December 2018

I’ve been busy lately. The creative work got pushed to the back burner for a while.  However, I completed and sent out two new stories in the last couple of months. So that’s progress. I received good news regarding a reprint of a story. Plus, an editor has asked me to rewrite a story that he liked but found some difficulty with, so I’m hoping I ultimately sell that. I’m pleased to hear from a Canadian magazine that my story is in the last selection round there. Crossing my fingers because if I get into that magazine, it’s a new one to me and very well distributed.  December 9th – I had another ‘2nd round’ email which makes me very happy as this one was for a prestigious USA magazine!

This morning I received my contract for the poem “Dangerous Gods” to be published in Polar Borealis #8 this month. So I’m excited about that.

Also, it’s the holiday season and I’ll take some time off my day job to work on creative endeavors.

October, 2018

It’s been a sad month really. My father died and although he was 89 and had a full and interesting life, I still mourn him as does my kid. I did the tribute for him and the PowerPoint they used at the funeral. I felt like that was a fitting response.  He had a good funeral, which tells you how old I’m getting. No one young can understand the concept of a ‘good’ funeral.

Here’s one of my favorite photos of Dad, that I’d never seen as a kid.

 

My beautiful picture
Bill Pochylko Copyright C. Girczyc 2018

 

September

I’ve been busy and haven’t updated the blog in a while. I just found a new app to do images with so have been playing with @canva. I hope it’s better than @piccollage, which I love but isn’t that sophisticated. So here are some images from our summer vacation. It was a bittersweet vacation. I love seeing my relatives and friends, but my father’s 89 and slipping away from us now due to cancer. So it was sad but I was very glad I splurged out to take us there. Plus, we did a lot of enjoyable visiting.

“Card” Nominated for 2018 Aurora Award

I’m very please to announce that my poem, “Card” was nominated for a 2018 Aurora Award. Please vote and show your appreciation for Canadian SF. There are categories for novel, YA novel, short fiction, graphic novel, best related work (magazine publication), visual presentation (TV, film, theatre), artist, fan writing & publication,  fan organizational, and fan related work.

To vote, go to https://prixaurorawards.ca/

There you can become a member of CSFFA for $10, if you are a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant. The site has online forms that make joining, paying, nominating and voting very easy.

Voting begins July 28th and members get to download a Voters Package with all the materials in it. It’s a great read!

will be held this year at VCON in Richmond, BC –

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Catherine Girczyc, for “Card” a poem appearing in Tesseracts 20 (Compostela), EDGE

April 21, 2018

Garden plot has moved me away from the good NaNoWriMo group at Waves Coffee downtown to a place near garden… Black Sheep Coffee. Nice spot and I’m typing outside now, watching trees across the street and hearing loads of Dunbar Street traffic.

But I saw that I have at least one 2-leafed plant coming up in my 4 beds. It’s progress.

I was reminded that you need to keep working at something to succeed this week, by the garden. You plant and tend for a long time before you harvest. There is a Japanese saying, I’m told that expresses how art is attained:

“Learn, master then transcend.”

April 14, 2018

Got this blog Google verified tonight. Not that hard to do. Working on writing a lot lately even though the day job is being stubbornly time consuming. I don’t mind 40 hours a week, but 60 recalls the bad old days of film & TV…

Accomplishments this week

  • Finished first draft of a new story and sent it to my beta reader.
  • Found out about another Polar Borealis upcoming poem publication.
  • Got a very nice rejection from Strange Horizons.
  • Sent out my On Spec and Tesseracts 22 submissions. These are important Canadian publications to be in and I hope I make it in!
  • Sent out another short story that is a hard one to get published. Unlike a lot of authors, I find my comic stories easier to sell than the more tragic ones.
  • Getting my own garden plot and going to first meeting about it.
  • Planted some more early flowers on balcony. I have a few 2 leaf plants now from last week’s early attempt. The petunias didn’t come up but the mixed hardy wildflowers had a few sprout!
  • Hyacinths almost done but were great! Street is full of cherry blossoms!
  • Enjoyed an hour at Southlands Nursery and bought way too much for a balcony and a small garden plot.
  • Emailed Garden Manager to see if I can have another plot.