Fae, Thoughts

Fae’s First Readers

2 Comments

The Magic of AutumnLast week I asked Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman if they would consider writing the introduction to Fae. Because they are awesome (and I am lucky), they agreed so I sent them a copy of the manuscript to read. I should say, I nervously sent them a copy of the manuscript to read…

I love Fae. I learn more with each project I work on and truly feel that I improve with each one* which, obviously, translates to me thinking whatever I’ve finished most recently is the best thing I’ve done so far. But… something about Fae has been different. Magical, even. The quality of this anthology surpasses everything I’ve edited before by a huge margin.

Now, don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I don’t still love Niteblade and Metastasis and everything else I do… but I’ve really grown as an editor while I worked on Fae. That can only benefit everything else I do from here on in, but it’s also fantastic for this project in particular.

BUT that doesn’t mean I wasn’t totally nervous sending the manuscript to Sara and Brittany. They would be the first people aside from World Weaver Press Editor-in-Chief Eileen Wiedbrauk and myself to read the anthology in its entirety.

It was a nerve-wracking few days while I waited to hear what they thought. Would they like the collection as much as I did?

The answer is yes! I got an email from Brittany yesterday which said (quoted with permission):

“It is seriously FANTASTIC, we loved it!! Some of the stories were so SO good that we were yelling up and down the stairs to each other after finishing them, saying things like “OMG!” :).”

So it looks like it’s not just me then 😉

And maybe this is a little bit of a braggy blog, but I can’t help it. I’m so proud and excited about this anthology. You’re gonna love it. You really, really are!

*This is true regardless of what role I’m playing in each project: writer, editor, poet, human being.

Fae

Fae Table of Contents

3 Comments

Silver Pixie CA OrnamentIt’s been quite a journey since World Weaver Press and I first announced that I’d be editing an anthology of fairy stories. Fae has grown from a vague idea to a solid manuscript over the past few months and become even more amazing than I’d hoped. We have seventeen fantastic stories that are going to blow you away.

Allow me to share the table of contents from my forthcoming anthology, Fae:

Rosie Red Jacket by Christine Morgan
The Queen of Lakes by L.S. Johnson
Ten Ways to Self-Sabotage, Only Some of Which Relate to Fairies by Sara Puls
Antlers by Amanda Block
Only Make-Believe by Lauren Liebowitz
F.C.U. by Jon Arthur Kitson
Water Sense by Adria Laycraft
The Cartography of Shattered Trees by Beth Cato
Possession by Rhonda Eikamp
And Only The Eyes of Children by Laura VanArendonk Baugh
Seven Years Fleeting by Lor Graham
The Last King by Liz Colter
Faerie Knight by Sidney Blaylock, Jr.
Solomon’s Friend by Kristina Wojtaszek
A Fairfolk Promise by Alexis A. Hunter
The Fairy Midwife by Shannon Phillips
The Price by Kari Castor

These stories run the gamut from high-tech to old-fashioned and will sweep you away to settings as varied as modern day Indianapolis, the American civil war and mystical medieval kingdoms. They have, as I requested in my call for submissions, lush settings, beautiful prose and complex characters, and come this summer, if you’re a fan of fairies and folklore, you are going to fall in love with this book.

Sale, Writing

Sale: Seedpaper

4 Comments

Mythic Delirium MagazineI am so excited about this sale. Interestingly, I was so excited to share the news about it, that I kind of forgot to. When I got the acceptance notice it was one of those times when I read it again and again just to be sure I wasn’t misunderstanding (though the wording would have been clear as crystal to anyone other than me) and thinking I’d received an acceptance when I hadn’t. But I had! Still, superstition and paranoia meant I couldn’t talk about it publicly until I’d signed a contract. So I waited.

It wasn’t a long wait before the contract got to me, but it felt like it, because I was dying to tell people. When the contract came and I sent it back, I was so ecstatic. I could make the announcement! Except… there was a bunch of other stuff going on at that point and I didn’t want this post to get lost among the shuffle, so I filed the contract and thought, well, I’ve waited this long, I can wait a little longer.

But then because I’d filed the contract and it wasn’t in my inbox looking out at me each time I checked my email, I forgot. I didn’t forget about the acceptance, hell no, but I forgot that I hadn’t blogged about it yet.

Well, now I am. :-p

I am incredibly, over-the-moon excited to announce that my short story, Seedpaper, has been accepted for a future issue of Mythic Delirium!!!

SO exciting. For several reasons. Firstly, I love my story Seedpaper. Also? Are you kidding me? Mythic Delirium?! ZOMG!

I’d sent a couple poems to Mythic Delirium like three years ago, but otherwise I’d been too intimidated to submit there. I’d look at the name in my search results at Duotrope and shake my head. I even thought about putting the market on ignore because though I very much wanted to publish there, I didn’t think I was good enough. Didn’t think I’d make the grade and didn’t want to face the rejection letters.

I got brave enough because though I really, really love this story, I’d had a super tough time placing it (more on that later), Mythic Delirium had recently opened to fiction submissions AND I thought this piece would be a good match. So, telling myself the worst thing editor Mike Allen could say was no, I gritted my teeth and hit send on that submission.

And now, have you heard? My short story, Seedpaper, has been accepted for a future issue of Mythic Delirium!

/swoon

Niteblade

Help Make Niteblade Free on Amazon

4 Comments

Niteblade, Issue #23: BlodeuweddIssue #23: Blodeuwedd has been free to download from our website here, and from Kobo Books for a very long time. Unfortunately it’s not free on Amazon. I’d like for you to help me change that.

I made Issue #23 free because I want people to be able to see how high quality our downloadable issues are. I want people who don’t come to our website to find Niteblade, read it, become hooked and seek us out to read more. No matter how you feel about it, Amazon is key to getting noticed in this business, key to being read. If we could get Amazon to list our issue #23 for free it could go a long way toward increasing our exposure to the world. That is good for everyone.

Please go to the Amazon listing for Issue #23: Blodeuwedd.

If you scroll down to the Product Information you will see a link which says ‘Tell us about a lower price’.

Please click that link and fill out the information. When it asks you where you saw the lower price, please tell them it was at Kobo Books –> http://store.kobobooks.com/ebook/blodeuwedd

Submit the form.

Once you’ve done that, please email me at rhonda @ niteblade.com and I will be happy to send you a downloadable copy of our most recent issue, Niteblade Issue #26: A Fixer-Upper as a way of saying thank you. Be sure and tell me, in that email, what format you prefer (.pdf, .ePub or .Mobi).

And thank you. Thank you very much.

Fae

Fae Submitted

1 Comment

Lanterns and MoonlightTen minutes ago I emailed the completed manuscript for Fae to Eileen at World Weaver Press!

 

It’s fantastic and I can not wait to share it with you.

What’s more, working with WWP has been incredible. We’re far from done yet, of course. Sending in the manuscript is only about the middle point of the project, but still… It feels like a great match, you know?

Now, I need to go start writing the proposal for the next anthology I want to do with with WWP. Because that is how I roll. Cross your fingers for me.

Just Stuff, Pictures

Facelift

6 Comments

Danica's Eye - Photograph copyright Rhonda ParrishIt was time. This blog needed a facelift, so yesterday instead of tackling anything on my freaking epic to-do list, I changed up the blog’s layout. Because that is how I roll 😉

So now it’s all new and different and I’m trying to stop tweaking things and give it some time so I can get used to it and decide if I like it LoL

There’s an annoying thing that has happened to the most recent dozen or so blog posts I made though. See, first I installed a free version of this layout, and then went through all the blog posts that would show on my front page and set featured images for them. I had to do that, you see, in order to have thumbnails show up on the front page. That wasn’t a big deal except that as soon as I set the featured image the blog post incorporated that image into itself. Still not a big deal, it just meant I had to delete the original occurrence of the picture so that there wouldn’t be duplicates.

But then I decided to upgrade the theme to a paid version.

Once I did that the blog stopped automatically integrating the featured images into the blog posts they are associated with >_<

There is an option I can select which will make them start doing that again, but really, I’d rather they didn’t (as it gives me more control over where the pictures go) but also, I’m too lazy to go back through the last twelve posts to re-add the pictures. So if you happen to look at some of the older posts and you’re going ‘Uh, no pictures?’, well, now you know why.

Other than that and the usual number of little bumps along the road the transition has been pretty smooth.

So what do you think of my new layout? Love it? Hate it? Prefer the old one?

Just Stuff, Newsletter

Connect With Me

11 Comments



Published, Writing

Published: The Other Side of the Door

4 Comments

My story, The Other Side of the Door, is included in Issue #8 of KZine. I love this story. I love this story.

I wrote it while we were on vacation last year. On this particular evening, we were in Digby Nova Scotia staying at the Come From Away Inn, right by the water. Our room had a balcony that opened up to the ocean and I spent a lot of time out on it looking at all the different kinds of watercraft, taking photos and soaking up the atmosphere. In fact, I wrote The Other Side of the Door the very same night I took this photo from our balcony:

OutOfTheFog

This is also a very personal story to me, which is not to say it’s autobiographical by any means LOL but I did pick bits and pieces from it out of my own childhood. As you can imagine that makes it extra special to me, and makes me both excited and nervous about sharing it with the world. I do hope you’ll check it out though 🙂

KZine #8 available on Amazon

 

Just Stuff, Personal

Social Media Changes Everything

6 Comments

Social media makes everything different. It really does.

I had a rough few days this week (which means my family did too) that included numerous trips to different doctors, three EKGs, a load of blood tests and spending ten hours in the emergency room.

Spoiler: I’m okay. Not 100% yet, but getting there.

The reason social media comes into this is because I was like… how much do I share? Where do I share it? Does anyone care to hear about these little dramas that afflict my life, or is sharing that just attention-whoring? If I do tell the story, what angle do I take? “Shit be scary”, “Emergency rooms are an amazing study of human nature”, “Just the facts, ma’am”, “Ten freaking hours in emerg?!?!” or something totally different?

Ten years ago these things wouldn’t have ever occurred to me. I would have called my Mom (once things were resolved probably–I wouldn’t want to worry her) and possibly emailed a couple friends, but mostly people would have learned, or not learned, about my little scare slowly over weeks and months as we ran into one another socially. That’s all different now.

I have friends, family and acquaintances online. I have a following. It’s not a big one LOL but it exists.

That all changes things.

Now I have to figure out what to share, how much of it to share, and where to share it. The Twitter crowd isn’t the same as the Facebook or blog one…

What about you? Do you have a policy of sorts, or do you figure it out as you go? I’m doing the latter, but seriously thinking about coming up with some sort of policy… even though history has shown I’m not fabulous at sticking to them LoL

Anyway, I’m back at work, though at a slightly slower pace than usual. So if you were waiting to hear from me you ought to soon 🙂

April PAD, Published

Published: Their Closet Existence

Leave a comment

I felt like I should go take a photograph of my closet to go with the announcement but after about half a second of thought I dismissed that idea LoL

My poem, “Their Closet Existence” was published today on Every Day Poets. On its surface this is a poem about mine and Jo’s closet, but on a deeper level I think it’s about who we are. Deep or shallow, I am really proud of this poem and I hope you’ll take a look and give it a read.

I write, I edit and I take a lot of naps.

Malcare WordPress Security