Category: editing

Cover Reveal

The link for Day. The link for Night.

Guess What?

Fae Corps Publishing is releasing two new anthologies. My poetry will be in Dark Dreams: Ready for the Day along with a new story from Serena.

Serena will have poetry in Dark Dreams: Letting in the Night. I don’t have links for both yet…but I will get them posted here as soon as I do. (The link for Day is giving me trouble. I have the one for Night…) Come back in a week to see the pretty covers I designed for these two anthologies.

Another Book release

I don’t often do Nonfiction. Still when I started Fae Corps I did some writing classes for the groups we did. I decided to compile it and release it as a book. There is world building, character development, writing poetry, and children’s books. This is a quick help guide to all writers. It is currently on pre-order with a release date of October 13th. Get your copy Here.

It’s Six o’clock do you know where your blogger is?

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.

Perfection Goblins

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?

Thursday Tea Party

Hello my lovely readers. Today I have a nice cold green tea, how about you? I hope this finds you all keeping cool in this heat.

I have very few announcements but I figured I would update you all as I could.

One, we are diligently working at Fae Corps to get the Into the Glen anthologies out. Those should be out in August, As well as the Poetry book by the Lovely Beulah Vega, A Saga For the Unrequited. I am quite busy trying to get both together and will post links as soon as I have them.

I am supposed to be in Indie Blu(e)’s upcoming anthology But You Don’t Look Sick with a bit of Poetry…again links upcoming.

My resin art is for sale on my Facebook page. I am taking commissions. If you are interested in what I can make I have posted a album full of the molds I own on my personal Facebook. It is public, as not much is.

I have added a new thing for Fridays to try to bring more fun to my blog. I will start it tomorrow. Let me know what you think.

I have been adding my art to Deviant art (the link is on the side). I have also been trying to do recordings to make mine and Serena’s Books into Audiobooks. So the occasional poetry reading is going up on YouTube in the meantime.

So, that is all of mine…what are you doing for the summer? Any fun plans?

Thursday Tea Party

Hello Lovelies! Today I am drinking some lovely peach tea. What will you have?

There is a lot to announce!
First off, one of my art pieces that I submitted to Indie Blu(e)’s Through The Looking Glass: Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within was accepted! I will try to keep you updated on that as I know more. I am so excited as their books are so pretty. I submitted to that and to But You Don’t Look Sick …I have not yet heard about But you don’t look sick. Again, updates as I have them. *Edit: I finished writing this and scheduled it. Then I went to check my email, only to find the acceptance letter in the email I will have 4 poems in that anthology.

Next, Serena finished writing Madness and Truth. It has been through the alpha readers and is handed off to the editor currently. The story is creepy and carries a good haunted feel to it. I expect that we will be publishing it some time in 2021.

I have finished writing Afraid of Shoe Mountain and am currently working on the illustrations. Though I love Shannon’s Illustrations, and will likely hold Dylan and the Hotel Zombie until she can do the art, I am not wanting to continue to wait with Afraid of Shoe Mountain. I am enjoying the illustration of this book. I have been uploading them to DeviantArt for those who are interested. (I only have 2 finished so far).

I am nearly done with the writing for Heart Drops, and Half-Mad Meanderings. Serena has been working hard on Death Becomes Her. Half-Mad Meanderings is only 5 poems away from done. Heart drops 2 art and 7 poems away. And Serena says she still needs 20 poems for Death Becomes Her. Likely all three will be released in 2021.

Circle City Publishing is nearly ready to release their An Absurd Apocalypse that will have Serena’s Flash story in it. I do not know how much longer that will be. I will let you know more as I do.

Fae Corps Inc is going to release Faery Playground with my art and a story from Serena in May. The tone of the submissions had the cover needing redone. They plan to reveal the cover on April First (No Joke!). It has been a fun anthology to edit if I am honest. I am looking personally for 2 ARC reviewers. (ARC reviewers are readers who, for an advanced copy post an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. )

Well, I think I am finally done with the updates! whew! That was a lot!

Oh! and I am considering adding a store to my blog. I make jewelry and Resin pieces that I need to find a place to sell. I am going in April to the local flea market, but I like the online store idea better. My studio is very nearly set up. So the next focus is a storefront. Watch here for more information.

Let’s Talk!

Photo by Valeriia Miller on Pexels.com

I made a silly list of goals…on facebook. I’ll place it here in the post. Then I will tell you about it.

Okay… Goals for this week :Of which I am hoping to finish at least half of :
1. Assembly of a polished poetry volume for fcp’s newest author
2. Edits on the submissions for faery playground.
3.podcast interview with Destiny Constantin
4. Writing on afraid of shoe mountain – with hopes of finishing this year.
5. Reorganization of Bedtime Tales : the princess lost.
6. Laundry and reorganization of my own clothes.
7. Actually pretending that I am an adult….
8. Writing poetry for half-mad meanderings and heart drops.
9. art!
10. Getting the craft room organization started.
11. Work on the kingdoms of sin
12. Work on life, guilt, and undeath
13. edit Dylan and the hotel zombie
14. Doodles for my girl Red’s Lily Doodles
15. Art with my Angel.
16.Dungeon planning for d&d
17. Zombie killing in 7d2d
18. Therapy
19. Finish the story for fae shivers
20. Kitchen witchery
21. Fix the stupid printer
22. Share the shit out of a few posts pertaining to books that I want to support.
23. Clean old cans out of the pantry
24. Drink more water
25. Figure out what to post about this Thursday and Friday on my personal blog
26.enjoy the thought that people like my work.
27. Watercolor painting
28. Smile at least once a day.
29. Listen to music for no real reason.
30. Make lists to amuse myself, and then try to do everything from the list even though the list is waaaay too long

I accomplished more than I expected. The podcast airs tomorrow. Afraid of Shoe Mountain is written. It is going through the edits, and the polish that the best books deserve. The Princess Lost is available for preorder, going live on March First. Ivor Steven’s Poetry volume Tullawalla is also available for preorder, going live March 31st. Obviously I did not get today or tomorrow done ahead. I have not gotten my edits completed…but I have gotten it started. I will be sending those edits back next week. I got the pantry and the printer done. I have doodled, I arted…And in all I figured out that I am doing something each day that progresses my goals. Still I am having days that I can’t do. I have to accept with grace that I cannot do everything I want to, and keep moving forward on the goals so that I eventually manage everything that I want to do.

What goals do you have that you want to manage soon and what is your limits?

Thursday Tea Party

Hello Lovelies! Long time since we had tea. My current favorite is Lipton’s Peach Passion Green Tea.

2020 is nearly over, and I know that I am not the only one who is grateful. 2021 is already shaping up to be busy. Fae Corps has several authors lined up that we are going to be publishing. We have 2 anthologies planned (Fae Playgrounds and Fae Shivers). Serena is going to be in Circle City’s Absurd Apocalypse Anthology. And I submitted to two of Indie Blu(e)’s upcoming Anthologies. (I hope I get accepted, their books are always so pretty. )

Song of Shadow released this week. I am still working on Half Mad Meanderings and Heart Drops. I hope to release both in 2021. I am also planning on pulling each of my Poetry Volumes, one at a time, and Revamping and re-releasing them. I don’t know how long it will take to do each volume. I do know I will be releasing Large Print versions of each as well. I have learned so much this year that I can put into practice on my books. I hope it will give you, my readers a fun thing to look at.

This will be as far as I am concerned the final version of each book. Serena’s not going to do that with her books, and I am going to go through the poetry volumes first then deal with the children’s books after. I may try to talk Serena into large print at least.

I am also working on Grandmothers wisdom. Coffee house writers anthology will release next week. Like I said 2021 is shaping up to be a busy year.

Whispers of the Future

The kid is asleep, So I thought I would take the time to do an update here. 2020, for all that it has sucked, has taught me a lot. I updated most of the covers on my poetry volumes this year, but I really have not looked at the interior of any of them since I published them…until recently.

Now don’t get me wrong…I did not publish anything badly, I just can clean it up and make it look a little nicer. So I have decided that is what 2021 will be. I have a full schedule with Fae Corps…We have multiple authors who have entrusted their books in our care. And there will be 3 anthologies for fae corps. I have one I am hoping to release (Wisdom: Grandmother’s Words). So instead of trying to release any new poetry volumes in 2021, I think that I am going to update and re-release my older volumes.

Changes in staff at Fae Corps is making this year coming exciting…and scary. Fae Corps is growing. We have up till now just had Cyndi and I doing whatever needed to be done. That left both of us stuck with marketing, something that neither of us are normally that good at. Now we have KT. Due to a difference in opinion we lost our consulting editor. We decided on official roles. Cyndi is our Developmental editor, I am the Copy editor. I do the Cover designs, KT does the marketing, and the scheduling. We also take projects for authors who do not choose to publish with us. Cyndi took an editing job that ended up choosing to publish with us after.

So with Fae Corps being so busy, I feel like I should plan my own writing projects to be lighter.. Not nonexistent, just lighter. Song of Shadow releases December 1st, 2020. I also am in the Coffee House Writer’s Anthology Volume 1 which is available for preorder. Serena is working hard to get stories ready for Fae Corps 2021 anthologies, and has one coming out in Circle City’s An Absurd Apocalypse. (It’s only a flash fiction, but I read it and it is cute and funny). 2020 was a busy year writing and publishing wise. I submitted to a project for Indie Blu(e) publishing which I hope to hear whether it is accepted after the first of the year. (Another small press with big talent that I want to support) So even though I am planning to do clean up on older volumes in the upcoming year…as you can see it will be a busy year.

Of Course I will still be working with Coffee House Writers, and I am still working on the two new volumes…I am just not rushing to put them out over the next year. Maybe I can do a re-release a month and see what else I can squeeze in from there.