Category Archives: Writing

Site Updates And FAQ

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I’ve done a bit of site maintenance, updating information and such, seeing as I can go around calling myself a pilot now. You’ll notice I’ve updated the logline at the top of the page, and I’ve also added my current aviation credentials to the About Lindsay page.

The other thing I’ve done is add an FAQ to my page, linked off the contact page. Read it and be entertained. This FAQ was developed out of necessity, as I’m receiving more emails than I used to through my contact page. Which is kinda cool, but I’m getting tired of coming up with diplomatic responses to certain questions. I’m just too nice to spew vitriol directly at people who just don’t know better, but an FAQ is so much less personal. Hopefully will keep people from making themselves look stupid in front of me so that I don’t have to pat them on the head and tell them it’s okay, you just didn’t know.

Oh, and one more thing – I may have a guest blog post shortly. I took my first passenger flying yesterday, and they may be writing up something for you!

The Eyelet Dove – Teaser Chapter

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I’ve never really been someone who can sell myself, and that’s been one of my biggest worries about trying to start a writing career. But this Keycon, I was involved in several panels – more than last year – and now that it’s over, I’m realizing that it’s been a very different experience than last year. By Sunday I’d had people familiar with my blog come up and introduce themselves to me, random people who’d heard the first page of The Eyelet Dove, or who had heard me talk about Dieselpunk in the panel with Anne Aguirre and Leia Getty, wanting to know if I had anything published, and I’ve had emails from people who met me at con, offering to beta read. It’s like, suddenly I became popular.

What did I do to deserve all that attention? All I did was put myself out there and talk about the things I love. You know how people say, just go out there and be yourself, and people will respond? Well, it just happened. It’s a huge confidence builder. I mean, I knew I had something interesting to say with my writing that people will enjoy, but now I know I’ll be able to convince people to buy it and not be that poor writer whining “Please buy my book, it’s good, trust me!”

The other big one was the positive reaction to the opening page that was read at Writer Idol. It’s enticed people to approach me looking for more. And that first page is so crucial – that little bit is the first thing people read when they pick up a book after reading the back cover copy. I know I’ve bought books and put them back on the shelf based on that.

A while ago, I had my opening chapter posted up here on the page I had set up for my novel. After going to the SIWC, and hearing Donald Maass describe what makes a good opening, I realized, wow, I have all of that stuff he just rattled off!

In Chapter Two. Claire is an engaging, passionate character, and her introduction goes straight into her primary conflict.

And since Chapter One was, structurally, a prologue, I did what I keep joking I always do, and cut it. Now, after Keycon, I have unequivocal validation that it was the right decision.

After Keycon, though, J. M. Frey, in my Blue Pencil Session with her, pointed out that the opening contained an element that was not only a tad cliched, but also apparently nearly identical to another unfortunately (well, fortunately for that author) well known book in the Steampunk Subgenre, Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan. I had Claire disguised as a man to sneak into a world dominated by men, and I certainly don’t want my book looking from the first page like it’s a ripoff of Leviathan, especially when the disguise thing doesn’t last through the end of the opening scene. And maybe an editor would overlook it once they got to the end of the scene, but would they get to the end of the scene once they saw that similarity? Not gonna count on it.

But it was easy to fix, and I think it’s overall better for having that element removed, for several reasons. And so do others, it seems. In any case, I’ve decided I’m ready to put it up as a teaser chapter, for all those who wanted more than the first page. Here it is.

Keycon 30 – Report

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Now that I’ve recovered….

Actually, I behaved myself this year – the whole flying thing makes me not want to wreck my body to the point where I’m staggering in to flying lessons, though I had a couple days between the con and my lesson today. I didn’t do a lot of drinking though – I had to drive, mind you. We don’t live walking distance from the hotel anymore :P

It was an awesome Keycon – one of the best, IMHO, and that’s been echoed on twitter. My panels went well – the one of the science of flight – well, I started with two people, but when the masquerade let out, people trailed in and I ended up with fifteen or twenty, which is pretty good as panels go.

Then there was the Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Cyberpunk one on Sunday morning. Now, Sunday morning is a terrible time for a panel – it’s the earliest time slot of the day after two evenings of carousing, so getting around fifteen people in that one – that was shockingly good.

The last one was the movie screening of The Wars of Other Men, which I was put in charge of, and we showed the movie, and closed with a Q&A with Scott Norman, the lead actor in the short film. While there were some technical difficulties with the play – it was freezing, which it didn’t do the night before on the same computer, so I can only guess it was a problem with the computer communicating with the projector. It wasn’t too too bad though, and the film itself is pretty decent. Professional presentation, and it went over well. I plan on doing a review of it for http://www.thepunkettes.com as soon as I get the time. Probably after my flight test….

Other notable occurences: We summoned Cthulhu. The Con Chairs led a chant during opening ceremonies, and no sooner than that, Ambassador B had a sprinkler malfunction, flooding the room.

Blue Pencil sessions: We had them. An opportunity to make a published author or an editor guest read three pages of your work and give you feedback on it. I participated in a similar session at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference, and had mentioned to Robert J. Sawyer that the author/editor I’d chosen had spent that time trying to convince me to self publish. Sawyer said I should have picked him, so for Keycon, I did. He read my three pages and marked them up with red pen, then told me aside from nitpicky line editing, it was good, and I should finish my revisions and get it to an editor. I had two other sessions, though, one with Anne Aguirre, who made some similar line editing marks, and that was most of it, and then J. M. Frey, who’s writing steampunk, and pointed out something I had not thought of. Someone else had once told me that the opening of The Eyelet Dove was not only a little overdone on the element of the main character masquerading as a man in order to take part in activities otherwise exclusive to men, but very similar to another book - Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, a premier Steampunk work of the century.

So then I realized, Damn it, I have to fix it! Fortunately, the main character, in the original version of my opening, Claire gets found out by the end of the scene, so the required rewrite didn’t extend past that. I scrambled that evening to rewrite at least the first page (the rest is done now) so that I’d have it fixed before presenting it at Writer Idol.

Writer Idol, same as at SIWC, is where opening pages are anonymously read by the moderator, and a panel of four to five (we had five) editors/agents/authors would raise their hands at the point where they would stop reading. When a set number of hands were raised, they would stop reading, and the panel would provide feedback. There were several manuscripts that the reader made it to the end – the panel was a fair bit kinder than they were at SIWC, but there were two that made it to the bottom of the page, and got no negative feedback at all. The authors were invited to take credit for their work and received an ovation from the audience. The first was a submission from Sherry Peters, and the second was, yes, yours truly!

That evening, I even came home to an email from one of those editors, inviting me to submit to him directly.

So now I’m all motivated to get some writing done, and finish the revisions I have planned for The Eyelet Dove. I still have a few scenes to write from Leon’s POV, and more to shfit over to his POV.

And I don’t have time. I’m busy with flying, and flying is my priority right now.

*le sigh*

I’ll work on it when I can. In the meantime, flight test coming up – I’ll try and make a post on test prep if I have a chance, but I’ve been crazy busy. Wish me luck.

Keycon Coming Up

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If you’ve been following my blog long enough, you’ll know I go to my local scifi/fantasy con every year, Keycon. Last year I did a panel on query letters and synopses, and while I was hella nervous, it went quite well and was well attended.

This year I’ll be in two panels. The first one is helping fill the science track of paneling, and I’ll be talking about the science of flight. Because apparently somebody found out I know stuff about that. I’m really excited about that one, and I’ve been starting to put together pictures for a slideshow – they’re giving me the AV room, so I’ll bring my computer and hook it up to the projector. That one I’ll also be doing alone, which is a little extra nerve wracking, but for what I have planned, I think I can get myself into it enough to mostly forget to be nervous. I hope. So if you’re in the Winnipeg area, or have the means to be in the Winnipeg area for May long weekend, and want to hear me talk about flying, come on down to the Radisson hotel on Saturday.

Then on Sunday, I have another panel with two other authors, about Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Dieselpunk. I understand Leia Getty will be covering Cyberpunk, Ann Aguirre will be with us covering Steampunk, as she’s working on a new Steampunk series, and I’ll be covering Dieselpunk.

Keycon has much more going on than just that, though, and there’s something for everyone. Well, all geeks, anyway.  So if you can make it, come, it’s a blast!

Thank You To My Blog Readers – and Please Introduce Yourselves!

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I’ve seen bloggers in the past talking about how wonderful their followers are, and never thought much of it. But lately, I’ve been finding I get what they’re talking about. It’s been a while now, and I’ve managed to accumulate some blog followers, both friends I’ve met in real life, and online. Of late, I’ve kind of been laying myself bare, confessing my dreams and all. I’ve always been afraid to do that, because I’ve been torn down so much in my life, told I shouldn’t hope for things I want, and that my dreams are unrealistic, I should get my head out of the clouds.

I never mentioned this, but there’s a section in the flight manual that says that every student goes through a period where they feel incompetent, and worry that they’ll never get it and maybe aren’t meant to fly, but that you just have to practice and push through it, and you will get it. I did have that moment, starting to get frustrated with landings not coming together as fast as I’d expected. I didn’t talk about it, but like I usually do, just fought down those feelings and told myself I just needed practice, and I did. I’ve mostly got it now, and Friday my instructor had me do a tailwind landing for the first time (with the wind blowing you towards the runway instead of away – makes your ground speed faster, harder to judge when to start descending) and I got it well enough the first time to not have to overshoot (realize the landing isn’t gonna happen this time around and pull up to try again) or backtrack (run out of runway to take off again after landing and have to turn around and go back to the beginning of the runway.)

And every time I’ve posted about difficulties, and especially when I posted about running into road blocks and getting discouraged, I’ve gotten nothing but support and encouragement in the comments. Not just from friends, but from random people who I don’t even know how they found my blog! Like a gust pushing me on, up to the sky, you guys are the wi….no. No, not gonna go there.

Anyway, I want, first of all, to thank you all for your kind words – it really has helped. And second, I wanted to invite you to introduce yourselves. Especially the the ones I don’t know, or haven’t interacted with outside of this blog, I find myself curious to know who you are and what brings you here. And the people I do know from elsewhere, by all means, introduce yourselves too – I know some of you have your own blogs and who knows, maybe you’ll meet someone here who’s interested in following your blog. I’ve always been afraid to ask for feedback on anything on my blog so far – I’m scared no one would answer :P But I think I have enough followers now that at least someone will reply.

Just reply to this post with your introduction – you don’t have to give your name, just a bit about you, how you came to find my blog, and if you’re a fellow writer, what do you write? And if you’re a published writer, feel free to post a link to where we can buy your work. I may have more than one pilot following, I think, so if you’re a pilot, tell us about that too.

I look forward to hearing from you!

P. S.: On the Aviation Medical Front – my family doctor has faxed in the report they wanted and Civil Aviation Medicine has received it. It should be processed today or tomorrow, and with any luck, that will be all they need, and they’ll send it on to licencing. *fingers crossed* If all goes well, first solo could potentially be Wednesday.

ETA: I have my cat 1 medical certificate in my hot little hands!

Keycon Short Story Contest – open to all!

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The first year I ever went to Keycon, they had a short story contest, and I entered and won first place. On the one hand, there weren’t many entries – I don’t think there were many more than the four that were published in the chapbook, but still, it was my first publication. But there hasn’t been a Keycon short story contest since then. I keep saying I want to run one, and my friend says, but if you run it, then you can’t enter it. But no one else runs one either. And I really wanted to see it happen. I got involved in Keycon programming, and one of the other writers expressed the same desire. So that’s it – we’re running one.

It’s open to all, so if I have friends in far-off places who are reading this, here’s your chance to make me read your short fiction! The details are here. Send me your stuff!

(And by send me your stuff, I mean, send it to the email address on the page on the link, and they’ll strip the names of so we don’t go all nepotistic and pick our friends. At least, not on purpose.)

Review: Novel Writing Software – Liquid Story Binder

Posted by Lindsay Kitson on

I’ve been using this program a couple of years and managed to hook a couple of writer friends on it too. I’ve been using it long enough and like it enough, that at this point I would be terribly annoyed to have to do without it.

Pros: I love how it gives me the ability to organize my work to the extent that it does. It makes it easy to reorganize scenes, and have multiple windows open in front of me at a time.

Cons: The program has a bit of a learning curve – things aren’t in really intuitive places, and there’s so many things it can do, it’s hard to get as much out of it as you can right away. I can deal with that though.

Having been working with it for a while, I’m finding two huge cons. First, you’re limited to three windows at a time of the same type (if you open a fourth, the first window closes automatically.)

And second, there are issues with exporting documents. If I export it the wrong way, I lose formatting. Or I get an error when I’m trying to convert it into an e-pub. Or it creates a document that’s the entire thing written on top of itself on the first line, in pale grey coloured font. Or it strips all the quotation marks out. That last one’s the most annoying – I don’t always notice it right away.

And it’s hard to remember which way to do it, for which purpose. I’ve hit the point where it’s just safer to build the manuscript, and then copy and paste from there rather than actually exporting it.

I’ve loved this program a long time, but I’m sad to say that now, with a finished manuscript, the exporting issues are annoying enough to make me start seriously thinking of looking for an alternative. As much as I’d prefer not to give apple more money than it needs, I’m considering trying out scrivener, at least for the trial period.

Addendum To “The Fisherman’s Wife”

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So, I posted a short story free a few weeks ago, and one of my critique partners, who teaches creative writing, asked me if he could use it in one of his classes (as an example of what to do, of course, not what not to do). Of course I told him, well, technically he doesn’t need my permission. But he said he was just being polite, and then I remembered he was British, and being Canadian myself, I get that.

So around the end of november, my story “The Fisherman’s Wife” was part of the curriculum at the Lakes School of Writing, across the pond. Which, I’m pretty proud of.

My Fascination With Flight: Part 1 – First Time Off The Ground

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I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of flight. From birds to dragons, to airplanes -things that can fly, to flying myself. And now it’s creeping into my fiction – in the novel I’m shopping around right now, there are multiple characters who are pilots and flying plays a huge part in the plot. It seems inevitable, looking back, that I would eventually start writing about flying – the only thing that stopped me before was not knowing anything about planes besides the basic theory of aerodynamics. I figured writing about them is the closest I’ll get to flying them myself.

So I’m going to do a series of posts about planes, and my experiences with flight.

My first experience was at Crow Duck Lake, on the Whiteshell. My Dad’s got a family friend who runs a fishing resort out there, and we used to go out there every year. Bill, my Dad’s friend, had a little yellow Twin Otter docked by the beach, and one day he took us up in it. After that, the first time I was on a commercial aircraft, it was nowhere near as exciting.

It’s not for everyone – people who are afraid of flying would handle that even worse than a commercial plane. I loved it, and I can’t even describe what it is that I love about it. I’ve been up in a small plane once since then – a Cub, flown my my mother’s second husband’s father (my step-grandfather at the time, and yeah, my mom’s on her third husband, so I can’t even just say my step-grandfather.)

Being in a small plane like that, it’s a completely different experience. You can see better, out the windows, and where you’re going, more like you can see out of a car. You can see the ground, and the lakes all around. You can feel being in the sky.

Thoughts On Women In Geekdom, Cosplay, And Steampunk (and Dieselpunk) As A Response

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Ok, so a dickhead made a dick move the other day, and made a dick post on facebook.

Ok, I don’t need to reiterate everything that’s being said all over the internet, but John Scalzi had some great snarky tweets about it. He’s awesome for defending women in geekdom and women in general. My husband has the same feelings, and it’s one of the many reasons I love him, of course. And anyway, the internet is kinda coming down on this poor dipshit’s head anyway, so I don’t think I even need to. The internet’s good that way.

But it got me thinking about women, and how women are wedging their way into the world of geekdom that has traditionally been a haven for white males. I recall friends in my D&D group walking into 7-11 with PHBs in their bags and one of the other customers going “Hey, you guys play D&D? You should come play with us, we have a girl in our group.” And my friends, who are a bit more mature than the typical geek crowd, perhaps, going, “Good for you, we have three of them.”

I’ve never been in cosplay. I love dressing up in costumes, but never saw myself as a character in a book, or comic or movie. So when I started going to cons, I made costumes like a medieval princess, and when I wore my wedding dress with the white cloak, I called myself The Snow Queen.

Last week I went to Comic con for the first time ever. Won’t go again – lineups were far too long, and it was far to crowded for me to enjoy it. But there were some awesome costumes, and yeah, there were some attractive girls dressed in some revealing stuff. Those are the brave ones who are comfortable enough with their bodies to do that.

But there was also something else, that I wasn’t expecting. There were multiple women dressed as Batman. Women dressed as Robin. Women dressed as Superman. I didn’t see one single Princess Leia in her metal bikini, I swear to all the gods, but I did see one woman dressed as Han Solo.

A few months ago, I discovered that one of my cousins, who I live too far away from to know very well, is into cosplay. She has an amazing FFVII cosplay costume. She cosplays Cloud.

I think what this is saying is that we women are trying to tell the comic book and gaming industry that we’re not happy with the female characters they’re creating. We don’t want to dress up like sluts in order to conform to your fantasies, but look what you’re giving us to work with.

Then there’s Steampunk. There were a couple of Steampunk tables, and they were dressed up. But with Steampunk, there isn’t as much material where there’s definite images of the characters to cosplay. And within the Steampunk community, it seems to be more the norm to make up your own character or alter ego. Which results in something far, far more friendly to women. A woman going Steampunk can go anywhere from a corset an bustle, to a lab coat and safety goggles, to a geisha kimono with a clockwork fan, to coveralls, flight jacket and flight goggles. And none of it needs to look slutty. In fact, the victorian and edwardian times that the look intends to anachronize (if that’s not a word, it is now), is all about the prim and proper, girl’s-got-to-protect-her-reputation sort of feel.

That and the Steampunk and Dieselpunk communities have never, to my knowledge, been the exclusively male community that geekdom at large has been. There’s never been that attitude that we have to keep the girls from taking over what he have here.

I’ve seen lots of women into Steampunk these days, but it’s not a girl’s thing either. I’m not sure what the numbers would be, but I’d bet the involvement rates of both genders to be fairly close to 50/50, and that’s something you don’t see in a lot of communities.

Which is really cool.