Ad Astra... All Of A Sudden!

Ad Astra, one of my favourite conventions, begins tomorrow. And I only found out yesterday.

Well, that's not entirely true. I am, after all, signed up for a table and four panels. I'd just lost track of time, and before I knew it here it is!

Lucky my wife Violet reminded me yesterday - I'd have hated to have found out Sunday evening!

Below are my panels and times. I will be selling copies of my novels (and probably a few toys) at my table the rest of the weekend. Hope to see lots of you there!


Saturday 10 am Ellsemere West - Changing Face of the
Paranormal in YA Fiction
Amanda Sun (m), Kelley Armstrong, Timothy Carter
Characters of diversity, worlds built on non-western mythologies, and stories influenced by anime, manga and gaming culture are combining to create a new face of Young Adult Fiction. This panel explores the face of fantasy and the paranormal in YA and how it is changing. How does it differ from the fantasy books we grew up with? You’ll have to join the conversation to find out.

Saturday 3 pm Ellsemere East - Demons, Werewolves, and
Necromancers
Douglas Smith (m), Jim Butcher, Timothy Carter, Andrew Pyper
There are new trends forming in the paranormal genre. Traditionally ‘evil’ characters are turned into heroes. Paranormal fiction is expanding and so is the demographic of people who read it. How do you keep these new ideas from becoming cliché? What works and what doesn’t? Attend this panel to plumb the depths – and shallows – of the unknowable.

Sunday 10 am Arctic - Bullying- TNG
Kari Maaren (m), Timothy Carter, Sgt. Pat Poitevin
As SF and fantasy nerds, we were probably bullied as kids. With the advent of cyber-bullying, how do we begin bully-proofing our own nerdy kids? Not to mention the more subtle bullying we’ve become subject to as adults. In this panel, conceive and discuss effective strategies for dealing with the Biff Tannens of this brave, new world.

Sunday 12 pm Berczy B - Fandom Mental Health Forum
adrienne everitt (m), Timothy Carter, Kate Daley
Fans come together to discuss their struggles with mental illness and how the deal with it, both within Fandom and in real life. We will provide resources for getting help, as well as some worksheets to take away. This panel focuses on creating a safe environment for people to share successes and failures in dealing with mental illness. This panel is a non-professional peer support initiative and is not intended to replace professional/medical advice.

My Revision Needs Revising

I'm really struggling to get on with editing and revising my work. I have four manuscripts on my hard drive, waiting for me to rewrite them from a cruddy first draft into a reasonable second, and then a ready-to-show-people third. I want to get on with it, I really do, but at times it can seem so very daunting.

My depression plays a part, of course. All tasks seem impossibly hard when I'm down, revisions included. I can't even crack my laptop open during those times, so editing is out of the question.

When I'm feeling better, though, it just seems like exactly what it is: a lot of work waiting to get done. That bothers me more than it used to. It would seem like I've got the deck stacked against me, or rather like I've stacked the deck against myself.

Having said that, I have managed to revise the first 100 pages of a project called Kids Who Know. Longtime readers of this blog will remember me describing this novel as the best book I'll ever write. I feel very strongly about this story (obviously), but perhaps I shouldn't have hyped it up so much in my mind. That's a lot to live up to. Will I ever produce a draft of this book that will meet such a lofty goal?

If I don't try, however, I'll never advance any further with my writing career. I've got one very important thing on my side - I want to succeed as a writer. Therefore, I must persevere. Bit by bit, I will.

New Business

I'm working on a new business plan for myself. My old novel-writing plan hasn't worked out, and it is well past time I swallowed that bitter pill.

The novels I've put out so far have all taken place in different worlds - stand-alones, in other words, with no recurring characters (even my demons have been different!). I really want to do a series, and my current project Zombie Jesus Day will play into that; it is set in the same universe as my last project, I'm So Goddamn Sick of Vampires. I have ideas for more stories in this universe, including an ongoing mythology, and I might even be able to work in a half-finished project from six years ago.

This new universe is where I feel I should be devoting my creative energy. That means I shouldn't be working on stories that aren't part of this new world, including followups to Evil and The Cupid War. I really want to finish I, Suicide, my Cupid War spinoff; a number of readers have asked me for Cupid War and Evil sequels. However, Evil and Epoch went out of print last year, and I fear The Cupid War will soon join them. Building upon those worlds simply isn't practical for me at this point.

I probably will finish I, Suicide, however. I'm invested in it, and it would be a shame to throw away all that material. It will remain a backup project, and will likely see publication as a self-published ebook. Not that my success rate with ebooks has been particularly high (anyone want to buy an e-copy of Closets? Please?).

Nevertheless, I do feel I should stop working on I, Suicide. I'm being all artist, and I need to be more businessman. On the other hand, I've learned never to stifle my muse. If it wants a story told, that's always been good enough for me. And who's to say I, Suicide won't be a big hit?

Nobody, that's who.

All I'm really saying is, I feel I need more focus, more discipline, and a fresh start in a new universe will get me a lot closer to that goal. That's the plan.

Let's see how it goes.

New Job, New Time

Tomorrow I start a new job for the same company I've been working for through Manpower for the last two-and-a-half months. I've been doing data entry for the WSIB up until now, but that work is drying up. Starting tomorrow, I'll be working in the mail centre, delivering stuff around the building and the neighbourhood.

And I'll be doing the 7:00AM - 3:00PM shift.

Yeah. Seven in the morning. I can do it - I've been getting downtown for 7:30 every morning for my 8:00AM start time. The thing is, I used that extra half an hour before work to write. I will lose that half-hour period from now on; I just don't have what it takes to get downtown any earlier. I'm pretty fantastic and awesome, but I'm not that fantastically awesome. I'm not even sure I'll have time to stop at Tim Horton's for tea (gasp!).

Fortunately, the mornings aren't my only writing times. I will still have my lunch hour, and more time after work to do my stuff. I'll miss that half-hour, though. I always feel better about my day when I've started it off with some solid creativity.

Typing Tribulations

My writing has hit a bit of a snag recently, and it's all my fault. I've written the first couple of chunks of my new novel, Zombie Jesus Day, and I'm very pleased with how it's going. I write everything by hand first, then I type it up at home on my Mac. That's the plan, but I often neglect the typing up part. Then I get increasingly anxious about losing my notebook, and with it the entirety of my story.

To ease that anxiety, I have twice decided to leave the ZJD notebook at home. In the evenings and on weekends I'll type that novel in, and work on another project during the day until the typing is finished and I can resume ZJD without fear.

Therein lies the snag - Finding another project to work on while I'm out and about, one that I'm equally passionate about. It's been problematic, hence my usage of the word snag. I have a Section K story that's halfway done, and I've been trying to get back into my Cupid War spinoff I, Suicide. I lost interest in the SK story, and I, Suicide just isn't doing it for me. I've managed to get a chapter and a half done, but that's not a whole heck of a lot (at least, I don't feel like it is). I might discuss my issues with that project in another post later.

In other words, I feel I haven't done nearly enough writing while ZJD was at home. I was extremely relieved to get back to it, and to find that the story came as easily as before. In fact, the writing went so well that I've once again reached a point where I have to type it up or risk losing it. It sits at home, waiting for me while I try once more to get into something else.

I really must get better at typing up my work. A little discipline would do me a power of good. Maybe that can be my New Year's resolution, if it's not too late in the year to make one.

It is?

Crap.

Well, I'll try and get better at it anyway.

I'm Feeling Indecisive

Sometimes when writing, you can get blocked or hung up on the simplest of things. I've just finished a scene in my current project, which would have been a chapter break except this story isn't going to have chapters. It will have sections, but not chapters. That decision gave me no trouble at all.

But I've finished this scene, right? And it's time to leap into another character's POV and start a new scene. Except I'm stuck; I can't decide which character to go with! Or what the next scene needs to be.

I hope I sort this out soon. I hate staring at a blank page while the minutes go by. Grumble, mutter, mutter grumble...

I've Been Avoiding You

All of you. I've been neglecting this blog, stuck for something to say, and afraid to say anything.

It seems like such an effort, some times.

I'd meant to do some New Year's stuff, maybe a list of humourous resolutions. I've been drafting a couple of posts about my current plans and projects, but not finishing them. I've even been ignoring Biblical Proportions, and I have so much more to do there!

Some of the fun is gone. One of the main reasons I got into blogging was to draw attention to my books. Now three of them are out of print, and one of them I can't even give away, no matter how hard or how many times I plug it. The Cupid War remains on bookshelves, but for how long?

I try to be positive, but the whole situation is kind of bumming me out. And writing mojo doesn't flow easily when one is bummed.

All is certainly not lost, however. My current novel project continues at a decent pace. I'll have some more posts up before too long. And, I've started writing for Toronto.com! Check this one out!

Time to climb back out of the pit of depression with the frayed string of my hopes and dreams.