Category: Blog post

Another year gone, another Goodreads challenge completed! After blowing my goal of 50 books in 2021 out of the water, I set a loftier goal of 75 in 2022 and am so pleased to report that I crushed it with 93 books in 2022.

Between Libby and Apple Books on my phone, my trusty Kindle (also synced to my phone in case of reading emergency) and numerous books scattered throughout my house, I was never without something to read or listen to. That’s right, I very much count audiobooks as books, too, and is one of the main reasons I’m able to consume so much awesomeness. I had a few Audible credits, plus I embraced Chirp and Scribd for the first time this year (not to mention audiobooks are the bulk of what I use Libby for).

Screenshots in reverse chronological order. What did you read this year? I’d love to hear what you loved!

I nearly bookended the year with the two latest Michael Connelly Renee Ballard novels (started with The Dark Hours last January and finished Desert Star a couple weeks ago), which were definitely among my favourites. Other standouts were The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, The Change by Kirsten Miller and Simu Liu’s We Were Dreamers I also discovered a few new (to me) authors that I really loved, such as Jasmine Guillory, Blake Crouch and Karin Slaughter.

Scattered throughout the year were also a great number of books on writing craft and publishing (if only I managed to write as much as I read!). As such, I’m going to keep my goal at 75 for next year and aim for more writing. But within the books I read I’m going to keep my previous goals of more diverse, more indie, and maybe even explore some new subgenres that I’m curious about.

Happy reading!

Thanks for being here,

Alyssa

I certainly didn’t expect to put weeks of effort into the website only to launch it and forget it. But alas, dear reader, life has a nasty little habit of getting in the way. Fortunately, my “day job” has become a bit more manageable and I am finding myself somewhat back on track!

By way of a brief update: I failed. I failed at my very simple goal of submitting two short stories to their respective contests. I won’t say I didn’t have time, but rather that I didn’t prioritize my time accordingly. One story had copious amounts of effort put into it. I just kept getting inside my own head and changed things around too much instead of writing the damn thing. The good news is, the thousands of words I amassed are possibly on their way to becoming a great book idea (or even series).

The other story was a contemporary fiction piece that I’ve been noodling on for several years and had hoped to submit it to CBC’s annual short story contest. Even though there is still time before the deadline, I really think that at this point I need to stick it in the (proverbial) drawer and ignore it. I do not think the muse is in agreement with my idea. Or perhaps it’s like Elizabeth Gilbert describes and the idea is no longer mine (if so, best wishes to whoever may have found it and I hope to read it one day!).

At any rate, one good thing is that it is positively thrilling to have 4 subscribers to my mailing list! Okay, one is my own email as a test, one is my husband, and two are supportive colleagues. But still, it’s more than none! Yay!

This brings me to my next topic: goals. Come 2023, I plan to refine the process with formal goals laid out early in the year and revisited later in the year. A mini, personal performance review if you will (but with far less paperwork than at my actual job). For now, I shall start small and will note a few straightforward goals here and now for my own motivation and accountability.

End of 2022 Goals:

1. I will promote myself more on Twitter and Instagram
2. I will release my first newsletter before 2022 ends
3. I will launch The Science in Your Fiction podcast by January 2023
4. I will have a draft of my first novel-length work of fiction ready for an editor by mid-2023.
5. By this time next year I will have grown my subscribers at least tenfold in anticipation of releasing WEIRD WATERLOO with Mark Leslie Lefebvre.
6. I will publish WEIRD WATERLOO with Mark by October 2023.

Well, there we have it. Despite those goals, I am concerned that the year continues to wind its way towards the end. Between Halloween, a family vacation to Jamaica (thanks, mom!) and the inevitable holiday season, I can only imagine I’ll become even less productive. I hope to at least get some therapeutic writing done in the short term and that putting these goals in writing keeps me on track. If I don’t get any writing in during my two weeks of Christmas holidays I will be very frustrated and forced to blame the puzzles I swear I didn’t mean to buy myself. 

In the meantime, I will keep filling the creative well with as much input as I can justify, because I can’t have any output without it! Yes, that’s code for “I watch way too much TV despite knowing I should swap some of that for writing time.” If you are seeing this shortly after it comes out, then stay tuned because the next post will be on that very creative well that we all seem to talk about.

TTFN!

Alyssa

On New Year’s Day 2021 I took to Facebook in a rare moment of pride to share a list of the books I had read over the past year. You see, I have been tracking my reading fairly (not perfectly) consistently since 2016. While I had managed to capture every book in 2020, I didn’t feel compelled to share publicly. However, in 2021 I surpassed my reading goal so wonderfully that I thought what the heck! Let’s shout this from the rooftops and just maybe it will inspire someone else to pick up a book. Not to mention, my other half and I have a healthy little rivalry when it comes to the annual book count! I’ll keep it simple this time with sharing the post and images below.

And as for 2022? Well, at the time of writing, I’m on track with 48/75 books completed. Though I must admit my plan for Diana Gabaldon’s latest book failed (it’s in progress, it’s just so, so big that I need more vacation time to really work on it). In addition to setting a very high goal for 2022 I also am determined to read more widely across genres, more Canadian authors, more diverse authors, more indie, and across more platforms (oh hello, Scribd, I am happy to add you into the rotation).

My 2021 Facebook post as-is:

Happy New Year!

While I don’t like to post much these days, I want to share what for me was one of the best parts of 2021 – reading soooo many books! I set a goal of 50 books and surpassed that, finishing my 77th book around 11pm last night. I look forward to my target of 75 books in 2022, kicking it off with Diana Gabaldon’s “Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone”, and hopefully followed by the many books from wonderful Wordsworth Books, as well as several indie ebook titles, that I managed to accumulate in the past year.

It was so gratifying to read widely across genres from a diverse array of authors, and doing this over several platforms. Fun fact: I’m fortunate to call two authors of these books FB friends! While a fair number of the books I read were good old paperbacks/hardcovers, I also gave my Libby app (free app linked to my WPL account) a solid workout with many audiobooks, as well as many ebooks via Kindle and Apple Books, including several ebooks I purchased (or received in return for reviews) direct from indie authors.

Happy reading!

(slight edit just to note that the hard-to-see box set between Apples Never Fall and Circe is the wonderfully steamy Masquerade series by Valerie Francis).

Thanks for being here,

Alyssa

I had no idea what to expect with this event. Firstly, I kept calling it When Worlds Collide instead of Words. Why? I honestly could not tell you! Secondly, I was so excited by the well-stacked program that I knew there would be a lot of game time decisions on which sessions I’d actually attend. 

To start, I have to give credit to the ol’ day job for letting me use professional development time for this conference. Even though my business development job isn’t related to the writing and publishing industry, it was such an invigorating experience and I felt so refreshed (despite being attached to my computer all weekend). 

As I was building out my website and thinking about adding a blog component, I thought this was a great chance to compile my thoughts on all that I got out of this amazing weekend.

Day 1: 

• I splurged $20 on the master class by Edward Willett. I say splurge because for some reason I thought it was a 1-hour class. What a pleasant surprise when I realized it was a whole day! It was an incredible value. Not only did he describe his personal journey in a clear and relevant manner, but also he provided concrete examples (including screen shares) of a number of self publishing aspects. Ed also has a fantastic voice – no wonder he is an actor and opera singer too! I’m excited to add his Worldshapers podcast to my “to listen” list, and I’ve checked some of his fiction pieces out of my library. If you ever have the chance to listen to him speak or attend a class, I highly recommend it.

Day 2:

• There were several hours of amazing sessions and the hardest part was picking which of the half dozen each hour to attend (this would extend across the whole weekend). I focused my efforts on speculative fiction, sci-fi, and craft. I took a bunch of notes and mostly warmed myself up to the idea of being at an event like this.
  • In the interest of space I’ll call out one session each day that I found particularly impactful. Today’s was by Diana Cranstoun on Short Stories. It was presented as romantic short stories but the concepts were broadly applicable and oh-so-informative, with a helpful handout too! This is definitely an area I’m going to explore.
• I admit I did not listen to the festival keynotes live, knowing I could catch them later. Big shout out to Mark Leslie Lefebvre for sharing them on his podcast so I could catch up while out on a walk! Each of the speakers (Terry Brooks, Ed Willett, Susanna Kearsley and Hank Phillipi Ryan) gave uniquely inspiring talks, available to replay on YouTube. If I ever have the pleasure of meeting Terry Brooks I hope I can share that I got my first introduction to the fantasy genre when I randomly found a beat-up copy of one of his Shannara novels on the shelf of a cottage we rented when I was a kid. 

Day 3:

• I was on my computer from 11:00am to 9:30pm, which is much more than an average workday, but it absolutely flew by! I again focused on the speculative and sci-fi angle with a healthy dose of craft. I took oh so many notes and jotted down many ideas.
  • My most memorable session of this day was hard to pick, but if I had to, I’m going to go with the first of the day that I attended, with Jonas Saul. It was called “Self-Editing” but it ended up being so much more than the title suggests and was one of the most practical, informative sessions of the whole event. There is a reason he’s a huge success and we can all learn so much from him! 
• Aurora Awards! It was so exciting to learn we have these awards in Canada. The show was hosted by two amazing individuals who happen to live just down the road from me and was so inspiring to see the amazing Canadian talent across written and visual arts. I hope to attend in person one day!

Day 4:

• By this day I was starting to recognize many of the names at the festival: Valerie King, Susanna Kearsley, David Worsick, Nina Munteanu, Susan Forest, Ira Nayman, Stephen B. Pearl, Gary Girod and many, many more. My focus remained the same in terms of types of sessions. I continued to take copious notes and felt I was getting such value for my time.
  • My favourite session of this last day goes without saying: the Paranormal Discussion with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Sarah Kades Graham and Detective Dave Sweet. It was a fun session, but the real reason is that it reminded me how much fun it will be to get to work with Mark in the near future! 

Key takeaways:

1. The only way to become a writer is to write. I feel like a writer, but I also feel that I do not write nearly enough. This has changed as a direct result of my attending WWC 2022. I don’t have enough years in my life to possibly write all of the ideas I got just from this one weekend, but I’m going to get at it!
2. I need to read and write more short stories in service of point #1.
3. There seem to be many more “pantsers” (or discovery writers) than plotters like me – maybe I should try flying by the seat of my pants more often with my writing, but if one thing was consistent, it was a total lack of consistency in methods and even opinions. In the best way! It really is true that we need to do what works best for us.
4. Several of us agreed that an entire session would be required next year to discuss the merits of one Tom Bombadil. ‘Nuff said.
5. Randy McCharles and the whole team deserve an Andre the Giant-sized pat on the back for the incredible work putting on this festival. 
6. Though the event was free I should have budgeted for the sheer number of books I would be acquiring. And not just stories to read, but so many amazing craft and reference books were recommended! I gave equal workouts to my Kindle and my Libby app, as well as ordering several hard copies. If this keeps up I might need to reinforce my office floor and pick up a third job.
7. Zoom bombing is alive and well! Huge kudos to all the session moderators for keeping that at bay.

I can’t wait to join in person next year! Oh and since this is one of my first entries, it may not be obvious yet, but I love exclamation marks! I’m going to have to find a ruthless editor when the time comes.

Thank you for reading,

Alyssa

I could change the default title, but why mess with a good thing? Let’s be clear, I have no formal training in website creation, but I also want to keep things simple while I’m first starting out. As such, let me offer my obligatory Canadian apologies in advance for my rather basic site.

On to business. I am so excited to be branching out – officially – into the writing and (eventually) indie publishing world. I’ve been unofficially a part of this world since late 2018 when I first became more intentional with learning more about the craft of writing. I then discovered the wild and wonderful world of independent publishing via The Creative Penn podcast. Since then, I’ve come to know many other amazing players in this diverse field (special shout out to my neighbour, the incredible Mark Leslie Lefebvre and his Stark Reflections podcast) that I’m proud to now be among .

I recently participated in the 2022 edition of the When Words Collide convention and emerged with a new determination to put significantly more time and attention to this endeavour if I want to see any real movement.

I have a few short goals before the fall of 2022 really hits. Step 1: Write! And write and write and write. Step 2: get this website up (check!), and, in tandem, Step 3: keep making amazing connections in this industry.

Thank you for being here!

Alyssa