Residency: Week One

Despite all the storm-related chaos, I made it in to my office only a day late. My studio is huge - I have a table designated as a desk, looking out over the city, with my laptop and a nice big keyboard. Along the back wall is a work bench - I found some cardboard boxes in recycling, flattened one out, and am using that and some post-its for planning and keeping track of characters.

Tomorrow I am bringing in a rug because the combination of a polished concrete floor and a wheelie office chair is proving... fun, but not entirely compatible with health and safety.

It's nice to spend some time in this part of the city. In my first year of university I had a job filing invoices for a fish factory, and I used to walk past here, and across town on my way to work twice a week, picking up a pastry for lunch on the way. The supermarket next door used to be a music shop - I remember buying CDs there. Nearby was 128 - the radical social and community centre where I attended so many anti-war and other meetings. The building is gone - it burned down in 2020 - and it still feels a bit weird it's not there any more.

(2020 was an even more surreal year than I remember.)

Of course I've been to plenty of events near here in recent years - it's not like I've been entirely absent. But it hasn't felt like a stomping ground in the same way, and I like feeling some sort of established presence here, however temporarily.

I've made a start on my novel as well - I wrote the first two thousand words, as well as having an initial meeting with my mentor. I'm feeling good about it - there's a lot I need to work out, but getting to know my character, and her voice, is very satisfying.

Have you nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards this year? They're fan-voted awards for science fiction and fantasy from Aotearoa New Zealand - but anyone anywhere can nominate. As usual, I've made a batch of nominations (with a bit more reading to go). My novella Spellcasting On is eligible, so if you enjoyed it, I'd love it if you considered nominating.

Wishing you all a calm end to the week.

mā te wā

Andi

Andi C. Buchanan - speculative fiction, creative non-fiction, and the occasional poem

Andi R. Christopher - sapphic fiction with magic and witchcraft, set mostly in Aotearoa