A writer’s dues are measured in submissions, rejections and sales
(c) 2010, D Kai Wilson-Viola
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
I haven’t read much lately, that isn’t blog stuff – I might see what I’m reading by bookmarking it in Del.icio.us, but that involves a lifestream somewhere….woo.
I’m currently listening to Chasm City (at night, cause my iPhone isn’t playing nice with any of the libraries at the moment – or more accurately, my laptop is off on repairs, and the laptop I’ve borrowed isn’t comfortable talking to Lexicon, our NSD. So it’s only ever at night, when we’re falling asleep – but Chasm City, by Alistair Reynolds is about my favorite sci fi book of all time.
I’m also currently (slowly) playing my way through Beatles Rockband – which, I’m really annoyed about too – gorgeous backgrounds which you cannot watch unless you’re singing (and know the song backwards). Maybe it’s just me but if I get distracted by the video I’m just blown away.
Music wise, I’m on angry rock and borderline punk – Foo Fighters (Pretender – from Patience, Echos and Grace), Placebo’s cover of Running up that Hill (because I’ve been really -REALLY let down by people I thought I could rely on lately), Good Charlotte’s ‘The River’. Pluss some Gorillaz, My Sharona, Tribute (Tenacious D), and some other tracks via Rockband.
And finally, I started making a scarf this week – because I think I really need to take time out to just be me – and away from my writing. So I’m making a pattern called ‘Tudor Grace‘ with some of my 2 ply lace wool that I picked up at the Ravelry event in Coventry at the beginning of last Summer. Photos will follow.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
(this is the introduction post to the whole category, so this should give you a bit of background on when, why and how I fit stuff in).
I’m not a big tv or movie watcher – I don’t know if it’s simply because I get bored very easily, or I can’t leave my phone/PDA/laptop/paper/partner/knitting alone long enough to watch much – but I do have a couple of things I really enjoy, and have recently discovered the joys of TV on demand, with Virgin Media (our new ISP/TV and phone provider). So I thought I’d record what I’m listening to (music and audio books from Audible), watching, singing (I’ll explain that one in a minute), what I’m reading for Uni, for my own further education and for pleasure, and what I’m making (knitting, sewing, crochet)
Signing is about the only one most people don’t seem to record, as in write down, but I’ve really gotten into Rockband (1 and Beatles, plus DLC) lately, so I thought I’d give a rundown of any stand out tracks. I also indulge in Singstar about once a month. So this is it 😉
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
I’ve got these deadlines in my calendar for writing short stories, based on the duotrope theme calendar. But my main problem is I have to do three or four of em in a month, or at least attempt an idea at them – I could postpone submitting till March and roll up to it slowly, but it’s easier, in most cases, for me simply to jump in both feet.
So I designed a deceptively simple cover sheet for my projects – it’s got space to track the idea, or outline, the title, the link, notes, and each draft status. You can print it or simply open it and update it once a month, and is also a handy dandy cover sheet for any contracts you may need to later file.
You can download, modify and mess with the file from deadline planning – let me know if you get any use out of it?
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Image by Voyageur Solitaire-mladjenovic_n via Flickr
I’ve been spending the last week or so trying to work out where I’m going to with my career – it’s easy, I guess for people to say that they have goals, but when you’ve drifted in a no mans land between goalless and unable to fulfil goals because everything else (and I mean *everything* – we’re talking things as simple as being head injured and not being able to focus, down to giving up everything I held dear because my freinds and family needed me there and then, and walking away at *that* specific point would leave me unable to pursue it again.
I’ve put my career in statis so many times now, I’m suspecting it’s a bit like Farran’s heart – full of crystalised damage that I won’t see till I defrost it all.
I always consider the New Year as ‘the demon days, dog days’ of my work. Hard to explain beyond the basics of ‘these days suck worse than the rest of the year combined for most of my considerations.
In the last three years, I’ve responded to this by working harder, playing harder, destroying things because they held no meaning to my state of mind then, and working through nothing and everything. This year, I’m social network ‘hibernating’. I’m going back to my pre-online and offline friendship days and simply writing and staying at home. I’ve done the big red reset to where I was before I got a regular internet connection.
It’s going to take discipline, but hopefully it’ll force people to actually pay attention to what I’m doing instead of patinaing everything in a veeneer of ‘well done, look at you go,’ or ‘I don’t know how you do it’. How I do it is by resenting each second I’m away from writing, and right now, I resent my whole, entire life. I never write any more – barely get the coding I’ve agreed to done. My life is one big mess and to fix it, I need not to spend every waking minute watching facebook, and twitter. I need my disconnect. So I’m taking it.
Laters – blog posts will continue on regular schedule, but I won’t be interacting as much elsewhere.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
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