Amelinda Berube
  • Books
    • Guest posts, interviews, events
    • Content warnings
  • Tarot
  • About
    • Editing services
  • Contact

Bio for #PitchWars

8/12/2015

6 Comments

 
Hello Pitch Wars mentors, fellow hopefuls, and random blog readers! Have some info about…

Me

I’m a 35-year-old mom of two living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, surrounded by a whirlwind of household chaos and unfinished projects and books and cat hair. My career path meandered through academics, carpentry and administrivia before I lucked into my current wordsmithing gig with the federal public service.



My writing

·         I’m aiming to follow in the footsteps of the understated, underexplained, deeply spooky books I love best.

·         My current project is a YA ghost story about a teenager under attack by a poltergeist, inspired in part by the haunting of Esther Cox in late 1800s Nova Scotia. There’s plenty of commentary on the case—most of it by men, most of it focused on reporting the observations of witnesses, and some of it downright obnoxious—but Esther herself is conspicuously silent, which got me to thinking.

·         I have lots of practice rejigging and overhauling my own work in response to feedback. I passionately loved writing classes and workshops right through grad school, but it’s writing and editing in the day job that has really normalized rewriting for me. When I get to doubting myself during this process, I find comfort in extended zombie metaphors.

·         Heeding the incisive wisdom of two saintly real-life writing buddies and a handful of generous readers I’ve met online has brought me to version 4.2. At this point I can no longer see the forest OR the trees when it comes to this story, and although I remain irrepressibly confident in its awesomeness, if I can make it MORE awesome, I am by god gonna do it!


Things I love

·         Thinky and stylish SFF, both in print (Ursula Le Guin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Tolkien) and on screen (Battlestar Galactica, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Trek TNG, Babylon 5, Dr. Who).

·         Introducing my kids, 4 and 6, to geeky awesomeness like The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Jim Henson fantasy movies from the 80s, A:TLA, Dr. Who, and She-Ra.

·         Anything genuinely and thoughtfully scary – but I’m very picky about what qualifies. Some things that hit the mark for me: Pan’s Labyrinth, Silent Hill 2, Coraline, Wait Till Helen Comes, The Walking Dead (broke up with the show after s2 – TOO scary), The Ring (American adaptation more so than the Japanese original, surprisingly), Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series. 

I’m much more interested in supernatural horror than the real-world psycho/slasher/stalker variety (to quote Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: “You’ve told them that there are bad people out there. And they’ve known that all along”) – but the supernatural has to have something to say about the real world if it’s going to have any punch.

·         Thinky and stylish personal essays (e.g. Ursula Le Guin, Kameron Hurley, Lev Grossman) – especially about SFF, horror, writing, parenting and feminism.

·         Making things: home improvements, stained glass, quilting, knitting, crochet, pottery…

·         Singing: occasionally karaoke, but more frequently belting out Bon Jovi/Les Mis/Barrett’s Privateers in the car with the kids.

·         Gardening, i.e. home improvement with plants, mostly ornamentals. Also botanical names – I don’t know why. I think I just enjoy the illusion of power (it shouldn’t matter what the horrible invasive weed du jour is called, but somehow I feel better when I know!)

6 Comments
Chris link
8/14/2015 03:15:50 pm

Sounds like you have a real perspective and vision to your work. Best of luck!

Reply
Kathleen S. Allen link
8/14/2015 04:41:17 pm

Your book sounds so interesting. Love anything supernatural and spooky!

Reply
Megan Morgan link
8/15/2015 05:22:45 am

I love things that are genuinely and thoughtfully scary too--hack and slash and gore is not my cup of tea.

Good luck!

Reply
Vanessa Barger link
8/15/2015 08:01:27 am

I LOVE the concept for your book. It sounds like it would be fabuolus! And you included She-Ra! :) Good luck!!!!

Reply
Courtney Leigh link
8/16/2015 03:31:55 am

Your book sounds so intriguing. Right up my alley!

Also, A+ to WAIT TIL HELEN COMES and The Abhorsen Trilogy. I forgot to put those in my bio!! There's just too much awesome stuff to mention. Good luck!

Reply
Mature Hookups in Kansas link
11/22/2022 10:32:07 pm

Lovely blog you have heere

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The Unspeakable Horror of the Literary Life: A Blog

     The night before returning home to Mortshire, Mr. Earbrass allows himself to be taken to a literary dinner in a private dining room of Le Trottoir Imbécile... The talk deals with disappointing sales, inadequate publicity, worse than inadequate royalties, idiotic or criminal reviews, others’ declining talent, and the unspeakable horror of the literary life.  
    - EDWARD GOREY
    Tweets by @metuiteme

    Archives

    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.