Posted in craft, fear, free writing, honesty, inspiration, living life, writing, writing help

the thing about writing

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”
Posted in aliens, archie reads, archie reviews, Edgar Rice Burroughs, fantasy fiction, pulp fiction, science fiction

archie reviews a book…. A Princess of Mars (1912)

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)”
Posted in advice, archie wins, awards, Omega Sci Fi, science fiction, writing, writing community, writing contest

how archie won an Omega Sci Fi Award honorable mention

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!

Omega Sci-Fi Awards — Light Bringer Project

Continue reading “how archie won an Omega Sci Fi Award honorable mention”
Posted in archie fiction, archie wins, awards, Canadian Authors Association (CAA), writing contest

archie won a writing contest – not clickbait

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

Continue reading “archie won a writing contest – not clickbait”
Posted in advice, artist life, change, fear, goals, honesty, hope, inspiration, living life, self help, writing

it’s no use going back to before 2020, because I was a different person then

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 Leading Eurydice from the Underworld Painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot 1861

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”

Posted in archie reads, archie reviews, books, fantasy fiction, reading, science fiction, speculative fiction, Ursula K LeGuin, visionary fiction

archie reviews a book…. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

My third book review! YAY. The Office Andy Critic

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)”

Posted in change, life updates, living life, reality, travel, writing

not even home is like home, and other things behind the curtain (life update #5)

Hey stranger,
It’s been a little while since my last update, so let me catch you up.

  • What I’ve been Reading: I am keeping busy offline, trying to match my reading pace with the rate I’ve been collecting books from little-free-libraries around town. These have consisted mostly of more short story collections, including old SFF treasures like The Many Worlds of Andre Norton (by Andre Norton of course) and new SFF gems like How Long ’til Black Future Month? (by N.K. Jemisin) as well as some of the non-fiction variety like Henry and June (the diary of the incomparable Anaïs Nin).
  • What I’ve been Writing: Despite accomplishing huge leaps and bounds with my online research as a writer and a writer of specific genres, I had to spend a few months completing an online math course (yes, dreadful, I know!) for a credit requirement that I hope will qualify me into teacher’s college someday soon. Since passing that (yay!), I’ve made some serious headway on one of my novel-in-progress, which I had been referring to as Animals but have since begun calling Woods. I am thick into the world-building as well as the scene-ordering, so I expect to be completing draft number two before the end of this calendar year. 
  • What I’ve been Watching: With travel on an indefinite hiatus, I’ve found some relief in the form of binging seasons of The Amazing Race. The U.S. version started in 2001 (imagine, travelling pre-9/11 and pre-pandemic!) but I skipped to season 5 which so far has been mostly entertaining. I’ve already finished the 7 seasons of the Canada version, which was actually more enjoyable (beginning after 2010) maybe because with a lower budget the contestants travel more locally – including my home town!

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)”

Posted in about archie, artist life, depression, fear, honesty, inspiration, living life, mental health, practice, self-care, writing, writing community, writing help

when archie writes – writing depressed af

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”

Posted in archie reads, archie reviews, books, fantasy fiction, reading, reading list

archie reviews a book…. The Sword of Shannara (1977)

My second book review! YAY. The Office Andy Critic

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)”

Posted in advice, artist life, craft, fear, free writing, goals, habits, inspiration, practice, procrastination, writing, writing community, writing help

how archie wrote words every day of 2020 (so far, anyway)

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)”

Posted in artists, free, lists, writing community

hi, this might help, bye

Hi – will write more soon – until then, enjoy these helpful lists of helpful things…

  1. Resources for Canadian artists, writers, media workers during COVID-19 shutdowns
  2. Help for Canadian artists and freelancers during COVID-19 shutdowns
  3. COVID-19 Crisis Resources for Creatives (A Giant List of Helpful Links for Artists)
  4. Resources for Artists in COVID-19 Crisis (Grants, freelance resources, legal aid, etc.)
  5. Bored Solutions (A list of small challenges for creative people)

archie.

Posted in advice, change, dystopias, fear, fiction, hope, inspiration, other, reading

how reading fiction helps us hope

I really enjoyed this sentiment here, and so wanted to share:

“What novels tell us is not that it’s going to be OK, or that it is all for the best, because it’s not. People will go on drowning as they try to flee Syria, climate change will get worse, and Trump could do massive damage to the world causing an upsurge in the worst kinds of prejudice.

But novels and stories tell us that this has all happened before, in a different time, with different names but similar narratives. They tell us that it’s OK to be scared, to have complicated feelings, to feel a bit lost, and they remind us that we are human.

Continue reading “how reading fiction helps us hope”

Posted in advice, artist life, artists, goals, habits, imagination, self-care, social media

archie’s 2020 advice for writers

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.

Distraction this is Continue reading “archie’s 2020 advice for writers”