No, that's not a typo. I'm speaking about Canadian author Madona Skaff, not the recording artist. This post is way overdue, too. I just have to tell the world how this amazing human has impacted my life since late 2015. She told me to enjoy the journey. When I met Madona, it was at the …
Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck inside my own head and be overwhelmed by all I have to do to manage my health. That’s the life of a disabled Spoonie, and I’m not the only one who feels this way or goes through this. What helps me get out of these ruts are visual reminders …
Squee! I've been waiting for this Frankenthology all year and it's aliiiiive! We Shall Be Monsters, edited by Derek Newman-Stille and published by Renaissance, is a collection of short fiction inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 version of Frankenstein. My short story, The Hilltop Gathering, appears in this anthology. I'm so thrilled it got accepted because it's my first published …
Hey, I wrote a thing and it got published in Disability Acts! To Get to the Other Side is available right now! (I originally wrote this in 2017 but expanded the story upon the advice of the excellent editors I worked with.) Cheers, Cait G
Inspired by Derek Newman-Stille of Speculating Canada fame, I’ve decided to take his recommendation and turn a short story of mine into a novel. This will be my first space opera where disabled characters dominate the story.
So I'm pretty stoked. Last December I submitted a short story called The Hilltop Gathering to the We Shall Be Monsters anthology call-for-submissions. What really appealed to me about this project was how authors were invited to write stories that explored disability. As a disabled person, this simply delighted me. For the first time since I …
Continue reading Anthology Kickstarter: We Shall Be Monsters (Or, as I call it: The Frankenthology)
This morning my friend tagged me on a post featuring an article about sensitivity readers. Without reading the article, I replied, "Yes! I use sensitivity readers and editors all the time!" Then, I did a bad thing—I read the comments. Ugh. A few people equated this type of editing to censorship and others made some really insulting …
Continue reading Sensitivity editing is not censorship—it’s about respect.
After years of needlessly suffering, I finally bought a rollator, which is a walker with a seat and wheels. I named it Noola, after the feisty character in Life in the 'Cosm. Fellow author Jamieson Wolf said he was glad I named it that because, as he stated, "Noola would roll!" Noola and I have been …
Because I am a published author, there are conferences I must attend for learning and for self-promotion. I want to go to these things. And with this rollator, I can! Always having a seat with me is an enormous thing. Last year at Can*Con 2016, people suggested I sit on a window sill while waiting in line for a panel. That was a solution, I guess, but not a very good one. Also, I kinda hate asking people for chairs all the time. It's going to be nice to just chill and be independent.
"It's a pleasure to be nominated." That's supposed to be the go-to line for awards nights, when people don't win. But you know what? It is super cool to be possibly eligible for a 2017 Prix Aurora Award in the Novel Category. Because I wrote a book! With words in it and everything! There are a lot …
