Tag: travel

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A Whole New Year

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2019 is almost over, but hey! I get a whole new year tomorrow, brand new and sparkling with promise. (At least, I think that shiny stuff is promise. It could just be glitter. Not gonna lie, there’s a lot of leftover Christmas glitter lying around. And pine needles. Especially pine needles!)

Before moving forward, here’s a quick look at 2019…

Writer things

  • The first draft of a fantasy novel written, which I then decided to rewrite completely; I’m now a third of the way through the rewrite.
  • Two short stories published in anthologies; another sold but only coming out in 2020.
  • Three interviews given (see my press page).
  • Two Cons as panelist and one doing a reading (Boskone in Boston, Worldcon in Dublin, and Eurocon in Belfast).
  • An international book launch! We released our collaborative women’s sci fi anthology DISTAFF during Eurocon in Belfast. There were cupcakes and robot chocolates…
  • Attended the New England SCBWI conference and the NESCBWI ENCORE event.
  • I passed on organization of our local SCBWI meet and greets but took on a new role as co-director of the 2020 and 2021 regional conferences! 
Our anthology
Boskone panel
Con badge and con nails

 

Fun stuffs

  • Favorite books this year include Holly Black’s fabulous Folk of the Air series, S.A. Chakraborty’s City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper, Maggie Stiefvater’s Scorpio Races, Peter McLean’s excellent Priest of Bones, and Matt Fraction’s run of Hawkeye graphic novels.
  • Some of the movies I loved were Captain Marvel and Charlie’s Angels. Shazam was a delightful surprise — lots of fun and one of the best found families I’ve seen in a while. The Rise of Skywalker was a good and satisfying conclusion to Star Wars. As for Endgame, no comment. I’m still in mourning!
  • TV shows! I finally caught up on the Netflix Marvel shows, and the last season of Daredevil was truly excellent. Derry Girls is fabulous and really good fun; thanks to my daughter for introducing it! We binged The Umbrella Academy as a family and thoroughly enjoyed it (great soundtrack). Other faves were Good Omens and Carnival Row, which I’m almost done with. And the CW end of year Arrowverse crossover has been a blast, with tons of fun cameos. Oh, if you like cooking shows, please go and watch Jon Favreau’s The Chef Show on Netflix! (I don’t even watch cooking shows and I love this one. I think my fave episodes so far have been Skywalker Ranch and the oyster farm…)

 

Personal bits and pieces

  • Our rescue pup Misty is now a year and a half, and tons of trouble but also absolutely adorable.
  • We went on a family trip to Washington DC in spring — my first time there. We arrived at peak cherry blossom time, beautiful!
  • Summer took me to Ireland for two weeks on my own to meet writing friends, attend a couple of conferences, and do a bit of sightseeing on the side.
  • We also had summer visits from my mum and my mother-in-law, always a good excuse to get out and do some local touristing.
  • I now have a child with a driver’s license… Scary stuff!!
  • We had a French exchange student come to stay for two weeks, a great experience for all of us.
  • I’ve joined a gym, am trying to eat more healthily, and am learning to do divination with crystals (a good meditation tool!) — investing in a bit of TLC for both body and soul.
Misty!
Northern Ireland
Washington DC

 

Coming in 2020

  • In February, I’ll be at the NYC SCBWI Winter Conference and at Boskone, checking in with both my kid lit friends and the SF/F community. In May it’ll be time for the NESCBWI regional conference, which I’m helping to organize this year!
  • The Not All Monsters anthology from Strangehouse Books arrives sometime in autumn, containing my short story The Sugar Cane Sea.
  • Writing, writing, writing. Goals for 2020! I have a short story I’m rather pleased with that I’m polishing up to submit soon. I plan to finish the rewrite of my fantasy novel and get it submission-ready. I also plan to finish revising the SF YA I wrote in 2018, and get back to my stalled draft of Star Blade. Busy, busy!

 

WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL 2020!

 

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Ireland Roundup: Part III (Titancon coach tour and Howth)

Click here for Part I — Worldcon.

Click here for Part II — Titancon. 

On Sunday August 25th, Jo gave me a ride into Belfast to meet up with the group leaving on the traditional Titancon coach tour. I’d had the Giant’s Causeway on my list of ‘places I really wanted to visit someday’ (we all have one, right?), and I booked the coach tour as soon as I found out it was on the itinerary for the day. So there we were, bright and early in the morning, three bus-loads of sci fi and fantasy fans ready to take in the Northern Irish countryside on a fabulous blue-sky day.

Our first stop was, as promised, the Giant’s Causeway itself. What a beautiful spot! It absolutely lived up to its reputation. The rock formations are amazing, and even crawling with tourists (and SF/F fans) it was a wonderful experience.

Northern Ireland

Next up was the picturesque Ballintoy, an absolute gem of a place. We parked precariously on top of the cliffs and walked down a steep and winding road flanked by wild roses and some of the largest rose hips I’ve ever seen, to a tiny jewel-toned harbor surrounded by sandy, rock-protected beaches. For fans of the show, Ballintoy featured in Game of Thrones as the harbor of Pyke, in the Iron Islands.

On our way back to Belfast, we stopped briefly to take photos of the ruins of Dunluce Castle, which served as the filming location for the seat of House Greyjoy. It was a thoroughly nice day out, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Unfortunately, it also marked the end of the Northern Irish portion of my trip. The next morning, it was time to say goodbye to Jo and her lovely family, and meet up with Pol for our trip back down south.

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I parted ways with Pol once we arrived in Dublin, and found my way to the small but comfortable Central Hotel, conveniently located right in the middle of things, just below the Temple Bar district. I was pretty worn out from travel and a busy few days, so I was content to have a short walk, buy myself a take-out dinner, and chill in my hotel room for the evening.

The next day, I set out for Howth, a nearby harbor town on the commuter line from Dublin. I’d heard great things of Howth, and it didn’t disappoint! The town itself is charming, and so is the harbor, where I even managed to catch sight of a couple of harbor seals! But what I’d really gone there for was the famous cliff walk…

Howth Harbor
The ruins of St. Mary’s

There are several different walks you can do in Howth. I chose the easiest, which is a 6km loop along the edge of the cliffs and back over the top to the town. The sun was shining, the day was warm, and the views were truly magnificent. To one side, the open sea. To the other, sweeping vistas of heather and gorse. Nothing to hear except the wind, birdcalls, and buzzing insects. Paradise.

I was pretty exhausted by the time my last day arrived, and to be honest I almost skipped the day trip to Howth. But I’m very, very glad I didn’t. It brought the perfect moment of peace and introspection to end my trip on a high note. I’ll always remember taking a break on a bench, surrounded by gorse bushes with the sea ahead of me, all alone, and just closing my eyes and breathing…

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A huge thanks to all the wonderful people I met on my trip, far too many to name. You were all lovely and made my time in Ireland and Northern Ireland special. I’m so happy I took a chance and did this, and I have a feeling that the memories will keep me going for a long, long time. To those who are thinking of doing something similar: go for it! I missed my family (and dog) like crazy, but it was worth it. So take a chance. You won’t regret it!

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Ireland Roundup: Part I (Worldcon)

From the moment Worldcon 2019 was confirmed for Dublin, I knew I wanted to go. Eurocon was taking place a week later, in Belfast, and this was the most golden of golden opportunities to get to meet some of my UK and Irish SF/F writing friends in person. I talked it over with my husband, and we decided I should take the plunge and buy the memberships to both cons.

Fast forward two years and there I was, landing in Dublin on a grey and drizzly Wednesday morning at oh-my-god-it’s-early o’clock for my first ever Worldcon. I had arranged to meet my friend Pol, who was sharing a rental house with me and a couple of others from the forum we all post on — the SFF.Chronicles.com. Pol was fresh off the ferry from England, also arriving at horrible o’clock in the morning, so we kicked off our adventure by spending the hours until we could check in by traipsing all around Dublin. Two museums and a multitude of other stops later, including Trinity College and the statue of Oscar Wilde, it was finally time to drag our exhausted and zombie-like selves to a taxi and head over to our home for the week.

Dublin doorway
Oscar Wilde
Death globe selfie at Trinity College

The rest of the day was spent settling in, getting to know my housemates in person, and popping over lightning quick to the event venue to get our registration done. Thursday morning was Day 1 of Worldcon, and the four of us — Pol Dee, Jo Zebedee, Shellie Horst, and myself — took a taxi in the morning, excited to get started. The first panel I caught that day was Invasion and the Irish Imagination (Jo Zebedee, Peader Ó Guilín, Ruth Frances Long, Ian McDonald, Jack Fennel), a lively and thought-provoking discussion. Perhaps my favorite moment was when Jo told us, “as writers, keep asking those questions, and asking them hard.”

Later, in Sports in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Neil Williamson, Chris M. Barkley, Rick Wiber, Fonda Lee), Fonda talked about sports as a microcosm of society, and suggested that “sports are a way to reflect and reinforce some of the social conflicts and divisions.” I was particularly interested in this panel, as I’m getting ready for another revision pass of the SF sports thriller that I wrote last year. Lots of great tips!

View of the Liffey…
…from the conference center

I managed to fit in two more panels that day, Found in Translation (Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Jean Bürlesk, Umiyuri Katsuyama, Andy Dudak), and ‘Celtic’ Fantasy and Mythology (Kerry Buchanan, Kathryn Sullivan, Kristina Perez, Deirdre Thornton, David Cartwright). I also connected with some of the other SFFChronicles members who were attending Worldcon, and a few other ‘e-friends’ who I had been looking forward to meeting in person. As evening fell, we shared another taxi home to our ‘con within a con’, to chat about our day over dinner and a well-deserved glass of wine.

Friday was a day for readings, with one by Charlie Jane Anders — a delightful surprise, as I wasn’t familiar with her work — and Victoria Schwab — who is every bit as amazing in person as she is online. At the end of the day it was my turn ‘on stage’, as part of the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. It was lovely to be part of Worldcon’s programming, and we had a nice turnout for our event.

The Broad Universe group
Con badge and con nails
BU and anthology swag

By Friday, Worldcon was busy, busy, busy; lots of people and lots of lines everywhere for all panels and events. We were forced to strategize, paring things down to basics, attending only the things we really wanted. For me, on Saturday, this included a great panel on Gender and Sexuality in YA (Victoria Schwab, Sam Bradbury, Diana M. Pho, Rei Rosenquist, Rachel Hartman), where we were urged by Rei to “stand on the ground you stand on” and know which story is actually ours to tell. Victoria added that writers need to understand the core of their own identity first.

Other Saturday events included a reading by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and a kaffeeklatsch with Peter V. Brett, where much Demon Cycle wisdom was shared. But possibly my favorite moment of the day was going out to dinner with a mixed group of SFFChronicles members and writers from Otherworlds NI, a Northern Irish science fiction group, the brainchild of Jo Zebedee. The Otherworlders are all collectively lovely, and us Chronners were more than happy to become honorary Otherworlds adoptees. This, to me, is the highlight of these events: the friendships forged or strengthened, the conversations held, the smiles and laughter gathered.

I kicked off Sunday by attending a kaffeeklatsch with fellow Broad Universe member Randee Dawn. This was followed by a panel on Getting Published and Staying Published (E.C Ambrose, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, George Sandison, Michelle Sagara, Rachel Winterbottom), where Elaine reminded us that most writers’ careers are a rollercoaster of ups and downs instead of a linear ascension. At What is Irish Science Fiction Now? (Jo Zebedee, Val Nolan, Atlin Merrick, Sarah Maria Griffin), Sarah declared that “no one is going to talk about us if we don’t talk about ourselves. (…) It is urgent that we represent ourselves.” When the subject turned to the divide between perception of ‘literary’ vs genre fiction, Sarah delighted the audience by saying, “I do believe they’re called book shelves for a reason, and not book plinths.”

Sunday evening was the Hugo’s ceremony, which Pol and I livestreamed from the house as we were both absolutely out of energy. I had already decided to give the last day of the con — Monday — a miss in the name of Dublin tourism, but I felt that Sunday was the perfect ending to an extremely hectic but very rewarding event.

More to come! Touristing in Dublin and Belfast, Eurocon/Titancon, the Titancon coach tour, and my day out in Howth…

Click here for Part II and Part III.

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View from my bedroom window
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The Heart Blade Guide To Connecticut

Most of the first book in the Blade Hunt Chronicles is set in Connecticut, which – oh, hey! – just happens to be where I live. I moved here from Brazil almost four years ago, and was surprised at how heavily wooded the state is. I live in the Farmington River Valley, which although technically ‘suburbia’, gets plenty of wild visitors, like the black bears that like to make seasonal appearances in the area, besides coyotes, bobcats, foxes, beavers, and many others.

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Bear taking a casual stroll through my neighborhood

The Farmington Valley is where a good deal of Heart Blade takes place. I don’t specifically name the area in the book, but it was definitely the inspiration. In the stretch between New Hartford and Granby, the Farmington River meanders about in a wide U shape, adding grace to the small towns that nestle in and around its bend. If you want to get up close and personal with the river, Farmington River Tubing operates out of Satan’s Kingdom. And yes, that’s the real name of an actual State Recreation Area.

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A quiet stretch of the Farmington River

Heart Blade starts in Connecticut’s state capital, Hartford. Chapter 1 finds my character Del arriving at Union Station. She sets off along Asylum Avenue, which leads past the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library and on toward beautiful Elizabeth Park. The park straddles Hartford and West Hartford, and in summer runs a popular series of outdoor concerts.

Spring pretties in the park
Autumn beauty, Elizabeth Park

Another scene in Hartford finds Del and Ash outside the Connecticut Science Center. This is a great place to visit, especially if you have younger kids in your group, as the museum has a huge range of interactive displays on a wide variety of subjects. The CSS is right next to the Connecticut Convention Center, where ConnectiCon takes place every July. Lots of con attendees end up over at the CSS for lunch, so if you time your visit right, you might end up sharing a table with a bunch of cool cosplayers.

Science is fun!
ConnectiCon visitor

Just over the state line into Massachusetts, Old Sturbridge Village shows up in chapter 2, when I introduce Ash and the sentinels. This living history museum provides a nice opportunity to step back in time and see how life used to be in the 1830s. If you want to experience Sturbridge at night, as Ash does, they have a fantastic event that takes place on weekends in December. It’s called Christmas by Candlelight, and recreates traditional Yuletide activities such as carol singing and ornament making. There’s a big bonfire on the green, and visitors can buy mulled wine and other seasonal treats.

Fall sunshine at Sturbridge
Christmas by Candlelight

Go Huskies! Ash’s dad expects him to remain nearby after high school, and go to the University of Connecticut or another local college. Established in 1881, UConn’s main campus in Storrs is home to some 30,000 students from the USA and around the world. UConn has the top women’s college basketball team in the country; they recently suffered their first loss after a record-setting winning streak of 111 games stretching back to 2014, including two national championship runs.

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UConn Men’s Basketball at the XL Center in Hartford

Famous for it’s pizza, New Haven, on the Long Island Sound, also makes a brief appearance in Heart Blade. Here, you can tour Yale University, and make a stop at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. If you drive a little further up the coast, near public beaches such as Hammonasset and Rocky Neck, you’ll find Mystic Seaport. Like Sturbridge, Mystic is also a living history museum, but this time centered on New England’s maritime heritage. For boat lovers, the yearly WoodenBoat Show at Mystic is a real treat.

Mystic Seaport
Rocky Neck State Park

It was so much fun including in Heart Blade some of the places I’ve visited over these past few years. Book 2, Night Blade (out later this year!), moves a little further afield – there are still scenes set in Connecticut, but we also get to go to Toronto, Canada, and the Adirondacks, in upstate New York. I’m looking forward to sharing some new book locations with you soon!

*all photographs used in this blog post are my own*

 

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