![]() Drake and I hope this note finds you happy, healthy, and as excited as we are to paddle full-steam ahead into the new year! Our plan for 2025 is to create so many ripples in the water, the pond has no time to freeze. Although we're hibernating just a bit (it is winter, after all) we're working at soaking in the sunny days and keeping busy. Idle flippers create stagnation, and that's no way to prepare for the wonderous winds of summer. So, busy it is. One of our favorite quotes is from the film, Convoy... "Stay smooth on top, and paddle like the devil underneath." ![]() Aside from having more fun than adults should be allowed to have as we collaborate with other authors helping to edit their books, we're making really nice progress on our personal writing projects, too. We've been spending time writing Flash Fiction, we're diving back into completing Splinters, our western novel, and we're working on the editorial process for our paranormal novel, Tears Remember. We have two different artists working on two super-exciting projects... the second of our children's picture books, Henry Hippo's New Home, and a new folk tale called Her Heartstone. It's fascinating to watch how these talented artists are bringing our stories to life! The plan is to also finish Anonymous this year, which is our 2nd Person POV crime novella. We're taking three vacation trips this year... one to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, one to Wisconsin, and we're spending extra time while in South Carolina for the Creative Slingers of Ink Book Festival in October. Also, we're going on a Writing Hermitage for a week in July. There's also a possibility that we may visit our friends in Toronto again over the summer... but that's still uncertain at this point. So, with all that time tucked away in little cabins in new places, we should get plenty of writing accomplished (when we're not hiking or in the kayak). If you'd like to keep "in the know" with all that Drake and I are doing, and find out when the new books are released, swim over to The Literary Street Team page of our website and get all the updates. ![]() Visions, the ninth Community Service Anthology to fly in, is now available. This spectacular collection includes 531 pages filled with fifty short stories and poems from twenty-four amazing writers. This edition looks at peculiar perspectives through the lens of Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction, and Speculative Fiction. I'm thrilled that so many writers, again, heard the call to support our favorite charity, The Haley Sue Foundation. They do wonderful work, and we are proud to support the kindness they bring to others. If you'd like to buy a copy of Visions, it's available on Amazon in both paperback and e-book; or you can come out to see me at one of the fairs or festivals where I will be exhibiting my books. ![]() Segue... I've already booked twelve fairs and festivals to my signing calendar, and I may be adding several more before the year is out. I'll have all of my titles on the table, plus several copies of the community service anthologies, and my new board game, The Writing Game, available for purchase. I'll even sign them for you! There is a possibility that you may get to meet Drake, too. After our Toronto trip to celebrate Caroline Topperman's new release of Your Roots Cast A Shadow, he's feeling a little more brave about being out in public. We make no promises, but you never know when the little quacker may show up. Paddle over to our event calendar on our website. That's where you'll find all the details about where we'll be. Keep an eye on that little patch of pond... I may be adding more events as the year goes on. I'd love to see you. Books for sale, the chance to meet The Duck Muse, and free hugs... what could be better? My first event will be February 15, in Taylor, Michigan. I hope you'll come out to visit! ![]() It feels a little strange for Drake and me without a virtual festival to host this year. These last few days before February are usually filled with a lot more hectic-ness (if that's even a word) as we prepare for a month of shenanigans. This year you've told us you'd like a break. So, we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the past few Festivals, watching the replays on our YouTube channel. It's not the same as playing with everyone in real time, but it's still fun. Maybe we'll do another Festival next year... we'll see how the winds of change push the current. If, as you watch the replays, and ruminate on the potential future Festivals, you have feedback on how we could make it more interesting to you, we'd love to hear from you. The kindness of an honest review is always appreciated. ![]() The lack of a Festival this year is giving us more time to write... and that's not a bad thing, at all. For this year's community service anthology, Pages Promotions is hosting a Flash Fiction Challenge. Everyone who feels so inclined to participate is welcome. We're posting fifty-two prompts... one for each week of the year... and asking you to come up with your most creative stories using just 250 words or fewer. Shorter fiction is more Drake's thing than mine, and he's loving extra time at the creative keyboard. I meet with The Creative Slingers of Ink virtually on Monday nights to write in community, and I'm enjoying watching Drake do his thing. The deadline for submissions falls on the last day of each month, and you may write to as few or as many of the prompts as you like. I'm really proud of Drake. He's been working hard on this challenge. It's only week four, and he's already written NINE pieces for the anthology! I'm not so great at brevity, as anyone who knows me well will tell you (evidenced by this blog post) but it's Drakes favorite fictional pond. In fact, he's so excited, that he's posted one of his stories on the Tech Rehearsal page of our website. If you're interested in what he's been dipping his flippers into lately, I suggest you check in there. He's coerced me to record some of his short stories there, too. I make no promises about what's to come next... but you might want to bookmark that page, just in case he decides to get really creative! ![]() If that's not enough to keep you swimming in circles... How about a writing contest? This is a first for us, and we're not quite sure how it will end up... but you never know until you try, so here we go! This year, we're hosting The Passionate Quill Writing Contest. Yup, a real live, creative writing, you could win CASH PRIZES contest! We've created a story prompt that has three main points to it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story using those three points. You can use them in any order, but you must use all three. You get to choose everything else... genre, POV, characters, setting... the whole shootin' match. The maximum word count limit is 15,000 words (so no fear of brevity rules here) and you may submit as many times as you like. There is a $25 read fee... but with $500 cash on the line, that kinda makes sense, don't you think? You can find all the details and submission guidelines on the Pages Promotions website (there's a jury rubric and everything). Of course, Drake and I are ineligible to enter... that would be silly... but we'd love to see what you can create. The submission deadline is March 1, 2025... so if you haven't started writing yet, you might want start now. HAPPY WRITING AND BREAK A LEG! If you've read this far, let me first say, thank you! I appreciate you putting up with the fact that while Drake may handle brevity well, I really don't. So thanks for sticking with me. There are just two more things and then I'll leave you alone for a while... Writing Field Trips and Prose Procrastinators Anonymous. These are two opportunities for you to join me at the writing table. Once a month, I select a fun place to visit and write in that new environment, stimulated by all the nifty things around me. I like writing in Zoos, Museums, Nature Trails, and a bunch other fun places. So, if you live in SE Michigan, and you'd like to come out and write with me, I'd love to have you along for the trip. The more, the merrier, as they say. Also, beginning on February 5, and every Wednesday thereafter, unless it falls in a holiday week, I'll be writing in the evenings at the Troy Public Library. I find that for me and Drake, regular, dedicated writing time is what's best for getting the words on the page. It's often difficult to do that at home because things like laundry, dishes, and videos on Prime, Hulu, and Netflix get in the way... and then there are all those great books I have on my TBR shelf that I REALLY want to read. So you see, sometimes we have to get out of the house to focus on the writing. If you feel like joining us, that would be great! You can find all the details for both of these writing sessions on our website. We look forward to writing with you! Thank you for reading... and we look forward to seeing you at one of the Fairs, Festivals, or Writing Sessions this year. Happy 2025!
1 Comment
Kathleen Kaska
1/28/2025 04:09:37 pm
Nice newsletter. It sounds like and Drake you've got an exciting year ahead.
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