a fiend. Only, you know, from a seated position, in a coffee shop.
Eventually I find myself desperate to write something else, or making it worse rather than better, or the deadline comes, and so I send it off to market.
Tag tag tag! I tag Jessica Wynne Reisman and Gemma Files.