Writing
IWSG Day: Writing Through Life (and doggy drama)
Writing Through Life (and doggy drama) The first Wednesday of every month, the IWSG posts an optional question, encouraging members to read and comment on each other’s blogs. October’s Question is: How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something? My answer is yes. Major life events can affect…
Read MorePower Surge & Trigger Warnings
Power Surge’s road to publication has been long and bumpy, but as it gets closer and closer to publication date, I want to take a minute to discuss the age category, trigger warnings, and mature content. I’ve rarely thought of Power Surge as anything other than Young Adult (YA). However, you may notice it listed…
Read MoreThe Evolution of a Character (or a career)
I’ve lived my entire life with characters and stories in my head. Some were as original as anything can be while others were fan-fictions that never escaped my maze of a mind long enough to be put on paper. After watching Xena: Warrior Princess, I’d run around the house with music blasting. The living room…
Read MoreCover Matters Part 2: Making A Book’s Cover Art
In my experiences with small, independent publishers, making a cover is a collaboration between the author and/or editor and artist. With NineStar Press, I experienced the cover making process as an author for one book. With B Cubed Press, I was the cover artist for three books: two multi-author anthologies and one sing-author poetry collection.…
Read MoreCover Matters: Part 1
I love the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” because so many things are not what they appear. A restaurant with a run down front may have the best food in town. A person’s physical gender may not reflect whom they are inside. A great book might he hiding behind the worst cover…
Read MoreBook Review: Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade
I received a copy of “Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade on NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. A combination of the cover, the pitch “Firefly meets Sleeping Beauty” caught my attention, so I requested the book. I enjoyed reading it, though I don’t think it lived up to…
Read MoreA few words about “Butter is Not a Dress”
I don’t write a lot of poetry, and I only share a fraction of what I do write. Every once and a while, I come up with a piece I am very proud of. One of those pieces is featured in this anthology. When speaking with people, I struggle to express my gender identity and…
Read MoreFive Friendly Places that Pay for Fiction
Finding a place to publish a short story can be intimidating. Submitting a story I’ve poured my soul into out to a literary magazine is scary enough without worrying about what happens to it once it lands in someone’s slush. And there are so many places that publish fiction. I have to think about things…
Read MoreLike Birds is on Wattpad.
Wattpad has fascinated me and scared me since I started getting serious about my writing. Even before I knew what it was, I liked the idea of serially posting a story online. The problem was, traditional publishing just holds too much allure. Now that I have one book signed with a small press and another…
Read MoreTwitter Pitch Parties Are About More Than Just The Likes
When seeking an agent or publisher for a novel, I participate in every twitter pitch party I get the chance to. So far, no one “like” or “heart” has landed me an agent or a book deal, but I still participate. They help me figure out what agents like the kind of stories I write, and…
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