Just a quick stop by…Fae Corps faeries are quite busy with trying to get books published and such. We have two new anthologies out Seeking stories and Grandmother’s Wisdom and we are about to release Serena Mossgraves’s Poetry Death Becomes Her. We are working on getting the preorder ready for Andrew McDowell’s Mystical Greenwood (link coming soon) and A poetry volume for the poet Nk.
We have several other indie authors coming up. We have a couple of Meet the author posts that are needing to be posted. (I am hoping to get at least one this week) The call for the next anthology is out. (deadline is August 1st)
So keep your eyes peeled. This blog is over the next few months going to be popping with news and updates on upcoming books. Our Party Room group on Fb is also going to be getting busy with celebrating the new releases.
AR Clayton has an interesting sense of humor. We asked them what type of writing that they do – They checked Novels, short stories, poetry, blogger, and vlogger. They also checked other. We asked for more information and this was the response –
I also like to say “Come in….come in!” in a spooky voice when the wind blows open a door late at night. It’s something my grandmother did. If that isn’t the start of a good story, I don’t know what is.
We asked What or who got you started? We got this response…
I think I was gifted with a vivid imagination, which I am very grateful for. I love art. When people can express themselves freely through art–whether it’s by painting your house purple and your front yard hosting an armada of plastic pink flamingos, writing War and Peace, or sitting in your writing room late at night wondering what your protagonist will find around their dark hallway corner–I think it a beautiful and awe-inspiring thing. Storytelling is an old art, and there is something uniquely special about it.
AR shared about fun/ hobbies: Reading, writing, painting, gardening, playing the occasional video game; leaving walnuts out for the squirrels to bury in my neighbor’s yard.*
Going to hardware and garden stores and committing to too many home projects at once. Bicycling, feeding pollinators, eating the occasional taco. Making my husband nervous when I attempt to break the laws of physics. Gravity should be negotiable, after all this time.
*Our neighbors went looking for their cat one night and went into our backyard, despite our polite request to call/text us first (as this has occurred before). After hearing a worrying noise, I look out my window (around midnight we’ll say for the sake of atmosphere), and what do I see? A hooded figure with their head bowed, walking very quickly around the back of my house. Scared me to death; will most definitely use in my next novel. But my next battle strategy may be summarized in three concise words, if the walnuts prove not enough: “motion activated sprinklers.”
(See what I was saying about the sense of humor?)
Family? My husband the Saint; Ru the Labrador Retriever-mix rescue who insists on featuring in each of my novels, poems, short stories…etc. You will always find a dog in my work.
And lastly when asked about Writer’s block – I stack it with other alphabet blocks until words form, and soon you have an idea, a sentence, a paragraph, a story…You have to outsmart these things, you know? Get ahead of them and all. In seriousness, I don’t force writing–or at least I try not to. I ride on my indoor bicycle (a “trainer” as the cool kids say), go for a walk, clean, watch a movie, listen to a soundtrack–anything to give the mind a break and let my brain rest/run quietly in the background. It’s important to take care of ourselves.
Let’s all check out their book. The second book is currently being reviewed by a publishing agency–fingers, toes and elbows crossed according to AR Clayton. Let’s wish them luck!
Marie is an author from Cebu, Philippines. She has an amazing brother who’s her partner-in-crime in a lot of her work! They record her songs and videos in her bedroom and he pretty much does everything except the thing she does in front of the microphone or camera, plus he takes care of the graphic design and marketing needs. He conceptualized the cover for her novel and does all the social media.
When faced with writer’s block she takes a break and a cold shower! She also flip through different kinds of music and see if any of them jog her creative brain cells. Worst case, She runs to my boyfriend or brother or best friend (or all of them altogether in a group chat) and starts an impromptu brainstorming session.
We asked What do you do for fun? And she responded “I read! I like fantasy, mythology, time travel, dystopian, historical fantasy… and children’s books because they’re fast and easy reads, haha. I listen to music a lot, build up playlists on Spotify, and write my own songs when I’m especially feeling inspired. I love to travel, and I support the theatre arts by going to see a musical whenever I have the opportunity. I also enjoy stargazing and astrophotography. (When I was a child, I wanted to be an astrophysicist, and collected every National Geographic mag that had anything about stars and the universe on the cover.) And I drink a lot of coffee. Coffee is life.”
Her first novel, Hotel Fen, a urban fantasy collaboration with US-based fellow indie author Meri Benson, was published in August.
We asked why did you choose to be an Indie Author? “It has been my dream to put a book out in the world, but it seemed to be a long and daunting process. I struggled with finishing a manuscript and I could hardly imagine chasing after agents to get traditionally published, especially since I had a full-time day job; I wanted to write for art, and because I liked writing. Meeting and becoming friends with an indie author opened me up to the idea of self-publishing, something I only read about before and seemed to be just as daunting as going traditional. And, well, the pandemic contributed to my decision to go indie; these past two years have been “okay why not” years for me, so I just took the plunge and aimed to check something off my bucket list, and here I am!”
She has her own songs and covers up on Spotify. She is slowly building the soundtrack of her first novel!
Justine lives in central Iowa. She says creative writing helped me to rehabilitate myself after a 1990 car accident in which I sustained a severe brain injury. She is the mother of seven children, five of them adults now. Her oldest son Bradley created the cover art for a yet unpublished novel about the Three Fates and Macbeth, called “Macbeth’s Spinners” Seen Below.
When asked about writer’s block she responded “I’ve suffered with writer’s block, but writing is so important to my health that I know I need to keep writing, even if its bad. I revise and rewrite later. I treasure the connections I tend to make between storylines.”
Her response to what she does for fun was “I’m never not writing, since it’s part of my health. I also love learning about history and magnanimous people, and I integrate that in my writing. The research I do for stories is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing. I also love reading and learning about classic literature, and I have a Master’s Degree in English Literature.”
Justine has a Facebook Page to keep up with her activities.
Also Known as B.F. Vega for horror/fantasy and speculative writing, Beulah has become one of our favorite authors. We just released a chapbook of her poems. We asked a whole bunch of questions as we always do for these. Beulah’s responses all were delightful. I think that I do not want to paraphrase or clean them up so I will share hers like a interview.
ow long have you been a Creative? I’ve been in theater since I was seven. I’ve been writing since I was sixteen or so.
What or who got you started? I don’t know. But whoever it is owes me!! 🙂 Seriously, short stories: I have always made up funny scenarios for my friends and I and one day I just started writing them down. Horror/Poetry came to me when I discovered that boys are no good poopy-heads…because I am that mature. 🙂
Why did you chooseto be an Indie Author? I actually sort of fell into it. I like the community that I have found in the various indie publishers that have published my work. I like that once you are in the community it is more supportive than competitive.
Has any of your work been published/shown or do youhave a website? If so, where? Yes. Stories have appeared in Nightmare Whispers, Dark Celebration, Infection, The Legends of Night, Extreme Drabbles of Dread, Haunts & Hellions, and Good Southern Witches. Her poetry has been published in Fae Dreams, The Literary Nest, The Cauldron Anthology, Sage Cigarettes, Resist! With Every Inch and Breath, The Tuna Fish Journal, Hallowzine, Walled Women Voices against Violence, and Blood & Bourbon among others. Her poems have also been performed as part of the Bay Area WTF festival in “Heroines, Harpies, and Harlots: A Woman Speaks” and the Cloverdale Performing Arts “Dead Poet Society, Players in a Pandemic”
What do you do for fun? Hobbies? Cause mischief. Come up with evil Rube Goldberg style schemes to take over the world. Watch Kaiju movies. And I embroider inappropriate sayings on things. Sometimes I make whole quilts out of my inappropriate embroidery.
Where in the world do you live? Santa Rosa (It’s an hour north of San Francisco)
Do you have family or pets you want to share with us? Isn’t “family and pets” redundant? I am in-between cats at the moment and trying to trick my roommate into getting a puppy so I can love it and he can take care of it.
Have you ever suffered with writer’s block? If so how do you deal with it? Not really. I usually have a million things going on at any time. As I write this I have eight shorts, two books, and some essays that I am supposed to be doing instead. I don’t have writers block so much as writers procrastination. And as with all procrastination the answer for me is accountability…so shhhh don’t tell my writing accountability people that I have so much to do and am filling out this survey instead.
(ok Beulah Vega we won’t)
So go check her out! Her poetry is amazing and her stories are better. We look forward to her work everytime!
Elana started off writing academic papers, but for the last seven has been writing fiction. At seven years old she read a Jules Verne novel and decided that she would write a better one the following year…it took her a slight bit longer.
Elana chooses to be an indie author because as an academic she lives with strict rules and schedules. She wants a bit of creative freedom in her writing. She has 3 novels and more than 60 short stories published in various magazines and anthologies.
For fun she travels, which means that right now, her only hobby is to go over Instagram posts from years past with a glass of wine and tears in her eyes. She lives in California. Previously she lived and worked in Israel, Hong Kong and Italy. Not to mention the fact that she was born in the country that no longer exists: the USSR.
She has two kids who have learned to put up with her flights of fancy through long practice. The Daddy Longlegs who lives in her office will do for a pet because she doesn’t like dogs and is allergic to cats.
We asked about writer’s block and her response was “Every day. And every day I sit in front of my computer and stare it down until the writer’s block scuttles away, only to come back later.” Such a wonderful way of putting it.
This week, we bring forth another one of our authors by the name of Beulah Vega, who goes by B.F. Vega for her horror/fantasy and speculative creative work! From the Santa Rosa, CA area, she is between cats while trying to convince her roommate to get a puppy so she can love it and the roommate take care of it. It sounds like the perfect strategy!
When asked how long she’s been in the creative field, B.F. Vega answered that she’s been in theater since seven and writing since sixteen years old!
When asked who or what got her started, the following was her reply: “I don’t know. But whoever it is owes me!! Seriously, short stories: I have always made up funny scenarios for my friends and I and one day I just started writing them down. Horror/Poetry came to me when I discovered that boys are no good poopy-heads…because I am that mature.”
As for the types of writing she does, she writes short stories, poetry, and novels!
Speaking of writing, you can see that B.F. Vega has been published in many things, including: Nightmare Whispers, Dark Celebration, Infection, The Legends of Night, Extreme Drabbles of Dread, Haunts & Hellions, and Good Southern Witches. Her poetry has been published in Fae Dreams, The Literary Nest, The Cauldron Anthology, Sage Cigarettes, Resist! With Every Inch and Breath, The Tuna Fish Journal, Hallowzine, Walled Women Voices against Violence, and Blood & Bourbon among others. Her poems have also been performed as part of the Bay Area WTF festival in “Heroines, Harpies, and Harlots: A Woman Speaks” and the Cloverdale Performing Arts “Dead Poet Society, Players in a Pandemic”.
Why did she choose to be an indie author? B.F. Vega says she sort of simply fell into it. That the community is more supportive than competitive, and that she has come to love the indie communities she’s become a part of and published through.
What about Writer’s Block? Surely we all hit that, right? Maybe not! She always has some project going on, whether it’s short stories or novels or poetry, and claims that it’s more writer’s procrastination than it is block. Which, I’ll admit, I can definitely relate to in that sense! But shhh, she’s not really filling out this survey for us, she’s actually working on writing!
What about outside of writing, what kind of hobbies does B.F. Vega enjoy? Well, she likes causing mischief, coming up with evil Rube Goldberg style schemes to take over the world, watching Kaiju movies, and embroidering inappropriate sayings into things. Like quilts. Truth be told, I’d totally be down to have an inappropriate saying quilt.
And finally, where can you reach B.F. Vega? At her email address: vegabeulahf@gmail.com!
Thank you for joining us for this wonderful author spotlight, and hope to see you next time!
Lorraine is a blind Author. She writes poetry, short stories and maintains a blog. She swears that she was born holding a pen. We have had Lorraine now in two of our anthologies, Fae Dreams and Faery Playground.
Lorraine is based in the UK where she lives with her husband and a rough collie she has named hope. Wheelchair bound, Lorraine is limited to what she is capable of. What she writes is amazing. Her blog, Blindwilderness.wordpress.com is fun and enjoyable to read.
The Tenth Zodiac, also known as Nina Mohan, is a wonderful Poet and Author. Her site is filled with verse and delights. She writes short stories as well as poetry, and publishes to Spillwords press.
We asked her why she chose to become an Indie writer and her response was that she wanted to be known as being a writer. We have no doubt that this up and comer will achieve that goal. Her blog shows her more than capable.
When asked if she ever suffered with writer’s block and how do she dealt with it, her response was “Oh yes I have. I wait for it to pass and then a come back is always amazing !!”
Married with a young son, Nina juggles everything well. We look forward to seeing more from her in the future!
A delightful Faery in disguise, Kim came to us to be spotlighted! A poet and all around creative, Kim can be found dancing through mushroom rings when she is away from home. She has two lovely pet cats and lives in Laurel, MD.
When asked if she ever suffered with writer’s block and how she dealt with it, Her response was so delightful. “I call it “writer’s anxiety.” I believe in colored pens, breaking up the page or screen, and junk journals.”
She considers herself both traditional and indie when it comes to writing, and we are pleased to present her to you. Maybe I can talk her into a discussion sometime about Television and share interest in one of the classics. (She indicated an interest in the original Beauty and the beast program with Ron Perlman. It is one of my favorites.)
Fae Corps Inc 