I was invited to join the Uncollected Anthology in the spring, and participated in their most recent anthology, Fairy Tales. The group currently puts out three anthologies each year, and there’s a quarterly conference call to talk about plans, marketing, etc. I volunteered to take over running these calls, and for our most recent meeting I put together the agenda and made sure we went through everything. I realize not everyone would enjoy doing that, but I actually like this kind of thing. And even better: it was a really fun meeting! We talked for a little over an hour, and after the call ended I felt energized and invigorated. It’s a wonderful group of people, and they’re all great writers. I still can’t believe they invited me to join them!

I’m continuing to work on my non-fiction book, and feel better about it after my editor took a quick look at it to help see if I’m on the right track. I thought I was, but sometimes it’s good to get a sanity check – and since this is the first non-fiction book I’ve ever written, I was feeling a little uncertain. She gave me some useful feedback, but overall she liked what I’ve done, so hooray!!!

I’m also finally getting close to publishing the next volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries. I sent out feedback to some of the authors, and have to review their revised manuscripts. Once that’s done I just need to stop fiddling with the cover 🙂 and put it all together.

The monster series I’m editing with DeAnna Knippling is in a similar state. We’re waiting to hear back from a few of the authors, and I still need to look at the latest version of DeAnna’s story (I had a few minor comments when I reviewed it), as well as look at the comments she made on my story. But we’re close!!!

And now, as promised, here’s an update on new things I’ve learned and experienced in the past week!

Learnings

My husband and I have made tentative plans to take a trip to Italy. I say ‘tentative’ because we don’t know exactly where we’ll go, nor when – but we are definitely going! I’m starting to brush up on my Italian, and have begun reading I 100 Luoghi del Mistero (100 mysterious places) to Rosie and Jasper at bedtime. They enjoy being read to, probably mostly because this also involves them getting petted. And this is a fun way for me to work on my speaking and comprehension skills, so it’s a win-win!

To be clear, I have never been fluent in Italian, so when I say “brush up my skills” I really mean “try to remember what little I know and learn a little more.” I’ll be happy if I can ask for directions to the restroom and understand the response. Last time I was in Italy I successfully asked this question, but got confused by the answer. Fortunately I managed to find the restroom nonetheless.

Experiencings

I’m at Devil’s Thumb Ranch right now! Here’s the view of the Indian Peaks Wilderness and the James Peak Wilderness, to the east of the ranch. My house is somewhere over that way. 🙂

This is a work trip, but it’s all fun and no work. Yes, I brought a computer – but it’s my personal computer, and I brought it so I can do some writing. I’ve never been here before, and this place is fantastic. The weather could be a little better – it’s cloudy right now, and rained an hour or so ago, but it was sunny for a good stretch after we got here. And it’s beautiful even with the clouds. The only negative is that I’m only here for one night. 🙂

No writing sample this week, since I’ve been focusing on the non-fiction book. My goal is to put together the outline of a new short story while I’m at the ranch and, if I have time, I’ll start on the manuscript. This story is due on September 15th, which seems like a long ways away, but I’ve learned I should never get complacent (although I sometimes do anyway…) because things always seem to take longer than expected, and unexpected things pretty much always come up. I will put my thinking cap on right after I finish this post – and maybe I’ll get some ideas from the book I’m reading to Rosie and Jasper. 🙂