A Month in a Writer’s Life – April 2017
Where did a whole month go? I could swear it was the beginning of April yesterday, and today it’s May already. April can be quite a busy month, with Camp NaNoWriMo, A to Z Challenge, and other online challenges (like the Twitter game #WIPJoy), and of course, I felt tempted to take part in all of them. But my voice of reason have been already whispering that I had added too many things to my daily schedule already, so with a heavy heart, I decided to cut on anything I could. (more…)
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May 9, 2017
Back in December I took part in a fun Twitter game which required posting a graphic saying “1 Like = 1 WIP Fact”, and as you can guess, as the likes for the tweet appeared, its author was supposed to post facts about their work-in-progress. I had fun, and got 13 likes, a result I was quite happy with: it gave me enough space to shares some interesting bits of my fantasy novel “By the Pact”, but at the same time it didn’t require me to reveal any plot twists or character secrets.
I never had the need of learning to drive. Poznań, my hometown in Poland, has an excellent public transport network, and when I moved over to Ireland, I couldn’t afford a car. Also, with the narrow and always jammed streets of Dublin, it seemed better to just search for an apartment near my workplace and walk to work. But moving over to the USA and living at the very edge of the town meant I would finally have start driving.
Some days ago I came across a meme I’ve seen around several times already. It said “Reading is my superpower. What’s yours?” and it got me thinking about a Superhero Writers group. Classy outfits like old jeans and t-shirt, hipster vintage clothing, or good ol’ pajamas aside, superheroes had to have some sort of superpowers. We all read, so unless we’re going to compete in the amount of books read or reading speed, we need a different kind of superpowers: the writerly one. 
Last year I had a chance to read a series of urban fantasy novels set in Ireland. I did it partially by my friend’s recommendation, and also as a part of my own comparative research for the novel set in Dublin I’ve been working on. And even though I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the story, reading each chapter of these books made me die inside a little. 
I was born in a communistic country which lacked the necessary resources, let alone fancy things, so from my early childhood I developed a specific perspective towards everyday objects. When an adult is allowed only 1kg (half a pound) of sugar per month, the queues for toilet paper weave longer than those for the ticket of a famous band, and the shop shelves are as empty as they would be after zombie apocalypse, anything you come across might become your next treasure. 
I’ve planned a few more posts before this one, but it seems that Christmas time tends to affect routines even if someone is not traveling, preparing a big celebration, or hosting family members, and the end of the year had sneaked on me almost unnoticed, so here I am, writing last minute summary of 2016 which for me personally didn’t turn out too bad of a year.