Fun fact: I own a dog who is not only never happy, she’s also never had food before. I’ll offer her a baby carrot* on which she’ll crunch on and then look at me shortly for another.
“I’ve never had a carrot before, mother.”
“You just had six.”
*intense stare with violin music*
The next day, I offer her a mushroom while cooking.
“I’ve never had a mushroom, mother–“
The next-next day.
“Would you like your dinner?”
“I’ve never had—“
You get the jist.
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In fact, she was just whining to me while I typed this. I looked up, asked her to come to my chair…and watched as she passed me and sauntered into the kitchen instead.
The sassiness is real.
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I once had a vet tech tell me my dog was overweight. (She was, but only by a few pounds, which she quickly shed with walks…
Running behind a number of colleges in Cambridge, England, is the river Cam that gives its name to the town. Many students make use of the river and in the summer it is often alive with punts, steered expertly or otherwise by both students and tourists.
It is an excellent way to see some of the famous colleges.
It is especially lovely in the spring when the daffodils are in bloom. I lived not far from this famous and beautiful city for some time. The area that runs along the river is known as The Backs.
Here are a couple of pastel paintings I did of that area. I hope you enjoy looking at them.
The Backs, showing the Senate House
The Famous King’s College Chapel from The Backs.
Punting is not as easy as the experts make it look. I saw someone do the common comedy stunt, Quite by…
Welcome to The “Dear J” Letters. In this epistolary style collaboration, authors Jill Yoder and Julie Kusma deliver short stories revealed through alternating penned letters their characters exchange. Each series of exchanges shares a title and a featured image. This way, the connected letters are easy to recognize. Since both authors write speculative fiction, including […]
So first off, Before I continue with my post I have an announcement…and a reminder. The Announcement is that there was so many wonderful stories submitted for Nightmare Whispers that Cyn and I had to split it into two volumes, and still have the unfortunate task of rejecting some very wonderful pieces. The reminder is that the deadline for both Nightmare Whispers and Fae Dreams is fast approaching. Which is part of why I am doing this post. Ok, we have all done this…Submitted our writing and then the wait…it is us sitting there wondering what the publisher is doing. How hard is it to just read the submission and send out an email saying Yes or no? What is taking them so long? Well I plan on explaining that here. Each anthology we plan starting with a Title, a theme, and a rough publication date. We will use Fae Dreams as an example. It will be released on October first. We set a date for the Call for submissions deadline : August 31st. That gives us a month to get it edited, organized, and published. That is not a lot of time.
During the time between the idea being had and the announcement of the Call for Submissions I usually work on the Cover design. I personally like to give the Cover Reveal with the Call so that the one’s who are submitting can gather inspiration from the design. That is really just an aesthetic choice. After the Call goes out, but after the submissions start, Cyn and I read what comes in. We decide whether it is a good fit. Our decision is based on three factors…1. Does it fit the theme of the anthology? This is such a hard one because people see differing things as fitting a theme…and we have perhaps a view for the anthology that may not fit the piece we were sent. 2. is the piece any good? this is not always as obvious as you might think. Some pieces can be made better with editing…some cannot. If the plot is not there, or the characters fall flat…or the piece is a giant run-on sentence…well it may be out of mine and Cyndi’s ability to edit. And the last factor is simple, Does it fit with everything else? Most of the time, if it is yes to the first two, it will fit. However, in the Case of Nightmare Whispers, It was tricky. I believe we solved that when we split it.
Nightmare Whispers will be released, both volumes, On October 31. We feel that gives the authors time. We will announce who is in it, and what volume they will be in on Thursday the tenth. We have a Slack channel and a messenger group for the authors to communicate should there be need. Cyndi will take half, and I will of course take the other half. We will “edit” the stories. I put the word edit in parenthesis because in truth we do a suggested edits. We tell the author where we think they should adjust their writing. Then we return the file to the authors and give them a deadline. It is expected that they edit the story themselves and return it to us by the deadline. For NW we will likely have the deadline as October 1st. Then I will take the stories and organize them and format the anthology for publication. I always do the format as it is a part of the process that requires a specific amount of fighting with it. Desktop publishing is not an easy task. We upload the file to Draft2digital, and if needed Amazon. We always set it up at least two weeks to a month ahead so that we can offer a pre-order while we attend to the details. During the pre-order we send out a pdf to the authors involved and ask them to look over the book. This allows for them to catch errors that may have escaped editing and formatting. After all we want our anthologies to be the best we are able to produce. We design, and encourage the authors to do the same. some promo images to promote the book.
Many publishers don’t have the authors to do promos because it makes the promotion images all unique. They want a streamlined promotion. We think that the input from the authors make our promotion more organic, and more real.
We have our Slack set up, and We will be sending a permission to the authors for the Anthology that they are in…but you are welcome to join us in Slack if you are interested. Here is the Invite. There is some rooms for brainstorming and general discussion. The authors will be added to private rooms for discussion of the anthology that they are in. We debated about opening up a Discord server…but decided that slack is more professional. There is an ability to chat, but it allows for a more work based enviroment.
We currently have 2 anthologies we are accepting content for. Both will be published in October. We look forward to your submission!
Is your goal to reach the moon? or something that feels nearly as impossible? tell us about it, artistically.
The above image is the Cover.
Requirements:
Art/Photography: Up to 5 each must be printable quality
Poetry/Haiku: up to 5 each
Flash Fiction: 600 max word count.
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Due by August 31st, 2020:
Fae Dreams — goals/dreams/plans are the theme.
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Submissions email to Faecorpspublishing@gmail.com with a subject of Fae Dreams.
Editing is provided. If your story is in draft form it is still acceptable, however it must be readable. We are here to showcase good indie authors, and are more than willing to help those just getting started.
This anthology reward is a free Ebook copy and the opportunity to order author copies of the printed version.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Looking for a place for your Horror fix? Nightmare Whispers is going to be the best of Horror we can find.
The Image above will be the cover.
Requirements:
Short Story word count min/max: 3k/5k
Art/Photography: up to five must be printable quality
Poetry/Haiku: up to 5 each per topic
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Submissions email to Faecorpspublishing@gmail.com with a subject of Nightmare Whispers.
Due by August 31st, 2020:
Nightmare Whispers —
Horror theme. Short stories/Poetry/Art/Haiku/Photography.
This is a paid anthology. You will if you get in receive a portion of the royalties…however you will be expected to assist in the marketing of the anthology.
Editing is provided. If your story is in draft form it is still acceptable, however it must be readable. Gore is acceptable, however do keep it reasonable, no one wants to read gore for gore’s sake. We are here to showcase good indie authors, and are more than willing to help those just getting started.
Ok, I was lapse this week. Cyndi usually does other things and leaves the blog up to me…My notes are a mess and she couldn’t do the author spotlight for me. I was not well and ended up being unable to give either blog the attention it needed. I apologize and have decided to try to do some posts ahead so that these go up when they are supposed to, whether I feel good or not.
So here is the schedule for the author spotlights and such: On August 20 We will be featuring Christine Bialczak. On August 27 we will feature K.T. Seto (who was in Through the Sunshine but I am not finding on the blog…probably me being absent minded.) On September 3 We will feature Melissa Ball On September 10 we will be taking a short break from the author spotlights to announce the authors in the two anthologies that we are currently taking submissions for. The deadline is August 31 so the tenth gives us time to sort the incoming submissions to determine who will be in the anthologies.
We will be returning to the author spotlights after that, as I have 3 more on my list (Susan Eaton, Janean McBreaty, & George Latimer). However, I also will be doing author spotlights for the authors in Fae Dreams and Nightmare Whispers.
If you are interested in being featured here then fill out the questionnaire and I will slip you into the queue. Also, remember the deadline for Fae Dreams and Nightmare Whispers is fast approaching. We are rather pleased with the submissions received so far.
Fae Corps Publishing 