I don’t feel like I’ve ruminated over newsletter topics in the past few weeks/months. Only two things popped into my mind when I considered what I wanted to talk about today.
The first was writing related. Yay!
My WIP — I thought my novel was "finished", as in I was one more read-through from starting querying. What I hadn't considered was that someone who volunteered to read my novel, would read it and give comments so many months later. Good, in depth comments. Quality comments. With viable, usable suggestions. As I read through the email summary of her thoughts, options to improve the novel sprung up in my mind. As I started looking at the inline comments, more ideas came to me. I thought there were no more ideas. I thought I was done! I was clearly wrong.
So, that was idea #1.
The next: The world is on fire.
Not JUST literally. (It's better now in California, right?) But metaphorically. Politically. Environmentally. Emotionally.
Every time I open Bluesky (the social media I use most now), there's political news. The current American president wants to financially attack my country. Why? What benefit is there? From what I understand, there isn't one. American tariffs. Canadian tariffs. Tariffs everywhere.
Then there's the war in Gaza.
The war in Ukraine.
There's too much. So much.
When I was a teen in the 90's, I was full of optimism. I thought, look at how far we've come. Women, people of colour, we all had more than we did 100 years before. I thought by now, the 21st century, we'd have actual equality. There wouldn't be a pay gap. People like me could be in positions of power. Television shows wouldn't have just the "token black friend". I remember being 16 and really believing it.
Now, I'm an adult. I know it can get worse. So much worse.
These two ideas/topics, one focused on writing (which is what I wanted my newsletter to be about) and one focused on the world (something we can't ignore), battle for space in my brain.
(It'd be nice to be a brain in a vat right now. Just floating in liquid, warm and comfortable. Maybe if I was a brain in a vat, I could shape reality to that youthful ideal I thought we'd be living in.)
(Also, when I was young, I never thought anyone would want to go to war with Canada. Any kind of war. We're CANADA. The country known for being nice.)
Shall I move back into the fictional world I created, the one where I can make a villain a little more bad and the hero a little stronger?
Shall I get distracted by my new favourite anime? Spy x Family for the win!
What I’ve Been Reading:
Talk Bookish to Me, by Kate Bromley
Captain Marvel: Re-Entry, by Kelly Thompson, et al.
What I’ve Been Watching:
Spy x Family on Netflix
My Happy Marriage on Netflix
Star Trek: The Next Generation on Paramount+
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Paramount+
What I’ve Been Listening To:
HIT MY HARD AND SOFT, by Billie Eilish
Cowboy Carter & Renaissance, by Beyoncé
Learn about the land on which we reside: