Weekly writing check-in: the one with the view

view

The view this morning. It came with pelicans, but they were too far away for a good picture. Still. They’re huge! Pairs of them were streaming across the lake this morning, quite focused on getting somewhere.

As far as writing? A pretty quiet week, all in all. Some revision. Some work on the Gatsby class.

But! Two publications (see links below). A Measure of Sorrow has a new online home at Evil Girlfriend Media and The Life Expectancy of Fireflies was published in the summer issue of Fine Linen Magazine.

For writers, I recommend EGM. Check out the submission page. For flash fiction, they’re looking for reprints as well as original stories.

Writing Work:

  • Revising Must Love Ghosts
  • Lit class: The Great Gatsby

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Fine LinenA Measure of Sorrow

The Life Expectancy of Fireflies (check out my author copy to the left)

 

 

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the ghost whisperer

So, The Ghost Whisperer ventured into the world this week. After a flurry of rejections last week, things settled down considerably. Well, they settled down to nothing. After last week? I’ll take it.

This week, I’ve kept myself occupied with taking a class on The Great Gatsby.  I recommend the Jake Gyllenhaal narration via Audible. Even better, if you own the iconic blue cover in Kindle format, that version and the audio one are Whispersynced and you can get a reduced price on the audio.

I also revised Gone Ghost and will head straight into revising Must Love Ghosts, just to keep the story continuity in my head. Then? I don’t know. I’m starting to feel the need to go on a writing tear.

Writing Work:

  • Revising Gone Ghost
  • Lit class: The Great Gatsby

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Ghost Whisperer

Episode 3 of the Coffee & Ghosts serial is now available! You can buy or borrow The Ghost Whisperer over at Amazon.

Ghost in the Coffee Machine is still free to read and includes an excerpt from the second episode, Giving up the Ghosts.

You can read more about what’s up in episode 3 in my post of a few days ago.

New release: The Ghost Whisperer!

And … it’s here! The third episode in the Coffee & Ghosts series is live.

Ghost Whisperer

When it comes to the supernatural, Katy Lindstrom–ghost hunter and expert coffee brewer–always knows what to do. Give her five minutes and some excellent Kona blend, and she’ll trap your ghost.

Katy is completely unequipped when a mysterious and beguiling ghost whisperer floats into town. The so-called Mistress Armand charms away Katy’s clients and accuses her of ghost cruelty. At the town-wide séance, nearly everyone falls under the ghost whisperer’s spell–including Katy’s business partner, Malcolm.

But Mistress Armand isn’t the benevolent, new-age medium she pretends to be. She craves something dark and shameful from the citizens of Springside Township. This time, Katy is going in blind. This time, coffee won’t work. And this time, she may need to give up something shameful of her own.

Just 99 cents or read for free with Kindle Unlimited!

 

Weekly writing check-in: the one with giving up the ghosts

Finished off the last bit of work for my classes (for now). Yay!

I started the last of the Ghost episodes (also for now–there might be a season two). This episode is challenging. It not only has its own story arc, but also the entire season story arc comes to a close in this story. Again, hats off to television writers. This. Is. Challenging. I’m calling this last episode Must Love Ghosts–tentatively (for now).

But it’s a lot of fun. As I mentioned earlier this week, Giving up the Ghosts is live. Plus, Ghost in the Coffee Machine is free and it includes a sample of Giving up the Ghosts. So, if you’re uncertain about Coffee & Ghosts, you can give it a no-risk sort of try.

Writing Work:

  • Calvino class: All done!
  • Writing ~ 3,600 words
  • Started Must Love Ghosts
  • Revising The Ghost Whisperer

Submissions:

  • The Perfect Canvas

Rejections:

  • The Perfect Canvas

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Giving up the GhostsGiving up the Ghosts is now live! And Ghost in the Coffee Machine is free to read.

If you want to learn more, see my post from a few days ago.

New release and a free read!

And … it’s here! The second episode in the Coffee & Ghosts series is live. Even better, the first episode is free.

Ghost in the Coffee Machine

Ghost in the Coffee Machine_series cover

Katy and her grandmother have always used coffee to catch ghosts. It pays the bills and keeps them in high-end beans. But after Katy’s grandmother dies, it’s as if she’s taken all the ghosts with her.

Until Katy discovers there’s a rival ghost hunter in town, one who uses tea–of all things–and one who has stolen all her clients. But when an epic infestation threatens, Katy can’t help but get involved. It will take all her wits–and some excellent Kona blend–to fight the ghost in the coffee machine.

Read for free!

Giving up the Ghosts

Giving up the Ghosts

Katy Lindstrom has used coffee to catch ghosts since she was five years old–a handy skill in a town with an overabundance of spirits. Now Katy wants to make her newly-minted ghost-hunting business thrive. Never mind that her partner, Malcolm Armand, is her former rival, not to mention a bit … distracting.

When a routine ghost eradication ends in disaster, clues point to someone close to Malcolm. But something sinister lurks in Springside Township, something Katy’s never encountered in all her years of ghost hunting, and something that has her doubting all her skills.

It will take more than high-end beans and the perfect cup of coffee this time around. It will take trust and teamwork and possibly a sacrifice Katy’s not ready to make.

Read for free with Kindle Unlimited–or 99 cents!

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the banner week

So this past week? This was a banner week. I sold not one, but two stories to pro-paying markets, including one of my dream markets, Cicada. They bought reprint rights to Straying from the Path, which just goes to show that you can sell a story more than once, and do so at a good rate as well. One myth dispelled.

Plus, I finally found a home for The Life Expectancy of Fireflies! It’s a quirky, slightly disturbing story that’s received a lot of personal rejections along the lines of good story/not quite right for us/send us your next thing. This sort of response is gratifying if a little frustrating. But Fine Linen Magazine looks like a grand home for it.

I finished up the week with a rejection (because you can’t win them all) and with the final scenes for Gone Ghost. Last week? I like you very much.

Writing Work:

  • Calvino class: Finished reading If on a winter’s night a traveler, drafted my essay. Now all I need to do is post it and respond to the other essays. Almost there!
  • Writing ~ 3,000 words
  • Finished Gone Ghost

Submissions:

  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Rejections:

  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Acceptances:

  • The Life Expectancy of Fireflies
  • Straying from the Path

Publications:

  • None

Memorial Day 2015 Charity Challenge: Gone, but Not Forgotten!

Memorial Day 2015 Charity Challenge: Gone, but Not Forgotten!

During Memorial Day week, from the 22nd to 29th of May, more than 70 veteran authors will pledge 100% of their book royalties to their favorite charities.

Once again, I will be participating in the Vets Give Back charity challenge, this time for Memorial Day. My organization of choice is Helping Paws, a local organization that has a pilot program to provide veterans with service dogs. I am pledging $100 as a baseline PLUS all royalties I earn for the week.

While I will donate all royalties, my pledge book is The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath because of its military theme.

Fine Art_blue

MacKenna’s mother died when she was a baby, a casualty of the first Gulf War. Now seventeen, MacKenna has spent her life navigating the minefield of her dad’s moods, certain of one thing: she is destined to follow in her mother’s combat boots. But when she pursues an ROTC scholarship, she finds herself at war before even enlisting.

Her father forbids her from joining the military, inexplicable considering he’d raised her to be a “warrior princess.” MacKenna turns to her grandmother—who arms her with an ammo crate containing her mother’s personal effects from the war. Hidden in the crate’s false bottom is a journal, one her mom stashed there hours before her death.

While MacKenna untangles the secrets of her parents’ tragic love story, her own life unravels. Dad’s behavior becomes erratic, her best friend grows distant and even hostile, and a boy from her past returns—with a life-threatening secret of his own.

If ever a girl needed her mother, it’s now.

The pen might be mightier than the sword, but are a mother’s words strong enough to slice through years of hidden pain? Can those words reach through the battlefields of the past to change MacKenna’s future?

KindleNook, iBooks, Kobo, Print

Be sure to check out all the books on the challenge site. There is something for everyone. And if you’re a subscriber to Kindle Unlimited, you can even give for free by borrowing many of the authors’ books. So you can donate and grow your to-be-read pile all at once!

Happy reading and thank you!

Weekly writing check-in: the one with another sale

So … I sold a reprint this week to Evil Girlfriend Media, which is one of those inspired names, right up there with Mad Scientist Journal. I also discovered that the Kazka Press website is no longer online, so I will start looking for reprint markets for the stories I sold there as well.

I kept up in my classes, but I’m finding it difficult to balance two craft-heavy classes with writing new words. But I knew this month would be a difficult one for new words anyway, what with dance competitions and camping trips and who knows what. And as everyone knows, it’s the who knows what that’s particularly time-consuming. So, it’s working out. I’m enjoying the classes, revising some work, and sending out some as well.

Oh, and I sold a couple of things in there too. See? It all works out.

Writing Work:

  • Description class
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • Gretel and Hansel
  • Keeping Time (reprint market)

Rejections:

  • Gretel and Hansel

Acceptances:

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the selfie from the end of the world

So we recovered from camping in enough time to attend the Starpower dance competition. One of these days, I’ll have a weekend with nothing scheduled. I’m looking forward to that.

I have managed to keep up in my classes (more or less). Even better, I have something in each category below this week. I’m so excited about the anthology. I had so much fun with that story (although I’m fairly certain you can’t call it a happy story–it is the end of the world after all). I’m also excited to have another vignette in Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

Writing Work:

  • Description class
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • A Measure of Sorrow (reprint market)

Rejections:

  • A Measure of Sorrow

Acceptances:

Publications:

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the 99 cent sale

YA Spring Fling Contemporary

The YA Spring Fling continues this week, so if you haven’t had a chance to enter, head on over. Lots of books, lots and lots of books.

I’m continuing with both of my classes (I should probably go post my homework), managed a little writing, a little outlining, a little ghost research. Plus I sent a new story out into the world.

Also, if you want to grab Now and Later for 99 cents on Kindle, it’ll be that way for a week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing work ~ 2,300 words
  • Description class
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • In a Manner of Speaking

Rejections:

  • Abandonment Issues

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

None, but the Goodreads giveaway is still going on! Enter to win a print copy of Now and Later.

Or … grab the Kindle version for 99 cents. One week only!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Now and Later by Charity Tahmaseb

Now and Later

by Charity Tahmaseb

Giveaway ends April 02, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win