Upon the Wings of Greater Things
The creative endeavours of Starla Huchton
Being an author is sort of a strange thing. As a writer, I spend a lot of time by myself, submerged in worlds only I live in. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, when I call myself an introvert. I’m not good with large groups of strangers and, more often than not, I feel like a failure as a human when I’m unable to do what “normal” people seem to do in those situations.
So what happens when it comes time for events when success is riding on coming across as human? Basically, you fake it.
So, this year was my third time at UtopYA Con. Each year it gets a little bit more difficult to adequately sum up the experience, but I’m going to try.
Happy Monday! I’ve got a new shiny to show you!
Well, I did one of these last month, so I figured I’d update you all again.
RAWR! The Fierce Five are all over 2014 book releases! Today, I get to show you not only one of my sister-from-another-mister’s spiffy new projects, but a cover that I designed! Yay! If you want the inside scoop on the process from my side of the fence, you can check out my post over on my design site here.
And now… *trumpet fanfare* COVER REVEAL TIME!
*airhorn blast*
Listen up, folks! One of the Fierce Five has a new book out today! Here’s all the information you need to go get yourself some new fiction!
Continuing on in my Month of Thanks, here is my letter for October 5th. [Read more…]
So here’s the thing. I’m a weirdo. This statement probably surprises no one who’s interacted with me ever. On social media I tend to be pretty outgoing and vocal, and this is also true about me face to face… well, once I’ve gotten to know you some.
I like to call myself an awkward turtle. Here’s why. I’m the kind of person who, when faced with a new social situation, will find the one or two people I know and attach myself to them because I am, frankly, terrified of taking those first steps in introductions. I imagine I come off as standoffish or maybe bored, but this is categorically untrue. Awkward Turtle has simply retreated into her shell until another less-awkward turtle has knocked on said shell and given her permission to come out and interact with the others. I have never been the kind of turtle to strike up a conversation with another strange turtle because I am horribly, terribly awful at breaking the ice. My mind goes totally blank and I can’t think of a single thing to say to engage the other turtles. I go into every new interaction assuming the other person has zero interest in who I am or what I have to say, probably because then there’s no risk of disappointment. This is who I am. This zero-expectation was my safety net growing up. It’s a holdover from childhood, when almost every interaction I had was inevitably painful for me. While I’m working on changing the little voice in my head that fills me with doubts and self-criticism, the scars still remain.
That said, enter the Scary New Thing.
We are halfway through the year, a mere six months. It’s been an amazingly productive time for me, and not only because of having three books done in the Endure series.
If you’ve been watching my Twitter feed or kept an eye on my WIP widgets in the side bar on this site, you know which project I decided to work on after finishing the first draft of Progeny. For NaNoWriMo 2012, I worked on a story that had about 23k words already on it. I talked about this a great deal on the Roundtable Podcast’s 4-writer project for that month, and you can listen to me talk about the premise for Apprentice beginning here. I ended up with an additional 66k+ words for that month, but the story wasn’t finished.