Jamie Ferguson's Blog, page 17

Ready for summer!

I officially have three firm deadlines:

June 1st: “The City Trees” (short story) and an accompanying cover are due for the “Fantasy in the City” bundle. July 6th: Deliver Entangled by Midsummer (a novel) to the editor. August 15th: Deliver Bewitchery (a novella) to the editor.

DeAnna Knippling will be editing Entangled by Midsummer. You may remember DeAnna from the guest post she wrote on my blog last October. DeAnna has edited short stories for me in the past; this will be the first time w...

There is an end to this tunnel!

A few days ago I realized I’d passed a mysterious, and previously unknown, transition point with the novel. All of a sudden I could see that it will actually be finished soon!

This was a more momentous moment than it sounds. I’d been working super hard on the manuscript, but I kept feeling like no matter how much I did, there was a never-ending list of things left to do. Now I feel like it’s a finite list! Hooray!

I think this change in perspective was caused by two things.

I’d changed a f...

Making before into after

Out of all the projects I’m working on right now, editing the novel is by far the most challenging. But it’s also the most fun!

The challenging part boils down to one simple fact: there’s a lot of work to do! I have to correct factual inconsistencies, and I have several since I changed a few things as I worked on the manuscript and now need to update earlier references to match. I tend to write sparse early drafts, so I’m adding more description and sensory details. (Some scenes have plenty o...

Multitasking madness

As an expert multitasker, it’s no surprise that I’m quite skilled at productive procrastination. I’ve only done a tiny bit of work on the novel in the past week, but I’ve accomplished a zillion other things!

One of the more fun and challenging of my recent accomplishments is that I submitted a short story to the LAURA Short Fiction contest. This is an annual short fiction contest sponsored by Women Writing the West. The contest is named for Laura Ingalls Wilder. Stories submitted to this cont...

All aboard!

I’m sending out my first ever newsletter this month!!!

My plan is to send out my newsletter four times a year, at the solstices and equinoxes, because who doesn’t enjoy celebrating pagan holidays and/or astronomical events? Depending on how you like to look at things. The first issue will be out by the end of April; the next one will be around the summer solstice, which is on June 20th this year.

I’ve set up a page on my website where I’ll put fun and exciting content for my newsletter subs...

Writing vs. margaritas

I am temporarily (and very happily!) in between jobs, which means I have a lot of extra writing time!

This is the first time I’ve had this much time off since I got focused on my writing, and it’s like a daydream come true. The dream, of course, would be to be able to do this full time and not have to have a job at all. But this brief interlude is awfully nice nonetheless!

It’s a challenge to treat writing like a job. Sure, there are plenty of writers who get up at 5am and write before going...

Springtime is for digging

We’ve had a pretty warm winter, but even with temperatures in the 70s it hadn’t felt like spring until this past week. The crocuses and grape hyacinths are blooming, my herbs are coming back to life (although we’ll have to see about the rosemary), and my garden is rapidly filling with grass and an invasive plant that masquerades as a flower but really wants to take over the world. Let the battle begin!

There’s an ongoing battle with my novel as well, but it’s a much more pleasant one than my...

Series, seriously

I’ve recently discovered that I’m writing a series of books. Or perhaps series … although I keep wanting to use “serieses” as the plural.

But first: here’s the final cover for Entangled by Midsummer!!!

I’m so excited! I’m working hard on finishing my part, and will announce a date once things are a little further along.

For a long time I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a series, but with one complicated exception, I never had an idea that would last past one book. The exception is a wes...

It’s about time…

Yesterday I sent out my first short story submission in seven years!!!!!

It was much harder to do than I’d expected. One of my goals is to start trying to sell my short stories. That seems like a simple concept, and having just sold three at the anthology workshop definitely helped me feel that the quality of my writing is at the right level. But it took a lot of willpower – and far more time than it should have – to make the last few changes to my story. Then when I was just about done I re...

Happy pajamas

I’m back at work on the novel, and have clean laundry for the first time in two weeks! Laugh if you will, but I’ll be wearing my favorite flannel pajamas tonight.

A few weeks before the anthology workshop I realized that part of the reason I’d signed up was for validation. I like to think I’m a good writer, but writing is a pretty solitary endeavor, and I don’t get much feedback on my unpublished projects. Selling three out of six short stories at the workshop, especially given the quality o...