I’m afraid to let my guard down, but I’m finally starting to get caught up on my many, many projects! In fact, I’m even ahead of the game on a few things! Hooray!
Each week, a post about one of the stories from a bundle I’ve curated will be published on Blackbird Publishing’s blog. I’ve now written and scheduled ten posts – that means those posts are scheduled through the first week of May!
Interviews with the bundle authors will appear on that site occasionally as well. The very first one will be published next Sunday – DeAnna Knippling, who loves doing author interviews, has interviewed Rebecca M. Senese about her short story “The Haunting of Melsbury Manor,” which appears in the Haunted bundle.
And I’m also writing a series of “how tos for authors” posts, which has been really fun to work on – although I am not ahead on those posts… 🙂
My next newsletter will be out in a few weeks – on March 20th, the vernal equinox, and the beginning of spring. So that’s on my list to write as well. I’ve been providing newsletter subscribers with a link to a secret page on my website that provides something special, like a peek at a cover for a story that’s not out, or the text of a short story. I’m pondering whether or not this is a good approach – if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Quite a few authors I know provide a free short story when you sign up for their newsletter, so I’m debating whether or not that would be a better way to go. I originally thought I’d put up a short story every quarter (since I send out the newsletter four times a year, unless there’s a sale or other special event), but I’ve committed to delivering so many stories this year that putting up something new every few months is just not doable.
The Faerie Summer bundle is the next one in the queue, and there are several more in various stages of planning after that one. The Beneath the Waves bundle will be released in the summer, and the theme is mythical water creatures. So far we have a few variants of mermaids/sirens, a kelpie, a rusalka, and a few man-sharks from Hawaiian mythology. It’s going to be a fun collection! And after that one is a fairy tale bundle (no title yet), which will be released in January 2018. There’s been so much interest in the fairy tale theme that it might turn into two separate bundles, which would be kind of neat.
My writing group gave me good feedback on my Lovecraftian story “The Late Bloomer,” so I’m making a few tweaks and will have that one wrapped up this week. I’m currently working on an unnamed story about Clyde, a cat who has moved into a new house only to discover that there’s a ghost cat haunting his house – and she keeps lying in his favorite spot in the sun! It’s a cat horror story! 🙂
