Attending Dread Con Canada and Writing Plan Adjustments
Hello, readers!
We’re now in the second half of September, and I have been quite busy these past few weeks! From attending a book fair/convention to tons of editing. I’ll elaborate below.
What Am I Writing Lately?
While waiting for beta readers to finish reading through and giving comments on my magical girl-themed short story collection, “Stay Magical!", I edited/wrote draft 2 of “Immortalz,” my standalone LitRPG book.
I said back in my monthly writing blog post I was going to take the Fall/Autumn season to focus more on writing new short stories and poetry vs. working on larger novels. However, the inspiration for said shorter works hasn’t been coming to me lately. Given this, I felt that it was best to work on editing another, already-drafted larger piece and get that closer to completion rather than sit around and do nothing.
Midway through the past two weeks, my beta readers also completed reading and leaving comments for “Stay Magical!” Thanks, beta readers! The feedback was overall positive, so I’m glad that I’m on the right track with writing! Now I’ll be doing another round of edits for “Stay Magical” for the next while.
What Have I Done Other Than Writing Lately?
I attended Dread Con Canada, a new book fair/convention (it’s their first year!), back on Saturday, September 14th! I was not a vendor or a featured guest - I was simply attending like most normal attendees would.
This might be a surprise to some of you readers. I don’t usually read a lot of horror or dark fiction, and Dread Con is a book convention/fair specifically for horror or dark fiction enthusiasts. However…I thought I’d give it a shot. Why? Firstly, I wanted to see what other authors did at Dread Con. Secondly, I wanted to find new books to read.
There were many vendors to choose from, with the vast majority selling books (though this made sense given that it is, after all, a book convention). I ended up buying two books:
“The Grimmer” by Naben Ruthnum
“Moon Of The Crusted Snow” by Waubgeshig Rice
I look forward to reading these soon!
Also, big thanks to the Dread Con Canada organizers for organizing this event to begin with! I hope to see more Dread Con events in the future.
In the past few weeks, I also have:
Sought writing inspiration from reading various books and watching shows (both streaming and on cable)
Did some organizing of my own work to make sure everything is in order
Backed up my files. Always remember to back up your files!
What Have I Heard Lately?
I want to recommend a podcast this time, and this time it’s “Goals, Grit, And Some Woo Woo Sh*t” hosted by Oonagh Duncan.
As you can probably guess from the title: yes, there is some swearing throughout the episodes and that might not appeal to some listeners. But if you’re looking for someone to give you a motivational pep talk to go out and accomplish your goals, this might be the podcast for you!
Some episodes also focus on what’s happening in the health + wellness industry, since the host has a background in that area. However, I usually enjoy listening to the motivational/goal-setting episodes the most.
Episodes I recommend include:
What Have I Been Reading Lately?
I’ve been reading a wide variety of books. I tend to borrow books from the library - both in ebook and/or physical formats. However, I recently found out that many holds on my ebooks are all ready for me to get…on the same day that I borrowed 19-20 books from the physical library.
It’s far from the first time that I’ve had this happen to me, and I know that you can only predict how long it’ll take for a hold from the library to be ready. But this still leaves me with about 24-25 books to read during the next few weeks.
“Claris, what are you going to do!? Will you renew the ones you don’t’ get to reading within that time?”
Well, much of my past studies required tons of essays to write, and tons of readings as well. Given this, I learned to read very fast and summarize information quickly. This led to me reading books very quickly!
But, in the off-chance that I can’t finish all the books I read or don’t get to during that time - yes, I will renew them if possible. I borrowed them for a reason, after all.
One of the library e-books I borrowed was “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture” by Kyle Chayka. The author discusses how online and offline spaces alike are engineered for seamless consumption, and how they become a source of pervasive anxiety. Given that many of us are often attached to our phones, computers, and other devices (myself included!), this is really insightful read.
Other recent reads include:
“The Demonologist” by Andrew Pyper
“The Homecoming” by Andrew Pyper
“Azmina the Gold Glitter Dragon” by Maddy Mara
“Magic Of The Mirror” by Thea Stilton
“Change Anything” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).