This post is again for the Sunday Circle, an initiative of Peter M Ball (see here).

What am I working on this week?

I started my creative writing PhD this week, so I’ve been reading academic papers and planning the first creative piece to explore into that project. I read 13 journal papers, and parts of different books this week, plus mapped a beginning of a novella. Not too bad.

I’ve also been (at night) compiling the scene map for The Paris Wedding. Some parts of it are ok. Others need a heap of work.

I also made some modifications to my Edit your novel, step by step ebook and pushed it off to beta readers.

 

What’s inspiring me this week?

“Charlotte Incorporated” by Rachael K Jones (via LightSpeed podcast). This story is amazepants. Gave me a serious reality check as to the level of my skill at present.

Zwart’s paper on Michael Crichton’s novels (Zwart HAE. Genomes, gender and the psychodynamics of a scientific crisis: a psychoanalytic reading of Michael Crichton’s genomics novels. New Genetics and Society. 2015;34(1):1-24.). For anyone who’s ever given me crap about him being “lowbrow airport fiction”, get that up ya. Also to the doctor I worked under in my first year as a med student, who told me that Michael Crichton “wasn’t helping anyone” because he took up writing instead of medicine, get that up ya, doublequick.

Also, Latour’s Laboratory Life. I spent time in labs as a research student and as a researcher, and they were filled with personality quirks and very overt humanness that overshadowed the science. I’m not sure how much non-scientists realise that (not that I’m a scientist, but engineers sometimes occupy similar spaces). It’s an interesting theme to draw out of science fiction, but Latour did it as anthropology. I believe he later recanted some of his views, but so far they mesh with my experiences.

 

What part of my project am I avoiding?

Finishing the scene map for The Paris Wedding. And starting writing on creative work. The story isn’t ready yet, and for once, I am actually going to follow through the research a little further before getting to words.