Nicole Field's Blog, page 25

ldlapinskiwrites:My writing process, illustrated perfectly by...

ldlapinskiwrites:

My writing process, illustrated perfectly by The Bell Jar.

I’ve been whining and bemoaning that the downstairs...

I’ve been whining and bemoaning that the downstairs writing area I set up for myself last year, and hasn’t been even after I cleaned and extended the area to the top of our alcohol cabinet, which now boasts a shelf of my library book loans between agate bookends. 

 So, instead of writing today, I have set about clearing the desks up in my room, hoping that once I could see the actual desks again, one of them would speak out to me with a hint of bourgeoning creativity. 

 Also, as a side and added bonus, when I cleared my loans-from-other-people shelf, I realised that most of the ones there were new acquisitions of my own over the last year. With all this new space, I can totally borrow more books from friends again!!!

rainydayscoffeeandbooks:“Real life was something happening in...

rainydayscoffeeandbooks:

“Real life was something happening in her peripheral vision.”

― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

Writing Day

My god, I’m exhausted. I set out this morning with a very noble goal of editing 40,000 words between two documents (one mine, another a friend’s), plus a third person’s synopsis for a novel. 

It’s just after 3pm and I’m 8,000 words and a whole scene towards the end of my novel that needs to be rewritten short, but that just became tomorrow’s workload.

At the point where I exhausted myself to almost lying horizontally on the chair, I decided I was done writing today and retired to the couch. I just can’t anymore today. 

I swear I work harder every day from home than I’ve ever worked outside for a wage. 

edit: yeaahh I totally just went back and edited the last 8,000 words…

"I dream about the changelings again. In my dream, they re weak; they have been in the human world..."

“I dream about the changelings again. In my dream, they re weak; they have been in the human world for far too long. The woodsprite, the girl who looks like  forest, was once able to make trees grow and flowers bloom. She was in love with a boy she thought was human, but he was really a wolf in disguise. Now her leafy heart is broken and she is forgetting the language of the trees.

The mermaid, the girl who looks like the sea, used to be able to make the rain come, to call up water from the ground, to stop tears. But now her eyes are dried up and her throat is like a desert. The ghost boy, the boy who flickers like a silent-film reel, used to be able to fade in and out of sight, in and out of reality. He was able to slip seamlessly into stories, music, dreams. But now it’s his heart that feels like it is fading away. The fairy girl, the girl with wings growing out of her back, used to be able to fly. But now she is stuck to the ground, dancing in her silver Converse and wishing for the sky.”

- The Accident Season, by Moira Fowley-Doyle.

I’ve found so many new favourite authors already in the last...

  I’ve found so many new favourite authors already in the last six months, and Robin Talley is definitely up there. This book is just so important for so many reasons.
  Toni and Gretchen are high school sweethearts who both just happen to be girls. Well, kind of.
  The first meet on the day before Gretchen’s first day at a new school. Toni is in a tux. It’s love at first sight.
  Flash forward to the first year of university, and the first time these two have been separated for two years. Gretchen begins to make her first friends in that time that weren’t friends with Toni first, and Toni makes friends with the first transgendered people Toni has met.
  This novel does not follow in the normal patterns of a romance novel, and it would be a disappointing disservice to the story it’s telling if it got shoehorned that way.
  The beautiful novel that’s woven is about two incredibly real characters, one who has completely lost herself in the person she loves, and the other who never really knew where they fit.
  I had tears in my eyes through much of their struggles. Beautiful, happy and awe inspired tears! Robin Talley manages to capture the struggles of both main characters with equal deftness, and juggles a host of side character who equal seeming ease.
  I love everything about this book and it’s flawed, amazing characters. I’m just so happy to have lived in the same world with them for the past few weeks.

Introductory Post

queergirlcafe:

Hello everyone, I’m Nita, and welcome to Queer Girl Cafe! 

What is this, exactly? Glad you asked. Queer Girl Cafe is going to be a weekly column starting February 29, featuring stories, essays, and interviews by and about queer women. What I’m aiming for with this series is to create a space where queer girls can read and see themselves validated, a space where they can read stories from queer girls their age or older queer women who’ve been there, a place to discuss queer books or life in general. 

If you’ve followed me before, you know I have a lot of feelings about queer girls in YA, how we treat queer girls, and the values we place (or don’t place) on their stories. And it bothers me that so often, queer girl’s stories are seen as unimportant, or not marketable; that they make up a small percentage of YA stories because who wants to read about two girls in love? I’m frustrated, as well, with the lack of queer women in the writing world, the ways gatekeeping and other factors can contribute to that. I’m frustrated with the lack of older role models for queer girls, particularly queer girl writers.

So, that’s where this project comes in.

The first post goes live on February 29, and will continue each Monday after that. Please visit the FAQ if you have any questions, or @ me on Twitter @NitaTyndall. 

"You said to depend on youThen you were goneNow I’m relearningHow to breathe on my own"

“You said to depend on you

Then you were gone

Now I’m relearning

How to breathe on my own”

-

Insp. by Nerina Pallot’s Learning to Breathe lyrics while lying in my girl’s bed, thinking how if I’d heard that lyric six months ago it would have ruined me.

Now it makes me smile to think how far I’ve come.

Things I am going to have space to explore in this upcoming novel:

Queer life as separate to university “experimentation”Trans issues, specifically ftm
Lesbianism
Bullying
Family difficulties

Things I will not have space to explore in this novel:

Non-binary issues

This actually makes me unaccountably sad. Like, why can’t this book be a 200k word epic or ode to the amazing wonder that is …. life? 

On the other hand, why can’t I just be happy with the issues I am addressing with this one book?

"“No way!” Nance says. “Did he really?”It takes me a second to realize Nancy..."

““No way!” Nance says. “Did he really?”

It takes me a second to realize Nancy is talking about me.

“Yeah, and you should’ve seen it,” Derek says. “Toni opens his mouth once, and Shari’s all over him.”

Okay, now Derek’s doing it too.

No one’s ever called me by male pronouns before. 

It’s strange. Not necessarily bad. It’s…I don’t know what it is, actually.”

- What We Left Behind, by Robin Talley.