When Words Collide 2020

 This weekend isn't going to be what I wanted it to be. 

Why? This weekend I was supposed to be attending When Words Collide. I had a great solo panel I was going to give and I had signed up to be on two or three others. I was particularly excited because it was going to be the first solo panel I ever gave at one of these events. That panel has now been moved to next year when, hopefully, Covid-19 will be nothing more than a memory. 

As good as that thought is, it still doesn't quite make up for the fact that I was supposed to have all that this year. 

One of the new add pictures I created. What do you think of it?

That said, the people at When Words Collide haven't hung anyone up to dry. They have planned out a full weekend of fun and free panels available online. I am not going to be on any of them, but I am more than looking forward to hanging out with everybody at them as a spectator. 

I have looked over all of the panels and there are more than a few great ones. Most of mine this year are focussed on the business side of writing since my goal this year is to try and treat this more like a business than a hobby, but the ones focussed on writing look amazing as well. It makes me wish I could be in multiple places at once. 

So, if you're going to be hanging out online for WWC this weekend look around and you may just see me hovering somewhere. If so, come by and say hi! There will be digital hugs for everyone!

Here Again, Gone Again, Jiggity-Jig

I received my novel back from the editor! She loved the changes, said that I managed to fix 99% of her originals issues with it. I was able to fix those in under a day and have already returned them to her for a final grammar pass. So, this is it, guys. I'm waiting on payday to order my cover, but that is the last thing big thing that I need to do. I have been working on the back cover copy so as soon as we have the cash I can send in my request. Hopefully, it won't take too long and I'll be able to do a cover reveal in May.

I am stupidly excited about it.

I still have work to do for its release of course. Arranging cover reveals on other sites and blogs, putting the book up for pre-order on Amazon and the rest. Getting the novel up on Goodreads, ordering the print copies... all of that fun stuff.

It's going to be awesome.

In less stellar news, due to Corvid-19, our local government has finally put official restrictions in place for the summer. No groups of more than 15 may congregate for any event. This means that for the first time in literally over a century, we won't be able to celebrate the Calgary Stampede. It also means that our writer's convention most likely won't be going ahead. Or, at least, won't be going ahead as scheduled. We've been told to expect an email later today on how they expect to proceed. I'll keep you guys updated on what that means as well. I am disappointed though. I was so excited, finally knowing that I was going to be able to share a new novel with all of the readers there.

In a final bit of whimsy, I'll let you know that I started playing Black Desert Online this week as well. While I will never be a hardcore gamer, I thought I would let you guys know that I am finding horse wrangling most enjoyable in it. Here is my character riding her two horses. The brown one is Alenos (a tier 1 stallion, the lowest tier and my first catch) and the grey is Dapple (a tier 3 stallion).

I'll end this post off with the hope that you guys are all staying safe out there. And let me know if any of you are playing Black Desert. I'm still hanging out in Valia mastering my animal training skills... let me know if you play and what you think I need to go and see out in the big wide world if you do? 😊

My First Panel!

Its been a heck of a week. My headaches happen when the temperature/pressure can't decide where it wants to sit. That means that in summer and winter, I may have a bad migraine or a bad day, but in the other two seasons, I'll get weeks when I have headaches every day and migraines on worse days. This week was one of those. Still, I got my editing finished and will be jumping back into writing again, either tonight or tomorrow.

Despite having one of those weeks, head-wise, I had a great time though. The most interesting bit of news is that this year at WWC, I am going to be on at least one panel, which is awesome. I'm gunning for three, but I haven't heard on the other two yet. Part of the delay is that we're just not sure if it's still happening. But the most exciting news is that I am going to have a workshop all my own that I'll be giving on being an author/artist with aphantasia. The main difference between a workshop and a panel is that a workshop is just me giving the talk. It's going to be my first one so I'm stupidly excited and really hoping it still happens this year.

The only other bit of news I have is really no news. I haven't heard back from my editor yet. I'm not worried and I've been keeping myself busy trying to finish book 4. Don't worry if I don't get book 2 back immediately. As soon as I finish book 4, if two hasn't arrived, I'll be picking up book 3 to start editing it, so I still have tons of work to do.

And that's where I've been all week. Hopefully, I'll be able to report back that my headaches have disappeared with warmer climes next week and book 4 rough draft done, if not book 2 in my hot little hands. Either way, you'll be the first to know!

Post-Convention Post!

Hello!!!! I am so glad to be back! Not that I really went anywhere, but it feels like it. Last week was magical; a term I don’t use often, let me tell you. But it really was. I’ve been going to When Words Collide for years now… if I remember correctly this was my fifth year. Year two and three, I was on panels, but I didn’t have any books out. It meant that in addition to me occasionally feeling like I was unworthy of being up there with published authors, I also had to deal with looking at people earnestly excited to meet me and read my books and not have anything to give them. So finally being able to have my book to show at the panels and being able to direct people where it was selling was wonderful.

First, let’s talk about the panels. I was on four panels, as I mentioned last week. All four went wonderfully. I felt a little unworthy and fan-girly about being on the East vs West panel, which came through in a slight inability to pronounce Japanese/Mandarin words correctly. Other than that, I feel that I did really well, showing my knowledge, talking with the other panellists and discussing the topic. We took questions and everyone left excited to have listened to us.

The two about social awareness went really well, too. I was intelligent and able to discuss my positions easily and intelligently. Being on the panel with Adam Dreece was as fun as I thought it was going to be. He may have stole the show, but he still made sure that all of us got a chance to talk, to discuss our positions and that we got to have discussions across the board. My favourite panel was actually on the bad guys though. It was a wonderful panel with a lot of energy and a great crew with me. We talked about monologuing, about the different classifications of bad guys, what we liked seeing, what we didn’t like seeing, what annoyed us and what interesting things you could do with your bad guys. It was awesome.

I got to have dinner with Laura VanArendonk Baugh and Rhonda Parrish (you’ll remember that I was part of her Giftmas last December) and a few other people. We had great conversations about everything from the food we eat, to religious beliefs, to what panels we’d been on and what we’d been doing all weekend thus far. It was wonderful and the dinner was very tasty. I really enjoyed it.

At the signing, I left Laura and Rhonda and found a seat at a table with two wonderful writers. I was fully expecting to talk to two or three people who stopped off to see the other two at my table, maybe show them my book and tell them where they could pick it up later if they wanted, and that was it. Instead, I was lucky enough to sell most of my copies and talk to a whole lot of people. I got to catch up with a few people I hadn’t gotten to see yet that year and had four people ask for my autograph. I was over the moon!

My table mates were awesome as well. Amanda Witow had some of the best swag I’ve ever seen; book lights, tote bags, bookmarks, pens… she had something for everyone. She was nice enough to give me a pen and sign one of her tote bags for me. Nicole Bross was super friendly as well and had the coolest prop I’ve ever seen; a working purple typewriter; a Remington Portable #3 from 1929! Apparently, she collects them and fixes them up, which I think is pretty darn amazing. She said she has 20-30 already, which is just an incredibly awesome thing to collect!

This is the Remington #3 in orchid that I mentioned above. Isn't it gorgeous?
Picture attributed to Nicole Bross

And that was my weekend! If I have any regrets, its that I had no extra money and wasn’t able to come home with any extra books for myself to read. It means I’ll be looking forward to next year all the more. Were any of you at WWC? Let me know how your weekend went? What panels did you go to and what books did you come home with?

When Words Collide - Itinerary

You may have noticed that my post is up early this week! That is not a mistake, but very deliberate. I wanted to let you you know where I'll be officially at WWC and what I'll be talking about, so you can plan your weekend and hopefully attend a few of my panels as well.

Friday 9am - 12pm
Social Media and Online Marketing Your Book with instructor Kat Flannery
This class is one that of the masterclasses that I am attending. while I'm good at social media, my online marketing sucks, so saying I'm looking forward to this class is an understatement.

Friday 1pm - 2pm
I will be volunteering at the ARWA booth in the Merchant's Corner. Take a look on the map, in addition to my novel, Hunter's Gambit, I will also have some jewelry pieces for sale. We will also have the books of everyone else in ARWA there too; a very fine selection of romances, mysteries and other genres, if I do say so myself. I've included the map, highlighting in purple where the table is located in the hall.

Friday 6pm - 7pm
Volunteering at the ARWA booth again!

Saturday 10am - 11am
Awakening to Social Sensitivity 
Brandy Ackerley, Diane Terrana, Erin Weir, Jay Martin 
This panel looked really interesting and I had to get in on it. We'll be talking about writing about other genders, races, classes, cultures with honesty and sensitivity, along with tips of how to be inclusive without appropriating or creating token characters.

Saturday 11am - 12pm
Writing a Character Who Could Never Be You
Adam Dreece, Brandy Ackerley, Colleen Anderson, Halli Lilburn 
Similar to the last panel, this one will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of creating characters that differ from us, as well as discussing that question of 'is anyone off-limits?' I'm really looking forward to being on a panel with Adam Dreece as well. I've met him a few times and I've got to say, the guy has one hell of a personality.

Saturday 2pm - 3pm 
Villains, Antagonists and Other Baddies 
Arlene F. Marks, Brandy Ackerley, Kevin Weir, Susan Calder 
I love writing villains; those people that you want to hate, and that you have no sympathy for. However, I also know that while all stories need an antagonist, not all of them need a villain. Specifically, look at my novel, Hunter's Gambit. You'd be hard-pressed to find a villain in there, although it's rife with antagonists. Having been on both sides of the wheel, I figured I could really contribute to this discussion.

Saturday 8pm - 10pm
Autograph Session 
Me and 70+ other authors will be signing your books! This session is open to the public, so tell your friends.

Sunday 10am - 11pm
East and West: How Our Mindset Changes the Way We Tell Stories 
Calvin Jim, Brandy Ackerley, Jennie Bennett, Laura VanArendonk Baugh
This panel is my little baby this time around. I get to be on a panel with some of my fav people and talk about the differences between eastern and western storytelling. Need I say more to get you excited?

Now, I haven't specified exactly where I'll be in between these times, mainly because I don't know yet. I will try to update Instagram and/or Twitter as often as I can during the weekend to keep you guys updated though. Also, keep your eyes open for me while you're walking the halls. I am almost always willing to stop and chat in the hallway or before a panel, so stop by and say hi! 

Where I'll be during When Words Collide 2019

It all feels like its happening so fast, and yet too slowly. I admit fully that the feeling might be exacerbated by my seasonal allergies and the current air qualities where I live. The air outside my window is shades of orange and grey with grit and smoke due to the fires happening in the province. I only hope that they get them under control and that no more towns need to be evacuated because of the fires.

So what exactly is happening too soon and not soon enough? When Words Collide, of course! Taking place on August 9th, 10th and 11th, it has been confirmed that I will be on four different panels this year, three of which will be on Saturday, and the last happening on Sunday. Saturday begins at 10 A.M. with Awakening to Social Sensitivity with Diane Terrana, Erin Weir, and Jay Martin. Directly after that, at 11 A.M., I'll be running to Writing a Character who Could Never be you with Adam Dreece, Colleen Anderson and Halli Lilburn. I am extra excited to realize that I'll be on a panel with Adam Dreece. He steals the show on every panel he's on, so I'm going to have to up my game to keep up with him. I'm looking forward to it and I expect we'll end up having a really great conversation. Later that afternoon at 2 P.M., I'll be on Villains, Antagonists and Other Baddies with Arelene F. Marks, Kevin Weir and Susan Calder. 

I got to see Adam Dreece earlier today for the release of his new book, 5 Critical Things for Successful Book Signings. It was certainly a timely release for me. Hopefully, this will help me to be even more engaging at my signings. It's a great book so far, and if you're an author in need of help on how to think about your author platform or how to improve your signings, definitely pick it up. I'm about seven chapters in and loving it!

Continueing the madness will be Sunday morning with another 10 A.M. panel, East and West: How our Mindset Changes the Way We Tell Stories with Calvin Jim, Laura VanArendonk Baugh and Jennie Bennett. I've done a panel with Calvin Jim before and love the conversations he and I have had. While I haven't been on a panel with Laura VanArendonk Baugh yet, I can't wait to see her point of view on this topic. For our last panellist, when I was thinking of other authors who might have a very interesting view on this topic, I immediately thought of Jennie Bennett, who writes K-Pop romance novels. I still find the idea intriguing and I can't wait to see what she brings to the table. This is the panel I am most excited about. While some of that is because it was my suggestion, a lot of it is just the people I'll be sharing the desk with and I think the discussion will be intense, interesting and inspiring to everyone. 

The times have remained pretty stable, but I'll let you know if anything changes between now and WWC so you can plan your weekend accordingly. 

If you just can't wait till WWC to meet me, I'll remind you that you don't have to. My signing at Sunridge Chapters is a go for June 9th from 1-3 P.M.  Come down and ask me any questions you might have about Hunter's Gambit, take a picture together or ask me about book suggestions for your own to-be-read list. If you don't already have a copy of Hunter's Gambit, you can pick one up and get it signed, along with everything else you need to keep your summer reading list active.

Also, thank you for letting me play with this for one more week! I promise I'll get back to the Sian Ku religion next week!

An Update

My finger is doing much better, but I didn't want to push my healing by doing a long blog post, even if I am loving the religion posts I've been sharing with you all. Instead, I'm going to take a step back and talk about the future.

I'm going to keep writing. No big surprises there, but it should still be said. That obvious bit out of the way, I'm hoping that I'll be able to have the sequel to Hunter's Gambit, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, out for near the end of the year. I already have book three written and I'm hoping to have the rough draft for book four finished this November during Nanowrimo. That's really far ahead to be planning, which is why I'm not giving specific dates for anything yet.

I'm still working on my art, though less in a selling fashion and much more in fun fashion. Also, I may be extending some of my creativity into playing around with making jewelry. Mainly because I wanted to create a new necklace for myself, and when the pieces I ordered arrived, I got over thirty instead of the four or five pieces I thought I'd ordered. Weird, but I figure if the first ones work, I'll put them up for ordering. It can be relaxing to work with my hands on something like crafting or painting or cross-stitching to recharge myself for writing.

In much more interesting news, I'm sure you all remember my book signing happening early next month on June 9th. While I am amazingly excited to be having one, I have even more exciting news. This year I'll be at When Words Collide again!

When Words Collide is Calgary's premier author and book festival. In addition to three full days of panels and presentations put on by your favourite authors, there is also a full signing on Saturday night, a merchant gallery for you to purchase books (open throughout the event), meetups, parties, book launches, readings and more! This year I will be one of the presenters and Hunter's Gambit will be available in the merchant gallery. I will also be part of the signing for the first time ever.

The panels I'll be on are Awakening to Social Sensitivity, Writing a character who could never be me, Villains, Antagonists and other Baddies and East and West: How our mindset changes the way we tell stories.

This post is getting long, but I want to tell you how incredibly excited I am about being part of these panels. I actually suggested East and West, which is going to be an in-depth discussion of the differences in plotting and structure that are common in North America and Japan. If you've ever noticed that animes and light novels seem to move at a different pace and with different plot points, e.g., not following the three or five act structure, this is why.

I'll have more on the times I'll be presenting, what rooms I'll be in and bring descriptions of the other three in a later blog since the schedule is in no way finished yet.

Will you be coming to my signing? Or maybe to When Words Collide? Let me know in the comments below. 

Stats!

It has been way too long, but I finally have some stats for you.

The original title for this novel was just "Kuzunoha's Story", which changed just before last Nanowrimo to Kitsune-Ken. Kitsune-Ken, while an awesome name, didn't really apply to just this story, so it became my series name. Just last month, the final name I chose suggested itself... Hunter.

Kitsune-Ken (狐県) is the name of a Japanese game. It's basically a type of rock, paper, scissors game, where your choices are Hunter, Fox, and Village Head, though I always remember it better as Lord. The game is played by making hand symbols, like in rock, paper, scissors, but instead of just one hand, you use both hands. To make the sign for Hunter, you move your hands to mimic holding a rifle. To make the sign for Fox, you put both hands up above your head as if they were a fox's ears. To make the sign for Lord, you sit up straight and lay both hands on your legs. In the game, the hunter beats the fox with his gun, the fox beats the lord by tricking him and the lord beats the hunter by being of a higher social class. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is also a version of this where players lose an article of clothing each time they lose a round.

Hunter was originally 175 pages long when finished and was 76,224 words long. The current version is only 169 pages and 65,263 words long. The original chapters were much longer; I only had 34 of them (and one was nearly 15 pages). The current version has chapters much closer to each other in length; about 4 pages average and has 41 chapters.

The first 17k were written during Nanowrimo nearly two years ago. However, I admit that what I'd written was essentially trash and it sat around on my hard drive guilting me into doing something with it. At When Words Collide 2015, I started playing with it again and apparently had sudden realized what was supposed to happen. I worked on that first 17,000 words and applied essentially heavy cutting and editing techniques before nano and cut it down to nearly 10 of words that would need to be re-written, but would do as a starting place. During Nanowrimo, I wrote another 68,635. but somewhere between 1,000 and 4,000 of it was notes on characters, places or future storylines that didn't fit within the bounds of this novel.

Kuzunoha is the main character and she has the lion's share of the chapters at 21 out of 41. Richard is the next biggest character in the story with 13 chapters. Skylla has 3 and Jocelin and Himiko both have 2. This means for all of you that want a lot of female viewpoints in your books that about 2/3 of this novel is written from a female viewpoint!

And I think that's where I'll stop. Do you guys have any questions about it?

Convention

          Just as a quick update, I finished chapter 32 and 33 this weekend and figured out how much more editing I have left to do. There are ten more chapters to edit, two of which will simply be deleted wholesale when I get to them, and only 16,000 words to go. So, yes, I'm still on for having this done right around the beginning of September.
          But I'm sure that what you really want to hear about here is how the conference went. It was incredible. I was on the panels with some truly incredible people.
          First, was my panel on Dark Fantasy and Horror with Patricia Flewwelling, Colleen Anderson, and Nancy Kilpatrick. It started off on a bit of a low note, but after that we settled into an excellent discussion. We talked about what horror is, how it is important, why we write it, as well as answered questions from the audience about women presentation in darker fiction and what genre is.
          My second panel was with Nola Sarina, Jessica L. Jackson, and Lori Whyte talking about Sexuality and Sensuality. I think I was able to hold my own and we had a great conversation about sexuality in fiction, how to work it into your writing. I fully admit that the other people up there were way more brilliant than me though. Check out their work! If you're close by, you can also join the Alberta Romance Writers Association. You get two workshops monthly (except during the summer months) and its awesome.
          I was late for my final panel (I was too nervous and misread the room name) for Mythologies Around the World. My fellow presenters Calvin Jim, Angelica Dawson, J.Y.T. Kennedy, and Jodi McIssac were brilliant and more than kind about my gaff and the conversation we had about mythology, how to apply the myths to our writing and what singularities there were between myths around the world was riveting. All of my fellow presenters were intelligent, wise and interesting and I followed it by having one of the most interesting conversations of the day with Calvin Jim about Japanese legend and myth.
        So that was my incredible convention weekend. I got to talk to so many interesting people and made many new friends! Please come by next year and join me!

And The Realness Just Keeps Coming

I found out yesterday that if you look on the When Words Collide website, I'm at the top of the presenters (that aren't special guests) list. A nice colour picture of me, though I'll certainly have to get an actual official photo done eventually and it even has a link to my website. I was a bit flabbergasted when I first saw it. It still has a feeling of not-quite real when it happens, like I must be looking into an alternate universe, rather than my own. Realizing that it is my own is an even stranger sensation. There is a lot of power in those situations. I've heard it called the "moment of change", and some ascribe intense power to it. You only need to budge the stone of power to make it fluidity itself. It will always return to stone later, but for that instant, you can do anything.

I suppose it will all become old hat eventually and seeing websites mention me or have my picture up won't send me into a fluttering mess inside. In the meantime, its pretty darn amazing and I sincerely hope that it won't get old quickly. In the meantime, please jump over there and take a look!

I haven't heard back from When Words Collide yet about the other workshops I was hoping to take part in, but I'll let you know when I hear something. I can tell you that I will be presenting during the ARWA meeting in October with a few of the other girls there. Once again, I'll give you more information on that when I have it!

Also, I have decided that I do need a newsletter. It will be delivered monthly and much else besides that is still up in the air about it. I think I will have a mythology section, where I will talk about a specific story, mythological creature, or in some cases, historical person if the two overlap. I will have a section for where I am in my writing/editing and what I'm currently working on. Occasionally it will include a short story (most likely under 5k) on a variety of characters, some that will be in my books and some that may have stories to tell that I won't end up writing a full book about. 

I will point it out when it is up and ready to go at any rate. I'm hoping to have it up and the first one ready to go for the first of July, so keep your eyes peeled for it, eh? Let me know if there's anything else that you would specifically like to see in a monthly newsletter beyond what I've mentioned here (or what you don't want to see if any of this makes you not want to sign up at all). 

May I Present...

          Today it hit me. I am a writer and I have been one for years. But later this year, I will be a published writer. I will be able to officially say that I am an author when I introduce myself.

          It seems like it should be the smallest change in the world. Nothing more than a word, really, so how can that change anything? But lately, I've been doing things that have nothing to do with writing and everything to do with owning a small business. I'm reading up on self-publishing, looking into covers, making business cards, looking up how ISBN's work... I'm even going to be giving a presentation at When Words Collide this year.

          In real world terms, I can say that a month or two ago, I designed a symbol for my publishing company (you can see it below). I came up with a name. A few weeks ago, I ordered business cards and then looked more into registering a trade name. Today, I got that name registered. I was elated. 

          Coincidently, when I finished work I received an email. It was from When Words Collide. Originally, ARWA sent my presentation idea in, so I haven't a clue what was sent in and what wasn't. In this case, WWC was asking for my presenter information.

          All of sudden, looking over the information they were asking for, it was real, in ways that it hadn't been before. I was going to finish editing my novel, prepare a presentation, publish my novel and give a presentation as an author later this year.

          This is a silly thing. It's something that I've known for years, something that I've wanted to do for years. I don't know why it feels more real, it shouldn't. Yet, it does. It's going to be a few days before it really sinks in.

          At any rate, now that it is legal and registered, I can finally tell all of you...

          May I present, for the first time, Brandy Ackerley, soon-to-be-Author, publishing under the company, Inked Fox Press?