Month: February 2015

2015 Reading Challenge

~ emmakosborne ~ Leave a comment

There have been a few posts floating around lately about different kinds of reading challenges. I think that they’re always a good idea. Me, I’m guilty of too many re-reads. There’s nothing I love more than pulling one of my favourite books off my shelf and basking in the story, in the characters. It’s the ultimate luxury (even if, in the case of Robin Hobb, I end up crying my eyes out).

Don’t get me wrong, I love new books (I’m loving Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone books at the moment) and it’s especially awesome to live with a bookish partner who has abundant shelves and who loves sharing her favourites. But I’m always drawn to re-reading books I love, especially if they really strike my heart the right way (Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle and The Scorpio Races, I’m looking at you.)

So, this year, I’m going to push myself to read 50 new books, at least half of them by women.

I encourage everyone to take on a challenge, whether it’s more books by writers of colour, more books by women, more books by people they’ve never read before or just more books, period. I have about a million things I can recommend if you’re stuck!

Yay, book party!

2015 Writing Goals

~ emmakosborne ~ Leave a comment

There are a few things I want to do this year (like take a tour of Tasmania’s whiskey distilleries, hell yeah) but most of my goals are writing-based.

Here they are, in the interest of accountability.

1. Submit to Clarion and Clarion West.

This will be my fifth crack and West and my fourth crack at UCSD. Whew. Yeah. I know that plenty of people apply multiple times, and I’ve gotten much better as a result, but it’s still kind of doing my head in. Let’s hope that this will be my year! I have a good feeling about 2015.

2. Re-draft my novel.

I finished the first draft in October last year and put it away for a bit. I’ve been working on my Clarion stories (and had a completely fucking crazy time at the day job) so it has been waiting patiently since then. Looking forward to getting back into it (I have made lots of notes) and getting it tightened up (hopefully once more after Clarion, if I go this year!)

3. Start querying agents.

If all goes well, I’ll start querying toward the end of the year. Eeeeep!

I’m also looking forward to submitting to Queers Destroy Science Fiction! It’s fantastic to see them blast through their stretch goals! Can’t wait for Queers Destroy Horror, also!

It’s pretty amazing to think that I’ll be a part of the QDSF anthology either way, as they raised enough to include my essay in the print edition. Yay!

Best of luck in reaching your 2015 goals!