Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 56

The What Moon?

Tonight is Hallowe’en! My favorite occasion of the year, but this time round there’s something special going on. It’s no trick! Tonight we have a very special treat in the night sky.

On October 31, 2020 we will see… brace yourself… a Hallowe’en Hunter’s Blue Micro Moon!

It’s a Hallowe’en full moon for the first time since 1944.

It’s a Hunter’s Moon because the leaves have dropped and hunters would be able to see their prey more easily.

It’s a Blue Moon because it’s the second full moon in a month. Granted, any full moon on Hallowe’en will be a Blue Moon because October has 31 days and the Moon’s cycle is 28 days.

It’s a Micro Moon because the Moon is at apogee — the farthest point from Earth in its orbit.

I think what I love most about this is its connection to the ancient past. Our ancestors once watched the Moon closely. Many aspects of geography might change, but the Moon helped them plan their crops and other activities. They had names for all the full moons and many other celestial events.

Sometimes I wish we had these cool names for other things around us. It’s a perfect setup and inspiration for magical systems of all sorts. As a fantasy writer, how could I resist?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

That’s Snow Joke

Snow! Yes, we had an early snowfall here in the Inland Northwest. Six inches fell in my yard. Surrounding areas received either three inches more or three inches less, depending. We normally don’t get significant snow until closer to Thanksgiving, although snow on Hallowe’en is not unknown.

So the winter season has seriously begun. It’s been all right for these few days. I made it in to work on Monday without skidding or sliding. Score!

KDP sent me a list of more tweaks, so it seems that paperback collection of Minstrels of Skaythe was not quite as finished as I thought. They want smaller text on the spine, an easy fix. They also want me to remove any references to a binding other than “paperback.” I cannot find any such reference in my files. This may take more investigation.

Oh, well. Maybe I’ll move the release date closer to my November 15th target just by trying to find that pesky binding definition.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Bad Moon Rising

Yes, it’s that time of year! Every October, author Teri Polen hosts Bad Moon Rising, an annual festival of horror writing, on her blog, Books and Such.

Today it’s my turn. The featured book is The Tower in the Mist, first in my Minstrels of Skaythe series. I hope you’ll use this link and jump on over to Teri’s blog.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Whew!

I made it. The layout for Minstrels of Skaythe is completely tweaked. Kindle likes the margins, the cover is the right size, and I’ve clicked the dreaded “publish” button.

Now begins the second-guessing of myself. I wasn’t planning to publish until next month, November 15. I’m anxious about clicking “publish” so far in advance, and I hope there will be a point in the process when I can define the release date for myself.

Nevertheless, it’s time for me to get busy with some promotion. I need to make an ad for my Facebook page, update my web sites, all that stuff. As always, if anyone is open to hosting a blog, please get in touch.

On a somewhat sadder note, our elderly cat is showing a marked decline. She has trouble jumping up and down to places, hardly eats, and now she has started hiding. When a sick cat starts to hide, that’s a very bad sign. We’re undecided whether it would be more cruel and arbitrary to let her suffer, or take her for one last trip to the vet.

There’s really nothing to be done. Sneakers is just old. But this is the part of pet ownership nobody wants to think about. It’s a waiting game, now.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Call for Submissions

I’m still fighting with the formats on Minstrels of Skaythe, but I do have an intriguing call for submissions to share with you.

Wolfsinger Productions is planning an anthology with the theme of time capsules. The first step is to submit a list of 10 items that might be placed in a time capsule, along with a letter addressed to whoever opens the time capsule. Submissions will be accepted until November 15th. See full guidelines here.

The second step is that different writers will receive the list — but not the letter. They will write a story based upon the list. Writers can choose to make their list but not write a story, or they can choose to write a story without having made a list.

There is payment, although quite small. Check it out if you’re up for an interesting challenge!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Perspective

Work continues on the layout for Minstrels of Skaythe. I think I’m getting close. The tweaks are getting smaller and smaller, anyway.

Meanwhile, in school, we are past the honeymoon period at the first of the year. The kids’ natural resistance is beginning to unfold. Today was a day for all the kids to melt on their desks — either at home or at school — and whimper “I don’t know” for everything I asked. (Of course, they may also have been trying to hide that they had taken their masks off.)

Anyhow! My job is as a Resource paraeducator, Resource being the part of school that supports kids with learning disabilities. For a lot of the kids, writing is really the hardest subject. Even when I dictate a simple sentence, like “I love ham,” they struggle to get the letters on the page. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’ve tried and failed so much that they give up hope, or if they just don’t want to do the work and so they’re acting helpless.

Like a lot of writers, reading and writing came naturally to me when I was a kid. It is humbling to realize that what I take for granted is so difficult for some of the kids. I have to deploy many strategies to encourage them to at least try — even when they are melting on the desktop.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Progress

I’m at a good place with those layouts on the Minstrels of Skaythe collection. I found some clip art that will accent the title pages and story endings, and those are laid out. The next step will be to load it into Amazon and start going through the proofing process.

My first attempt was the wrong format size, 8-1/2 x 11 when it needed to be 6 x 9. I had to rejigger a whole bunch of stuff, and I hope this time I’ve got it right. I also built my cover on a template that was the wrong size. I already know what words need to go where, once I have the right sized template. Those fixes should be easy enough.

Anyway, this is why you should always start your publishing process well in advance!

In addition to that work, my ballot has arrived. I plan to set aside an hour and go through the voter pamphlet and look at some candidate web sites on issues I haven’t already decided. Washington State has been voting completely by mail for over 5 years, and the process is truly private and secure.

There is so much going on in the United States of 2020, and I won’t presume to know what opinions each of you hold. But I will unequivocally urge all of you to take the time and whatever steps you need to vote. (If you don’t live in the States, then I urge you to participate in whatever government you do have.)

Our nation needs you to vote!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

A Pet Peeve

As I prepare for the second draft on Prisoners of the Wailing Tower, one thing I’m really researching is… horses. Some of the mages are mounted on horses, and a bit of combat breaks out. What I’m trying to figure out is if the loud noises and such will spook the horses.

So I reached out to some of my friends who spend a lot of time around horses. Opinions are divided between “those horses would bolt in under a minute” and “no sane mage would go into combat on a horse that isn’t trained for that sort of thing.”

(Who said the mages in Skaythe are sane?)

Seriously, I agree that the mages would train their horses if they have time. It’s not going to change the outcome, but I do want to have reasonable details and reactions.

One of my pet peeves is when animals show a humanlike understanding and intelligence. I think of it as “the Lassie Effect.” The beautiful collie dog is smarter than most of the humans in her show, and regularly saves the day.

I have nothing against animals. They are beautiful and have senses beyond what humans possess. But they don’t reason like we do.

Now, it’s different if the animal is specified as being a spirit beast, or a witch’s familiar, or blessed by some divinity. My peeve is when animals are treated as humans who happen to have fur and paws.

Anyway… back to more “horsing around” for me!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Woman at Work, Part 8

What’s Happening? As we come into October, I find myself as distracted as I expected to be. Figuring out the tech and my students’ personalities requires intense concentration, and then you add in the many irritations of the political situation. There’s not a lot of space in my head for writing just now.

What I’m Working On. This is where I confess that I’m not working on much of anything. At least as far a putting new words on the electronic page. I am moving slowly forward with formatting of the printed Minstrels of Skaythe volume, and getting feedback on Prisoners of the Wailing Tower ahead of the third draft revisions.

What’s Next? As mentioned in my last post, Bad Moon Rising is in October. And that’s about it. Maybe next month, after the election, I’ll start thinking about the next Minstrels of Skaythe novella.

Fun and Games. Animal Crossing and Fallout 4. In AC, my village is in the Southern Hemisphere, so this month I have cherry blossoms at the same time as Jack-o-Lanterns. Fun! I’m also enjoying Fallout. In some ways, it’s almost as leisurely as AC. Although there is a plot to follow, you can skip that and focus as much as you want on helping isolated villages and trying to rebuild civilization.

For some reason, the rebuilding idea is really appealing to me right now!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Coming Soon

Every year, I take part in Teri Polen’s book event, Bad Moon Rising, and she’s just announced her schedule of appearances. Check it out here! My date is October 24th, and I’m spot-lighting The Tower in the Mist, the opening volume of my series, Minstrels of Skaythe.

With opportunities for appearances so curtailed in 2020, I’m especially excited about this. I hope you’ll all take a look at the amazing horror and dark fantasy in Bad Moon Rising.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.