My wer-skunk short story “The Lady M” received a tentative acceptance for publication, pending edits, from a prestigious Cdn SFF magazine! I’m waiting for the contract to properly announce this with full details, but it’s made my month! I’m so pleased! This was the story that won a Finalist position in WOTF 2022 Q1.
So pleased to get a Coverfly accolade – Top 37% for LCPA the Pilot! It received very nice coverage from the TSL Free Screenplay competition this month which gave its own accolade! This is significant because this competition gets close to twelve thousand entries!
My story “New Tudors” published in Neo-opsis March 2022 is on the Eligibility List for the Auroras, the Canadian SFF awards. I’d be honoured if you’d consider nominating it so that it can make the final ballot! It only costs $10 to become a member and you can nominate in all categories. See https://www.csffa.ca/
You must be a Canadian citizen or resident to nominate. Do it this month! Then, if the story makes the final ballot, I’ll be asking for a vote! I’d love to win an Aurora award for short fiction!
Also, I have a poem eligible too – “Sweet Morning Fog” in May 2022 Polar Borealis #21
Free download of the magazine with the poem at www.polarborealis.ca, go to downloads area and select #21.
The story was originally published by Neo-Opsis as seen below.
Continue reading Aurora Awards Nomination SeasonAnniversary of Neo-Opsis Magazine’s publication of The New Tudors – coincidentally my calendar has a Hogarth picture of Henry VIII – though my story was a #spaceship based one.🎉💕 Thanks Karl and Stephanie Johanson.
Today I drove to the RiverRock near the airport for the One Dance Competition. Jessica had students competing. It reminded me that we are all competing for attention as writers and artists. Our work needs to gain attention and hold it – this is the trick that’s the hardest to accomplish. It’s also why, so far, AI creative writing is so bad, it relies on trophes and old pieces of writing, when in reality, we’re attempting to create something new.
So pleased to hear that Polar Borealis is publishing my poem “Fata Morgana” in Feb 2023, issue #24.
Photo by Nikhita Singhal on Unsplash
Thinking about annual goals is difficult for me. I hate setting wildly optimistic ones but later having to admit, that life and the day job got in the way of the creative writing.
Maybe the best thing for me in 2023 is to have a few key phrases to stand in for formal goals:
I think many writers put undue pressure on ourselves I regards to performance goals.. Every screenwriter thinks they should output more. Every novelist is in awe of someone who writes more novels per year than they do. I believe the key is still balance. Those who sacrifice quality of writing for quantity of words don’t keep their audiences. Balance is key, write as much as you can write well.
My between Christmas and New Year activity proceeds. The ‘knitting’ MOW that now takes place at Christmas is my first priority, but I’m also getting a few short stories out to SFF markets.
I spent this weekend downtown in Vancouver, did the holiday gathering from my day job, met friends for the Christmas Market and bought gifts, and went down to shop today. There’s a great holiday feel downtown at this time of year. The Bay had a Santa! There’s a huge Christmas tree in front of the Art Gallery. Lots of trees and lights. I decided to take some photos for a vision board for my Xmas movie idea. I’m combining my knitting idea called “Pull the Wool” with the format and settings of a holiday movie.
