This blog has served me well, but it’s time for new things! And thus, this is my last post here on Such Wanderings.
My new website is saranorja.com.
All my old posts from here can be found in the blog part of the new site.
That stab of a moment, half a heartbeat
away from the leap, before you plunge
(from my poem “Betweening”, in inkscrawl)
I had one piece out in 2018. My short story “Birch Daughter”, appeared in Fireside Magazine in November (and was included in the October issue of Fireside Quarterly): it’s eligible for your consideration.
My father told me that the spell was too strong to break, that I should never trust the forest-folk. But the thought of my mother trapped within a gnarled birch tree in the far north was too much for me to bear. I had to go, even just to see her.
This story is inspired by Finnish folklore; it features forests, bears, and queer women. It’s the only thing I had published this year, and I’m very proud of it.
* * *
This is also a good time to reflect a bit on 2018 in terms of my writing. I used to do rather detailed year-in-review posts, outlining writing goals for the next year, &c. I think, this time, I’ll keep the writing goals within my bullet journal and just reflect more generally on this year.
My main goal for 2018 was to finish novel revisions and to start querying agents. Well: I did that, although due to mental health issues, I was not able to get properly into querying. A lot of my other goals, I did not really succeed at — but the problem was, my goals were too ambitious and I also didn’t realise, at the end of 2017, how rough 2018 was going to be.
But all in all, the main thing is: I kept writing. I took a bit of a break in the summer, when I was healing my poor brain, but I returned to writing again when it felt good. (Writing longhand in a nice notebook, outside in the warmth of the summer sun. I wrote a whole story longhand for the first time in years.) And after that, writing has felt good. After my healing beak, I’ve written a couple of short stories and a Nanowrimo novel draft, and am finding joy in writing. Really, that’s what matters.
In 2019, I hope above all to be more gentle to myself in terms of writing goals and ambitions. I’m working on a PhD; I have anxiety issues; I need to look after myself and stay clear of too much perfectionism and achieverism.
I’ll end with by quoting myself from last year’s year-in-review post:
No matter what, I will keep writing words of hope and kindness in the face of hardship.
I received my contributor copy of Fireside Quarterly already a couple of weeks ago, but life has been so busy I’m only blogging about this now. But isn’t this magazine beautiful! Such great design. Some stories, including mine, have a fold-out of the illustration, which is super cool.
Of course, Fireside Quarterly is also full of excellent stories and nonfiction. I’m so proud I have a story in this gorgeous print magazine in addition to the online version! And how amazing is it that Satu Kettunen’s illustration for my story is on the cover <3
***
In other news: I was quiet about it, but I did Nanowrimo again this year, and completed the zero draft of a new space opera novel. I’m excited to start revising the novel sometime next spring when it’s had enough time to rest!
Tuesday was a happy day — my story “Birch Daughter” appeared in the wondrous Fireside Magazine.
You can read “Birch Daughter” here!
If you like Finnish-inspired folklore, forests, bears, and queer women, this one’s for you. Fireside describes it as “a magical short story about where the search for heart and home takes us”.
My father told me that the spell was too strong to break, that I should never trust the forest-folk. But the thought of my mother trapped within a gnarled birch tree in the far north was too much for me to bear.
“Birch Daughter” is set in the same ‘verse as my poems Raw Honey and Wolf Daughter (both published in Strange Horizons). I get a very specific pleasure from spinning my Finnish heritage into stories in English.
Also, isn’t the illustration amazing? It’s by the Finnish artist Satu Kettunen; I love it so much. Satu really managed to capture the atmosphere of my story and incorporated lovely details in the artwork. Having such amazing art for my story is a dizzying thing!
It’s… been quite a year, to put it mildly. I have been utterly neglecting this blog in favour of Twitter, even though a lot of things have been going on (such as finishing a novel and starting agent submissions… and also mental health shenanigans that have made it harder to post). I don’t have the energy for writing a recap, either.
However! The Finnish SFF Finncon will be held in Turku in a week and a half, and I will be participating in some programme items! You can find me at the following:
Sat 14 Jul, 14-14.45: Minne menet, genre? (paneeli spefin nykytilasta ja trendeistä) (in Finnish, obvs) [NB: edited time change; was previously at 11, now at 14]
Sun 15 Jul, 14-14.45: A beginner’s guide to story submissions in international SFF (lecture by meeee; basically will talk about things I would’ve found useful when starting to submit stories/poems)
Sun 15 Jul, 15-15.45: Left Hand of Darkness, and beyond (panel on gender, sexuality and language in SFF)
Will of course be at the con otherwise as well. Do come and say hi if you recognise me :)
I didn’t have much published this year, but here are my award-eligible works from 2017, one short story and four poems:
Short story:
07/2017 “Don’t Look a Wish Horse in the Mouth” in Cosmos Pen, the English special issue of Finnish SFF magazine Kosmoskynä. Short story, 2065 words.
— This is a bit hard to get hold of since it’s in a Finnish print magazine, but I’m happy to provide anyone who asks with a digital copy of my story.
Poetry:
01/2017 “The Queen, After” in Through the Gate.
08/2017 “Sunharvest Triptych” in the anthology Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation, edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Wieland.
10/2017 “Artemis–” in Issue 1 of Blossomry.
10/2017 “When They Belittle Your Nature” in Issue 1 of Blossomry.
The poems are all eligible for the short poem category of the Rhysling Award.
***
YEAR IN REVIEW
My writing goals for 2017 were:
Well. Ambitious goals, considering I’m also working on a PhD, and this year was difficult in many other ways too. I obviously didn’t succeed with all of my writing goals, thus.
However: the novel is almost entirely revised to be the best I can make it. I’ve worked on it a lot this year: most of my writing hours were spent on it, which is partly why I’ve not succeeded so well at the other goals. Writing a novel is a long slog, and takes a lot of energy and time. But the time I’ve spent on the novel has paid off: the novel is at the polishing stage, and – importantly – I still love it. I’m looking forward to finishing it in early 2018.
I did not have the energy/time to start submitting the novel to agents, or even to properly start doing my agent research. But that is something that I don’t want to rush: the novel has to be good first.
Re the poetry collection mentioned in my goals: I did basically nothing to it because the novel gobbled up my time/energy. I will eventually try to do stuff to it, though.
I didn’t write many short stories – again, because of the novel. BUT I did complete one new short story, wrote part of another (should get back to it!), and am almost done with a third.
I did not get back into the poetry habit, sadly. I wrote 13 poems, most of which are just short things and not too many of them good. I’d like to get more poetry written: should do some poetry exercises in the new year.
I didn’t submit that much stuff in 2017. 17 poetry subs (14 rejections, 2 acceptances, 1 pending), and 12 story subs (11 rejections, 1 joyous acceptance to Fireside). I have no stories out on sub right now: should try to fix that soon. And also write more stories!
I did not have time to do anything about my previous Nanowrimo novels – but I wrote a new one instead in November. It’s not very good, but it’s proof that I can still plonk out 50,000 words in a month.
As for my final goals for 2017: I haven’t played around as much with writing as I’d have wanted, mostly – again – because I’ve been busy with the novel. But I have managed to compare myself less with other writers. I’ve been so damn busy with work and other life things that it’s a wonder I managed to get through 2017.
Every creative word written is a win, especially when you’re working on a PhD. Really, I’ve done a lot this year even though the brainweasels tell me it’s not enough. My novel is almost submittable – I’ve done some other creative writing on the side – and even though I haven’t submitted much stuff, I submitted something. I kept going, kept writing.
***
My writing goals for 2018, then:
Happy New Year, dear readers. I hope it’s a better year, a happier year, a more hopeful year. No matter what, I will keep writing words of hope and kindness in the face of hardship.
This news is a couple of weeks old, but it’s wonderful news despite that: my story “Birch Daughter” has sold to the amazing magazine Fireside. I’ve loved the stories in Fireside for a long time and am super excited that my story will appear there in 2018!
I should write my award eligibility post soon (it will probably be after Christmas at this point): I’ve been procrastinating doing it because of busyness and brain weasels. Things have been super hectic and stressful after getting home from my two-month visit to the UK, alas. But it’s all finally quieting down a bit: I’m on holiday, and hope to have the energy to write a lot. In any case, getting the Fireside news has buoyed me up in this dark season. And we’re already past Midwinter Day. I can do this. We can do this.
Poetry news, yay! Two of my poems recently appeared in Issue 1 of the wonderful new magazine Blossomry, which publishes one-line poems:
When They Belittle Your Nature
I highly recommend reading the whole issue in order, though, since it presents a lovely kaleidoscope of poetry. One-line poems are super quick to read, too!
I’m very happy to have two poems in this first issue. I had actually not written explicitly one-line poems before, but I wrote some specifically with Blossomry in mind when submissions were open. So I’m especially pleased two of them found a home!
I look forward to more Blossomry in the future. Such a lovely concept.
***
In other news, oh hi, it’s been a while since my last bloggings. Life has been giving me the ridiculously busy treatment: I’m currently in Cambridge, England, on a two-month research trip for my PhD. (Going back to Finland at the start of December.) As you might imagine, work has been time- and energy-consuming: I haven’t done this intense and lengthy a bout of manuscript research, well, ever. It’s amazing and I’m getting so much work done for my PhD, but it’s also very tiring!
Despite that, I’ve managed to get some writing done too. In October I finished draft 4.1 of my Beauty and the Beast inspired novel WIP: it’s almost ready to start submitting, but I’m saving all of that for when I get back to Finland. Instead, now in November, it’s Nanowrimo time! I just passed 10k words and am quite pleased. My novel draft is terrible but at this point I just really need to get some sort of new words out and not worry about quality – I’ve been doing so much revision for the Beauty and the Beast novel that my zero-draft-production skills need some brushing up. :)
It’s around a month since Worldcon (what! how is it only a month; a gazillion things have happened since then…), so this is probably a good time to post the drabble I shared at the “Why Do Finns Love Their Drabbles” panel on Sunday 13 August.
I wrote a drabble in English, and then, out of a translator’s interest, translated it into Finnish – keeping the drabble definition of 100 words, of course. I discovered – not suprisingly – that I had to add almost a quarter more words to the Finnish version. The bare-bones translation only came to around 75 words. The wonders of an agglutinative language! I can’t see how you’d be able to translate a drabble (adhering to the 100-word format) from English to Finnish without collaborating closely with the original author: to get to 100 Finnish words, there’s so much stuff to add that translating becomes even more like rewriting than usual.
It’s far harder to write drabbles in English, too, in my opinion: you can get way more of an actual story into 100 words in Finnish. I can see why drabbles are so popular in Finland! Anyway, I thought I’d share both versions. Those of you who know both languages will be able to appreciate the extra details I added to the Finnish version. :)
***
Marketing Trick
The sign said: “First poem free!”. The poems were printed in green ink, sold by a woman on a street corner. Why would anyone want a second poem? But I can never say no to free stuff.
I read the poem that night. It was terrible, but I went back to the street corner the next day. I needed another poem. It cost 50 euros.
I went back the day after. And the day after.
By the time I realised the ink was addictive, it was too late. I needed more poems. Needed them more than my life savings.
Right?
***
TRANSLATION:
Markkinointikikka
Kyltissä luki “Ensimmäinen runo ilmaiseksi!”. Runot oli painettu vihreällä musteella; niitä myi mitäänsanomattoman oloinen nainen kadunkulmalla työmatkani varrella. Miksi ihmeessä kukaan edes haluaisi toisen runon? Mutta enhän minä ikinä pysty kieltäytymään ilmaisesta sälästä. Nappasin runon mukaani.
Luin runon samana iltana. Se oli järkyttävän huono ja lisäksi paperiarkin muste takertui kummallisesti sormenpäihini. Palasin silti takaisin kadunkulmalle seuraavana päivänä. Minun oli pakko saada toinen runo. Se maksoi 50 euroa. Maksoin mukisematta.
Palasin seuraavanakin päivänä. Ja sitä seuraavana.
Siinä vaiheessa kun tajusin musteen sisältävän koukuttavia ainesosia, oli jo liian myöhäistä. Tarvitsin lisää runoja. Tarvitsin niitä paljon enemmän kuin pitkään karttuneita säästöjäni.
Eikö vaan?
***
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