I am pleased to say I am officially a paid published writer!!! YAY.

I am pleased to say I am officially a paid published writer!!! YAY.
It can be messy.
Sometimes the words come out sideways, or in a jumbly mess of intrusive thoughts and run-on sentences.
It can be scary.
Writing brings things to the surface, directly or indirectly revealing our secrets, assumptions and fears.
It can be difficult.
There requires a certain audacity to write, to dare try capture the human experience on paper (or pixels).
Writing, like most pursuits, can be waylaid by events of life.
Because life is messy, and scary, and difficult.
And people in life can be messy, and scary, and difficult too.
That is the thing about writing.
Continue reading “the thing about writing”I’ve not been writing on here much of late because, to put it bluntly, I struggle with whether my blog (or any non-fiction I write) deserves to be shared with the world.
Continue reading “archie was here (but not necessarily writing)”My fourth book review! YAY.
Disclaimer: I have never thought of myself as much of an art critic – I sort of always thought it wasn’t my place to disagree with the storyteller. As in, if I didn’t enjoy a book or movie, then it probably says more about me not being the intended audience for it, right? But I don’t think that need stop me from sharing my thoughts on such-and-such a book.
So here I go…
Continue reading “archie reviews a book…. A Princess of Mars (1912)”Greetings!
In typical fashion, allow me to share some belated news (my tardy excuse is that I have been reading *so much* lately and haven’t been online):
The much acclaimed Omega Sci-Fi Awards chose my little story as an honorable mention.
WOW!
(For anyone wondering, the Omega Sci-Fi Awards is an international short science fiction story competition that provides an opportunity for writers to imagine the future of humanity through excellence in storytelling.)
For 2021, over 500 stories were submitted from around the world including South Africa, Germany, the UK, Russia, Tanzania, the US of A, and more.
My submission was a science fiction story (duh) set in a future when online bots begin to catfish people, but told in the fashion of Little Red Riding Hood. It was fun to write!
Hi hello —
I am so pleased to report that a story I wrote received FIRST PLACE in the 34th Annual National Capital Writing Contest (NCWC)! And this year coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Authors Association (CAA)!!
AMAZING!!!
I am really grateful and honored to be included in this with so many others.
SHORT STORY
First Place: “Babble” by Archie Nicholson, Stratford ON
Second Place: “Still Life” by Anna Rumin, Ottawa ON
Third Place: “Will Destroy for Food” by Adam Jarvis, Ottawa ON
You know the the story: a hero goes to rescue someone from a dangerous land, and they are told one explicit rule to follow: don’t look back.
So, of course, they look back.
Orpheus rescues Eurydice from the dead but looks back and she vanishes forever.
Lot’s wife (unnamed, so let’s call her Lottie why not?) looks back on the doomed town she is fleeing and turns to salt.
And so many other parallel myths from the Japanese, Mayan, Indian and Sumerian legends.
Well that is how a lot of us are probably relating to this calendar year called 2020.
Move on and don’t ever talk about it again, right?
Or at least we all agree this is the botched timeline borne from time travel hijinks right?
Let me ask something outrageous: Continue reading “it’s no use going back to before 2020, because I was a different person then”
My third book review! YAY.
Disclaimer: I have never thought of myself as much of an art critic – I sort of always thought it wasn’t my place to disagree with the storyteller. As in, if I didn’t enjoy a book or movie, then it probably says more about me not being the intended audience for it, right? But I don’t think that need stop me from sharing my thoughts on such-and-such a book.
So here I go…
Continue reading “archie reviews a book…. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)”
Hey stranger,
It’s been a little while since my last update, so let me catch you up.
Speaking of my home town, let’s get on with the main event, shall we?
Continue reading “not even home is like home, and other things behind the curtain (life update #5)”
I think I’ve only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing…
The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water.Katherine Anne Porter
I have already answered why, as well as where, so let me unpack when I write.
I write when not too worn out by my mental illness.
I write when my chronic depression isn’t so overwhelming that I struggle to function.
I write when I can, in irregular spurts, writing through and in spite of my sickness.
I’ve struggled since early youth with depression.
I remember as early as middle-school feeling at specific times especially anti-social and mournful, without any clear reason or cause. Highschool was a hostile environment for me where I felt plagued by insecurities, actively seeking out bathroom stalls and library cubbies to hide day after day. University saw me continue to try unsuccessfully to cope with self-harming as well as self-medicating with drugs and alcohol.
It was easy in my adolescence to dismiss these spells of moody ’emo’ sadness as just stereotypical teenage angst. In my twenties, however, with my depression still undiagnosed, I felt ashamed for failing to have moved past an ‘infantile’ stage of dramatic mood swings.
Not until after completing a Master’s program, surviving a series of mental breaks and acute depressive episodes, was I hospitalized and finally diagnosed. It came as a surprise that I was actually so relieved to have a name, clinical depression, to explain these problems weren’t an inherent defect of my person but symptoms of an illness.
Suddenly a light switched on for me to see that help through medication and therapy were not character weaknesses but necessary choices for my survival, demonstrations of courage in the face of social stigma.
Soon after I became a writer.
Before committing to writing as a career,
make sure you’re not simply agoraphobic or depressed.Nell Zink
Continue reading “when archie writes – writing depressed af”
My second book review! YAY.
Disclaimer: I have never thought of myself as much of an art critic – I sort of always thought it wasn’t my place to disagree with the storyteller. As in, if I didn’t enjoy a book or movie, then it probably says more about me not being the intended audience for it, right? But I don’t think that need stop me from sharing my thoughts on such-and-such a book.
So here I go…
Continue reading “archie reviews a book…. The Sword of Shannara (1977)”
Hey, thanks for clicking!
So yea, I’ve been following my own advice – and thus far in this strange year of twenty-twenty, I have been writing every single fucking day.
Imagine that?
Well, I’ve been journaling every day (3 pages, written by hand) and also writing fiction every day but Sundays (750 words minimum, written on a computer).
And no, I haven’t had an easy year either, what with global pandemics to family matters to my own personal struggles inside my head.
Allow me to explain some changes I’ve been practising that help me be a bonafide writer.
Onwards… Continue reading “how archie wrote words every day of 2020 (so far, anyway)”
Hi – will write more soon – until then, enjoy these helpful lists of helpful things…
❤
archie.
I really enjoyed this sentiment here, and so wanted to share:
And now we welcome the new year,
full of things that have never been.Rainer Maria Rilke
Greetings!
I will keep this short & sweet because the new year is nearly upon us.
There are a gazillion and one different things happening out there, offline and online.
Some of it is fascinating, some of it is terrible, and lots of it is rubbish.
Yet all of it is doing one thing: trying to distract you.
Even me with this blog is distracting.