This year, I focused on writing short fiction. I had just finished a very long and emotionally demanding novel, and writing short fiction was a healthy shift for me in terms of creative rhythm. The great thing about short fiction is that it's SHORT. It's entirely possible to write, edit, and submit in a matter… Continue reading 2022 in Review: Publications
When I was a kid, magic was essential to my inner world. I read fantasy books full of witches and magicians and children with innate powers over the elements. I read about magic rings and wishing stones. I read about fairies and their glamours, about dragons and djinns. In The Real World, there was no… Continue reading What Magic We Make
This year, I have been focusing on short fiction. And... I have a pair of anthologies with my name in the table of contents! Let me introduce you to these books. First, you can order a copy of Well, This is Tense, an anthology of horror shorts all in second person. My piece, "Crawling Back,"… Continue reading Publication Announcements: TWO Anthologies!
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
My recent autism and ADHD diagnoses have prompted some intense reprocessing of my own memories and lived experiences. It's like sitting in the chair at the eye doctor, and a new lens is flipped down. Suddenly, everything is clearer. Through the lens of neurodiversity, many things about me and my life make a lot more… Continue reading Why I Write: Through a Neurodiverse Lens
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.
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
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
I'm going to try NaNoWriMo this year. That sentence is terrifying. Well, not if you don't know what the abbreviation stands for. It's National Novel Writing Month, which is November 1-30 every year. Basically, a bunch of psychos try to write 50,000-word novel drafts in a month. There's a little more nuance than that. But… Continue reading NaNoWriMo What Now?
Allison Wall 