Mornings With Marie: April 2022 Part II

Spring, Reader Group, Hotel Fen Audiobook and Launch Party

May 3, 2022

Good morning from Lincolnshire! ✨ It’s a whole new world out here, but I love it. The spring weather’s lovely, I’ve discovered flat whites ☕️, and hubby and I are in a cozy, quaint little city that makes me want to burst into song while walking around.

And I finally found some real life cherry blossoms! 😍🌸

Spring is truly a time for new beginnings. Around two weeks ago I auditioned for an upcoming theatre production here in my new city, and today I’m starting a new job. I’ve also started building my home studio, so I’m getting back to songwriting soon, and even dabble in audiobook narration and podcasts in the near future! 💪

News & Updates

With my personal Facebook account being used for travel photos and my page for blog updates, I thought I’d bite the bullet and finally create a reader group. Thus we now have The Marienettes💃, which you’re more than welcome to join if you’d love more regular updates on my shenanigans 🥰 We even have a “beginner’s guide” in case you’d like to check out my other works, although my website’s About section also has links to my publications and socials.

On the Hotel Fen front, my friends and I previewed two new songs during our reunion concert last month. Click here for Dave Feril’s performance of Your Name, a song in Victor’s POV that’s based on one of the early scenes in the book. It’ll be out on Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming platforms very soon! 🎶

And I said two, didn’t I? Because we had to give the most popular character (so far) her own song. 🐱 Just think Cats. Sort of. And Mikaela Rose did such a purr-fect, Ada-worthy rendition 😉

Hotel Fen Audiobook and Launch Party

Speaking of Hotel Fen, I can now officially announce that we finally have an audiobook edition, narrated by the superbly talented Rebecca Lemke! 🎧 If you like Norse mythology, lit RPG, and the song Hotel California, you just might love the vibes of this book. It’s not YA but NA, so we recommend 17+ for violence and fade to black level romantic content.

To celebrate the audiobook’s release, we’re having a launch party this Saturday! Join me, my co-author Meri Benson, Rebecca, and some surprise guests for an hour of live readings, performances, Q&As, and fun and games 🥳 The stream will be via Zoom at 8AM CST / 2PM UK / 9PM PH. Meeting ID’s 995 8308 0480 and the passcode is 761331 😉

Stories of the Month

My move took up most of my time in April, so I unfortunately wasn’t able to write any new stories despite my intention to do so 😅 I even asked my Twitter followers (drawn randomly) to prompt me - I unexpectedly reached 3,000 followers and also wanted to celebrate that! 💖 - but time just wasn’t on my side.

I can’t leave you lovelies hanging though, so please do watch out for a special edition of this newsletter mid-May! 💕

Writing Opportunities

Love short stories? Reedsy has a weekly short story competition. Just respond to their prompts and get a chance to win $250! Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.
Herstories. Coupling and Uncoupling (Deadline: 31 May 2022)
Personal essays by women about love, marriage, divorce, dating, and being single... at midlife. Pays $50.
Mythulu Magazine (Deadline: 16 June 2022)
Capture an adulthood dilemma so universal it transcends culture and time - then explain it so a child can understand. Pays $0.06/word or $15/page. Non-fiction pays $0.08/word. Creative works earn $0.04/word, with short stories capped at $75.

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.
Are you a writer in the UK? Marve Micheal has established the Writers Connect UK group on Facebook. All are welcome actually, but the writing and critique group sessions are more UK-friendly in terms of schedule.
Want to be inspired? Here’s a story of how one author earned $2,000 a month from writing - before releasing his first novel. 🤯
D2D has a great article on the psychology of a good book cover. It’s dated, but it still applies to this day! (And if you’re in the market for book covers, don’t forget that as a subscriber, you’re eligible to sign up for our pay-however-much-you-want custom covers 🥳)

I hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter! I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to write me back. 💕 Thank you so much for reading. Cheers! 😘

xoxo, Marie