First of all, happy 2017 to all of you! What a year it has been…

December was one productive month for me, and yet it felt like it was over in a matter of seconds. It remains something I can’t wrap my head around: the older I get and the more I do, the faster it goes. So what have I been up to?

Projects done

Since one of my clients needed a little more time finishing his manuscript, I had some room to update the website. I changed the colour scheme and updated the menu slightly. Some other changes will be made, but my schedule for January is outright frightening (so many books to edit, papers to grade, exams to check) that I’ll be happy to get any writing of my own done at all, let alone get the website running the way I want to.

The extra time also enabled me to try my hand at something I’d never considered doing: copywriting. One of my best friends is a gifted yoga teacher and the most intuitive person I’ve ever met. Selling herself and putting her thoughts into words aren’t her strong suits, however. Luckily, we’ve learned this month that putting her thoughts into words is something that comes natural to me, so I now write copy whenever she needs copy written. And it’s great fun, too! It isn’t a skill I’m considering adding to my services (yet), but it’s definitely something I want to play around with some more. I.e. if you are looking for someone to go over your book ads, your web content, anything, shoot me a message at marielle@mswordsmith.nl  and I’ll have a look in exchange for an ounce of gratitude or karma points.

Nothing beats the feeling of holding in your hand (for real or digitally) a finished project. This summer, I worked crazy hours to translate a book about how to live a life of art, and I got a copy of it just before Christmas! It was such a great feeling, holding it in my hands after all those hours I put into it, and all those months of waiting for it to be published. Right after the translation, I did a developmental edit of Murder in Triangle City, the book I mentioned in my November post. On Christmas day, it finally came out, and it was thrilling. I guess it was extra fun because I am so involved with the entire series (I’m currently editing the second book in the series, The Black Legacy) and now people can finally read it.

Books read

In the meantime, I’ve finished David Duchovny’s Holy Cow (I still don’t know how I feel about it) and Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant’s The One With All the Writing Advice (which was great fun, as expected). I also read The Introvert Writer: Being Your Creative Best By Being Your Truest Self by Jamie Arpin-Ricci, a book I absolutely recommend (you can read my review here).

After two books on the craft, I picked up The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness, which means I now finished her All Souls Trilogy. My yoga friend told me another book is on the way, and knowing my addiction to series, I’ll probably pick it up the moment it’s out.

Another book I read was The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson and it blew me away. It’s not an easy book—it’s a book that’ll make you uneasy—and I thank my background in feminist philosophy for being able to grasp the potential of its message. Genre-wise, the book is what they call an autotheory, a hybrid between autobiography and theoretical reflection, and it’s a genre I can’t help but love. Where most academic disciplines feel the need to differentiate between lived experience and theory, fiction and non-fiction, the maker of the artefact and the researcher of the artefact, autotheory bridges those fields in the most natural of ways.

Books bought

I only bought one book this month (I know!) and I can’t wait to read it. The INFJ Writer: Cracking the Creative Genius of the World’s Rarest Type, a book by Lauren Sapala, was recommended to me by Amazon after I finished reading Arpin-Ricci’s The Introvert Writer. Being an INFJ (or an INFP, depending on the test), it goes without saying I had to get a copy.

While I didn’t buy that many books, I did get the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children trilogy by Ransom Riggs for Christmas (as well as a lovely Parker fountain pen and a bottle of ink). I went to see the film a few months back and knew I had to read the books. And now I can.

My plans for 2017 will have to wait; I’m off to my brother’s pub to raise a glass to what I hope will be a most productive year. Cheers!

O my, I completely forgot to mention I’m halfway through The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey! What a book… 

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(The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, which means I receive a small percentage if you buy through these links.)