One of the most difficult parts in processing my late autism identification and diagnosis (at 30 years old) is dealing with a constantly shifting perspective, specifically in comparing how I function in the world and how non-autistic people function in it. I spent my whole life assuming my way of being was "normal" or neurotypical,… Continue reading Querying While Autistic
I'm thrilled to be officially querying a brand new manuscript in hope of agent representation! It's titled THE VIOLET TAMARIND and you can read more about it and see a gorgeous mood board one of my beta readers made for it here. But Allison (asked almost no one), whatever happened to that post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel… Continue reading Where Do Novels Go When No Agent Wants Them?
Every day, I walk around a lake near my house. I am often overwhelmed, surprised, and enlivened by the birds, geese, ducks, herons, turtles, wind, water, rocks, waves, neighborhood cats, dogs, preteens, and all other manner of Nature and Wild Things that cross my path. I would like to sporadically share what I gain from… Continue reading By the Water: Entry 1
Feeling stuck? Need some inspiration? Check out a nearly 400-year-old artist's statement by Japanese haiku master Matsuo Bashō and some reflections on how uplifting his thoughts and words are.
On January 30, 2020, I participated in my very first Twitter pitching event. And girl, do I have some THOUGHTS. But first, maybe some definition of terms. I know not all of the people who read this blog are writers, and y'all might be thinking, what the heck is pitching? When writers write a story,… Continue reading Pitching a Novel in a Tweet? What is this, the technological dystopian future?
November is gone. I have to take a moment, to lift my head from the laptop, to let my eyes adjust to the sunlight, to start breathing again. 50,011 words. National Novel Writing Month is over. I did it. None of it feels real. I wonder if this has to do with John Gardner's idea… Continue reading What I Learned from My First NaNoWriMo
can't talk right now got to write 5,653 words in three days or less with a national holiday in the middle whose idea was it to do this in November my god happy thanksgiving i guess and see you on the other side unless i write myself to death which is possible given i'm feeling… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 4 Update
Just looked at today's date and realized it's the end of NaNo Week 3. No blog post update drafted. Aaaaand that's how my week three is going, folks. I'm solidly beyond the "beginning" parts of the book, into what might tentatively be called the "middle." For me, writing the middle is more than a little… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 3 or Oops, I Forgot to Write a Blog Post
Popping my head up from the word-count trenches to give a quick, week-two update... (Here are my two previous posts about my NaNo foray if you're interested: my commitment to actually participate, and my week 1 update.) Definitely some rough days where my mental/creative energy output wasn't sufficient to hit that magic number (1,667 words). I gave… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 2
Thought I'd write a quick update for you all about how things on my first official National Novel Writing Month outing are going. The short, optimistic answer is: Good! The short, realistic answer is: Different than I expected! In a previous post, I talked about my strategy heading into this month of insane output. It… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 1
