Category Archives: The Writer’s Life

The Return of AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review

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AESciFi.ca suffered a major hacker attack in late 2016 that shelved the site and so I have not written for the magazine in three years. However, I did put as much time as I could spare, along with several other old and new friends of AE, to getting the operation up and running again.

The bulk of the time was put in last summer, when I was waiting to begin my master’s program and had time for a passion project. I prepped media materials, did some editing and writing, helped with some simple user-testing of the new site, and co-planned the relaunch with the core team.

Then for a time not a lot seemed to happen. In fact a lot of hard work was going on behind the scenes, from our tech guru setting up the back-end of the site to the slush pile team poring through hundreds and hundreds of story submissions. In late June of this year suddenly we were 99% ready for the return of the magazine and it was time for me to contribute again.

I was wrapping up the academic year at the school I work at, and beginning work on the literature review for my master’s thesis research, since I didn’t have any summer courses to take. Fortunately I had some time and flexibility in my schedule to contribute again. For two or three weeks we were marking off items on the pre-launch checklist and getting ready for liftoff, and then, on July 10, it happened.

I have an essay in the relaunch issue, about sports in science fiction. By all means, feel free to read it. But I’m frankly more proud of the issue itself and, indeed, the the fact we managed to launch it–from editing stories and non-fiction pieces, to sending out press releases and tweets and the email newsletter, and coordinating all of the above. It’s a great magazine, and I’m excited to have it back in operation, but it’s actually pretty special to have been a part of making it happen.

My discretionary time is very limited and will be for the next year or two, but even as I’m stepping back from most writing outside of my academic program, one of the few things I will reserve a bit of time for is the occasional fun essay or book review at AESciFi.

To close off, I was interviewed by a podcast on behalf of the magazine back in the late fall and it has now been published. The total interview is about 20 minutes but has been broken into three bite-sized parts:

Part 1: https://lancerkind.com/podcast/050-introducing-aescifi-magazine/

Part 2: https://lancerkind.com/podcast/051-joel-boyce-aescifi-feature-writer/

Part 3: https://lancerkind.com/podcast/052-ae-canadian-science-fiction-review/

Writing and Life in 2019

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Well, it’s time for that bienneial update post that is becoming tradition. In 2017 I noted that I had been busy with graduate studies, new parenthood, and a move from the classroom into school leadership. At the time I had recently finished my academic program, which was at the post-baccalaureate level, but now I am back in the academy, working on my master’s degree.

I have at least crested the steepest part of the learning curve in my role as an educational administrator, so while there will always be novel challenges and new goals to set, some portions of my job have become routine. If I were merely working, I would certainly be able to ramp up the amount of writing that I do, but the lion’s share of my mental and creative energy is devoted to my graduate studies for the time being.

By sheer coincidence, AE, a major outlet for some of the sorts of writing I most enjoy doing, experience an unplanned hiatus in September of 2016, which I will expand on in a separate post. More recently, Care2 has shut down its Causes blogging webzine, so that’s something else off my plate due to outside circumstances.

This happens. Sometimes publications fold or change focus, sometimes it’s the writer whose focus changes, and sometimes it’s both. I used to love writing for The Spectator Tribune, but a particularly hectic period saw me pass on one request after another until I hadn’t taken on a writing assignment for two years. I finally checked in to find the magazine gone defunct. Life is timing.

Likewise now, when a major former client in publishing asked me a few weeks ago if I planned to pick up any future projects or if they should take me out of the payroll system, I elected for the latter. Narrowing my focus is exactly what I need right now. I’m going to make it a purposeful decision rather than dragging it out or leaving anyone hanging.

Oh, I’ll still be writing. Academic papers, school assignments, and my own master’s thesis will make up the bulk of it, and if some of them are published, even if only in some niche research journal, I’ll share. Meanwhile, I expect I can still squeeze in the odd fun pop-culture essay or book review every two or three months, at the WFP or AE.

But if I’m going to get back to pitching to new markets and pushing myself creatively in my writing or simply getting my writing output back up to where it was at or near its peak (and that’s a big if), it will only be after I’ve graduated. It shouldn’t take too long, since I’m putting the necessary time into it.

Care2 Blog Non-Weekly Roundup (10/08/2017)

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I don’t know when exactly I realized I was on hiatus from my Care2 Blogging. As the only on-staff freelancer (that is, without a set number of expected weekly posts), I didn’t technically need to ask for leave if I was uninspired or unavailable to pitch and write any stories in a given week. But I certainly didn’t plan to take a three-year break.

This summer I got back to it, with a couple posts a week. Right now that still seems just about right, though I’ve done the odd threefer. Here is a curated selection of some of my favourite recent pieces:

Wildlife Thrives in Korea’s Demilitarized Zone

Equifax’s Data Breach Is a Nightmare. Their Handling of It Is Worse.

The 5 Weirdest Banned Books

What Have I Been Up To?

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I read an interesting study not that long ago on time management for school principals. One of the more interesting, if obvious results, is that you only have so much time in the day. If you’re fully booked and you try to cram in something new, something else will fall by the wayside. It won’t be planned and it won’t be by choice, but you cannot add to a full schedule without losing something, for all your intentions of working just a little bit harder and moving just a little bit faster, we all have our limits.

In my case, I’ve been busy with a number of new roles in my life over the last couple of years:

1) Home renovator: This may not seem like much of an explanation, but I really have poured a metric tonne of time into making this old house as beautiful and functional as it is cozy, and I’ve done the work with great amateurish gusto. It started with tearing down and rebuilding a kitchen entirely from scratch two summers ago, and it just spread from room to room after that. Every vacation, save this past Christmas when my family went to El Salvador, has involved one major or several minor home projects. I pretty much stopped taking major writing contracts starting that summer of 2015, though I may get back on the horse, finally, in the new year.

2) Dad: My son’s impending birth actually provided a motivation as well as a deadline for the new kitchen, which somehow led to the several projects since. I’m on dad duty from the time I get home from work until my two-year-old is down for the night. All my writing has to be done after that, or during nap-time on weekends (if I’m not redoing the bathroom or something, of course).

3) School Principal: I got this job at almost exactly the same time I got the two previous jobs, that same eventful summer. I think I have finally become comfortable (not complacent) in the role, but it’s not a nine-to-five job oftentimes, no matter how much experience you get.

4) Student: This was actually related to role number three, as I took on graduate work in educational administration at night and just finished this past June.

So, after spending most of my time writing school budgets, board reports, research essays, curriculum, and workshop presentations, I am slowly starting to pick up the pace of my public writing again. It’s nice to be back at it.

I haven’t been entirely inactive on that front, and I’ll post some round-ups of my work from the last year or so in the upcoming weeks. But it won’t take long to catch up. I’ve written more academic papers and office emails, by a long shot, than literary reviews, essays, or editorials.  Hopefully there will be some quality where I lack quantity.

Booked Solid for Three Months

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I have a couple of book reviews coming up for the Free Press in the next several months (both are being filed very early since I received the ARCs equally nearly six months ahead of publication). I’ve also submitted a non-review draft to AE, which will likely run sooner than that. Other than that, what I’m sitting on is a really impressive “to-write” list.

If, before spring, I actually get around to writing all the things I plan on writing — scratch that, if I actually manage to pitch all the things I’m thinking of writing, and perhaps end up writing even a couple of them during that time frame, I’ll be satisfied.

The thing is, I have so much commissioned work already, trying to sell additional stuff, even were it pure gold (and only an editor can make that determination), probably shouldn’t be my main focus. I’m so focused on trying to get “caught up”, I think I’ve missed an obvious but important point. The whole point of pitching, querying, pounding the virtual pavement, as it were, is to get work. If I have enough writing work, my focus should really be on turning it in in a timely manner.

As a fairly employable teacher in a, nevertheless, fairly rough hiring environment over the last five years, I’ve gotten used to applying to new jobs on a daily basis. When I finally ended up with a fairly stable position, I had to consciously break the habit of checking the want ads, anticipating unemployment. “You’re not on a short-term contract,” I told myself. “They want to keep you. Relax.”

Likewise with my writing. I’m working on, not one, but three concurrent projects, related to content and curricular development for private companies, each one of which will likely stretch from two to five months. And of course, I do still have that pesky day job.

All of which means, this is enough. If I have any spare time at all, I’d like to fit in a few articles for Care2, since it’s been months since I’ve contributed, and I don’t want them to forget about me. But I certainly don’t need to start any new working relationships or make any new commitments at this point.

As a side-note, it’s worth noting that much of my present contract writing work is at least partially related to either my educational or science backgrounds. As a writer, you need to use every working relationship and connection, draw on every talent and experience you have to get work. Spent some time as a wedding planner? Parlay that into a gig writing for a wedding magazine. Worked at a Radio Shack? Write for a technology website.

Every new item on your résumé, every new sample in your portfolio, every new connection on LinkedIn increases your chances of getting work. It’s an exponential process — well, sigmoidal, only because of the human inconvenience of sleep.