Category Archives: writing
It’s been an eventful behind the scenes September, and it’s not quite finished yet. First: I am going to be doing a library Zoom call. Back in the non-pandemic age, the Friends of the East Gwillimbury library invited me to speak to library readers. In theory this was going to happen on the 20th of April. This did not happen for obvious reasons. I will be doing a Zoom library call, instead. From their email: This ZOOM on-line event is limited to 100 people and will feature Friends board member and Sagara fan, Michelle Cowan, as moderator in conversation with the author. How do I get a ticket? If you bought a ticket in 2020, we will honour it and send the link after verification. Please … Continue reading →
Thank you. Thank you so much. The Essalieyan Novel Patreon was way more successful than I thought it would be. It was such a big ask. I didn’t want anyone who has read these books all along to feel pressured or guilty or obligated. The author deal has always been: I write a book, the publisher publishes the book, readers buy the book. And this was … not that. Going forward, I’ll do all Patreon stuff on Patreon, so it’ll disappear from this web-site except as a link in the sidebar. But: I get to write the final arc, the final series, in the Essalieyan universe – and I will. I will write the books at the same general speed I’ve always written them, during the same writing time. The gap between … Continue reading →
It goes without saying that a spoiler discussion thread is for discussing the events in the book — so people who hate spoilers (I don’t, my long suffering husband does) should probably avoid the comments here.
Today, 29th June 2021, is Cast in Conflict’s publication day. Cast in Conflict started life as Cast in Isolation. My editor(s) liked the title, and I was thinking purely of the book itself. Marketing, however, rightly pointed out that we’d had more than enough isolation in the past year, and anything that reminded people of covid shutdowns and quarantines was Not On. This made sense to all of the people who had liked the former title, which is why it’s now called Cast in Conflict, or ‘Conflict’ as it’s called in this house. *** Today is also the day after my 2nd covid-19 vaccination shot. My reaction has been pretty mild so far (with the expected wow it hurts to lift my arm), and a touch of the usual Michelle … Continue reading →
I have been absent for all of November, in part because of revisions and in part because of general stress and anxiety. I have copy-edits for Cast in Conflict on my computer now. Copy-edits are the part when I realize: Oh, I’m an idiot. Again. (If I made no mistakes, if I were competent the first time, I wouldn’t have to deal with … my mistakes. And neither would anyone else. Paralyzing writer-brain at it’s finest.) Writing has therefore been slow. Well, worse than slow. I realized, with the new West novel, that I had made a critical error (character introduction) and that the book would be much better if I fixed that. Which means, because of my process, losing 110k words of writing and starting again at the … Continue reading →
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