Issue #9

Hey there. This is UNUSUAL FICTIONS, a newsletter from Jess Nickelsen.

Greetings from nearly-December! Here in NZ we're getting tantalisingly close to summer. It's amazing how a bit more light in the mornings, and the odd sunny day, does so much to lift the spirits. That said, we’re currently in the middle of a polar blast coming up from the south, which means despite the sunshine it’s still woolly sweaters and socks in bed territory round here.

We all got our flu jabs this year, but that didn't stop everyone from getting Covid (ha ha). Weirdly my daughter caught it back in July, and didn't pass it on. Then I caught it in early August. While it was a much easier "go" of it this time around it still felt like it took a little while to get back to a normal pace. I'm back at karate but I haven't quite got back to running. We’re building up to grading in early December, and with some sweat and effort Leila and I will be sporting green belts soon!

new cool things

• my writing website has had a complete revamp! I wanted a better way to showcase what I’ve been working on and to display each title as a separate entity. It’s not 100% finished but “done enough” seems to be my mantra these days.
• work proceeds on our writing group anthology, which we are tentatively calling Five By Five As well as consisting of five (longish) short stories by five people, we’re also writing in five different genres, from a prompt to include five different things in our stories: the feeling of water, the chariot tarot card, a bird, a mis-delivered package, and a guilty pleasure. Here’s the tentative cover (Incongruous Gongs is the name of our group):

• I’m (still) making some forward progress with my novella, “Trash Planet.” There’s been a lot of notes and figuring on this one, worldbuilding and dreaming, scribbling and backtracking. I’ve probably written close to 20,000 words so far, all circling around, looking for the kernel. It’s been a very weird process, starting from setting and building a story outward from there. Usually I work the other way around, and while I admit this hasn’t exactly been the most efficient process, I feel like we’re getting close now.

reading

I’ve been reading a lot this year! A lot of gothic romance (VE Schwab, Sharon Shinn, Juliet Marillier and Patricia McKillip) but also a few odd-bod literary novels, such as Isaac Fellman’s Dead Collections (which I loved the start of but felt as though it lost steam a bit towards the end), Hawthorne + Child by Keith Ridgway (bewildering but cool), and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (nostalgic and wonderful).

Right now I’m reading Holly Black’s Book of Night which so far is pretty good. Truth be told I have bounced off Holly Black in the past (I’m not really into books about fae, and urban fantasy isn't a favourite either) and while this one isn’t really me I’m still finding it a good read.

As well as all of the above, I’ve picked up some interesting books on writing:

• Million Dollar Outlines - David Garland
• Techniques of the Selling Writer - Dwight Swain
• The Fantasy Fiction Formula - Deborah Chester
• Novelist as Vocation - Haruki Murakami
• This Year You Write Your Novel - Walter Mosely

(Like a lot of people I have a fairly large collection of books about writing; not all make the best-of-the-best list but I think writers live in hope that one day we'll find that perfect guide by someone who can take us by the hand and lead the way. Or maybe that's just me!)

And in the next-up list I’ve got:

• Bluets, by Maggie Nelson
• Non-things, Hyperculture and The Scent of Time by Byung-Chul Han
• Three Story Method by J Thorn
• Verbalize by Damon Suede
• and 20,000 Bloody Words by my friend Denver Grenell (check him out if you enjoy horror!)

links

Things I’ve enjoyed online lately:

• ​Polygamy, Human Sacrifices, and Steel – Why the Aztecs Were Awesome
• ​The Life of Tove Jansson (Youtube)
• John Wiswell’s “Bad Doors”
• ​Megan Whalen Turner’s Tumblr
• ​Thibaud Hérem’s plants and buildings
• ​This recipe for banana and sesame loaf with tahini buttercream
• ​Freedom, for keeping me focused :)

the blog

Postings since the last newsletter:

• 31 May: Great Grand Gestures Wanted​
• 11 June: What’s Going On​
• 2 July: Covid, again​
• 12 July: AI and the rest of it all​
• 11 August: Sick Day​
• 12 August: Site Changes​
• 18 August: Friday Night​
• 18 October: Making Comics and 100 Day Writing Challenge​
• 15 November: Some website updates and new short story​

the books

As always, if you’re interested in further supporting my writing you can find my wee books either in my ko-fi store or via my Amazon Author page.

Anyhoo, thanks again for subscribing! I’d love to hear from you about anything. Just hit reply, or email hello@jessicanickelsen.com.

Until next time,

Jess

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