7 Pleasures of Writing

1. Games of Free Cell are much more satisfying when you’re only allowed one game, and then you have to start writing.

2. When you’re feeling the urge to be a hermit, writing is the perfect excuse.

3. When writing is going really well, and often even when it isn’t, it can be like a little, cozy cave where it’s just you and your imagination. I call it “the happy place.”

4. Finishing something—a short story, a novel—is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. It’s even more satisfying if you print the whole thing out and then drop it from a height to get a very satisfactory thump.

5. Revising can be very satisfying, too. Each stroke of the red pen is like ripping off a scab.

6. Starting something new is also one of the best feelings in the world. It’s all blue skies and possibility.

7. Once you’ve sold a story, no one can take that back. From then on, you are always a professional writer.

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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