Short term projects:

I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’ve finally finished beta-testing my game, Narborion Adventures: The Burning Trees of Ormen Mau. I’ll say to beta-testers everywhere that I do not envy you and your job. Playing games in the most boring way possible is an experience I do not wish to repeat. I am sorry. You can read an interview with me about the project here, watch the game trailer here on their homepage (all the way to the left in the videos section), or – soon – buy the game in the app store (available for Android and iOS)!

After being inspired by a call for submissions of unfinished manuscripts by Carina Press, I’ve taken a small break from science-writing to work more completely on a historical romance novel that aims to turn some of the traditional regency troupes on their head. Hey, sometimes we have to give love a little time to shine, right?

Also, three of my poems, “Acerum on Fomalhaut b,” “Comma after Late Budbreak: Defoliation by an Invasive Pear,” and “Dirty” have been accepted for publication in The Trumpeter online literary journal. As soon as they’re published, I’ll be able to start posting Biopoetics for those poems!

Long term projects:

I’ve decided to join the Philadelphia Neuwrite chapter after meeting their founder; I wanted to follow up on my involvement in the science-writing collaboration group from my undergrad at Geneseo (where I was a founding member). My first meeting will be in September, but it won’t be my last!

I’ve decided to continue diversifying by joining the Collaborative Writing Challenge for Project 6, which will be a Fantasy/YA Fantasy novel. This jives well with my gamebook experience and love of the genre. The project works with four authors each signing on to write the same chapter of the book. Each author receives the chapter selected before their assigned chapter and a concept outline, after which they have a week to write their chapter and submit their material to the story coordinator. The story coordinator picks one chapter of the four submitted versions as the ‘winner’ and then sends it on to the next four writers… building the story. Submissions are accepted for the started chapter and voted on by all contributors to the project. I’ll be working on chapters 23 and 27, not due until Feb/March of 2017.

Lastly, I’ve been collaborating with my brother to create a biography of sorts about his craft distillery, Black Button Distilling located in Rochester, NY (if you have the opportunity to buy the Bourbon Cream and/or the gin, do it!).

Last December to February, I was behind on a writing contract (for the game/app I’m almost done beta-testing…finally). Every day, before and after class, in between homework and sorority, I did nothing but write. With the story rounding out at 185,000 words and completion in 2.5 months, I wrote an average of 2,312.5 words a day. I think one day I wrote about 9,000 words. It was nuts.

For the past month, however, I’ve been trying my hand at regularly producing content for this blog and I’ve discovered what makes my writer’s block shine.

1. Not having a deadline – as a former college student (and soon-to-be grad student), I’ve realized that I’m very motivated by deadlines and… not by much else
2. Perfectionism –  each post gives me the anxiety attack of wondering if this post will help or hurt my career overall (the logical side of my brain understands the answer is neither). How can I post something now when I’m not my best writing self yet? Paradoxically, of course, becoming your best writing self takes practice – say, developing content for a blog or something.
3. Wanting to write something else – honestly, anything else. As soon as I settle down to write something for this blog, I quickly decide I want to write something else. Anything. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, recipes for pizza rolls.

You’d think the fact that this blog is in its infancy would help me not worry about being perfect; logically, if no one is reading what I write what does it matter? Unfortunately it seems I still have a ways to go before I separate my writing self from my emotional self enough to write unburdened by anxiety.

Do any of you suffer from writer’s block in the form of how-to-write and not what-to-write? How do you handle it?

This month, I’ve been working on several new poems for my Sugar Maple cycle. I was inspired to write again after my father and I took a trip around New York and happened to visit the memorial park where my grandmother, grandfather, great-grandmother, and great-grandfather all have their ashes buried. It was my first time visiting after my grandparents died a few years ago. The trip included tears.

As we approached the plaques set into the ground, my father remarked how it was hard to find the right nameplates because they’re all flat and slowly are covered by grass and leaves. “Mom – your grandma,” he told me, “Always liked this spot because it was easy to find. You find the garden, and they’re just under this large tree here. She always liked the tree.”

It turned out, upon closer inspection by this young ecologist, that the tree was a sugar maple. My recent fascination with this particular, though ubiquitous in the Northeastern US, tree species, felt like it had been given new breath and poetic meaning as we wound our way home through the back roads of rural New York.

I’ve also become fascinated by something my brother told me; Jack Daniels whiskey is actually mellowed over charcoal made from sugar maple timbers as part of production. It’s crazy how, once you’re attuned to something, you see it everywhere.

In addition to those poems, I’m in the midst of beta testing my Narborion Adventures game, The Burning Trees of Ormen Mau. As my first game development experience, I can easily say I’ve learned so much about the hard work game developers put into the process – especially when it comes to beta testing a choose-your-own-adventure game! Whew! I can also say that I can’t wait for another opportunity because working with Liber Primus on this fantasy-adventure, while not easy, has been very fun.