Tag Archives: Update

Writing updates

Hiiiiiiii

I’ve been quiet recently, I know, and it’s not all because of the dissertation. I’ve had things going on, and my body and brain have been complaining. Lots of sleeping has been done.

However, I’m feeling a touch better this afternoon. I printed out my complete dissertation, all 91 pages of it, to read through and check over. That’s my mission next week. Read, and make any changes to the document before I print out the final, final version for handing in next month.

I’ve also started reading through and making a few edits to the third Fire novel, Fire Awakened. My sister has read the current version, enjoyed it, and has told me off for leaving it on another cliffhanger. I happen to like leaving novels on a cliffhanger, partly because I enjoy torturing my sisters, and partly because I want to induce antici….

 

….pation in readers.

Yes, that is a Rocky Horror reference.

Also, I haven’t finished writing ‘Fire Storm‘, the last Fire novel yet. I know what happens, I just need to get it on paper.

And Charley’s War is coming along. Slowly, I’ll admit, but I have managed to write a bit during the last few months, a couple of thousand words. It’s all hand written at the moment, so you’ll just have to wait.

However, if anyone wants to have a read of the first two novels and one of the shorter stories, they’re available in paperback and ebook through Amazon. I just checked, I got another 4 star review from a reader. So pleased!

In reading news, I am doing a happy dance because I’ve got hold of a digital ARC of Tamora Pierce’s new book, Tempests and Slaughter about Arram Draper and Prince Ozorne, before they become Numair Salmalín and the Emperor Mage. If you’re a fan of Tamora Pierce’s books you’ll know how long awaited this is. I read the Lioness series and the Immortals series avidly and repeatedly as young teenager. My sister read them after me. The copies I bought have almost fallen apart, although my original, hardback ex-library edition of ‘In the Hand of the Goddess’ that cost me 50p from the library, is still in relatively good condition. The pages are browning a bit and I’m not sure the binding will cope with many more readings, but it’s not bad considering it’s at least thirty years old (I’ve had it 22/23 years, the library hold on to books for a while).

In other reading news, I’m reading a digital ARC of C.J. Skuse’s follow up to Sweet Pea, In Bloom. Rhiannon is a cracked as ever and now has a faetus talking to her.

Choices, choices, which one do I devour first? Fantasy or crime?

 

 

Dissertation Update: Week 5

A couple of days late, I know, but I was busy Tuesday and spent a lot of Wednesday asleep, recovering.

Anyway. I wrote 2000 words about the representation of autistic women in crime fiction, only to be told by my supervisor that I was doing it wrong. So that essay got put to one side and I re-wrote it, covering a range of subjects in relation to my dissertation. I’ve sent that, and an updated draft of the creative piece off on Wednesday morning.

On Sunday, before all that, I got an email with feedback. As usual, the supervisor doesn’t like Lucie or the murderer. I accepted that there was something flat about the murderer, because in the first 13,000 words I’d been concentrating on setting up the situation and establishing Lucie. What I didn’t appreciate was being told Lucie wasn’t recognisably autistic.

I may have been a bit blunt in my response email:

I have written Lucie based on my own, and other women’s experiences of being autistic. If you are unfamiliar with autistic women it may not be immediately obvious that she is, but to those who know or are autistic women, it is. Current representations of autistic women in popular culture are limited to socially-inept autistic savants, an unrealistic stereotype. The vast majority of autistic women are not Sheldon Cooper with breasts and I’m not writing Lucie as such just because the rest of the world are too ignorant to look past stereotypes created by non-autistic people about autistic people. She needs to be realistic, to widen popular representations of autistic women beyond the ‘autistic savant’-type, because there are autistic police officers and to provide a role model for those autistic women who aren’t Saga Noren. That’s what I’m trying to do with this character.

 

My description of her autistic traits goes beyond the ‘likes pattern and order’ you mentioned:

  • She is described reacting to sensory stimulation in several chapters. Sensory Processing Disorder is a common co-morbid condition, as is anxiety. She mitigates her processing problems with the use of noise-cancelling headphones
  • She stims, tapping and running her fingers across patterns and materials
  • She blocks out visual stimuli in meetings and in busy rooms so that she can concentrate on her work or the meeting by looking at her computer screen and by building her file fort
  • She has hyper focused on the idea that someone at Witham View is the murderer and is ignoring the other lines of enquiry. This is based on her putting together small clues that others have missed, and looking at it from a different angle. Her autism is relevant because it helps her see the case differently.
  • She struggles with social interaction and communication, forgetting her carefully learnt ‘scripts’ when tired or stressed, and oversharing personal information with colleagues. This causes conflict with her colleagues and will be a subplot that evolves through the full length novel. This is where her autism is also relevant.
  • She has a limited sense of danger – wandering around Lincoln, a place she doesn’t know well, in the early hours of the morning to take photographs in the rain because she enjoys photography and needs to relax.
  • She’s blunt, although she’s learn to hold back when dealing with witnesses – for instance in her conversation with Vera. And it is a learnt behaviour, she doesn’t have the instinctive ability to gauge other people that neurotypical people have.

These are recognisably autistic traits. Your response was the equivalent of ‘but you don’t look autistic’, an insulting comment the majority of autistic women hear at least once in their lives that is used to dismiss their experience of autism because it doesn’t fit with the stereotypes.

I have yet to hear back, either about this complaint or my dissertation drafts; I suspect my dissertation supervisor is ignoring me now. I added extra stuff, making it obvious when Lucie was stimming and her anxiety about dealing with work colleagues. I felt like I had to exaggerate to appease the ignorant.

I don’t like humans very much, at times.

Some of you are okay, I suppose.

30 Dogs Sleeping Like Awkward Doofuses - The BarkPost
Not my dog. I found it doing an image search and thought it was cute.

In other news, I went to my first Adult Autism Forum Cafe on Tuesday evening (after going to craft club in the afternoon); the topic was supposed to be ‘confidence’ but I ended up on a table with two other women, we drew trees and talked about yarn. One of them got out her spinning so I got out my crochet. It was fun. I think I’m going to go to the sensory group on the 18th and the Forum on the 19th. Also, I have an appointment with a clinical psychologist and a support worker from the High Functioning Autism Service (I didn’t name it – I don’t like the functioning labels) on Tuesday morning to see what support they can offer. I need to write a list.

Right, it’s 5.15 a.m., and I should try to get back to sleep. The dogs are snoring at me.

‘Fire Betrayed’ update

Fire Betrayed is out with my beta readers now. 

I stayed up until gone one this morning because I got on a roll and got the second edit finished, and added a couple of extra scenes that before had only been summarised in the first draft. It was a case of show don’t tell and I thought it added to the novel to write them out rather than summarised.

Initial feedback is ‘good so far’. I’m waiting for more detailed feedback and constructive criticism from my beta readers.

And now I’m going to have all the naps because I am so tired. My dogs don’t like the sound of rain and wind. All night, and today, there has been rain and wind, so I didn’t get much sleep once I’d finished the editing.

Once I’m human again, I’m going to get on with the second draft of Charley’s War.

What shall we do with the exhausted Rosie?

Just kill me now.

Please.

Okay, I’m joking. Well, mostly. Don’t kill me, I’m too busy. Novels to write, books to review, that sort of thing.

Continue reading “What shall we do with the exhausted Rosie?”

HIDDEN FIRE progress report

I’m still planning to publish my book Hidden Fire this summer. I’ve made some progress. A couple of weeks ago I printed the whole book out and have been slowly editing. It took me the best part of two weeks to go through the first 11 chapters, but this weekend I’ve really put my back into it (because I haven’t the energy for anything else) and completed the read through. I’ve made some changes to the printed version and I now have to go back to my computer and make the changes in the document.

Yesterday a friend from university shared a video about formatting a book for publishing on Kindle, so I watched that and had a go at it. I have saved the original document too, so it’s not a big deal if I mess up. I currently have a file with the book formatted for Kindle, and another for the print book. I’m sure there’s front matter I’m missing and I need to find out about ISBNs and bar codes, but I’m getting there.

I’m waiting to hear back from my cover designer, but Michelle is busy working on her second novella, The Deceived, the follow up to her recently published The Bound. It’s understandable that she wants to concentrate on her own writing right now so I’m not going to be pushy. There’s eight weeks yet until publication date.

I’ve set up an author page on Facebook – Rosemarie Cawkwell – Indie Author. You’re welcome to follow and share if you’re on Facebook.

That’s about it. I’m going for a walk and then it’s back to work.

Update: 23th June 2016 – Life in general and blog posts to come

Good grief, it’s been over a week since I posted. You’re probably not bothered but if you are this is what have I been up to.

Continue reading “Update: 23th June 2016 – Life in general and blog posts to come”

Update

Evening, it’d be much more pleasant out if the wind would drop so I’m sat indoors reading instead of being outside enjoying my new garden chairs. I have a fire pit too, I need to get burny-burny things so I can set fire to marsh mallows and toast my toes in an evening.Continue reading “Update”

Quick post

Hi, I’m ill again, horrible cold. As soon as I’m better I’ll have three book reviews up. Until then I’m afraid I won’t be posting anything; I can only manage to stay awake for an hour at a time. I suspect this cold will be a bad one; I started coughing the same day I felt the other symptoms start. It’s a fairly reliable indicator, for me at least, that the earlier I start coughing the worse the infection will be.