Jamie Ferguson's Blog, page 11

Don’t do the math…

My short story “The Switch” is in the brand-new bundle Crimes, Capers, & Rule-Breakers!

Today is the last day of the 99 cent pre-order sale – on July 11th the bundle will be officially available (and delivered, if you’ve pre-ordered it) and will go up to its full price.

This is a super fun collection curated by my friend Rebecca M. Senese. Rebecca and I met a little over five years ago in a writing class on the Oregon coast. She’s a great writer – I still remember two of the stories she wrot...

Crimes and bears, oh my!

I saw a bear on our hiking trail for the first time ever!!!

And yes, that photo was taken from pretty far away – but isn’t that where you too would like to be if there was a bear walking down the trail you had just been hiking up?

Here’s a close-up.

I do know bears live in the area – we are in Boulder, Colorado, after all. A year or two ago there was a bear hanging out in our neighbor’s tree for a while, and I’ve seen plenty of evidence of bears on our regular trail over the years. But it’s...

Cover experiments and tennis balls

The summer solstice has come and gone, and now that summer has begun (or now that we’re halfway through summer, if you like to think of things in terms of astrological accuracy) I’m taking stock of where I’m at and doing my best to make sure I stay on track with everything.

Since it’s me, ‘everything’ involves an awful lot of things.

Faeries beneath the waves

The Beneath the Waves bundle and The Faerie Summer bundle are both on sale for only 99 cents each through Sunday, June 25th!

This sale is to celebrate the summer solstice, which falls on June 20th this year. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, you can think of this as a winter solstice sale instead.

All the things!

I’ve finally caught up on all the things!!!

There will be more things, of course, but as an unrepentant optimist I believe I will now not only stay on top of everything, I’m even going to get months ahead on my upcoming deadlines! Hooray!!!

I realize that’s an awful lot of exclamation points, but this is the first time I’ve felt on top of everything in 2017, so it deserves a bit of celebration.

Weeks are made of days

I’ve been “days” away from being caught up on all my writing projects for the past two weeks…but weeks are made up of days, so this still counts, right?

Uncovering covers

I’ve spent the last three hours or so completely redesigning my cover for “To Be a Monster,” which will be in the Beneath the Waves bundle. My story is told from the viewpoint of Scylla, one of the many innocents who were unjustly turned into monsters in Greek mythology. My original cover idea used a photo of an ancient mosaic depicting a sea monster grabbing a man, which fit the story perfectly, but it was just okay as a cover. Yesterday I decided to scrap what I’d done and start fresh.

Com...

Writing through the mud

The last remnants from our latest snowfall (yes, I know it’s May…) have melted, and the resulting mud is drying up. But the dogs go hiking every day no matter how muddy it is.

Reminders about reminders

The past week has been full of reminders about things I need to remind myself about.

When writing a new story feels like a slog at the beginning…
 
Reminder: This is normal. I often need to write about 1,000 words to get into the characters’ heads and the flow of the story.
 
Another reminder: It doesn’t matter how clear the story is in my head. When I first start a new story, it may feel slow and like it will never go anywhere. But it will.

Stories are like pine cones

The Faerie Summer bundle is now available on BundleRabbit, Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks!

I had so much fun putting this collection together that I’ve decided to turn The Faerie Summer into the first of a series of faery-themed bundles! The next one is scheduled to come out at Midwinter, also known as the winter solstice. (This is a northern hemisphere approach – in the southern hemisphere, the next issue will come out on Midsummer…)

I’m also planning a novel with some of the chara...