Tiffani Angus's Blog, page 9

NaNoWriMo: Week 1

The last time I attempted NaNo was years ago--like, at least 5, I honestly can't remember--and I lasted about 3 days. I think I did it the year before and lasted..maybe 3 days. NaNo and I just didn't stick, didn't gel. We were the kids in the back seat of the car on a looooong road trip.

This year because I don't have the PhD hanging over my head I thought it would be a good time to try again. You know, good intentions. Like, I have all this free time, so let's fill it up with stressing out ab...

What I'm Reading Now

About two weeks ago I had a mini freak-out in my kitchen. A GOOD freak-out. I actually jumped up and down and squealed "I don't have to work on the PhD any more!"

This means that I can read. WHATEVER I WANT. Yes, you read that right: I get to wallow in books again.

So far this month I've read (In addition to a boat-load of short fiction and writing that's about writing I've assigned to my students):the latest in the Outlander Series (Diana Gabaldon's Written in My Own Heart's Blood), after taki...

So Just What Happens Next?

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

My paperwork from uni is official, and graduation in Tuesday. So there's that.
I'm teaching this term: an MA Short Story Workshop class and (as 'monitor') an MA Publishing class.

I'm writing: I have a handful of short stories to finish and start subbing. I've got one sitting with an editor who 'might' want it (waiting to hear back; it's gone up to the EiC). I might do NaNoWriMo to get the next novel under way. And I am subbing Threading.

But.

Yeah, there's alw...

The Doctor is In: Just What Happens in a Viva, Anyway?

The three soft-bound copies of my novel + critical thesis (all 140,000 words of it); these went to the two examiners and the viva chair. In the past week I had a milestone birthday, and I passed my viva and finished my PhD.It's been ... eventful.

Sitting a viva is nerve-wracking (ok, spellcheck has tagged that and wants it to be nerve-racking. Which just looks so wrong. I'm not putting my nerves in a rack, like spices or guns.)

ANYWAY. There is all of this advice out there on how to prep for a...

Advice to a New Teacher

A student I met a couple of months ago at my university sent me a message via facebook today and asked a question I never expected to answer:
I am going to be teaching for the first time at the uni this coming semester, do you have any advice for a so far non-experienced student lecturer?

This is the response I wrote. I didn't think too much about it; instead I just recalled my own experience as a new instructor:
Well, hmmm... Once upon a time a long time ago I walked into my first classroom as...

I'm a Guest at Nine Worlds GeekFest 2015

I'm a guest again at this year's Nine Worlds GeekFest down in London this weekend!

I'll be spending more time as an audience member rather than as a guest, however; I've got one panel this yea on the Creative Writing track called Collaborative Writing: How to write with others (and stay friends) at 11.45 on Saturday. That's cool, though, because I am looking forward to the con helping to "jump-start" my brain back into new-idea mode. (I have a bad habit of spacing out sometimes when in the aud...

Waiting...

A recent post was about Finishing Things. Once you finish, however--at least in the world of writing/publishing--then you have to wait.

Waiting isn't *fun*. Not at all.

I was originally scheduled to sit my viva on August 4. I was all set to do so. Ready to just be done with it all and move on. Ready to start my life all over again, in a way.

The universe had other plans. Because OF COURSE IT DID!

There is a piece of paperwork (I won't go into specific details, but suffice it to say that after my...

Mention of "World's Oldest Time Traveler": It's Not ALL Doom & Gloom!

The Heronies of Fantasy blog has a review up of Athena's Daughter's Vol 2 that includes a quick mention of my short story: "There's a reasonable balance of emotion too: some stories are bittersweet, others feel-good escapism and some offer a mirror to reality. There's no true despair: even the darkest tale--The Final Voyage of the World's Oldest Time Traveler (Tiffani Angus)--is leavened by a touch of hope."

Finishing Things

It’s damn hard to finish things, especially things that hold so very much weight and are completely up to you. Every time I start a new story (or novel) I hit that point when I just don’t want to finish it. I think I can’t finish it. I am absolutely, positively sure that it is shit and that I’m going to screw it up past any salvation. As if it is carved in stone and once messed up cannot be undone.

“Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than...

Updatery...The Countdown

1. Athena's Daughters Vol 2, which contains my most recent short story "The Final Voyage of the World's Oldest Time Traveler" is now available for ebook reading at that mega-book-and-everything-else-in-the-world-on-the-internet store here (US) and here (UK).

2. It is mid-June, which means summer, but I am still wearing a hoodie everywhere. Welcome to England!

3. I turn in my PhD in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! I have to have a final-ish draft of the 40,000-word dissertation to my first supervisor tomo...