The first day of May AKA Beltane is also the beginning of the planting season. (It’s a pagan holiday) I have a lot planned for May, but I don’t know what to do for a daily thing. I have several things that I am going to be doing… and I am hoping to get more information for you. From an upcoming anthology that will have some of my poetry, and another one with one of Serena’s stories in it, to the next volume of Poetry I am publishing (Immortality) which is releasing in June. Fae Corps Publishing has a full release schedule for May. And June is looking full as well. I am hoping to get some art squeezed in and posted through the month of May.
I have been planning on doing some of my blog posts ahead from here on, as it worked out so well in April. Well… I am not sure where I should go. April is National Poetry Month so that is easier for me. But I am at a semi loss after that. I think that the imtern is ready to take over the Fae Corps Publishing blog… so I only have my own personal blog to attend to. Next weekend is the time I am going to be trying to get it scheduled for the month of May. That sounds like time to research what May is known for…any suggestions? I don’t know if I am going to be doing a daily thing…. that is quite an undertaking. Especially with the publication schedule I have lined up for Fae Corps Publishing.
Y’all get the information sooner, but this allows me to get my numbers higher with Amazon. (I announce it often before the preorder happens, but Amazon does use the numbers to influence how it shows my books)
Thoughtcicles will release In January and since I am so very close to finishing with Ethereal Dreams I will be looking at trying to get it published by the end of February (link to come) (I am still 5 poems from finishing it but I should be able to get them done this week) That being said…I always pick my next volume before I get the current one done. I have for the last 3 asked for opinions…but this time this cover has me obsessed. I am hoping to be able to release at least a couple of volumes in 2023, but I don’t want to go making any promises.
Fae Corps is going to be busy. We have 2 anthologies planned, at least one book from DW Storer, a book from Raz T Slasher (maybe more than one), a book from Ruan Bradford Wright, and I have a children’s book planned for kids week. We may be adding in a few other people (depending on how things go). Being as I am the main person running the house for Fae Corps at the moment… that makes it much tighter for me to get my writing in as well.
If you are interested in the newsletter for Fae Corps…I have set up a sign up page. It goes out at the beginning of each month.
Well, there are no dead from a week of my shenanigans…though I may need more caffeine than usual. By this time, I have managed a poem posted daily and still got work done. It was not the most interesting week on this blog and probably seemed more like filler to y’all. Next week should be a little less busy for me, so I can hopefully get more content here that will be an enjoyable week. Though I may have killed my neighbor by then for the ruckus he is raising with his four-wheeler, I am not sure. I will also by this time have gotten to the doctor to see why I am getting migraines more often.
For all my shenanigans, I am hopeful that everyone will enjoy the beautiful anthologies I am currently putting together. The art and poetry are amazing. The stories are just what you need on a crisp fall day to put you in the mood for candy and spooky stuff.
The next few months are going to be busy for me. (Yes I seem to do that to myself a lot) So, as I am sitting here trying to get all my weekend work caught up, I realize that my poor blog is AGAIN neglected. Friday we are releasing Andrew McDowell‘s second edition of Mystical Greenwood. That means I am trying to gather images and activities for the release day on our Facebook Party Room group. I have things I am trying to put together for the Fae Corps Blog…again to get everyone possible to see his book.
That is just the first thing I am doing. Then, I have our Halloween Anthology. This year it is called Darkness Screams. It received so many outstanding submissions that I split it to accommodate the quality of stories. (I have done this before with other anthologies)
So I am neck-deep in editing, Marketing image creation, and formatting for these two. I give myself two months to do this with each anthology because I have a routine. Once approved I invite the author/artist to join the company discord. I have each anthology set up in a private room within the channel. This allows Files to be shared and questions answered easier. I ask everyone to sign a contract (So I can legally publish their story/art/ poetry and they have protections of their copyright) I ask for a bio written in 3rd person and an image to represent them. (I say an image because I have had a few who gave me photoshopped images, due to personal reasons. ) Then I sit down and put together a rough draft of the anthology. I don’t worry in the first rough about perfect formatting or having it be edited and polished. After I get a feel for how the anthology will flow, I feel like I am more capable to suggest edits. Yeah, that seems so silly…the grammar will not change based on how it fits in the book, right? Actually, it might. It will help me to see the story on its own instead of trying to place it mentally in an imaginary book. I send the suggestions to the author and give them a deadline for when I need to see the finished copy.
Then I start while waiting for the stories to come back…to make images to catch the interest of possible readers. I do (For most of the anthologies) a cover reveal, A author/artist list for each anthology, A image to represent each story, and a meet the author/artist graphic. That can be quite the undertaking. In Darkness screams that is 3 graphics just to list the author/artist in each one. I, as you can see above, combined the cover reveals. I have already today done the story graphics for each book.
I still have more to do just for the anthologies… Then I have another book we are releasing in October. The third book in Ashira Dayta’s Magick Saga. (The cover reveal should be happening soon on Fae corps Blog. I am quite proud of that cover) It releases on October 31st. I have to do some images for marketing it as well.
Then I have other projects that are ongoing and need my attention. (For example Formatting for a Poetry book by NK – Titled Valley of Thoughts. We are supposed to be releasing that next year. Editing for Ruan Bradford Wright’s Novel Toe-Rag which is expected to release in February. Writing my own poetry and prose books. And just being a mom and person who has housework that is not getting done more often than not.)
I honestly intend to do this blog every week..but I end up overwhelmed. I think I will just post some of my poetry this week. I thank you for your patience. I swear I am not forgetting y’all.
So those who follow me know that Fae Corps is just about to have a busy season. August 26th we are releasing the second edition of Andrew McDowell’s book Mystical Greenwood. And the submissions are in for Darkness Screams. I am busier than a one armed paper hanger…I wrote the above poem to put in the front of both volumes of Darkness Screams.
I will be able to return to posting here next week. thank you for your patience. (ps. Check the Fae Corps Blog tomorrow to see the covers for the next anthology!)
She was born in the 1930’s in Washington DC. She said that young women were not allowed to carry any weapons…but they had hat pins. I put a picture on this post…She told me that the hat pins were sharp and it baffled me. How did women use them with out poking themselves? The hat pins were seriously the same as a dagger in the hands of these young women.
Her story made me think that DC was a really bad place in her youth…(though I guess I can’t say it is a good place now)
I don’t remember the whole story but it was full of the necessary thrill to ensure that the teen I was would be hooked on every word. Now the woman I am in the middle of a dystopian nightmare for women am wishing I could have recorded every single story she told. I will always remember her telling me that Roe vs Wade didn’t make abortion easier to get, it merely made safe abortion easier to get. Women were still getting them, just most of them were dying. She told me about back alley butchers. I was so happy that I was born in post Roe vs Wade America…now I am sorry that I have lived long enough to see my home become a place where I am no longer free.
So I was going through a manuscript today…previously published. I am oddly confident in what I publish. I am aware that every book – even the ones published by the big publishers – often still have typos and other minor issues. There was only 2 minor typos. I was quite impressed. Now that being said…I wonder how many times I have missed errors. I employ a multiple eyes on a project policy. This means that the anthologies that Fae corps publishing puts together are edited by myself, and then I ask the authors to go through and let me know any mistakes I missed. Especially from their own story. I ask for them to read the whole thing and point out anything missed in the entire anthology. Because in the end I want to publish something that each author is proud of.
The perfectionist in me though edits it, then runs it through grammarly, then triple checks for anything that I may have missed. I feel like I have to be better because I am a small press. I am embarrassed by any mistakes that come with publishing. So, I try to get it right the first time.
I took a writing class and I was extremely embarrassed by the way it was done. There was a hot seat session. I handed, for my turn, an unedited version of a work in progress. The person who was running the class proceeded to tear into what was wrong. I hope that no one has to deal with that. I had not adjusted the layout and had things that I knew needed fixed because I wanted to see what the teacher would do. She made such a big deal about the minor things that I felt like I was doing awful. It was something that could have made me walk away from writing. I was irritated by the way I was feeling. Instead, I decided that I would learn to do it better. I would never send my work out to be edited without it being edited by me first.
When you judge people you have no idea what you are doing to them. You could end up being the reason why they give up. Or you could be the reason why they knuckle down and improve. The only person who can possibly know what they are going to do is the one you are judging.
okay, I am done random rambling. What do you feel like has to be perfect? why?
Pattimouse 