Mornings With Marie - March 2022
Good morning and happy March, everyone! 🥰 I have a lot in store for you today, so please sit back and relax with your coffee or drink of choice. ☕️
Story of the Month
This month’s piece is shorter than the last, but it’s still of the Philippine myth and folklore variety. Sort of. 🤔 Here’s Firestarter, a flash fiction piece about a grieving young man who runs away from home and follows a santelmo. 🔥
I’m starting to realize that I tend to lean toward dark fantasy when I’m left unsupervised 🤭 so if you’d prefer a different kind of story next month, please do let me know! I’m open to suggestions, and you can even send me prompts, if you like. 😉
Featured Author of the Month
Our guest this March is fantasy author E. Prybylski, who joined the publishing world over a decade ago as an editor before writing and publishing her urban fantasy novel Fallen during the lockdown of 2020. Fallen was inspired by her husband and their shared love of text-based roleplay, which was how they met. 😍
Her blog has loads of writing advice, drawn from her own experiences in publishing, so if you’re looking to get started — or just want to learn some of the industry’s best practices — look no further.
What I find most admirable, though, is that E. is physically disabled and struggles with severe chronic migraines and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and its many comorbidities. That’s not stopped her in any way, however! 🙌 So if you’d like to get to know E. more and check out her work, please subscribe to her newsletter. 💖
Project Updates
Meri and I have completed the first draft of the Hotel Fen sequel, Monster Ridge. It’s 85,577 words long as of this version, with 23 chapters and a prologue, some cool animals, and so many new characters. We’re letting the draft rest for a bit, but we’ll dive into technical edits later this month, then it’s off to the betas! 💪
This weekend I’ll start writing You May Now Chase the Bride, my Filipino romantic fantasy short for the RomanceClass x KOMIKET collab project! Here’s the WIP blurb for the curious:
Writing Opportunities
#GWstorieseverywhere (Deadline: 31 March 2022)
March theme: hidden treasure. Story must be posted on Twitter and should be no longer than 25 words, with a max of 280 characters, including spaces and the hashtag #GWstorieseverywhere. Prize is a free Gotham class.Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (Deadline: 1 April 2022)
Submit one humor poem up to 250 lines to win $2,000 / $500 / $100. Top 12 poems published online. No fee to enter.Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanksgiving, Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & New Year's (Deadline: 1 May 2022)
They want special stories about your December holiday season, memories and traditions. Be sure that they are “Santa safe” so that we don’t spoil the magic for precocious readers! Pays $200.
Writing Resources
Need ideas for your newsletter? Or do you simply enjoy reading a wide range of topics and staying in the know? Join Refind and get 7 new links every day, tailored to your interests and curated from 10k+ sources.
Here you’ll find the video replay and HD presentation slides of the Amazon Ads: Pro Tips for 2022 webinar with Mark Dawson and Janet Margot. It’s free.
Still on the topic of marketing, here is David Gaughran’s How To Market A Book - what works + what doesn't in 2020. Sure, the video is over a year old, but the basics still apply.
Bogged down by everything that’s going on in the world today? E. Prybylski, our featured author, has written an insightful article on her blog entitled 5 Self-Care Strategies for Authors in a Weary World.
Special Offer of the Month
Last month my brother Michael and I teamed up to offer affordable custom book covers for authors and upcoming authors. And by affordable we mean affordable, because all we’ll ask for is a donation, which could be as little as $1. Yes, seriously. 🥰
And we’ve decided to extend signups, because we love authors and really want to help! 💖 So if you’re interested, please fill out this form and we’ll be in touch with you.
This design is also up for grabs, if you’re looking for a premade cover to write your book around. 😉 Just write back to me and we can discuss the next steps. Again, all we’ll ask for is a donation.
Is this offer legit? Absolutely - you can ask Rebecca Lemke, who’s been delightful to work with. 💕 Why is this our pricing scheme, then? Because we have faith that authors, as creatives themselves, will want and know how to compensate artists for what they’re worth. We’re here to help each other, Y/Y? 😊
Bonus: Book Giveaway!
For those of you in the Philippines — or have friends around here that you’d like to gift a book to — I’ve launched a giveaway for a paperback copy of Hotel Fen plus a limited edition bookplate sticker signed by both Meri and I! 💖 Just click here or the image below to enter, but you must have an address in the PH for me to ship the book to. This ends 31 March and I’ll announce the winners on 3 April. 🥳
I hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter! I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to write me back. 💕 Did you like this month’s story? Want to give me a prompt for next month’s? Got any big plans or writing endeavors for March? Read interesting books recently? Thought of anything else you’d like to see here next month? Or do you just have cute pet pics to share? 🐶
Thanks for reading and talk to you again soon! 😘
xoxo, Marie