I am still learning how to use SendFox, but I think I got this down!

It’s amazing how much can change in thirty days. I went from having the worst month of the year to have a total flip on my life--and I am here for it. Maybe I was paying the karma dues ahead of time? Who knows! Either way, let me share this great news with you guys.

After my last newsletter, a lot of you reached out to me and I was so humbled by your kind words and bloodthirsty protective nature. It warmed my cold, witchy heart to know you all are in my life. Thank you so much for being the awesome folks you.

The day has come! The one bed day. The day the One Bed Anthology Vol II with Violet Gaze Press bursts into the world! Look at this cover. Loooooooook at it. It is so sweet and happy. I already pre-ordered this, but I am totally putting this cover on a postcard so I can show it to folks in my streams.

Next

I keep talking about this “venture” for the last three months, but I haven’t shared the details about it because it wasn’t ready to rock n’ roll in my eyes. But I am comfortable enough with our progress to present it to you guys, my newsletter crew, first.

I made a publishing company.

When I say I made a publishing company, I don’t mean I made a company to publish my own books. I made it to publish other people’s books. Books with bite! I’ve already gotten six authors ready to launch next year, three editors, cover artists, and one of the most supportive teams to help make this bad boy happen. After working for past publishers and forming my own ideas about how I would like to run business, I bit the bullet and made it happen. The public launch is going to be in October and we will be opening for submissions then.

Right now, we are looking at a select amount of genres to publish for the next year, but my goal is to open up to other genres over time. Until then, I am going to stick with what I know really well. 

The rest of the details (name, genres, etc) will come out in the next newsletter.

More you say?

The next bit of good news is I got a job. Not just any job, but another Operations Management position with a fella who is looking to launch his own media company. The details of that aren’t something I can delve into just yet, but it’s pretty awesome and has some big influencers involved. My new boss approached me and showed me what he is working on and I was already signed to sign the dotted line after the pitch. This is great for me because it means more capital that I can put into my publishing company. I am beyond thrilled for this opportunity and have already been hammering away to make it flow seamlessly. My boss has been very impressed with my work since I started at the end of July, so that’s a great start. :)

Happy Memories

On Aug 9th, I hosted a great birthday stream with my friends and followers. There were a lot of laughs, games, and some giveaways. I really enjoyed myself and I can’t remember smiling so much in the last six months. Did I make a fool of myself? Probably. Did I have fun? Hell to the yeah! It was great and if you showed up, thank you. 

A challenge you say?

I was watching Kate Cavanaugh’s (another Authortuber who is really sweet) video about Milwordy. What is Milwordy? Milwordy is writing a million words in a year! When I heard her talking about it, I was very much “whoa!” about it, but after breaking the word count down per month and then per day, I realized it was a very possible thing I could do. Especially since college will officially be over on September 15th for me. Add in me digging into my unfinished works in progress and I decided I was going to do this.

Actually, at the time you are reading this, I am already doing it. I started the challenge on Aug 18, because why wait? The work must get done!

My goal for the next year (Aug 18th, 2020 to Aug 17th, 2021) is to write 3,000 words a day. This will put me over the million words, but I am the type to bank extra work so I can afford days off later on. I typically write 2,000 to 10,000 a day, so 3,000 a day is very realistic/achievable for me. And, more importantly, I have a pile of short stories, novellas, and novels that I need to finish. A million words should make some of that possible. I hope. We will find out! I even made a spreadsheet to help track my progress (is anyone surprised?).

I am going to try something new with the book updates. Let me know if you guys enjoy the visuals or not. I totally had fun making them and playing around with everything to make it pretty. Some would say that is me procrastinating from actually writing...

Carrow’s Tarot

Do you see that cover? I love that cover so much. This is one of the projects were I really did put the cart before the horse, but I regret nothign! Carrow's Tarot is something I started writing and then experienced a lot of stress and had to walk away from it. The last few weeks have me fleshing out the card meanings. This is definitely a project I would like drafted by the end of the year to come out in 2021, but we will see what happens in the next few weeks.

Ten of Brownies

I did a video about combating getting stuck in your writing and used Ten of Brownies as my example and was able to identify the issues I was having with writing and finishing this story. I have pulled the file out and we are working on it this week. I mean it this time! Snowdrop's story must be shared. The cover image in here isn't the finalized one, just a filler I made to help me keep my mind focused on my goals.

King of Pucks

That isn't the actual cover, but the cover illustration I had created for the second book before Other Worlds Inc convinced me to switch it over to another style. I am pretty in love with this image. As for the book...I am working on it. Listening to the audiobook of my first book left me in a current state of cringe at my writing ability and has really inspired me to push myself further. So I am rereading what I wrote last year and seeing where I can improve my writing at.

Sewer Magic

I haven’t picked this story up since I drafted it for Camp Nanao because I want to distance myself from it and come back to it with fresh eyes. But! I still feel really good about it. It centers on a distopian future where magic returns along with all the unwanted critters of the world. Lots of drama, much a

Fine Print

Fine Print is the crazy, impulse story I did during the last week of July. I wrote about 20k words in a week and then fine-tuned it over August to send it to an editor. So far, it is doing pretty good! The alpha readers loved it and the editor expressed excitement at the concept. I really want to get a cover for this, so I am probably going to do that while I am waiting for the developmental edit.

Pilgrimage of the Cherry Blossom

I mentioned before I got the developmental edits back and I looked over them, laid on the floor for an hour, looked at them again, and then called a friend. The book isn’t terrible, but it does need work. My author friend looked it over and her solution was simple: You have to add more content. No problem, I can add more content to the book. I know when I originally wrote this I wanted it to be a short story, but we left the word count range two drafts again. 

Tangled Tango

I am ready to hit this story again! I feel it humming in my veins and it dances (no pun intended) in my brain a lot more often. I am going to see if I can finish this draft up in October (so I can finished Pilgrimage of the Cherry Blossom) so I can work on Lock & Key.

Lock & Key

I totally cheated and worked on Lock & Key a little because Nia’s voice was very loud in my head and demanded to be put into word. So I drafted a little under 5k words and am letting it ferment in my head. Her story is a little darker than the other two installments, but the ending makes up for it.

I am trying something new with my channel. After working through a lot of stress and anxiety (I may need to change the thumbnail for that one), I decided to do some humor on my channel. I did a sarcastic stress meditation and then I did a skit about writing a query letter for a literary agent. I don’t always have jokes, but when I do, I like to think they are funny. These have been pretty well received so far, so I think I am going to stick with it for the time being.

Know what we haven’t done in forever? A podcast, that’s what. But Tamara and I sat down and talked about all the things we were juggling and we are going to resume recording in October when our lives have settled down. 2020 had been a horrible year, but we are determined to get our lives and passions back on track and do the podcast once more.

I am getting better at this Redbubble thing (I think? Maybe?) and have started posting more items on there. Within August, I posted the Eight of Swords and an “I have a spreadsheet for that” item along with Ghost’s emblem. The spreadsheet one is my favorite so far. I actually got some of the other tarot cards there shipped to me as stickers and I like how they came out a lot.

My birthday was really good for me this year. My friends and family sent me really awesome stuff and I love it all so much. I thought about listing it all here, but I didn’t want to brag. So instead, I am going to focus on this TUL notebook system my friends got me into. I already got three of these ready to rock and roll and I love that I can customize them.

And I am still pretty dedicated to this VR headset my husband got me, but I got Fit XR, which is like a boxing DDR. This game isn’t a joke and I am left with sweat rolling off my face and arms when I am done. Naturally, I am in love.

And those are all the updates that I have for you guys this week. Thanks for being a member of my newsletter crew and I can’t wait to give you more info in the next coming month. Until then, be safe and happy, friends.

--Carrow