Some exciting writing news so far in 2024!
First, I heard back from CatsCast in early January and they’re going to make my story “A Surprising Shift” into a podcast! (Not sure when it’s coming out, but hopefully soon.) It took some time to hear back, but good news is worth waiting for 🙂
Next, Queens in Wonderland came out at the end of February. No Bad Books Press has been great to work with–I really enjoyed how transparent and communicative they were throughout. They had several Zoom meetings along the way, which was a great intro to book marketing. They also hosted my first ever author interview!
In the video, I read several pages of my work after answering questions.
They’ve also been tabling at various cons and festivals. At Wonder-Con in San Diego, the table sold out of the anthology! I also managed to see their table at the LA Festival of Books today.
Theresa gave me a bunch of bookmarks when I went by the table. (Okay, I might have gone by three times–I was really excited to see the table.) It wasn’t until I handed one to someone after a panel that I realized a quote from my story was on the back.
The Festival of Books was great. I’d forgotten it was this weekend, so I ended up dashing off around noon. (While close to where I live, I was visiting my parents, so it took about two and a half hours to get back to my place, drop off my stuff, then take the metro out.) I ended up not having lunch. Still, I really enjoyed visiting tables and checking out books. While I only caught one panel, it left me feeling energized.
I hope to be back someday soon to table one of my own books and/or be on a panel.
While I haven’t written many stories this year so far, I sent one off at the end of March and already heard that it’s going to be appearing in an anthology in the summer. It’s a story called “The Memory Dragon” and it will be appearing in an anthology from WolfSinger Publications called The Dragon’s Hoard 3. (The Dragon’s Hoard 2 is being split into two separate books.)
In other writing news, I visited the creative writing class at the school where I work to talk about submitting to publications. My first ever author visit! The teacher said several students who’d been reticent about their assignment to submit their work said they want to now and had new ideas about where to submit. Passing on some of my hard-won knowledge felt really good.
A book club at the library is also hosting me for a reading at an upcoming meeting. Not sure what they’ll ask me to read, but it’s amazing to have options.
It’s never all smooth sailing, but even little successes like these give me the strength to keep working toward my bigger dreams. For a very long time even this much progress felt as unobtainable as the moon. But slow progress is still progress. So, if you’re like me and your big dreams feel out of reach, I wish you the strength to keep going. And I hope you take the time to celebrate any win, however small, along the way.
Beyond the Bookshelves 