Sara Norja | writer

Author: Sara Norja

  • Poetry sale to Niteblade

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in ,

    News of yay: my poem ‘Bitter Mnemosyne’ will be appearing in the fantasy and horror magazine Niteblade. Am very pleased that this poem has found such a good home! It’s about memory, cherries, and a journey to the underworld. Greek mythology was one of my childhood’s great inspirations, so of course such themes surface occasionally…

  • Sunday recs: A novella

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in

    I just finished reading an amazing fantasy novella: Martyr’s Gem by C.S.E. Cooney. It’s a gorgeously written story with characters that jumped off the screen and will linger in my mind for a good while, I suspect. The island culture she’s created is fascinating and vibrant. Sharks and gemstones! Bantering, loving sibling relationships! A society…

  • Whinging and worldbuilding

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , ,

    The pressure to come up with a brilliant post after a long time of not posting: I have it. So, I’ll just get this out, sans brilliance, but posted at least! I haven’t been writing too much recently. In the past month, I’ve written just a couple of poems and such – oh, and my…

  • Drabble for my grandfather

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , ,

    Long time no blog. Busy, &c &c. ad nauseam. Last night at my writers’ group I led an exercise on description. We each brought an interesting object and then spent five minutes writing short descriptions of each. It brought out some really good stuff, I think – a nice exercise. And one of the objects…

  • Sunday recs: Calls, swans, mermaids

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , ,

    I have several things I want to blog about, but life’s been giving me little time for reflection lately, and most of those potential posts require reflection. So, we’ll just do a very modest Sunday recs tonight. A poem: Learning My Way Around by Neile Graham, from Goblin Fruit’s autumn 2011 issue. Birds, breadcrumbs, calls.…

  • Morning pages experiment

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in ,

    So. I said I’d blog about morning pages, so here goes! Definition Morning pages. Brief definition for those who don’t feel like clicking the link above (in which Julia Cameron outlines the original concept): morning pages are three longhand pages written in the morning. They don’t have to be – shouldn’t be – amazing writing.…

  • Walking in snowbroth

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , ,

    Slept late, read a wonderful book for two hours, went for a walk. A poem rushed out, and I thought I’d share it here: * * * Crushed Ice I can’t see my future, the coming years are hidden but in this moment the sun’s shining on me, the sky’s coloured with promises. The night…

  • Short stories: the challenges of brevity

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , , ,

    I edited and sent off a short story today. Exciting! I should really write more shorts. The trouble is, I often tend to go for expansive stuff rather than the knife-sharp and short stuff… I’ve been thinking I should practise writing flash fiction to hone my short-writing skills. Was inspired by this piece in The…

  • Sunday recs: On the problematic sides of grimdark

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in ,

    Evening, gentle readers! It’s been a rollercoaster weekend; I haven’t got any creative writing done, which is egregious. Ah well, at least today I had a very productive café session with a dear friend: I worked on an article I’m writing related to my MA thesis. Oh how I enjoy crafting academic text! Anyway, links!…

  • New poetry in Curio and forthcoming in Polu Texni!

    —

    by

    Sara Norja
    in , , ,

    Now for the nice stuff I mentioned yesterday! Publications! * Two of my poems are now online in issue 11 of Curio, “a journal of poetry that explores the world at a micro-level: tiny spaces, instants, individual objects, scraps of dreams and memories, et cetera”. ‘Silver and Gold’ and ‘Man Playing Piazzolla’ can both be…