I Do This Every Year

Why do I do this every year? I know it’s coming. I anticipate it. I dread it. And yet, I still do it.

I’m referring to my complete disregard for my lack of writing productivity from mid-June to mid-September. I’m not a summer person in the slightest. The noise, the traffic, the heat — all those hallmarks of summer are brain-killers for me. I should know by now not to mess with this, to just sit back and chill out, but I’ve only ever half-learned my lesson. When I was writing for a publisher who gave me deadlines that crossed into summer, I’d bust my ass to get them out of the way by mid-June. “Fantastic! You’re so prompt!” the editor would say, and I’d keep it to myself that I had barely slept in an effort to make my deadline.

I’m not under contract for anything right now. My book is in a potential publisher’s TBR pile, and even if she came back tomorrow to tell me she was publishing my book and I needed to start working on it right away it wouldn’t be so bad, because editing isn’t writing. Editing requires me to be critical instead of creative.

I had hoped this year would be different. I have a nifty new writing space begging to be used. I made a to-do list of manageable bites. “Bring it on!” I said to myself, and then proceeded to hurl myself into that dark pit of failure. I crawl out, I play some video games, and then I go for another leap.

This is different from my failed attempt at writing a historical novel in 30 days. At least I wrote something that week. This is just a soul-sucker.

There are countless articles, books, and admonishing tweets about needing to make the time to write, how you can do it on top of a flaming pile of garbage if you were really serious. I’ll give an inch, a lot of writer’s block is just procrastination, but at the same time I challenge those people to listen to my DIY-loving neighbour drive his riding lawnmower up and down his lengthy driveway for three and a half hours while his four-year old screams in the background.

July 20th and I’m throwing in the towel. I’m going to read books and play video games for the next six weeks. I’ll end up doing it anyway, but at least this way I won’t have the crushing defeat of summer on my shoulders.

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On Fire – Available Now

I honestly can’t remember the last Cleis anthology I was a part of. I think it may have been Love, Lust and Zombies, edited by Mitzi Szereto (my story in this is easily my favourite, by the way, so check it out.)

Today marks the release of the latest, this time from the desk of Rachel Kramer Bussel. On Fire features my story A Place As Beautiful As This as well as a roster that includes some of my favourite authors — Giselle Renarde, Tamsin Flowers, Jade A. Waters and Victoria Blisse to name a few. If you’re a fan of erotic romance, add this to your TBR.

Rachel has all the links posted at the book’s Tumblr. If you’re on Netgalley, you can request it there in exchange for an impartial review.

You can also check out my other stories by heading over to I Write Smutty Things, where you can find links to free reads at Tablo and also to my Amazon page. I’ve been in a lot of great anthologies put together by some fabulous editors, and many of those stories are now up at Tablo to read for free.

Tourist

Just coming off vacation, and if you’re not following me on Twitter or Instagram, here’s a little bit of what I got to see when I was off. I didn’t go far (I never do when on vacation) but I managed to knock a few Must See and Must Do things off my list.

First up was my annual June cottage stay on Prince Edward Island. I booked right in Cavendish this time and I only moved my car once the entire time I was there. If I wanted to buy something, I walked (it helped that I was a 2 minute walk to stores.) If I wanted to see something, I walked. Green Gables was a bit of a distance in the hot sun, and I have the burn to prove it, but I made it there after they’d closed up and all was quiet so I could take a bit of a walk on the grounds.

It was a nice little getaway, and I broke my no-writing-on-vacation rule to get over a hump on one thing and also start something new.

Back in Nova Scotia, I had a couple of things I needed to see before the end of the week or else I’d never get off my ass and do it. First was the Collision in the Narrows exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. I’m not one for crowds at all, but I wanted to get a look at the 100th anniversary memorial quilt.  Totally worth the aggravation. Absolutely amazing job.

 

Another thing on the list — a WWI trench, which was set up inside a fortress. Talk about claustrophobic. Trying to squish by the other tourists, I couldn’t even imagine people living in there while on the front lines, or sleeping on hard chicken wire in a building that might collapse on your head? Eep.

 

I kept on breaking my no-writing rule and have a little something done. Well, a lot something, if you count what I did to my writing space. This room was initially supposed to be a laundry room, but after I changed my mind on the location I decided to make it into a computer room, and the computer room needed a fresh coat of paint.

The old colour was the same shade as a grey sky. This new colour is … well, just look at it. I had a minor panic when the hardware store guy popped the top and showed me the colour, but once I got it on the walls I was madly in love. It looks amazing. Having previously written wherever I could get peace and quiet, this is an excellent spot. I’ve got some wallpaper on the way for a wall that’s just not salvageable, a poster, and some neat little bookends. Definitely looking forward to the finished product.