Kia ora folks,

Phew, what a month! It’s been a real mixed bag. For all that I feel like the pace has slowed, when I look back at all I’ve achieved, in reality I've done a lot.

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New Publication Announcment:

Liliflora was just released! Read here for free.

I wrote at length about Liliflora last month (which you can read here) so I’ll keep it short this time. If you enjoy light sci-fi that’s heavy on the romance, you might enjoy this short story of mine. It’s about a Māori xenobiologist in a Star Trek-like future, having to leave an alien planet when a big part of her just wants to stay for one special, particular reason.

Other relevant links for this short story:

​Headland Journal’s Instagram​

My spouse rolled up a character sheet in the Star Trek Adevntures RPG for Doctor Aroha Pearl​

Unrelated to Dr Pearl, but also set in this universe, serial novella Inheritance​

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The actual writing:

• On April 8th, I finished revising draft two of my middle grade sci-fi adventure novel Peregrine Pax: My Best Friend is an Interdimensional Shape-shifting Time Traveller. I have sent it out in three different directions: my mentor, another kiwi writer, and my spouse. James’s feedback has been mostly complimentary, which is a particularly amazing feeling for me because he’s a highly critical reader. At first he sent me a number of small changes to make, then a few bigger ones that I need to mull over. But then he dropped a doozy of an idea on me which… while it’s going to be huge to revise it in over the next two months, I kinda think I have to. It’s too perfect. When he said it, it just slid into my brain like… of course. It makes the themes and the emotional arcs truly pop. I'll sanity-check the idea with my mentor first but I reckon she'll see what I'm going for. So… I have a lot of work ahead of me.
• The Villa Delacroix is finally finished! I released the final chapter of the gothic horror novella on the 23rd of April. It feels so good to finally have it all out and done with after four months of working on it. I whinged about it occasionally on Bluesky, mostly because with the medical dramas happening in my family, I wished I had something a bit more optimistic to be writing every day. But that being said, I’m going to miss these characters. They’re all a bit of a hodgepodge of traits and foibles from people from my university days, and so to leave them is like leaving behind close friends. Participating in some prompt tags and answering questions about their life, I realised daaaaaamn, I actually know these made-up people really well. Better than many other characters I’ve written in the past (Or maybe I’m just getting better as a writer? Haha). My one very vocal reader on Bluesky reckons I managed to pull off the ending, which I was pretty nervous about. You can see if you agree for yourself over here.​
• I entered one short story and two poems into the Pikihuia Awards. More on that if they get anywhere. Certainly if the short story misses out, I’ll be revising and shopping it around to other venues as I do quite enjoy it (if I say so myself :P).
• I wrote a big ol’ blog post about… of all things, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and my relationship with the game over its twenty-year life. I did not know I was going to do this until the day of the remaster release, but it just needed to be expressed. It’s both about the game, and about where it met me in my life, specifically one very big flashpoint in my early twenties. See what you think here.​
• Just as I was slowing down and thinking about taking a break from writing so very many things, another story popped into my mind in the form of a single character who grabbed ahold and would not relinquish me until I wrote her. So that’s what I’m still working on right this moment, for as long as it takes: Marcie, a biography of a sapphic vampire through the two millenniums of her life. It looks like it may be a novellette or a novella, rather than a short story as originally planned. More on her later, I suppose! Right now I’m just going where she takes me, and loving the ride.

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The best news:

A cat! I have a new cat! Her name is Willow!

James was finally coming around to thinking it was time that a new cat graced us with their presence. Our 5yo had been asking bluntly, “Why don’t we have a cat anymore?” Our 1yo knew no better, but no longer had something to point and squeal at, as was her erstwhile morning routine when Nimue was with us.

Boom! Just as James told me he might finally be ready, into my inbox sails a message from the SPCA: half-price adoptions for the next week.

So in we swooped, both kids in tow, and let the 5yo help to select our ideal kitty. We weren’t seeing any who fit the bill exactly out in the main corridor (had to be comfortable and gentle with young kids, amongst other concerns) and so our volunteer sought special permission to take us to the maternity room to meet Willow. She hadn’t actually recently given birth, it was just that they were out of space on the main floor. She was, however, a teen mum, so her growth is forever stunted. As you might be able to tell from the picture, she’s a tiny, skinny wee thing. She adapted very quickly to our house, escaping quarantine rapidly and making herself quite at home, with only one smelly accident to show for it.

She is also one ravenous maw of a tiny void who demands any and all food be fed to her. Unlike with Nim, who was very wary of the children and anyone loud (i.e. me), I have to be vigilant that the baby isn’t feeding Willow snacks (which has happened more than once).

But on the other hand, she is waaaay more of a lap cat than Nim ever was. So as my extended maternity leave continues and I work my part-time job remotely, she has been my colleague many a time (a lazy colleague at that). She seems especially pleased that I’m a writer, as it means even more lap time after I clock off.

She’s an absolute goblin and she has already earned herself one song of praise (‘It’s Willow’, sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Titwillow’). Already I can’t imagine life without her. She fits in nicely with the ghost of Nim who still haunts us with the occasional mysterious sound which did not come from Willow.

As James said to me recently, “Home didn’t feel like home without a small animal in it.” I agree James, I agree.

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Reflecting on the month that was - on doing things, not doing things, and learning to do things again

Can you believe it’s already one third of the way through the year?! I can’t!!

Am I where I am supposed to be right now? Well, probably.

I’ve been forced by life’s circumstances (family medical dramas that I alluded to last newsletter) to really pull back and prioritise where I spend my energy this year. What is the most important for my writing career right now? That’s easy: Peregrine Pax, final submission draft due to Huia Publishers on 30th June, capping off my year of Te Papa Tupu (see here for backstory if you don't know what that is). That’s the one that I have to pour all my effort into, and if other things fall by the wayside over the next two months, that’s fine.

Which leads me to...

I’m patting my back for saying no to something this month. Stupid, maybe, but I spent a few days after the announcement chewing out my own insides. If I just do this… cut corners on that… miss sleep… I could do it… right??? The thing in question was the Royal Road Writathon, where you are expected to write 55,555 words and publish them online in five weeks. That’s how I wrote Inheritance last year, and I had such fun with it. I kinda wanted to leap back into it because I do actually have a direct sequel to Inheritance bursting to get out (like it’s already mostly outlined and everything, arrrgggh).

But I stopped myself. I was already writing something on Royal Road after all (the aforementioned Villa Delacroix) and it was nearly done. I had the tail end of my Peregrine revision to finish off. I had the family medical saga to deal with. And as my spouse pointed out, why do I need to prove I can do 55,555 words in 5 weeks? I already know I can. I have done it several times over, I can practically do it in my sleep now that I’ve built up my first-draft writing muscles.

So I’m glad I resisted the siren call. Doing too much is a perpetual problem of mine. But I have finally, for the first time in months, been able to curb some of that overwork tendency by finally… getting back into some video gaming. Hahahaha, heaven forbid. But also I read Atua Wāhine by Hana Tapiata and the reflections in there helped me to confront some of my bad habits. Highly recommend!

I’ve also just been reading a lot more, but especially getting back on the horse when it comes to beta reading. I’ll be honest, I got burnt badly by beta reading a few years ago. I read something that deeply offended me on a number of levels. There was casual racism inherent in the characters’ stated values (and I’m pretty sure the author’s values too, by extension, because they were the main characters, who were presented as mostly unflawed, perfect specimens). The villain of the piece was a ham-fisted, cartoonish depiction of a mentally-ill person who did some truly vile things purely for shock value. Both the protagonist and the antagonist did things which were entirely motivated by advancing the plot only, rather than having it come genuinely from them. The whiplash was almost funny at times.

And the worst thing? I was too intimidated by this person to be fully honest. They were much older than me, and they were already published, prolifically so, in fact. And this was a beta read, as in, they were looking for opinions on small changes prior to a set publication date, rather than the huge ‘throw it in the bin, set it on fire and rewrite’ that I wanted to give them. Instead, I told them a few nice things about their prose, then gave them feedback on the angles that I could give very specific, fact-based reasons for why they were wrong e.g. there were things in the book involving laws and ethics in an industry I am well familiar with, that I knew they had gotten astronomically wrong, and I was able to point these things out to them with evidence.

I wish I hadn’t been such a coward. If I were to give them feedback today, I would ask that writer a lot of whys. Why does protagonist do this? Why does love interest say this actually really frightening admission, and protagonist acts like it’s normal, nay, admirable? Why is the sole adult example of an ethnic minority in this book a violent criminal? Which specific mental illness does the antagonist have (and please do your research into how that actually manifests)? Does this character need to have any mental illness be the blanket explanation for why they are doing these horrific things, or could you come up with a more interesting, unique and nuanced reason?

All this to say, I’ve been really careful who I offer to beta read for ever since, to the point of not really doing any at all for a long time. But this month, I have been back at it! I’ve been doing lots actually: a five chapter excerpt, a whole 107K novel, and another one I’m part of the way into now.

Turns out, I had to work out some kinks in my brain to do it properly. It surprised me to learn that actually I’d forgotten a lot of the best practices around critiquing others! But I am enjoying how it is forcing me to grow. My first round of feedback SUCKED and I had to retract it the next day when I thought it over. I’m so glad the writer was very gracious about it. It really was just a case of me having sieve-for-brains right now. I hope I’ve been helpful, and that I become more helpful as I go along.

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A stand-out moment for the month

​Kathryn Burnett of the Writing Room and Beginners’ Guide zoom-interviewed prolific NZ author Lee Murray, and I came away with a game-changing piece of knowledge. They both agreed that most experienced writers they know will write first drafts that they aren’t afraid to throw away entirely. I was getting more comfortable with this idea, having thrown out multiple drafts of short stories and novels I wasn’t happy with, and trying a different direction. I had thought it was a sign that I was lost or stuck, to be still be chucking failed drafts out left, right and centre even after all this professional development, multiple mentorships and everything. But nope, turns out, this is actually completely normal and a good thing! And as I have proved to myself time and time again, sometimes I’ll put something in the metaphorical dustbin of Google Drive obscurity, only to pick it out again months or years later and try something completely new with it.

So if this is you too, take heart! It’s all part of the process.

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Another Great Moment of Sharing

Over on #pretendpanel, there was some beautiful sharing going on when I asked people about their worst and best critiques they’d ever received. If you need some encouragement or a poignant belly laugh, have a browse of the quote posts under each of best critiques or worst critiques.

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What’s coming next month?

• So it’s all hand on deck for Peregrine Pax Draft Three. As I said, I have a HUGE change that needs to be done. I am a little daunted, but optimistic overall, because it’s going to be SUCH a good change. I wish I could tell you, but it is such massive spoiler territory that it’s impossible to explain! (Just waiting on my feedback to come in, any day now!)
• Finish writing Marcie Draft One - that’s not too far off from being done, I think.
• You may well know by now, as I say it often enough: I love writing first drafts (though I am coming to enjoy revision more and more, as I discover my voice as a writer). And yet, I think it would be truly foolhardy, at this very particular juncture in my career, to spend too much time focussed on anything but Peregrine Pax right now. However! I still think it’s important to indulge that part of me that needs the novelty of discovery writing. So, I will be indulging in some planning instead of diving into drafting too soon. I have… SO, so so so very many ideas on my backlog that want to be written, so it makes sense to outline them all with a sense of wonder, and possibly come July I can pick whichever one feels like the strongest one. I have a sequel to Inheritance, as I said before. I have two whole new standalone romance novels bouncing around in my head, set in my world Ao Rakona which I am not supposed to be talking about on this newsletter because damn it, this is pseudonym content! but also I have a prequel, a spin-off, a sequel and a short story anthology I want to write for my sapphic pirates in that world who I am still not supposed to be mentioning here, shhh! And then there’s the cyber-thriller I want to write, and the Isekai short story which I wrote but James told me it ought to be a novel not a short story (isn’t he supposed to be reining me in?!) and the weird fairie short story which is also asking to be longer (noooo, stop pleeeeease) and then my mother-in-law very sweetly requested that I write cozy murder mysteries (oh god and I know exactly how I would do it too, whyyyyy) and I think maybe I’ve finally cracked the core of what that playscript from 2017 was trying to say so maybe I should write a new version of that (aaaaaaaaa) oh and let’s not forget, the manuscript which originally got me into Te Papa Tupu, Corangelus, that’s due a complete rewrite and recently the love interest has come up to me saying ‘Hey actually, you know, maybe I’m the main character of it, don’t you think? Maybe that’s why every draft before this hasn’t been quite right?’ and … …. … … … … suffice to say, I have a lot of ideas, and will never be hurting for what’s next. So I hope to just indulge in some blue sky thinking for the next couple of months, as a nice palate cleanser from the heavier work of revising Peregrine.
• I have not even mentioned the biggest hugest most awesomest thing coming up next month: The Auckland and Sydney Writers’ Festivals! I’m going, all expenses paid, thanks to Te Papa Tupu. Legit! Mad! Amazing! I am indeed a jammy little b****, it’s fine, you can say it. I look forward to regaling you next month with all the learning and all the goss.
• I haven’t touched on it above too much, nor will I go into it in much detail, but there will be a continuation in the family health struggles. My family member is not well, in a very low-key sort of way, but the outlook is hopeful for them. It may be a tough few months, until maybe September/October. We all are pulling around to support them and each other, and I’m getting better at factoring in the demands on my time and balancing life, work, family and writing.
• As if all that weren't enough! A few months ago I was approached by a young writer down-country to judge her short story competition for children. At the time, this seemed doable, though obviously as life started to close in on me I did wonder... but we have begun judging, in small batches, and it turns out it takes me barely any time at all to read children's stories. I'm sure once we get down to brass tacks of selecting the very best ones, I'll have to focus a little more, but the initial surface level read takes all of two minutes. More on this next month, as we really have only just cracked the seal on this one.
• But wait, there's more! Early days yet, but Jade and Jamie (of last month's Queer Writers' Workshop) and I have something pretty exciting cooking for Winter Pride... watch this space...

That’s all for now! (That’s all, she says, as if it wasn’t a bloody long novel of a newsletter!)

Thanks for reading!

Arohanui,

Claire Hiria

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