Category: Fae Dreams

Laziness, busyiness or burnout

I have been doing the publishing stuff since 2010. For my own personal stuff, then I started with Fae Corps in 2019.

I struggle with depression, PTSD, Migraines, and a whole bunch of other health issues. Which is why I don’t do more than I do. Fae Corps does limited books because I don’t have the ability to do anything more.

I use several platforms to publish the books, with a few routines to make the work easier for me to accomplish. And I always leave plenty of time on the deadline so I don’t ever get pressured for time. Hence why we are starting to take the children’s book submissions for the kids week books now.

One of the places that I have used for publishing is draft2digital.com and I will continue to for the ebooks. Their print option however is awful. I stopped using them when we were getting reports of the cover for the books being delivered cockeyed.

Now I do the same place as they did separately. Better quality. The trick for their ebook set up is to prevent them from messing with the layout. So the only way to do that is to provide an epub file… which means I have learned how to make that.

That was in 2020 that I stopped using them for print. I really don’t know what I have been thinking. Someone pointed out that the print was wrong for Through the Sunshine… so I checked. I care about the quality of our books. So I will always check. Yes it is something that I can fix. Something that I should have already done.

Now, I am asking myself. Is the 17 books that I still have to port over a sign of laziness? Or that I have been doing too much? And should I even get upset with myself over the whole thing?

Honestly I think that I am just going to get it done and write it off as a learning experience. If I beat myself up over it, well it will just be longer for me to get it done.

The 17 books are a mix of the early Anthologies for Fae Corps Publishing and some of my poetry volumes. In order to get it fixed I will have to take it off sale on the one place and put it back up on the other two. So I am going to be doing this one book at a time. It should only have each book down for around a week in print only.

I will get each of them updated on their books2read.com links. I plan on posting on fae corps publishing as I have each book updated. This is a ridiculous amount of work and I am probably still going to be dealing with this well into the next year.

Friday, really?

This has been a crazy month so far. Fae Corps is releasing 4 anthologies on the 31st, and I have been busy getting them ready for release. Then I get a seasonal crud. So I have been sick for the last two days.

I am starting to feel better and I look into the blogs (as I am often the one that maintains the Fae Corps blog). I did a few planned posts and decided to read the blogs that I follow to find a few to spotlight. Y’all! I literally had an angry comment on one of the shared posts claiming that I posted it without permission. I have taken the post down, unfollowed the blog in question, and blocked them so I will not accidentally see them and reblog anything by them.

I was under the impression that reblogging gave the post more reach. Which seems like more people seeing what you wrote is better? I don’t know.

I am not going to dwell on this. Instead I will let you know that we have a newsletter now (see the Fae Corps blog). We are always looking for stories and poems to feature on both. I like to link directly to the persons site when I feature people.

I have a few more people in our author spotlight file to still post on the blog… I have not forgotten. Once the meet the author for the new anthologies are done I will be returning to focus on those.

Wordless Wednesday

oVERLOad In PrOGress

I normally juggle the balls in my life reasonably well. Author, blogger, editor, formatter, artist, friend, CHW poet, poet, game master, cover designer, mom, teacher, housewife, publisher….

These hats all are comfortable. I can deal with the multiple things happening at once. Not Today. this week has been one nightmare after another. Me making mistakes that I normally avoid.

Including missing posts on my blog. And then realizing that I am too stressed to know what to post all week. Fae corps has 4 volumes coming out at once(fae dreams, and 3 volumes of Nightmare Whispers) and one of the volumes is causing Technical difficulties.(Fae Dreams). Said difficulties are because I missed details, so I am being extra hard on myself. I am fighting those gremlins that come from it. However I am dropping balls because of it. I will try to get a couple of things back on track and figure out something to post. So please stay tuned…this may be an unusual week….but bear with me.

I may just post a couple of reviews to get me through the rest of the week….

Tuesday Tunes

A day for me to discuss music

Lyrics –
Yo.
Sam.
Ha, we back bitches
Good grip with that hood shit
Full flame in front the bull pit
Bad bitch don’t take shit
Fucked last week been dead since
In the muck ducked one time
Kill em all with one line
From the swamp, bump and grind
Ain’t with the game no shuck and jive
Ain’t no soft mouth when is gold
Can’t hang low where the demons go
Cats don’t talk, they plead the fifth
One disappearance ain’t nobody see shit
(Woo!) On a different plane
Take it outside it’s so insane
Sam right rip real simple and plain
Sam B mother fucker ya’ll in hell (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
And there’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
There’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
Eat a brain while getting brained
Conductor on my zombie train
All aboard, kill a broad
Leave her bloody, choked and stained
Won’t play games no slick talk
Devil dick like a pitchfork
No super suit, no Bat Cave
Just shrunken heads and dead stock
I’m Mossberg, I’m 2Pac
B.I.G. with two Glocks
Big L from Hell and back
Collecting heads in my napsack
Ghost Rider with no chains
Spawned life with no cape
Demon child like Hunger Games
Chase a bitch, no escape (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
And there’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
There’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
First of all I ain’t going to hell
Let ’em know we’re going to need a lease
I stay hungry I need a feast, I’m like,
“Didn’t I tell you don’t feed the beast?”
Went and got a little Holy water and then
Put it onto my Jesus piece
Got her wet like she’s seen the beach
And I think your girl’s goin’ to need a priest
Say I’m ill when I’m over seas
Couldn’t see how that’s not true
My jewelry looks like it caught Flu
And my neck looking like Achoo
Girl you got to be psychic
If you think that I’m crazy
I would show you my good side
But what have you done for me lately?
Every day would be heavenly when she
Call me up and I stop through
Every day I look to the sky and I
Thank God that I’m not you (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
And there’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
There’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
(No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
And there’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
When the elevators go down
And the guest list is closed
Ain’t no +1’s allowed
And the devil locked his doors (No room in Hell)
The nightmares come quick
The air is getting thick
When the dead start to rise
There’s no place to hide (No room in Hell)
Sam B!

My 2 Cents –
My head is deep in editing of some really great horror stories for Nightmare Whispers. (and some great poetry and flash fiction for Fae Dreams. ) We have announcements upcoming on the Fae Corps Blog Thursday. So I chose a song to match my theme. This was done for a video game. It was honestly better than the game it was made for. The video has some great cinematic effects. This song makes it into my daily listening most of the time. I am not usually into rap music, with a few exceptions. This is one of the exceptions.

Thursday Tea Time

Hello my dear readers, I am hoping this finds you well. It has been a bit since we had our tea party. Tonight I am doing a nice hot cup of Chai.

Well, We have what looks like two volumes of submissions for Nightmare whispers. Fae dreams is collecting submissions as well. Both are planned for a October release. Fae Corps has managed a Duo-trope listing!

I have slowly been working on revisiting all of my older volumes to make the layout just that much better. I have also been writing, so I should have at least one new book to share before the end of the year.

Thursday Tea Party

Time for Tea, Thursday Tea Party
Thusday tea party

Hello lovely readers! Time for tea again. Today is a Lipton Ice tea for me.

I don’t know if you noticed… But I stopped doing the monthly link posts… This is because I added a page for the links. I feel like this makes them easier to find. However it also, I suppose makes it easier for some people to ignore… It has good and bad to it. Still I feel like this is a better way.

The pandemic has been doing a real number on my ability to focus and thus my ability to write. I am currently working on writing my submissions for Fae Corps anthology Fae Dreams. The theme is Goals /dreams. Serena has already submitted for this and Nightmare Whispers. Both have the deadline of August 31. So far I have 1 poem to submit… Out of the 5 possible. So I have got to get writing! Can’t let Serena outdo me, right?

I finished with a sketchbook. I plan on doing a video sketchbook tour for patreon this weekend (patrons only but you can be a patron for as little as a $1 a month. ) I think that I did really well with some of those pieces.

Also I just got a new deck. Readings are available (by donations only, I don’t set a price. I ask only that you donate something for your reading and leave the amount up to you. ) I will be doing a full post about this tomorrow with deck pictures.

Calls For Submission

I decided to offer links to a few calls for submissions today. This has been such a busy week with release day coming up for both Through the Sunshine & Poetic Reminders that I am afraid I have gotten very little else done.

So we will start with the two Fae Corps has…Nightmare Whispers & Fae Dreams.

Then there are two more that I have come across in the last couple of days that I found interesting….

Burningword Literary Journal & Write of Passion both are looking for submissions right now.

then there is this list of 48 Writing Contests in June 2020 

I know that this is a small post for me…but it is highly packed with possibility….If you enter let me know. I am curious as to whether anyone will see this.

Thursday Tea Party

Hello there. Today is a green tea sort of day for me. This year has been a strange one, time passes either on fast forward or in slow motion. I am looking forward to the release of both preorder books (Through the Sunshine, and Poetic Reminders.)

There is a deadline coming up for two of Fae Corps calls for submissions in June. Nightmare Whispers and Fae Dreams. There is going to be a call for submissions put out in August for a new anthology as well.

I have been updating keywords on my books… And it was brought to my attention that a few of my covers needed work. It feels like I do this yearly… But I have been updating covers again as well.

The original
The updated cover
Original cover
Updated cover

The person who made the suggestion is a poet of considerable talents. I had approached her for marketing advice, and what she said was basically that some of my covers lacked the personality of my poems… I immediately understood. There was some of the covers I liked better than others. I started with the covers that I liked least.

Please don’t get me wrong… That does not mean the covers are bad… Or even in need of replacement. It just means that I could see her point. I was not happy with those covers because they did not suit me. I had something similar happen with a logo I had been using… Someone stopped me and said that it did not suit me. When I asked why she simply replied that it was just not colorful enough… It seems that I have a lot of personality and it shows up in my work.

For me these books are my art. Yes I could pay for the “perfect ” cover… I would likely sell more… But it would not be mine… Does that make any sense? I don’t write for the money. I write because it is part of who I am, who I always have been.

Thursday Recovery Party

Hello my lovely readers. I don’t know if you missed me yesterday… I was terribly ill. My daughter had it (a stomach bug)… And apparently decided to share. So I spent yesterday in illness. Today I am doing much better, though I am still being careful with food.

This week has been a slow one for news. The preorder for Through The Sunshine and Poetic Reminders are still going. Fae Corps still has 2 anthologies that they are taking submissions for.

Now… Here’s something that I rarely do. I have many writers as friends on Facebook. I don’t promote Facebook off of there much… It just feels pushy most of the time. However… This is a story worth sharing. This is part of why I have gone almost completely to draft2digital. I only use my kdp account for when Amazon gets too picky and refuses something that I know should be publishable.

Hopefully this finds you all well. Tell me what is new in your world?