Or “Read, Learn, and Live”
Remember when I said I was going to try podcasting? Well I’m still trying! Here is my second attempt. Enjoy!
Show Notes and Highlights:
- Check out the previous episode on bad reviews! The discussion was quite good.
- If you have thoughts, questions, reading recs, etcetera leave them in the comments below of tweet me @leonicka
- I started the #DiverseCanLit hashtag in 2014 as a space to promote equity and inclusion in Canadian publishing and literature.
- The topic of this episode is fallow periods. I’ve been so busy and over-scheduled for the past 5 years and I now feel it’s important for me to slow down to recouperate and regroup.
- My 5-year plan in high school included becoming a District Attorney and putting “bad guys in jail forever.” So much has changed since then. For one, I now think more critically about mass incarceration. Have you watched Ava DuVernay’s documentary, The 13th, on Netflix? It’s a great primer.
- 2016 has been a stellar year for me. To continue this agriculture analogy, it’s the year where I reaped the benefits of the hard work I had sown for the past 5 years.
- Got a new job!
- Went to BEA!
- Went to the SFWA Nebula Conference!
- Of course, rather than just enjoying the good things, I’m anxious that if I don’t keep busting my ass, I’ll be miserable and destitute the rest of my life.
- But I know there is value in resting so here are the things I want to do during my “fallow period”
- Read more widely: I need to read more new and emerging authors. This means I need to suck it up and read short stories and literary journals, even if it’s not as easy as just picking up the latest novel I’ve been dying to read. What are your fave places to read work by new writers?
- Curate my reading list more intentionally: Reading is my hobby and escape first and foremost. If I’m not having fun something is wrong.
- Learn more skills: I know work at a huge company with tons of brilliant people! I want to learn from all of them and soak up as much genius as possible.
- Live my life: My own personal growth is so important! Pushing my own boundaries and making space for fun and spontaneity will make me a much happier person which can only have a positive effect on my career.
- All those “hustle hard” and “sleep when you’re dead” aphorisms leave so little space of self-care and enjoying yourself.
- Are you in a fallow period right now? What are some things you are learning or experiencing that may contribute to your future success?
- Featured Writer: My friend Sabrina Medora is the brilliant writer behind the Food Fiction Project. She takes all the emotions, memories, and feelings people connect to food and pulls them together in evocative short stories in the caption of her Instagram images. I’ve never seen anything else like it. Check it out!
- IG: https://www.instagram.com/foodfictionproject/
- FB: https://www.facebook.com/foodfictionproject/
- My favorite story was inspired by a plate of chicken tenders! It’s impossible to read Part 1 and not be itching to know more.
- 3-word writing prompt:
- Subway
- Tired
- Run
Join the conversation!