Suzanne Alyssa Andrew's Blog: The PROCESS blog, page 8

Book a mentoring session with me

After 20 years as a writer and editor it’s time to start giving back. I’m now sharing what I’ve learned along the way. Writers and editors seeking advice and direction, book a session with me via Mentorly. To get a sense of what I can offer, read my guest blog post on burnout prevention!

Burnout prevention for artists, musicians and writers

New website coming soon

My website, designed by the super talented Dan Sobelev, is about to get a spruce up. This author site was innovative and excellent way back when we launched it six years ago, and certain design elements were well ahead of the curve. Yet it’s time to move the site to a newer platform, and the site is also due for some important content updates. Dan’s on board again to help shepherd the site through to relaunch. Stay tuned for more! 

A five-star review, out of the blue

It’s taking some time, but my e-book guide Sell Your Book: An Author’s Guide to Publicity and Promotion published by The Writers’ Union of Canada is gaining traction! It’s on the curriculum for a writing careers class at UBC Creative Writing, and merited five stars in this post by Debbie Okun-Hill about marketing and promotion resources. I’m so pleased this little book is proving helpful! I was happy to share what I learned trying to promote my first book. 

Latest articles!

Slowly getting caught up here, post move to Vancouver! New on my journalism portfolio site are my Q&A with author and poet Ian Williams, a link to Alison Lang’s awesome zine Music Men Ruined for me where I have a piece, my latest essay for The Walrus, and a Q&A with the editors of Refuse: CanLit in Ruins.

Read it all here!

Social Media, Online Accountability, and the Meaning of an Apology

I spent a great deal of time puzzling through this personal essay for The Walrus magazine, and learned a great deal in the process, about online and offline behaviour, apologies, accountability, power plays and when to know when you’re being played. 

Read the essay

Home for good

Big Life Change: My dear friends, it’s time for me to head home to the west coast for good. I’m moving into a sweet little Vancouver apartment in November after actively working to make this happen for five months. If you read my novel, you know this move was inevitable and predictable: the life path of my characters was a circle, and they returned home to the coast too. It was all foreshadowed! (If you want to know an author, read their work!)
This decision was sparked by a chain of events, both practical and magical that led to the question, “if I’m going to do this, when?” The answer that felt best to me was, “now.”
Many thanks to my Vancouver guides who graciously and patiently fielded a ton of questions and provided excellent advice, especially about the writing scene, work and apartment hunting. I owe you all a coffee.
To all my Toronto friends who I will miss dearly: leaving you breaks my heart but I want to stay in touch and I really mean it. Come visit, and I’ll be back to visit you. And anytime you want to chat, give me a call, text or we can Skype! It’s far in physical distance but not in spirit. Much love, xo.

Canada’s Walk of Fame

I spent my summer interviewing and profiling the 2018 Canada’s Walk of Fame inductees and honourees: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Dr. Joanne Liu, Col. Chris Hadfield, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Andrea Martin, Alessia Cara (honouree), Andy Kim, Jimmy Pattison and (posthumously) Leonard Cohen. It was an amazing opportunity, and in its own way, an education. I learned so much from these wonderful people, and they were all generous with their time for me. 

The publication is in production and will be available in fall.

Quill & Quire cover story: Aminder Dhaliwal

I really enjoyed interviewing Aminder Dhaliwal, author of the graphic novel Women World. My cover story appeared in the July/August issue of Quill & Quire with the headline, “How Aminder Dhaliwal found her voice through her deliciously satirical comic Woman World.” It’s now online in a slightly shortened form.

All of This is at LitBang!

Copies of All of This, my comic book with illustrator Jonathan Kociuba, are on sale at the LitBang! literary pop-up and festival in Toronto! There are lots of other great indie publications there to browse and buy, too, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

Visit the LitBang! page for a full run-down of all of the events and opening hours. The pop-up is located at Milk Glass gallery at Dundas and Dovercourt, and is hosted by Carousel Magazine and the The Feathertale review. (Photo below courtesy of Carousel Magazine.) 

Interview with Nyssa

I had the great pleasure of chatting with Toronto electro-glam musician, Nyssa, about her songwriting, going solo and singing the untold stories of women in rock. If you haven’t heard of her yet, give this a read. I think she could be a rising star. 

Read the interview in NOW magazine.