This month, we have long journeys, short stories, and a lot of biryani…
What I’m writing
It is done and I did it: the first draft of Outpost Asia is officially finished!
After three years of drafting, this is a bittersweet success. I wrote the first draft of Binary Witness, my first Amy Lane novel, in one month for NaNoWriMo 2011. Ten years later, and my process is now 36x longer?
More accurately, I now have two young children and a more demanding day job. Gone are the days when I could knock out 2,000 words every night after work, or spend 4+ hours catching up on weekends.
Learning to accept the liminations on my writing time has been a hard road, one that led me to stop writing altogether for a time - if I didn’t have the opportunity to hammer out the ideas in my head, then what was the point?
Now I take my chances where I can, carving out time and working towards a sustainable work-writing-life balance. It is a work in progress, but at least I have plenty of experience of those.
Currently, I am:
Writing a criminal short story for Honno and Crime Cymru’s anthology of Welsh women crime writers
What I’m reading
I have been consuming science fiction short stories while trying to find a home for Wire Monkey.
Escape Pod is a SF short story podcast. I loved their range, from the fun The First Trebuchet on Mars to the contemplative The Mercy of Theseus.
Cossmass Infinities is a SFF short story magazine. Their cultural exploration is beautiful. I particularly enjoyed wrestling with the difficult Daughters of October.
What I’m eating
I have discovered a renewed enthusiasm for biryani, due to its delicious vegetables, plentiful rice, and the ability to bung it in the oven and forget about it.
From this quick butternut squash biryani to a rich pumpkin, spinach & coconut biryani, I honed my skills before taking on the almightly Dishoom jackfruit biryani.
Hungry for more?