Jamie Ferguson's Blog, page 7

Change is in the air

My biggest accomplishment for the past week was breaking my all-time record for the number of mimosas drunk in one day. Hooray!

Overly cocky, or merely optimistic?

I am an unrepentant Pollyanna, so even when I’m super crazy behind I know that I’ll catch up at the very end, just like back in high school when I’d start writing a paper two days before it was due even though I’d known about the assignment for weeks. Okay, so maybe starting earlier would have been a little less stressful – and just thinking about this is giving me flashbacks to madly printing out some assignment on a dot matrix printer, which is a little disturbing because it’s raising my bl...

Out of excuses

I have not accomplished much in the past week. Sure, I organized things, went through paperwork, cleaned my house (somewhat), and had a lovely visit with an aunt and uncle I hadn’t seen since 1985.

Home is where the dogs are

I’m back home after a long, grueling, and very fun week on the Oregon coast at the fantasy writing workshop taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I learned a few things, caught up with some of my author friends – and made a few new ones, and started a few new novels.

Kicking off an interesting week…

I just realized that I’m going to Oregon for a writing class that starts THIS Saturday, not on the 21st!!!!! I’ve apparently had the wrong dates on my calendar for at least six months. Wow. And OMG. And ack!

This is the most exciting start to a week I’ve had in a very long time…

Paws crossed!

My short story “Ilsa and the Dragon” is available in the brand new anthology Beauty and Wickedness!!! This is a collection of sixteen fairy tale retellings and brand new fairy tales. I didn’t base my story off of a traditional fairy tale this time. I had a clear picture of the dragon in the story, and while I wasn’t sure how a few things would shake out until I started writing, I knew I wanted to write about this dragon, and he doesn’t fit in any traditional fairy tale I’m aware of.

This coll...

Checking it twice

Jasper practicing one of his tricks (‘head down’).

Jasper is hanging in there with his month of no hiking and no ball-playing. He’s learned one new trick: ‘hide your eyes,’ where he covers one eye with a paw. It’s very charming, and apparently very difficult to capture in a photo.

No, it is not mid-February

I realize it’s March, but persist in thinking that it’s really the middle of February. If that were the case I’d be ahead – or at least on time – with a number of different things. Apparently my subconscious likes this idea, because for the past two weeks I’ve reminded myself multiple times where we’re at on the calendar…and then I’ll forget and go back to my happy place.

All the turns!

Jasper isn’t allowed to hike or play ball for a month. He’s got some issues with his back, and while there’s nothing dire going on, he’s supposed to only go on leashed walks. Needless to say, this is going to be a very long month…

In which I read as well as write

Beauty and Wickedness, the first volume in the new anthology series Ever After Fairy Tales, is getting closer to launch! I made teeny tiny tweaks to the cover to appease my OCD, I’m working on formatting the ebook, and I’ve been experimenting with marketing images. I’m also reading through every story to make sure there isn’t a random typo hiding somewhere, and so far have only found one very minor one where the word itself was spelled correctly, it was just the wrong word.