Tiffani Angus's Blog, page 8

The Weekend that Was

So I survived Eastercon. Barely.

My panels went well (scroll down two posts ago for details). All three were scheduled to be in the small rooms--so small that they were dubbed 'the closets'. They each had about 20 seats for the audience, and by the second day people realised that to get a seat you had to show up for a panel as the previous panel was letting out, and then sit in the room for 30 minutes to hold the seat for the next panel. By the time a panel started, every inch of allowable spa...

Self-Pub: A New Frontier (for me, at least)

As someone who has taught Creative Writing at university level for many years, I'm used to being asked about self-publishing: how to do it, why to do it, how it works, if it's worth it, etc. But my answers were informed by the experiences of those writers I knew who had self-pubbed, and by the opinions that many of us writers had developed over the years of trying to break through traditional publishing *and* thinking of 'trad-pub' as the pinnacle. As a lecturer in publishing, I now have a di...

My Mancinucon (aka "Mancunicorn" aka Eastercon 2016) Schedule

I had hoped (ha!) to post here more often. I also had hopes to lose some weight, get more sleep, finish some new short stories, be further along on the new novel, sell the previous novel, grow taller.... That last one feels about as possible as the others because the others lately all feel impossible.

But this coming weekend I get a little bit of time off and am heading to Manchester for Eastercon and a weekend of seeing peeps, listening to smart folk, talking about books and movies and geeker...

2 To-Do Lists is Either 1 Too Many or 8 Too Few

The job has been non-stop for the past month. I have had, I think, 4 days off. As of today, because of behind-the-scenes reasons, I am now a full-time lecturer, rather than a .8. This means that I will now be paid for the Mondays that I work, which I worked anyway but that were my 'day off.' I spend a lot of time of email. A LOT. I also spend a lot of time in meetings. And organizing meetings. And tracking down information. And tracking down people. And answering questions from my students. A...

2 To-Do Lists is Either 1 Too Many of 8 Too Few

The job has been non-stop for the past month. I have had, I think, 4 days off. As of today, because of behind-the-scenes reasons, I am now a full-time lecturer, rather than a .8. This means that I will now be paid for the Mondays that I work, which I worked anyway but that were my 'day off.' I spend a lot of time of email. A LOT. I also spend a lot of time in meetings. And organizing meetings. And tracking down information. And tracking down people. And answering questions from my students. A...

In Which I am Gainfully Employed

I found out a few days before xmas but had to sit on the news until I signed the contract, which just happened last week. I am now officially a member of the faculty at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, as a Lecturer in Publishing (though I'll still teach creative writing, too, when needed)!

This means that I am now ALL THE BUSY! It also means that I can apply for a new visa and my uni will sponsor me, so no deportation later this year :)

The past two weeks have seen me write and field dozen...

Books on Writing: What Writers Need (the Nitty-Gritty)

As you may know (or, if you’re new, this will be news, so hold on to your seat!) I teach writing at the university level. What this means is that in addition to my students having to write creatively (that is, fiction), they also have to write academically, usually in the form of an analysis of their creative work. This requires them to go out into the world and see what other people—other writers and critics—have written about literature, about how it works.

As a creative writing lecturer ra...

2016: New Year, Same Old Me

I try not to make resolutions. They're like NaNo, and you all know how that turned out.
I mean, sure, I want to be healthier and happier and all of that crap. But those need to be habits, not resolutions.

For whatever reason, the past two years I stopped keeping track of the books I read (likely due to the PhD eating my brain). So this year I have (ahem) 'resolved' to keep track again. Let's start:

So far this year I have finished:
Diary of a Witchcraft Shop, by Trevor Jones and Liz Williams (full...

In Which NaNoWriMo was Just NO!WriMo

So I started NaNo pretty strong. Stronger than I ever have before. And then, about halfway through the month, one of my colleagues needed teaching cover, so I stepped in to teach two of her classes. And then she got sick and I've had to take over the classes until the end of the term. This also means more responsibilities for another class that she was helping to cover (because we lost a lecturer over the summer). So my one and a half classes have suddenly become nearly four.

Needless to say,...

NaNoWriMo Wee 2: Friday the 13th Edition

As of today I am officially 3,000 words behind target.
I've crapped out.
And I don't know how to get going again.

Rather than work on the new novel in order, I took the NaNo opportunity to just jump in and write the scenes I wanted to write. Chainsaw accident? Yay! Tornado? Why not! Burst appendix? By all means! A ... um. A ... huh. A what? I churned out 18,000 words in a little over a week and then NOTHING.

What a bummer.

So I've turned off Fb. Honestly, I was just getting sick of people. Everyon...