Category: Anthologies

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the art of the heart

How does one sum up a weekend like this one? Every time I try, my mind fills with a kaleidoscope of images that cover a spectrum of beautiful faces, bright colors, book covers, poetry and prose, rainbow hair and amazing costumes.

It seems strange to me that I haven’t always known these people, that it has only been 5 years since my first Sirens conference.

Every year I am able to come to Sirens, I learn new things and I meet new friends. Inspiration abounds, whether it comes in the form of one of the panels / papers, or in a conversation with friends, or one of the Guest of Honor speeches.

So many artists, with so many kinds of arts! Not just writers…we have people who paint and draw and crochet and knit and cross stitch (and other fiber arts). This is most evident on Saturday night at the Sirens Ball, where participants are encouraged to dress for the theme, and the silent auction tables are filled with amazing prints, jewelry, wood working, clothing, scarves and more.

I have a good amount of imposter syndrome when I walk in (and at other times), but it usually melts with the first hug from a fellow author who’s work I adore. This year I forced myself out of my agoraphobic paralysis and actually had conversations with our Guests of Honor (and they were all lovely).

There is beauty in a place that not only accepts you for who you are, but embraces you for it, where you are free to be entirely and unapologetically yourself. Where your beauty is not defined by the size of your body or the shape of your face…where we paint the landscape around us with the art of our hearts and revel in our resistance to the mundane.

But all good things must end, and I have already dropped folks at the airport, checked out of the hotel and am waiting for it to be time to drop my luggage. Then, I will find a place where I can plug in my charger and do some writing/editing.

Tomorrow we go back to the daily grind, and the beautiful land we created from our imaginations will fade slowly back into just a memory that we can pull out when we need to be reminded that we are wonder and joy and fierce.

Until next year, Sirens…I will keep you in my heart until we meet again.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

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villains & vengeance & velocity

I’ve been battling migraines and all of their attendant baggage off and on for about two weeks. Only two days were really bad, but the up and down is exhausting.

Today the headache is only mild, but the nausea is yucky and my sinuses are cranky.

This is the start of my fourth week in the new day job, which I am enjoying. It’s a bigger company than my last few, but I get to learn new things, which makes me so very happy.

It is also October! I do love spooky season, which you know if you’ve been around here long (or not so long). I was supposed to be on vacation this week, but we postponed it out until we’re in a better place pandemic wise. My next opportunity for shenanigans is in just over two weeks, when I will be attending the Sirens Conference. I’m anxious, but excited.

I can not wait to see my Sirens family.

In case you didn’t know, I edit the anthology we publish to benefit the con, and this year’s anthology is available in both ebook and paperback. I also have a short story in the book. The profit from each book is donated to the Conference to help fund scholarships and/or defray the costs of putting the conference together. You can get your copy of Villains and Vengeance on Amazon.

We’re into that time of year when I can cuddle into fluffy hoodies and sweats, fuzzy socks and fingerless gloves in the morning, and strip down to shorts and a tank top by the evening…it’s also the time of year where time seems to excelerate.

Sure, this whole year has been something of a blur, but from now through January it always seems to enter warp speed.

And that’s pretty much my brain dump for you today, Readers. I hope the Monday treats you with kindness!

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sunshine and kindness

August is something of a transition month for me. When I lived in Upstate New York as a kid, it had this impending feeling of autumn, but with the heat and free spirit of summer. Corn of the cob and macaroni salads filled picnic tables, kids splashed about in Lake Ontario, and trees were just starting to show the kiss of color that autumn would bring.

Thoughts would turn to shopping for school clothes, the smell of leaves and fires, the anticipation for hay rides and haunted houses.

Of course, now that my life no longer rotates around the school calendar, August is the start of a string of birthdays/holidays that begins with my brother’s oldest child’s (who is no longer a child) birthday, mine, my mother’s, Halloween, Thanksgiving, my brother’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s and then my brother’s youngest child’s birthday (she is no longer a child either).

Add in there a trip to Austin early in August most years for a birthday celebration of another kind, plus various conferences and vacations, and most years August is the start of time accelerating to race through it all.

I leave for Austin on Thursday (vaccinated and masked), but until then, I’m trying to hold back on the gallop and keep this thing slowed down a bit while I can. I’m writing a lot, and editing the Sirens Benefit Anthology, and even working at designing a cover for it.

Right now, I’m savoring my Death Wish Coffee and contemplating thinky things. I plan on filming some poetry videos while I’m in Austin, so stay tuned for that to happen.

And now, Readers, I’m off into my Sunday. May yours be filled with sunshine and kindness.

Photo by Brian Garcia on Unsplash

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the beauty in brevity

There is something I love about the freedom in a short story. There is no obligation to begin at the beginning, in fact it is sometimes more fun to jump in somewhere in the middle.

Short stories ask more skill of us authors, in some ways, than a full length novel. There is the challenge of brevity, which is a thing I often struggle with. If you have five thousand words to tell the tale, each of those words becomes important. Your characters need to be able to convey not just story, but personality and point of view quickly, but without making your reader feel rushed.

Often when I’m working on a short story, I throw words on the page to start, far more words than necessary and often imprecisely used. Then I use my first edit pass to tighten up the language, replace the imprecise with something more fitting. I boil down descriptions to the best words. I render ten words down to three or four.

All the while, I’m whittling away at not just the word count, but at the story itself, distilling it down to a more perfect form. Think of it as a block of stone. We know that there is a work of art inside of it, but we have to work to chip away the parts that obscure it.

There are a bunch of short stories on my hard drive in some state of doneness, some begun for a specific project, others just to get the words out of my head. Maybe I’ll consider an anthology of these works at some point, but for now, I am off to finish polishing and buffing one for this year’s Sirens anthology.

Happy Saturday, Readers! I hope the coffee is good, the sun is shining and your day is filled with kindness.

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

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…for the love of words…

I love words.

I love long words, short words, weird words. I love unusual words and common words. I love combinations of words that absolutely, perfectly describe something or someone.

I love twisting words around until they come out just right.

I’ve been drawn to words and how we use them to communicate since I was a child. I learned to read rather young and I loved to immerse myself into the worlds of the books I read. Then I learned that I could write my own worlds, create my own stories with the words that I loved.

As is true of anyone, my first attempts at that were…shall we say, not good. From my juvenile poetry to my first attempts at short stories and even novels, my love of words only grew, and fortunately, my use of them improved over time.

Today, I hold in my hands a book of poetry…my poetry. Words that I wrestled with, slept with, scribbled out onto loose leaf paper or the back of receipts, words that I typed out in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep until I got them down.

There is a satisfaction in this project that is a little different to any of the novels I have published. It is more intimate, because these words often come from deep within my understanding of who I am.

And, I love who I am. I hope you will join me on this journey. Find your copy at Amazon or other online retailers. May this Tuesday serve you well and bestow kindness upon you, Readers.

Photo by Jeremy Beck on Unsplash

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…tonight…

You may recall me talking about a collection of poetry recently. This morning, I woke to the news that my publisher, Next Chapter publications, already has it available to purchase! How awesome is that?

This collection of poems comes from across more than 30 years of writing poetry and covers the gambit from sweet, rhyming poems to sultry (and very adult) poems, with stops all over the spectrum.

To me, poetry has always been about capturing emotion in such a way that the Reader can feel what I was feeling when I wrote it. There are times I have agonized for hours over a single line in my attempt to do that. Sometimes over a single word.

My love of words began with poetry and grew from there. My heart lives here, and I invite you in to sit a spell and let my heart touch yours.

Get your copy now!

Happy Monday, Readers!

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a return to “normal”

Here we are on the other side of Pride month.  My work on the anthology is complete and turned in, I have only a small amount of Pride paperwork to finish, the new job is starting to settle in.

That must mean it’s time to get my “normal” life back, right? For some value of normal anyway.  My current schedule is still a bit all over the place, in part due to the holiday this week and trying to sort out the best way to work my twenty hours at the job while also getting other stuff done.

I’m hoping this will also encourage my muse to return.  She’s been AWOL pretty much since I got laid off.  But, I got a glimmer of plot resolution the other day while I was crocheting and if I finish up my work early enough today, that should mean I could dust off that story file and make some words happen.

Exciting, I know!

For now though, I have a few hours to finish for the week and a project that needs doing, with a stiff deadline, so, I’m off to deal with that.

Hope y’all had a great week, Readers, and that this coming week is fabulous!

 

Photo by Dustin Lee on Unsplash

 

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Today is the submissions deadline for the short story anthology that I am editing for the Sirens Conference, a benefit anthology that will help defray the costs of running a conference like this one.

This year we opened up submissions to include poetry and flash fiction, as well as the short stories we’ve always accepted.  The writers of this community are amazing and I genuinely LOVE getting to read the collection, let alone having a hand in helping bring it to fruition.

Of course, that means that today’s writing time is devoted to editing instead, but I have a couple hours blocked out of tomorrow to write, though whether I end up tweaking my short story for the anthology or working on one of the novels in progress is anyone’s guess.

For today, I plan to edit for a few hours, then I head out to the salon to re-greenify my hair, which is looking a little bit sad right now, before coming home to tackle laundry and housework.

The glamorous life of a writer, I tell ya!  Living the dream over here.

Hope your Saturday is glorious, Readers! I’m off to pour another cup of coffee before I open the first story.

Want more from me? Visit me!

Weight Loss: https://aweightyjourneysite.wordpress.com/
Current Events: https://myweightinwords.wordpress.com/
Poetry: https://weightywordspoetry.wordpress.com/
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (be warned I post a lot pictures of my cats).

 

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writing time

It’s early on a Saturday morning and I am up, showered and dressed (for some value of dressed anyway).  There is coffee sending up steam and the aroma of goodness on the desk next to me, most of my house is clean and I have a weekend stretched out in front of me.

Today I am going back to the short story I recently finished, having received feedback from my beta reader.  I have a much firmer idea of what happens before the story than I did when I began, and the characters are much more real to me than they were 5000 words ago, so it’s time to readdress and rewrite.

That’s the task for this weekend, to get that story up on its feet, so to speak, so that I can focus on editorial duties as we start to approach the deadline for submission.  I have to admit, I love playing editor for projects like this one.  I get to read a diverse set of stories, from a diverse set of female writers about a diverse group of characters.

I am also expecting my mother at some point today, she’s driving out to spend some time with me and we plan on hitting up the local nursery, and possibly some other fun places.

If you want to read more of my blog ramblings, I have two other blogs that I am actively attempting to maintain, one of them is chronicling my weight loss journey post-surgery, the other is mostly my take on current events, being fat in a world that rewards skinny, as well as philosophical ramblings on politics and religion, as seen from a point of view outside the mainstream. There is poetry blog too, if you’re into that sort of thing.  I also have a Patreon, if you’re interested in seeing some content from me before others, some exclusive content, etc.

You can find these here:

Weight Loss: https://aweightyjourneysite.wordpress.com/
Current Events: https://myweightinwords.wordpress.com/
Poetry: https://weightywordspoetry.wordpress.com/
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (be warned I post a lot pictures of my cats).

I should get to that whole writing thing.  Happy Saturday, Readers!  May it be filled with fun, silliness and a whole lot of love!

 

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and back again…

My those two weeks of vacation disappeared in a flash! I had an amazing time visiting Rome and Pompeii and Florence and Venice and Paris!  Lots of great food and lots of wonderful vistas.

I got home last week, but was unfortunately sick with a cold I picked up in Paris.  Woke up with it that last full day.  I’m still recovering, but feel a lot better than I did this time last week.

It was nice to get home to my own bed and cuddle with my kitties though.  Now I’m working on finding my way back to my routine.

In other news, that anthology I was editing a while back is now available in ebook format!  Here’s the blurb:

REBELS AND REVENANTS features the dead and trebels and revenantshe undead, ghosts both figurative and literal, Elder Gods and Egyptian queens, and, funny enough, more than a little rebellion. Most of all, these eleven stories have heart, with a strong sense of family threading through them, either the one you’re born to or the one you make.

REBELS AND REVENANTS will teach you that when you find your place, you better stake a claim and stand by it.

 

The stories are all written by some amazing, kickass female writers in genres from Sci-fi/Fantasy to Horror, and I couldn’t be prouder of them all!  You should grab a copy and let us know what you think.

 

On that note, I need to get myself back to work.  Lots to do and all that.  Happy Tuesday, Readers!