Allison Keli's Blog, page 5

The Gods of Edits, and Thanksgiving

*As it turns out, I put the wrong date for the ebook release. Twenty years behind, I am. Make that 2022, not 2002!

Before I babble on about editing, you can pre-order the Kindle e-book version of When Violet Got Bored HERE. It’s currently set at $3.99 and it goes live on November 23, 2002. I figured if reading e-books is your thing, you could read it while you’re waiting for all that delicious Thanksgiving food to cook and bake on Wednesday to prepare for Thursday’s exercise in consumption, or perhaps, exercise in restraint.

Editing. I cannot say enough about how amazing editors must be, because I am STILL finding little mistakes here and there. I’ve finding plot pieces that I’ll eventually change, typos, justification errors. It’s maddening. I wanted to reread the story ONE_LAST_TIME, and really wasn’t able to because of some personal hullabaloo going on.

Alas. It is what it is, it’s not what it’s not, even while it is far from perfect, especially if I had an editor and publisher at my disposal, it’s about as good as it’s going to get. Even if I tweak it here and there in the future, the story itself is not going to change. Violet, bless her soul, well, she is about to have her world flip flopped, inhaled and regurgitated. She will survive, though, because if anything else, she is a survivor.

Paperback set to go live on Black Friday 2022!

Nifty November

Gratitude time!

October ended up being a rough month in these parts with my Uncle being very sick. (And this is sadly still ongoing.) But, there is much to be grateful for, and goals are still being set and some met (!), meetings are being had, and I’m still overtly optimistic.

Yay for that!

So let your November be nifty.

That Which Has Left Us

There was a guest blogger on Swellness Vibes in October, and he had insight into how to stay healthy during travel. He made mention of seeking out Reiki while on your travels, and of course, I thought that cool. Read it here.

On the parenting blog, I posted a quick little read about the kid and a couple of kid-isms. Read it here.

There was the WIP cover reveal for When Violet Got Bored. You can also see this on my Instagram page. I hopefully ordered my last proof of this thing!

I *did* start a Vella! More to follow about that…

That Which is Ahead of Us

Due to the popularity of episodic reading in other countries via other platforms, Amazon started Kindle Vella last year. They offer you 200 tokens if you “claim” them via your Amazon account. From there, you can browse many different stories (including mine), and you pay with tokens to read the chapters. The first three chapters of the Vellas are always free; after that you have to unlock the episodes of the stories. Amazon gives the author the option to create polls, or little blurbs after each episode to engage your readers. Once the reader uses all 200 tokens, s/he would have to purchase more via Amazon. I think most episodes run less than 20 tokens.

The Hauntings of DoG Street–Chowning’s Tavern. This historical fiction, spooky-tale is set in modern-day Colonial Williamsburg, and follows Melody, a college student, who is constantly being watched by an unidentified Man in the Hat. Making friends with her co-workers, she’s determined to find out who he is, while proving that ghosts are NOT real. Will she succeed? And who IS the Man in the Hat? Polls are added almost weekly to help you control which direction this story takes! Help me unfold Melody’s tale at Chowning’s Tavern. I’ve also been posting real photos from Williamsburg on Instagram to tie into the story. It’s been fun!

Regarding Phenix & Fox and When Violet Got Bored, my hope is to have the special edition of Phenix & Fox, as well as When Violet Got Bored, out by mid-month! Fingers crossed I can make this happen! Formatting is not fun, and final edits never seem to truly be final. At some point, I’ll just have to say peace out!

At least one blog post will be going up on Swellness Vibes. It’s the second-parter review about the brain book by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. You should follow her social media, she’s doing some amazing work right now!

Stay sane!

LearnAsYouGo

Here’s a mid-month spattering of what I’m spitting out!

VELLA. Yes, yes, yes, I decided to venture forward with this, just to try it out. So far, so good. I’m — you’ve guessed it — learning as I go. I have an episode ready to drop on Friday, but I HAVEN’T edited it yet! Which wouldn’t be so bad, except I can’t even GET into the darn thing until it releases on Friday so… if you’re up at midnight EST on Thursday when it’s supposed to release, you’ll catch an extremely unedited version! Wups.

If you don’t know much about Vella, it’s Amazon’s attempt to dig into what other countries are so hyped up about. I almost joined another publishing group last year that produced episodic stories as well, but then Amazon joined in on the fun, I didn’t have time to commit, and here we are, almost a year later.

People publish stories one episode at a time. You use tokens to read the stories, and by signing up, right now anyway, you get 200 tokens for free. The first three episodes/chapters are always free. To help writers get noticed, you can like each episode and follow the story. There are also polls you can vote in — I’m using my polls sort of as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. You can help write my story!

The old adage “write what you know” led to a spark in my mind. That spark translated into a random story about a haunted tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. My Vella is about a college student who is suddenly immersed in ghost stories and spooky coincidences… or are they? Read it here.

When Violet Got Bored‘s cover reveal may be as early as this Friday! Yay! I’m excited to have this one almost under wraps!

And I’ve just begun working on my children’s book special edition for the holidays. As of right now, I can still meet my goals so fingers crossed. It’s a cool idea!

Enjoy the rest of your October, and Happy Samhain!

Off to October!

Although I was born in winter, and adore Summer’s season the most, and love the CHANGING of the seasons the best, October is quite possibly my favorite month.

Off to October we go!

What’s Behind Us

I updated Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars in the paperback edition. I darkened the lines on the drawings to make them pop more, and it went live the third week of September. There was also a Kindle ebook sale, and an ad just went out on Facebook to advertise the book.

A blog post went live on Swellness Vibes about the book Whole Brain Living.

Two short posts were published on Flight of the Seedling.

What’s Ahead of Us

Now that Phenix & Fox is sitting pretty, my attention is going to turn towards Violet. I’ll be dissecting and organizing the plot, organizing characters, editing, and creating a cover once and for all. My goal is to have a cover reveal before the end of October, and have a release in November.

My goal is to *also* have the Phenix & Fox: Special Edition ready to go in November, too. Perfect for holiday gifting, this edition shall be! (I’m excited about this if it works! I did a preliminary run with a drawing at the time of writing this post and it came out great!)

Random blog posting will happen, and the intention is to set myself up for a super-swell series on a chosen topic for Swellness Vibes in 2023. Any ideas about what you’d like to read about? Email suggestions here.

I’m also thinking of dabbling in Kindle Vella. “They” always say write what you know. Well, I know spooky things, right? Not only have I come across it in my line of work, but I also live in a place full of historical chaos. Stay tuned! This could be entertaining!

Happy October

Soooo, September

Here we are, ALREADY in September of 2022! How can this be?!

The kid has returned to public school leaving me with four glorious weeks a month trying to re-assemble my life. Allison, Assemble!

Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars, while published in August, just arrived at my house TODAY! The kid and I saw a final copy of this first run at my brother’s house weeks ago, but because whatever crazy parameters Amazon has set for its authors purchasing author-copies, it took me over two weeks to get my copies!

ALAS. I will not judge, I will NOT judge… I will only improve!

Soooo, September, what is up?

Phenix & Fox — sketches will be highlighted and darkened for print copies, assuming Amazon lets me upload a newer version of the book (SAME edition). From there, the next version will be worked on… mum’s the word on that… hopefully for a fun Christmas activity release! After that, I will happily turn to coloring in the rest of the pictures that are not colored in, fixing whatever remains ill with me that are fixable, all in hopes for a hardback color edition next summer. The kid will help.

While these edits and improvements and additions are occurring, I simultaneously plan on focusing on When Violet Got Bored this month. I would love for a release by Halloween — if not, Thanksgiving will be the goal. Not all of the query requests have come in, but I personally need for this part to be finished! This way, I can focus on Book 2, or heyull, maybe even something new to write about?

Nah. Not me.

Squirrel!

Swellness Vibes — new post out this Sunday, and I plan to blog more, again, potentially finishing this year into next year with another series to write. Last year we focused on color/light therapy.. is there anything you’d like to see me explore?

I’m still doing bodywork for those who know me in that sphere, creating an Autumn yoga video, and also working on getting a podcast produced… maybe a couple of episodes before the end of the year???? Or ready for next year??? I can’t wait to see where this swellness vibed podcast takes us!

FROM MY HEART SPACE — thank you so much to those who have supported my writing journey with a purchase of Phenix & Fox, and especially to those who have written reviews. WOW! You’re amazing. My kid and I are in awe of your actions.

I’d also like to thank those who take the time to skim my (many) blogs. I can’t believe there’s anyone out there willing to follow these keystrokes — for real.

All the smiles,

allison keli

Awesome August

You guys.

I self-published a book.

Something that sat in my brain for God only knows how long, then found its way to paper and a Word doc, then found its way back to paper (illustrations), then back to computer (thanks, old Nikon), is now available for purchase on Amazon.

With the help of my kid.

My kid who I originally wrote the silly tale for, you know, like a hundred years ago.

I’ve got five zillion ideas for how to move forward from here — including something that may come available for Christmas — but I also have that pesky novel of mine collecting dust, as well as a potential mystery concerning the Appalachian Trail, not to mention my kid wants me to write a middle grade book, or how about those yoga videos I’m trying to produce, or the podcast, as well as continue to do bodywork?

Well, we’ll see where I head once September starts. I’ll try to follow the stars to get there.

For now, I’m taking some more time off through the rest of August. Maybe I’ll do a Swellness Vibes post; almost definitely a ta-ta to my kid who is returning back to public school post-pandemic post; certainly some Insta instances; edits to my websites.

If you know a tyke up to 2nd grade or so, and you love fantasy creatures and star science, check out Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars here. You can read it for free if you get Kindle Unlimited. And please leave a review if you like it (or I suppose hate it, too!)! I’m starting to get a feel here for how things work; apparently reviews are important.

You guys. I PUBLISHED A BOOK! Too. Darn. Funny.

Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars

The Perseid Meteor Shower has been going on for a couple of weeks, and the peak is just a weekend away! (Granted, the full moon may get in the way of seeing these amazing shooting stars, but if the sky is clear, gaze upwards towards the heavens anyway!)

Why do we care about the Perseids? Because Phenix and Fox are about to catch the show themselves, that’s why!

I’m hyperventilating here. After five thousand years on this Earthly plane, for better or for worse (depends on your perspective, I suppose, dear reader!), I have finally published a book!

Who knew I would really do this? Who knew that self-publishing would become so accessible that it would be easy as hell to publish a book?

(Well, easy doesn’t exactly describe the process properly. But let’s just say, I didn’t need to find an agent or book publisher, and I didn’t need to have classes in illustrating to create a book for the public domain.)

This book is for my son, through and through. It only exists because of him.

This picture book is appropriate for babies through, I’m guessing, early 2nd grade, roughly age 7. Sort of depends where your reader is. However, if your kid doesn’t mind reading all types of books, the content itself will still be enjoyable.

Simple rhymes in a free-flowing manner, this book should entice children — and adults who like children’s books.

It’s currently in review, but should be available to purchase soon. I’ll have that updated information on the Phenix & Fox page. Kindle version will definitely be ready on Monday the 8th. Woohoo!

I published it on 8/4/2022 at 4:24. I am not sure why that matters!

allison keli

Just July

We are officially in the heated hell of Summer, and I’m one, sweaty, happy beast!

Here’s what I’m up to….

Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars.. The kid and I have been drawing pictures fo the book for the past week, and I have high hopes of finishing them up next week. I’ll photograph the pictures, embed them into the book, and TA DAAAAAA, have a children’s book up on Amazon published!

As soon as that book is submitted, I’ll obnoxiously post about it, but then turn my own devices back towards Violet’s boredom. I haven’t heard back from all of my querying yet, and many, many have timed out, but I think it’s time to move forward with the thing either way. I’ll give it another scrub down, and hopefully have it published for Autumn.

After that, I’ll get my bearings straight about how I want to progress in the written world — should I finish Book 2 of Violet’s World? Should I scribe another Phenix & Fox? Should I turn to middle grade writing? (This is where my almost 8-year old is quickly headed, if not already there.) Should I focus on blogging?

Right now, the world is my oyster, and for once, it’s a good place to be.