Here lately I have been getting spurts of inspiration… and urges to write or create. It always makes me feel like I’m feverish.
I can remember when I wrote when the muse struck me and the idea of using prompts seemed like cheating. Now, the prompts are more like a spring board. I am often less worried about the prompt than I am what I want to say.
I end up feeling like the prompts don’t fit with the idea of the volume I have been working on and I pass them by. I get a vision of what I want the book to look like and then I just don’t want it to be anything less.
Now that leads me down rabbit holes looking for just the right prompt, just the right idea to be just the right poem. Perhaps perfectionism is a true problem…
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.
I have been doing the layout for Muse’s Masterpiece, dealing with the anthologies for Fae Corps Publishing, and I am sick. And I look around at the new poetry volume…there is only 3 poems in it so far.
My housework has fallen behind…
And everything aches…
And the squirrel brain says that I am a failure because I am not writing.
Sometimes we have to learn to tell our brains to shut up.
I am doing all that I am capable of right now.
And if anything I need to slow down, rest more because my body is still not feeling well.
So, hush you squishy ball of overworked fat. I am doing as much as I can do.
I posted recently about evolution of poetry volumes.
I started Echoes into the void Yesterday(For me this is Sunday.)
And already the inspiration has been leaning towards a singular topic. That does not mean it will be the end theme…but that is often how it starts. I am amused by this.
And in Announcements – I have been approved to do the Poetry Marathon Half Marathon! I did it before in 2017. It is 12 poems in 12 hours. One an hour based on prompts given. I usually enjoy this sort of writing challenge. I will be posting the poems here as well. It is in September. (I have to look up the exact date again…So I will clarify more information closer to.)
So I am done with the writing on Muse’s Masterpiece.
I will start Echoes tomorrow.
That being said… when I asked for a help to pick the next volume, I think that I miss-spoke. I always start with the idea that the volume is unthemed. (Unless I have a theme in mind) it evolves every time to bear a little bit of a theme.
I don’t do it on purpose.
I really don’t.
There is always some that don’t fit in the end exactly, but I don’t feel bad about it as it was not supposed to be a themed book to start with.
All of that being said… Muse’s Masterpiece seems to be mostly about answering the call of the creative muse.
Muse’s Masterpiece is scheduled for publishing in November (Link when I get it). And I will be writing on Echoes into the Void starting tomorrow. Maybe this one will not gather a theme on me.
As Of today… I am 15 poems from completion of Muse’s Masterpiece. I have my doubts that it will take me the rest of the week to finish writing it. I may be wrong. I have several “Themed” volumes in progress but I want a non theme volume for writing as usual. The six covers above are all non themed. Help me pick the next one?
