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Sasha A. Linderson's Blog, page 2
June 20, 2022
Tiny Boss, Big Demands
Has it really been a month? That’s what I find myself thinking as I sit down to write this post. A lot of things happen in the life of a newborn in a month. And since my days are dictated by this tiny little being, a lot of things have happened for me, too. I’ve found that as Julia’s preterm sleepiness has faded, it has once again become a little trickier to find snatches of time. Every nap (particularly ones where I manage to put her down in the bassinet) bec...
June 7, 2022
Time Reveals All
I’ve started editing again. Not because it was a job at the top of my list, but because my current historical fiction chapter has driven me crazy. Crazy!
When we last set down the third book in our Black Skies Series, Darkness, Set Us Free, I thought that there wasn’t too much more editing to go. Perhaps tweaking those problem chapters again (I’m looking at you, Chapter 7). Maybe give it a general polish, a good once over.
From where I sat, it was in pretty good shape.
But then, we got ...
May 23, 2022
Time Warp
My calendar tells me it’s my turn to blog again. And though I missed one (or two?) blogs I decided I better not let this one fall through, even if I get it to you all a day or two later than usual. Yes, I have a pretty good excuse (surgery and a newborn is no joke!) but I am slowly coming out of a time warp and taking interest in things around me, including writing again.
Well, to be more precise, editing. I am slowly working through the kinks in The Price of Pandemonium and ...
May 9, 2022
Adrift in Indecision
I should have been more productive this month. I really should have.
I’m finally entirely over the bout of Covid I had a few weeks ago. I took a mini holiday to the South Island to see a couple of my long-time friends get married in a gorgeous ceremony, and to visit some other friends who moved away during one of the many Covid lockdowns. It was restful, and one of those holidays where I managed to forget about the chaos of my life and relax.
I came back home with renewed energy. A clea...
April 11, 2022
Trying New Things
This month, Sarah and I ventured outside our comfort zone—we entered a writing competition. The two of us barely have enough time to work on our novels, let alone work on something new for the sole purpose of submitting to a competition. I had never looked particularly hard at what competitions were on offer. And, for some reason, using our current WIP as a competition entry didn’t cross our minds.
It’s not that we haven’t tried our hand at competitions in the past. We’ve dabbled in a c...
March 28, 2022
Fortress of Solitude
Writing is actually happening for the first time in what feels like months. I’m writing at least five hundred words a day on my ‘writer’s retreat’ here in the hospital, but usually much more. This isn’t to say that these words are flowing with little effort.
Have you ever had a break from writing and picked it up again to feel that you are a tad bit rusty? I’ll admit that it’s been tricky to get my head back into a writing space. Not because of noise (it’s actually surprising...
March 14, 2022
Lessons from Others
I’ve talked a lot about the benefits of using beta readers and having critique partners for our work. They are an important part of our writing process and have helped us so much in our writing journey thus far. Most of what I have shared on this blog has been about how valuable their feedback and advice have been to make us better writers and improve our books.
I’ll take this space to thank my friends in the Secret Novel Writing Club for already critiquing the first fourteen chapters o...
February 28, 2022
An Unconventional Writing Retreat
Guess what? I’m going on a writing retreat.
At least, that’s what I’m calling my trip into hospital. A little unconventional maybe, but why can’t the hospital be a great writing retreat? I will have nothing to do, meals brought to me, no clean up required. Heck, I won’t even have to get out of bed unless I feel like it. Not to mention, considering the hospital is my usual place of work, it makes sense to me that I would use this upcoming time to do exactly t...
February 14, 2022
Distractions, Distractions, Distractions
This month has been a busy one, full of a myriad of events all vying for my attention. Some of them writing related, most of them not. I had to wake myself up out of the Christmas/New Year/holiday haze and get back to my busy life.
Despite the looming cloud of Covid-19 (again) in NZ, 2022 has been full on—somehow busier than 2021. This past month felt like one of those months where there wasn’t enough time in the day to squeeze everything in. Between starting my new job, taking on more ...
January 31, 2022
Finding The Way Forward
This month, I was mildly productive. I managed to put another Simon chapter behind me (thankfully, because Simon and I do not tend to gel very well). Cassie is a much easier character to summon: she knows what she wants, and she doesn’t hesitate the way Simon does. Because of this, her chapters seem to have a purpose that Simon’s chapters lack.
One of the hardest things to achieve on the page (or at least I think so) is toeing the line when it comes to a flaky character. In r...
