Category: technology

Thursday Tea Party

Hello, lovely friends. I hope that this tea party finds you well? If not I think that I can find you some lavender and jasmine blend to ease the belly.

My tea today came from the gas station . I have a weakness for peach.

It is really good, and all of the ingredients are pronouncable. I wonder about the chemicals that are in food nowadays. Sometimes, I feel like a lab rat for all of the chemicals in my food. So, when possible, I like getting more natural food.

A friend shared a nice meme with me yesterday made me smile.

I am not sure that I qualify as a Positive Patti. Though I do try. Some of the topics that I discuss are not meant to be positive.

My memoir is in preorder. I almost did not write it. I am not famous , not someone who most people would seek out to read the life story of. However, I tell my stories semi freely. I can’t help it. I don’t want to hide the past… Hiding brings shame. I have no reason to be ashamed.

Well a couple of women in one of my author groups on Facebook pushed me to write a memoir. Memoirs are for people who are famous or have enormous stories to share, I argued. They pointed out that my stories were bigger than I realized.

From stories of surviving abuse and rape to cute childhood memories, interspersed with poetry, I believe that Inspiration Without a Home is worth the read. It is my truth. There is some people who have reason to claim I am lying. I don’t intend to argue. This is my story, my truth. Let them tell theirs if they wish.

I am finally in a place in my life where I can speak my truth and not fear for the cost.

Friday my bestie, and partner in Fae Corps Publishing, releases her new YA novel. A Royal’s Undoing by Cyndi Pilcher is the first book in what looks to be an interesting set. It is filled with Elves, Murder, magic and political intrigue. Not wanting to spoil it, because I truly think it is worth the read, but the ending has a great twist.

Creative’s Rising E-Zine is in the process of production. Things that caused the summer edition to be stopped have been set to rights. So the Fall edition will be on time. I will have poetry within.

I recently interviewed for a bi-weekly writing position. If I get it I will be doing a bi-weekly article there as well. Maybe I will get in to their poetry department.

In order to apply for them, I had to do a resume. I was surprised by the amount of places I could claim in the last few years. Though I have been writing my whole life, I have only been doing the publish and share thing since 2010. Which seems like so much longer than it really is.

Oh my! Rambling on today. I didn’t realize how much I had to say! So, I am going to leave you with a question. If you had to write a memoir, what is the first memory that you would want to include?

Monday musings

I know that I usually post poetry on Monday, but the last week has been a rough one for me and creating. Between a death in the family, that hit rather hard, and general aches and pains… This week has been a lot of “couch time”…basically me and my television have seen more of each other than I ever do.

There is always a little slow down after I publish a new volume. When I wonder if I am foolish and vain for publishing. When I acknowledge that I don’t do well with pushing the books that I already have out. When I wonder who I would be if I didn’t write. When the idea scares me, so I try to force it… And end up scraping a few really bad foced starts. This is the first month after I publish a new volume.

Then, I start actually calming down… Realize that I don’t have to sell it. I have written it. I have put it out into the world so that it can be seen. I have done my part. It is my job to write, not to force anyone to read it. Those who are meant to be be my readers will find it, as long as I keep sharing. Which I have been doing a bit more of. I have been putting my poetry on graphics and putting more on my blog, and Instagram. I have a public album on Facebook and a board on Pinterest. In the meantime what that time of panic and reflection often means is that I have nothing worth sharing today, except for the view of my weirdo neurotic mind. Some like that view though, so I decided to share.

Thursday Tea Party

Today is two days of less sleep than necessary… So today I am drinking monster (I love the ultra violet zero). Add in the passing of someone I once knew… Yeah, I think it is a good idea to do something different today.

I want to direct you towards a book I am currently obsessed with…. Winnie’s Courage(Back to Oz book 1).

It is a really good story that travels through quite a few lands of fantasy. The characters are strong. And it has a interesting view of quite a few favorite literary characters. And I am only half of the way through.

It’s by a fellow author, Jess Reece. Guys , I am so in awe of her! She writes amazing stories, she draws gorgeous art, she makes beautiful polymer clay stuff. She is so cool! 😍

Tomorrow, I will be posting another bit of Serena’s Kingdoms of Sin. It is coming along nicely.

Whispers of the muse is live on more places. The preorder for Inspiration Without a Home is still going on until the 30th. After that the link is the same to buy the book. You can still get Under the Mists, as well. Not a link post, just wanted to be sure that the most recent books get extra time in the light.

I have been getting a good bit of new followers lately. I want to welcome all of you. Please feel free to comment. I love interaction of any kind. Whether it always suits the post or not.

Don’t forget to check out the blog of Fae Corps Publishing. We are doing Daily prompts in September to celebrate the upcoming poetry anthology Faery Footprints. The deadline for submissions is the 30th. We are so excited for this, as the submissions so far have been amazing.

Sketchtember has been happening all over my social media. This year I am staying busy. Doing Sketchtember, Inktober, Nanowrimo. By December I am going to be tired. 😂

What would you like to see on this blog? I am flying by the seat of my pants here, so feedback would help me to keep the good stuff coming up.

Finding Ideas

So in today’s society it seems like there’s more than we can handle in ideas out there. If you are like me, sometimes you have too many ideas. You just need to have an outside push to get the writing going.

Stories seem to be easier as far as ideas for me, but not everyone is the same. I struggle with topics for my poetry sometimes. So that is when I crawl the net looking for prompts to spark my muse.

Where do I look? Well, I personally like tumblr for prompts. The search feature helps. Look for #poetryprompts.

I also have a Pinterest board. WordPress can be a good source and there is a few who post to Instagram.

Seems like there is a few options. Sometimes you can even just put a call out on social media for ideas.

Note that many prompts can be used for writing, for art, and are interchangeable.

Where do you seek your ideas?

Friday Funday

Trying to do a writing based fun day.

Admittedly, some of them are writing tips. Some are word funnies. Hope that you enjoyed, and if you have one feel free to share it with me!

Tuesday tunes

So usually I choose one song. Which really works… But today I want something slightly different. Today I want to do a small group of songs. A playlist if you will. I am pansexual, and I have had relationships with both male and female. I don’t plan on putting the details up, and I don’t want to put the lyrics up for these. My opinion is going to be on the topic more than individual songs. The songs were chosen for this playlist purposely.

Too many of the so called lesbian love songs don’t sit right with me. To me a true love song should be good whether it is for a female or a male. These definitely have a female target, but it would work for either gender. Many, if sung by a different singer, would be made hetro.

I love that idea. The songs excite the heart in me. The poet who loves to see love in all of its facets. See lyrics are not gendered. The singer, the tempo it is sung at, these all what affects our, as listeners, perception of it. That is why some covers come across better to an individual ear than the original.

Everyone I have ever had in my life has a song that reminds me of them. Some songs I only listen to if I need to pull them from the mind, for good or ill. The first song on this list belongs to someone I once loved dearly. She hurt me because she was raw from another hurting her. Still I love her and I miss her, even if it hurt me to have her near. I will never wish her ill. It is the only song that is that meaningful for me.

I am just going to share the playlist from YouTube. If you can think of any that I missed… Let me know.

Tech Thursday

Ok. I have stated before that I use my phone for everything. I have a computer, it is a little outdated and slow, but I do have a system. Though I love computers, I rarely use mine. Why, you ask? Simple. I despise Windows 10. I ended up with a crappy copy of Ubuntu Linux… And I just got frustrated. So when I got this system I left windows alone. I prefer open source programs. In the first days of my owning computers I was rigid. I had to get certain programs, and there was no substitutes. Since I have found an open source for all of what I need to do.

With my system having windows 10 on it… I only used it for layout. It was painful to work on. Tonight I was given access to Linux Mint. I am looking forward to exploring the new os. Yes, I still have a program that requires Windows. Kindle Create by Amazon. It is their layout application. However, Linux has a few windows emulation programs. This allows me to work with the programs that are only found in windows.

So, I am setting up my system tonight. This includes installation of the os, searching for the programs that I need, customizing settings and appearance, and enjoying the “new computer smell” of it all.

So, tell me, what is your os of choice?

Thursday Tea Party

Hi all! Pull up a seat! So much on my mind… I am a wee bit squirrel brained lately. All that it takes to distract me is a shiny object in my side view.

First… I want to express my grief at the sad demise of Grant Thompson. He was way too young to die. *a moment of silence *😭

Now, I think that I promised a Tea recommendation? I love tea. Homemade, store-bought, hot or iced. I prefer sweet, but anymore I settle for adding splenda. One of my favorite store-bought teas are Stash Black Chai Spice. I prepare it with half milk and half water and it is a luxurious treat.

I have been working on the publishing company a lot here lately. It has been a learning experience. I am learning about contracts and the messy part of publishing… That moment when crap hits the fan. It is frustrating when it is your work with snafus… It feels like failure when you are handling other authors work. I am blessed with authors who understand and are patient with me.

Fae corps anthology Under the Mists is available in Ebook format… However as the platform that I chose to use for the paperback is still in Beta… We are looking at a month wait for the paperback. We are still going to be trying to get it in as many hands as possible because these stories are really worth the read.

I am quite sure most of you saw the call for submissions that I shared yesterday. Fae corps has two new anthologies in the works. We are going to do another fae story one, this one about light fae. We are also going to do a poetry collection.

Fae corps is also pleased to announce that we are going to be representing Ms Deedra Nichole in her In a small world series. We are in contract negotiations now, but I have no doubt that we will be able to do it.

I submitted 3 poems in a call for submissions that I found on wordpress. One of the three was accepted. My poem is supposed to be published on August 5th. With all of the feels of failure in the publishing… This felt like a win. I will take it.

Oh… And soon the next edition, the summer edition, of Creative Rising Ezine will be publishing. I will share the link to subscribe as soon as I get it.

Hmmm I think that is everything…. So I will be back tomorrow with some sort of tips on writing…. So for now… Time to gather tea leaves.

This is Thursday

Thursday is my weird day. I have found the groove on every other weekday. So every Thursday I sit here staring at the app on my phone and I wonder what to post. I look through the blogs I follow hoping for a clue… Throwback Thursday…. Hmmm. It would be easy… Just post old pictures… Nah man that is not really fair to the ones that actually do read the blog… Though I may be doing that on patreon today. Posting old art.

I saw one blog this time doing a pay it forward thing. That could be cool… But I have no idea what to do with that.

I am struggling with this because I want something that both is interesting to read(and write) and something that I am likely to engage y’all with. So far I am liking the way Tuesday tunes are working. Monday poetry always seems to be a good thing. And wordless Wednesday is good. Friday prompts and writing tips seems to work. So what the heck do I do with Thursday? Tea party works… But I don’t always have conversation for the tea. A good tea party needs a conversation don’t you think? So talk to me. Tell me what topics you would like me to cover at my tea party. Next week I will do a tea party with recommendations for a good tea and a topic of conversation hopefully suggested by y’all.

Indie publishing

So I have been getting a lot of people asking me to tell them how to do indie publishing of a book. It is actually not as hard as one would think.

First thing is you have to write the book. It is the hard part. Seriously.

Another question in this vein… How many poems equal a book of poetry? To be honest I am not able to give you a set number. I have seen poetry volumes of twelve poems. Most chapbooks tend towards 30. I personally always have 70 poems at least. (There have been a couple of volumes that I put smaller poems in so I added a few to the amount to feel less like I was cheating my readers.)

Most novels have a word count… But even that is flexible. Within reason. The numbers as given by this article are as follows.

Now notice that each genre has a range. That gives you an idea of what you need.

I highly recommend that you have a professional editor look at the manuscript. That way you are sure that it is up to snuff. Some will do a sample edit. The manuscript when sent to an editor should be double spaced and in a basic font. (Most have a preference like times new Roman.)

I personally recommend Kelly @ xterraweb or Deedra Nichole as I have worked with both. Although, please if you are one that offers indie authors services, comment your link.

Ok. You have your book and it is edited, now what. Look into getting you some beta readers. Beta readers are people who read your book and give you constructive feedback. This is not as easy as it sounds. Finding good betas is something that all authors struggle with. Often writing groups on Facebook are a good place to look. Offer a trade of reading.

There are two sites that publish. Both are no upfront cost. If there is an upfront cost, honestly you should look closer at the company. There are some small publishing companies that can do the work for you… But they will take a cut of the payment. If that is the way you want to go, message me. I will steer you in the right direction.

Now, layout. Yuck. I despise layout. There is a program in windows by amazon called Kindle Create. It helps to simplify the process for Amazon. Currently Amazon is the only one that does paperback edition among the sites I am recommending. Though I think that Draft2Digital has a beta version that is working on paperback distribution.

The best format for Amazon is the Mobi. Kindle create helps you to make that. The best for D2d is Docx.

Your document should have a title page, a copyright page, the manuscript, an about the author page. If you are uncertain about how to write any of these let me know. I may make a Friday post about it.

Amazon pays every 60 days. Draft2digital pays when you reach $20.that doesn’t seem like a lot, but it depends on you. How good are you at marketing yourself? You are the sales team.

Now there’s one more thing that you need. A cover. Kdp has a cover creator that you can use for a truly basic cover. You can use Canva to create covers. (Though be careful there, they do have multiple types of licence for their picture files.) Or you can buy a cover. Covers tend to be anywhere from $30 – $250 USD.

You will need for the ebooks a jpg file and for the paperback a pdf. Here is an example. This is the cover I made in Canva for one of my yet to come books.

I am not going into branding in this post. I think that I will leave that for next Friday.

Both of the websites above have newbie friendly directions. However I am willing to answer questions. This is a fairly decent guide on YouTube. Ask other indie authors on social media for advice. Most remember the beginning and are willing to at least suggest places to find the information. Or if nothing else… Google it.

I can probably do a post on marketing, but it is the one area of the indie publishing that I really am not good at.

Whew. I have rambled here. If you have questions ask me in the comments. I will try to answer them.