First, those fractured fairy tales:
A member of my critique group has a short story in a newly released anthology called Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales from Wayman Publishing. Writing as Katherine Valdez, her pen name, she created a story about Red Riding Hood getting revenge. I picked up my signed copy of the anthology on Saturday at Barnes and Noble Centerra (near Loveland, Colorado).
One of the joys of belonging to great writers’ organization such as Northern Colorado Writers and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers is the ready supply of well-edited books both traditionally published and self-published. You’ll see more offerings tomorrow at Chiseled in Rock blog in my monthly feature, “What’s New from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers?”
And one more note on Wayman Publishing…there’s another anthology in the works. This one is Open Doors: Monstrous Myths and Legends scheduled for a November 2013 release. The deadline for submissions is August 2, 2013.
Looking for a cover art designer?
Joel Decatur is a mixed-media artist and graphic designer. Hailing from a little town in NH, Joel has finally settled in Fort Collins, CO. With a combination of graphic art, photography and drawing – Joel has developed his own unique stamp, spread throughout many different design styles.
He specializes in photo manipulation, dark romantic imagery, and custom art with special attention to dynamic color choice. Joel’s 12 year experience in design photography has also proven to be a useful tool for many projects. Whether it be a new exciting logo, book covers, full album graphics, t-shirt designs, or a portrait session – Joel can help you find your unique voice.
I first came across Joel’s work when I took a look at the cover art for Ross Willard’s novel System Purge: Book 1 of Digital Evolution, published through Smashwords (Ross will be my guest blogger on Thursday, February 7th). I thought this cover was smashing!
Learn more about Joel’s works at his website: http://joeldecaturdesign.weebly.com/
More:
I’m declutterimg again. It’s so satisfying to have a tidy office that I’m not sure why I don’t try harder to keep up my filing, shredding, recycling, etc. on a daily (or even weekly) basis.
My goal this week, however, is to take all the old newsletters from all of the organizations I belong to and dump them in the recycle bin. Then I’m going to clean out my collection of outdated travel books to places I’ll probably never visit again. And finally, I’ll take the three storage boxes of “important” stuff I needed to sort for filing but haven’t looked at in six months or more, admit it can’t really be important after all, and throw most of it away. This will give me two clean shelves in the bookcase plus less to trip over on the floor.
Most of all, I’m going to stop printing out so much stuff that ends up in a pile or box, buried so deep I can’t find it when I need it, which requires me to print out another copy and waste more paper and ink. Enough is enough. Really!
Keeping up with paper seems to be something I’m not very good at, Jemi — it seems to multiply on its own.
Joel’s work is stunning!
It’s almost impossible to keep up with the paper and other fun stuff!
Julie, we have another great lineup of new releases. I get so excited each month when I put together that post. I’m a sucker for great stories and gorgeous cover art.
Great info. I too think Ross’ cover is spectacular. The book is great too. Look forward to seeing what’s new tomorrow.
Alex, you know so many writers through your blog that you probably can’t keep up with all the great anthologies being published these days.
Hi Margot — I feel like writing something really dark just so I can get Joel to do my cover — he’s amazing.
Ann — Katie Cat is enjoying the decluttering project too. She likes to pull shredded paper out of the trash bag and scatter it about the room.
Hilary, I’ve committed to working at least 30 minutes per day on the cleanup. Ant time I spend picking up after the cat doesn’t count.
Hi Patricia … decluttering is my thing at the moment – it’s slow and sure .. but I’m moving on – and like most of us I really need that clean slate.
I’d love to learn Evernote and is one of my goals … I just need that time to master it ..
Cheers – Hilary
Yes, there are so many EXCELLENT writers’ books out there, both traditionally and self-published. I have SUCH a list on my iPad right now!
As for decluttering — I did this mostly over the holidays, and am still doing it. But I’m feeling very positive about this right now. Like you, no more printing out of stuff I sometimes never end up reading. And if I want to save thoughts, I’ll do it in a notebook the old fashioned way, in longhand. At least, that’s my current plan 🙂
Good for you for making a clean trail 🙂 🙂
Pat – Thanks for sharing Joel Decatur’s work. Really powerful imagery! And thanks too for passing the word about Open Doors. I like anthologies and that’s a group of writers whose work I’d like to know better.
And as for de-cluttering? I’m right with you on that. I am always amazed at the number of things that people keep that seem so urgent at the time and end up in a pile of paper and other things….
I know several authors with stories in Open Doors.
Decluttering is awesome. I like a clean, organized look.