We are over two months into the pandemic self-isolation. Here in Edmonton, the government has initiated phase one of reopening the economy. Personally, I will continue to wait and stay indoors. Life isn’t too different from my regular work schedule. I have a home office doing contract work and writing. These are both isolating experiences. On the upside, I have been getting lots of short stories and transmedia writing projects completed and near completion. Might as well make use of all the spare not going out. Plus, this won’t last forever. Right?

Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

This post isn’t intended to induce fear. The extra time hasn’t all been free. My contract world was hit with a big wave of last-minute projects and overflow projects due to the coronavirus. That’s okay, as a contractor, you want to stash cash in case of a dry spell. However, this did mean less activity online. I’m still alive, and I’m still writing. Most of the month has been spent writing short stories and transmedia pieces, then revising them.

Short Stories and Transmedia Projects

The art of the short story form is fascinating. You’re constrained to a limited amount of words. They are less forgiving than a novel, and ideas need to be compressed into a small amount of space. For the monthly short stories, I have been practising reducing them to 1000 words to see how that changes the pacing, and concepts that can be expressed. So far, it is a lot of fun.

For the past month, I have been working on a short story submission for an anthology. I’m hoping to have more news on this soon – like by the end of the year. I had another short story that I wrote in December that has been accepted into an anthology for this year. Again, more and that to come.

#daily250yeg

The online presence I have been making has been seen on Twitter. The Edmowrimo group initiated the May-long #daily250yeg, which has writers write 250 words per day. It’s been fun to see other writers in the area work on their projects, all in isolation. The conversation and support have been thrilling. I tend to write daily already and will continue to do so. The Twitter updates will be less frequent after me, though. Even now, I keep forgetting to make the daily updates. Whoops.

Transmedia Storytelling

I’ve talked about Transmedia storytelling plenty of times in the past. The short stories and transmedia storytelling have been a big part of the blog for about two years. Art, music, story, and a live reading all engaging with as many senses as possible. Transmedia is one of the prime reasons why I like to tell stories to begin with. With the pandemic, I have been able to focus on a lot of additional media that will be in upcoming works. This includes more visual works based on the stories and instrumental scores.

The extra media has been kept on the down-low since they are well into development and are not quite ready to be presented. Once the stories are written and polished, then the transmedia pieces will be appropriate to share.

That’s All

In summary, lots of cool things are in the works. The summer – and probably the rest of the year – is a bust. I will be spending more time online, promoting existing work and writing new material.

Beer Note: Troubled Monk Pesky Pig Pale Ale

for this month, I’ve tried one of the troubled monk beers. This pale ale sits at a 5% alcohol level and is the light drink that is easy to sip on casually. The pesky pig is something I will come back to down the road. I am also biased because I like pigs.