Suzanne Alyssa Andrew's Blog: The PROCESS blog, page 15

Upcoming events

Saturday, August 13: Green Girl opens for Werewolves, Beware!

Doors 9 p.m., Cameron House, Toronto

Sunday, September 11: Green Girl’s first headlining show

Doors 8:30 p.m., The Burdock, Toronto

Saturday, October 8: Washington, D.C. reading for Circle of Stones

Lana Pesch and I revive our Moving Circle tour, for one more literary event, this time stateside! 2 p.m. The Potter’s House Bookstore, Washington, D.C.

Monday, October 31: Green Girl Halloween Show

Details to follow

December: Taddle Creek Magazine winter issue launch

Details to follow

In the studio

My band, Green Girl, managed to record a few cool demos this spring in an ice cold converted garage studio, and then chose to head back this summer during an extreme heat wave to work on songs for our indie EP. Can’t wait to share the hot and sweaty energy we captured! The EP, tentatively titled “Wilde,” is scheduled for release mid-September. Stay tuned! 

Here I am recording the back-up vocals. 

(Not so) secret rockstar dreams

I’ve been wanting to write about music for a long time, but somewhere in the research, I picked up a bass, learned to play it, joined another band, and then another, learned to sing, learned to write songs. 

During the hectic months around the launch of my novel and book tour last year my band went on hiatus. The hiatus became permanent and I was surprised how deeply I missed the energy and creative verve that comes with being part of a band. Practicing on my own wasn’t the same. 

At the beginning of this year I had the opportunity to join a new band, Green Girl, and it’s proving to be a fun project I’m really excited about. We play lullaby punk and I’m on bass and back-up vocals. 

Here I am in May, playing our first show, almost a year to the day I launched my first novel. We’re now working on a five-song indie EP set for release in fall, 2016. Rock on.

See you at the Canadian Writers’ Summit!

I’m pleased to be part of a terrific panel at the Canadian Writers’ Summit on a thought-provoking topic:

Achieving Your Dream: The Shadow Side

Friday, June 17 at 10:00 a.m.

With Sarah Henstra, Maria Meindl, Heidi Reimer and Carrie Snyder. 

We’re all familiar with aspects of the writing life that involve emotional struggle: the years of work with little to show for it, the anxiety of submission, and the repeated rejections. But what happens when you finally succeed at your goal, and instead of the elation and accomplishment you anticipated, you find yourself blindsided by a darker response? Writers open up about the depression, anxiety, fear, and loss that have accompanied their successes, and discuss how to integrate and transcend these shadow sides of creative accomplishment.

Featured in the 2015 Pages Unbound Festival Highlights Reel

My talk at the 2015 Pages Unbound Festival made it to the highlights reel (after Guy Maddin, at 1:36). It was entitled, “What I did while my novel was on submission.” It was tons of fun to bring my bass to a literary talk!  

Pages UnBound 2015 Trailer from Marc Glassman on Vimeo.

Spring events!

Happy to tell you I’ll be making the following appearances this spring. Hope to see you there!

Authors for Indies 2016

With authors from all over Canada!

Saturday, April 30, 2 p.m. Book City Bloor West Village, Toronto

Pages Unbound Festival: BURST New Voices in Canadian Literature Panel

With Emily M. Keeler, Alison Lang, Mona Awad, Andrew F. Sullivan and Rebecca Rosenblum 

Friday, May 6, 7 p.m. at AGO’s Jackman Hall, Toronto

Canadian Writers’ Summit: Achieving Your Dream: The Shadow Side Panel

With Sarah Henstra, Maria Meindl, Heidi Reimer and Carrie Snyder

Friday, June 17, 10:00 a.m. Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

"When enough years go by, the corporeal qualities of an instrument become as familiar to its player..."

“When enough years go by, the corporeal qualities of an instrument become as familiar to its player as, I imagine, those of a long-standing lover. Knowing precisely how the weight of the oboe was distributed between my right thumb and left wrist, knowing, above all, that the weight would feel the same way every time, every day, for every year that I played, was a feeling akin to having ten years of knowledge about the curve of someone’s back.”

- Meghan Daum, My Misspent Youth

How does the truth look when your characters are disillusioned...

How does the truth look when your characters are disillusioned or fall out of love? Dark Circle Writing Prompts. A lo-fi, pen and ink series. Follow to join the circle #DarkCirclePrompts #dark#writingprompts #writing #writinglife#creativeprocess #ideas #horror#mystery #gothic #goth #penandink #ink #writersofinstagram #amwriting #SuzanneAlyssaAndrew #story #storytelling #CircleofStones #CircleofStonesNovel #plot #character #drama #narrative #narrativedesign #songwriting #shadow #disappointment #suspense #expectation

What’s your protagonist waiting for, hoping for, secretly...

What’s your protagonist waiting for, hoping for, secretly pining for? Expectation builds suspense. Dark Circle Writing Prompts. A lo-fi, pen and ink series. Follow to join the circle #DarkCirclePrompts #dark#writingprompts #writing #writinglife#creativeprocess #ideas #horror#mystery #gothic #goth #penandink #ink #writersofinstagram #amwriting #SuzanneAlyssaAndrew #story #storytelling #CircleofStones #CircleofStonesNovel #plot #character #drama #narrative #narrativedesign #songwriting #shadow #disappointment #suspense #expectation

Dreary realities can lead to little fissures in the armour and...

Dreary realities can lead to little fissures in the armour and build to bigger, more dramatic tensions. Dark Circle Writing Prompts. A lo-fi, pen and ink series. Follow to join the circle #DarkCirclePrompts #dark#writingprompts #writing #writinglife#creativeprocess #ideas #horror#mystery #gothic #goth #penandink #ink #writersofinstagram #amwriting #SuzanneAlyssaAndrew #story #storytelling #CircleofStones #CircleofStonesNovel #plot #character #drama #narrative #narrativedesign #songwriting #shadow #disappointment #reality #realism