Breaking Down
By
Serena Mossgraves
the news speaks
of another death,
a child found in tragedy,
and the thought begins
that society is
breaking down.
perhaps it is but the symptom
of the design,
a disease of the collective mind.
darkness seeping from each corner ,
so the only ones that see
the ones that suffer,
are the childlike.
Society is
breaking down
and not a soul
notices…
Lyrics –
Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night
This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat ’til the neighbors gonna die of fright
It’s our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween
I am the one hiding under your bed
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red
I am the one hiding under your stairs
Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween, Halloween
Halloween, Halloween
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song
In this town, don’t we love it now?
Everybody’s waiting for the next surprise
‘Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can
Something’s waiting now to pounce and how you’ll scream
This is Halloween, red and black, slimy green
Aren’t you scared? Well, that’s just fine
Say it once, say it twice
Take a chance and roll the dice
Ride with the moon in the dead of night
Everybody scream, everybody scream
In our town of Halloween
I am the clown with the tear-away face
Here in a flash and gone without a trace
I am the who when you call, “Who’s there?”
I am the wind blowing through your hair
I am the shadow on the moon at night
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween, Halloween
‘Alloween, ‘alloween
‘Alloween, ‘alloween
Tender lumplings everywhere
Life’s no fun without a good scare
That’s our job, but we’re not mean
In our town of Halloween
In this town, don’t we love it now?
Everybody is waiting for the next surprise
Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back
And scream like a banshee
Make you jump out of your skin
This is Halloween, everybody scream
Won’t you please make way for a very special guy
Our man Jack is king of the Pumpkin Patch
Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King now
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
‘Alloween, ‘alloween
‘Alloween, ‘alloween
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song
My 2 cents –
Okay I will admit that I knew that today’s song had to be This Is Halloween…but I didn’t expect to find this version. I was so excited to see such a fun version.
I am doing #Drawtober and I have been greatly upset about not being able to directly share it here. I am using the Fae Corps Publishing prompts and I will try to post it on here daily in October via the Instagram link.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
I have 2 things for today.
One is a minor announcement that I have decided to turn this into a book. I am going to be hopefully less scattered in my way of teaching in it … but I’m working on it. I don’t know how long it will take to get it done.
Okay, and second I want to discuss covers. You will to publish a book need several versions of the cover. I know that it will seem confusing and counterproductive. It is necessary however.
You will start with a png of your front and rear cover. If you are buying it from a artist you might only have the front and full in the png…but I’m talking to you as if you are doing everything like I do. I use the system at Barnes and nobles to get the spine. Barnes and nobles will let you upload a pdf of your front cover and one of your rear cover and then they will help you design the spine. You can download the full cover from there. If you download it immediately you usually will not have to remove the barcode.
Once you have the pdf I recommend you export the page to jpg to give you a full cover image. You will need that. The pdf is going to be the wrong size for at least one of the other places. having a full image will help you to get the cover sized for the sites as needed. (You will not want a barcode on the image. If you ended up with the barcode erase it.)
You will need a jpg of the front cover for Amazon. Everywhere else wants a png. Amazon is the most picky thing ever.
Remember that I said I used two pdf to do Barnes and nobles? I use the template found on Amazon. They provide three templates for each item. A front, a back, and a Full cover template. With the right pdf program you can fix the picture in place of the outlines. Do make sure that you remove the words first or the sites will not accept it.
Ingram has its own template, and it is very specific to each book . It includes the barcode for Ingram.
The cover of the paperback is not going to be the same size as the one for the hardback. And only Ingram offers options for other editions.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help. As You can see this changes slightly each week. Things get adjusted because Authors are not ready or I get a book that I had promised space.
October –
11th – Fighting Ignorance by Patricia Harris
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology – Nightmare Whiskers
November-
8th – Thoughtfish by Ruan Bradford Wright (2nd Edition)
15th- Would You Like Fries with That By Mariah Lynde
26th – The Crypt Keeper’s Notebook by ZyhrenSong
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – Where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – Spoiled Naughty Ponies by Capri Summers
7th – MG: The Grim Face of Reality by Sean Armstrong
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
Everything from here down is still in the process of being acquired for Publication with 2 exceptions (Fae Speaks & Rebirth )
January
1st- Best of Fae Speaks Anthology
17th – Darkness Within by Serena Mossgraves
February
7th – From the Ashes by Mariah Lynde
21st – Rebirth by Mariah Lynde
March
14th- Gowan by Ruan Bradford Wright
I turned the page
By
Patricia Harris
As I expected the world
To be a story worth reading,
When I found that I was
Not enjoying the day…
I turned the page.
The story is going to be
One that I chose to write,
And if I am ready to with
nothing to stop me,
I turned the page.
I keep forgetting to post these….
I should have Posted this on the 27th and guess what? You can get your copy here.
Okay this is not going to be an assigned thing. I may decide to do it instead of a normal weekday post, as I am this week…or I might drop it in randomly as I feel the desire. The Fae Corps Blog Does a Saturday TBR and they are not always books that we have read, but ones that look good amongst the recommendations we get. These are all going to be ones I have read, and This will be my clear thoughts on them. Now as I sometimes sign up to be an ARC reader, I will not always have the link for you to buy the book…but I will try to post when any I do miss the link on are live.
I have always been a voracious reader. I go through a trade paperback in about 4 hours. Since I have started publishing, finding time to read seems like a bit of a luxury. Not because I don’t read now…on the contrary. I am always reading things that people send me to publish, to edit, just to get opinions on. So reading for fun just seems like something I really don’t get to do as often as I would like. I have thousands of books on my kindle. And enough paperback and hardback books that it often causes fights. (My boyfriend’s of the opinion that if I am not reading them I should donate them). I keep the ones that I am willing to re-read. That means that eventually I will pick them back up.
But the last few books I have indulged in…Ones I sought out for personal pleasure that had nothing to do with publishing…I found myself taking a couple of days to read. Simply because I was enjoying them, so I would put them down and stop for a couple of hours to do other things before coming back to them. So I realized that maybe beyond the Goodreads/amazon/and the like reviews…maybe I should take the time to tell you guys about these books.
I see hundreds of ARC opportunities. I have so limited time. I sign up for the ones that Really catch my mind. The latest one was a group of books that were all interesting looking mostly because one of my favorite authors was a part of the group. I will be getting a new book once a week until Halloween (as I understand it.) The third one finally got to be read . I forced the issue of being able to get to read….something that is such a luxury anymore. I admit that I skipped ahead to the author that was the whole reason I signed up for this group of ARC.
This one is Cursed by Darkness by CM Haines.
Y’all, I will always recommend anything that CM Haines.
I really enjoyed the characters in this. They were strong, with some interesting differences. The war and the warriors in a richly detailed world makes me want more. I loved it and highly recommend it.
I still have a couple of these books to do… so far I have been greatly rewarded for signing up.
So you found a new book?
Or maybe you just published one?
Did you find a new webcomic that you like?
Or a song you think everyone should hear?
No need for explanation…Just Share it.
You find a good deal that you think we should all see? Just share!
Or hey even a joke you think too fun not to share, Just share it.
Post links in the comments.
Occasionally I will too.
I avoid politics.
I really don’t want to have the discord in my soul that politics brings. However, I have found myself being drawn into the fray a lot more lately.
I purposely did Fighting Ignorance as a volume of political poetry because I found myself actually mad about the political issues that were coming out.
I remember thinking that everyone was pushing me to have opinions on politics when I was trying to survive being a young adult in a world that was trying to destroy me. So I refused to get involved. It did the opposite of what everyone was trying to do.
I wanted nothing to do with the news, because it would add more stress on an already tired me. Terrorism was not the people who came from a far to change my country…it was the nightly news telling me that humans were doing such awful things to each other.
I now see the political climate and wonder why we are going backwards. I read a new bill that will make voting harder for those who are like me. My birth certificate and my drivers license have two different names. My name was changed as a child. It was supposed to be changed on my birth certificate as well and due to a paperwork snafu it was not.
I keep seeing more political issues that make me feel like this country is not a safe place for me to live in, and I have no ability to do anything about it. This is why I hate politics. It engenders fear.
I am going to keep hoping for things to turn out well, I will be voting…even if my voice is probably not going to be heard.(1 live in a red state and with the electoral college in place only 51% of the vote is needed to make the choice. So my voice is likely to be unheard.)
I don’t like politics and I don’t like that I have no voice in the way my life is going to be run.
Terrorism is not always an external thing. Sometimes it’s the nightly news telling you world events.
Peeling
By
Serena Mossgraves
I need to finish all the stories
That lay half written,
Instead of dreaming of new tales
Where I am a monster
That can just peel away their skin.
The theme is utterly clear
Mentally I want to strip out
Of who I am,
Peeling away from the
Responsibilities…
Yet, still I am not a
Monster.
Pattimouse 