IWSG, April 2021

John Winkelman

Welcome to the monthly Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. This month’s question is the following:

Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

I don’t know if I am a risk taker, as such. I like to play around with forms and styles. I have written stories in first and third person, past and present tense. Some styles work for certain stories; others do not. In the past I have written fantasy, science fiction, horror, westerns, and literary fiction. Again, some worked better than others. In particular, I went through a phase of writing literary short stories where around 2,000 words in Cthulhu would show up, despite my best efforts to keep the story from heading in that direction.

For me, memoir involves more risk because in order to be effective it must dig into places which I am not always willing to uncover. For example, a few years ago, for NaNoWriMo I set out to write a series of short stories, and as a warm-up exercise I wrote a short piece about the toxic people in my life. That short piece turned into 18,000 words, all written on November 1. I was an angry, bitter emotional wreck for days after. On a positive note, I was far enough ahead in my word count that I could take a couple of days off of writing in order to recover from the experience.

I don’t touch much on controversial topics, other than possibly equity, empathy and compassion, which are controversial topics in a society where sadism seems to be the national pastime.

So I suppose the risk-taking lies in trying something new which may or may not work. Either way, I have broadened my horizons and (hopefully) improved my craft.

Thank you for reading this answer, and thank you (and hello!) to the members of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group who find their way to my humble blog.

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Tech Upgrade, Of a Sort

John Winkelman

Reading material for the week of 2021.03.28

If the above image seems subtly different from the images in the previous posts, it is because I just bought a new smart phone to replace my ageing Galaxy Note 4. I now have a Google Pixel 4a/5G, which in most ways is not appreciably different from any other mid-range smart phone, but it does have an amazing camera, which is apparently the hallmark of the Google Pixel series. So expect to see an increase in the number of photo posts on this blog.

The weather in this past week was all over the place, from highs near 70 to lows in the teens. All in the space of a few days. Right now the air is a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Perfect for walking in the woods. Which I just did.

On the left pf the above photo is the latest issue of Poetry magazine, from the Poetry Foundation. On the right is Unwelcome Bodies, Jennifer Pelland’s collection of short fiction which was published by Apex Book Company. I received this as a reward for backing Apex Book Company at a certain tier on their Patreon.

In writing news, I am writing (at least) a poem a day for the month of April, and so far, four days in, am keeping up. Seems I can only write at the moment if I am under some sort of external pressure. That is all.

March 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I read in March 2021

This month was bookended with genre fiction, with the middle a delicious mix of fiction in translation as I slowly work through my backlog of such titles. I realize that I started this project out with more ambition than is sustainable in the long term, and so I am scaling back the digging through translated works to about three a month, rather than half a dozen. This leaves more room for nonfiction, poetry and works not specifically from the translated fiction/subscription backlog. And that relieves the pressure on my reading habits and thus makes for a more pleasurable pastime.

And at the last minute I got a jump start on National Poetry Month with Taha Muhammad Ali’s So What, from Copper Canyon Press. Expect to see a lot more poetry show up here in the next reading update.

In short fiction I have fallen significantly behind my original goal. In order to hit an average of one piece of short fiction a day for the year at this point I would need to read four a day for the next month in order to catch up, and in order to free up that time I would need to neglect my girlfriend, our cats, or what little sleep I currently manage.

Books

  1. Stewart, Glynn, Starship’s Mage (2021.03.01)
  2. Unnikrishnan, Deepak, Temporary People (2021.03.10)
  3. Geiger, Arno (Tobler, Stefan, translator), The Old King In His Exile (2021.03.14)
  4. Fellous, Colette (Lewis, Sophie, translator), This Tilting World (2021.03.17)
  5. Jiménez, Claudia Salazar (Bryer, Elizabeth, translator), Blood of the Dawn (2021.03.18)
  6. Saer, Juan José (Kantor, Roanne, translator), The One Before (2021.03.23)
  7. Muir, Tamsyn, Gideon the Ninth (2021.03.28)
  8. Muhammad Ali, Taha, So What (2020.03.29)

Short Prose

  1. Monette, Sarah, “A Light in Troy“, Clarkesworld #1 (2021.03.02)
  2. Larson, Rich, “Meshed“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.10)
  3. van Eekhout, Greg, “The Osteomancer’s Son“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.12)
  4. Griffith, Nicola, “It Takes Two“, Clarkesworld #101 (2021.03.18)
  5. Muhammad Ali, Taha, “So What” (2020.03.29)

It’s Like, Warm Out

John Winkelman

It’s been a beautiful week here in Grand Rapids, in the last full week of March 2021. The tai chi and kung fu classes are back at Wilcox Park, weather permitting. After almost four months of indoor classes conducted through Zoom, the outdoors seems huge. I went for a long walk at Blandford Nature Center after class, and I was one of maybe five people in this huge park. For most of the two hours I was there I didn’t see another soul, and though the park is surrounded by neighborhoods, for the most part I didn’t hear anyone either. It was a disorienting experience. I felt something which I wouldn’t call agoraphobia, but it was something on that spectrum. A sense of vast horizons, after a year of being inside my house, and much of that time in my office, staring at a computer screen. It was disorienting having the nearest object farther than ten feet away from my eyes.

A decent pile of books arrived here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey in the past week. Two are from subscriptions, and the last three are from a recent order I placed at the best bookstore in Grand Rapids, Books & Mortar.

On the left is the latest issue of the ever-excellent Rain Taxi Review of Books.

Second from left is Nancy by Bruno Lloret, the latest release from Two Lines Press.

In the center is Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which I have been meaning to read for, oh, at least a year.

Second from the right is The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin, which I learned about from Cory Doctorow‘s blog Pluralistic, in which he discussed this book in the same paragraph in which he invoked Frank Wilhoit’s description of conservatism (“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”).

On the right is Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks, which I suspect will have a lot to say which heavily echoes the Wilhoit quote. This is, after all, America.

In reading news, I am about three quarters of the way through Gideon the Ninth and loving every page of it. I will probably finish Monday or Tuesday.

In writing news, lots of journaling but not much else. So it goes.

Next Friday I get my first COVID shot. Then I will enter the liminal space between it and the second shot three weeks later. There is no telling what the world will look like on the other side of that experience.

Suddenly Spring

John Winkelman

And what a Spring it is so far, with temperatures in the 60s and sunny and beautiful. The tai chi and kung fu classes have moved back outdoors, and there we will remain, weather permitting, until the snow flies again in November or December. Almost eight months of outdoor classes is pretty good for Michigan.

The new issue of Pulphouse Magazine was the only reading material to arrive in the past week at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. This has made my life a little easier, as I am in the midst of organizing all of my bookshelves, recycling many years of old literary journals, and making one of my bookcases the exclusive home of the many books I own which have been inscribed to me by their authors. The goal, of course, is to outgrow that shelf once the world is in a state where readings and book signings and conventions can happen again. So maybe 2022 or 2023.

In reading news, I am still working my way through the backlog of books in translation. Currently in front of me is Juan José Saer’s The One Before, translated by Roanne L. Kantor, and published by Open Letter Books. After this month I am going to broaden my reading habits a little, and rather than five or six works in translation a month, only attempt two or three, which will leave room for more of the nonfiction, poetry and genre fiction which is also slowly but steadily piling up.

In writing news, as always, there is no writing news. Perhaps next week.

Happy Spring, eveyone!

The Last Full Week of Winter

John Winkelman

And what a week this past week was. Due to family emergencies, trips to the vet, favors for friends, and the necessities of a new project, I have had almost no time at all to read, write, relax, sleep, or clear my head. My only quiet time was the drive to Jackson from Grand Rapids, in which a visit was cancelled at the last minute, and so I drove a total of over four hours in order to deliver a sandwich.

At this point, after the last twelve months – and tomorrow it will be exactly twelve months since the quarantine really took hold for me – I can’t even get angry about this kind of thing any more. But it is frustrating to see the days grow longer and the weather grow warmer and not be able to enjoy it as I have in years past.

Two bound collections of words arrived at the Library of Winkelman Abbey this week. On the left is Elemental, a collection of stories in translation from Two Lines Press. This is the third anthology published under their wonderful Calico series, which is one of the reasons I am continuing my subscription to their catalog.

On the right is the March 2021 issue of Poetry Magazine. One day I will sit down and read all of the back issues which I have collected over the years, which are regrettably collecting dust on my shelf.

In reading news, things have been going slow though I did finish Deepak Unnikrishnan‘s weird and wonderful Temporary People (Restless Books), and am now about two-thirds through Arno Geiger‘s beautiful The Old King In His Exile (And Other Stories, translated by Stefan Tobler). Geiger’s book is his memoir of taking care of his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, which is a thing which has struck down a few in my immediate and extended family, so it is a…well, I wouldn’t call it a comfort read, exactly, but it is supportive.

In writing news, there is no writing new, other than some journaling. Maybe next week.

So it goes.