Hello there, friends!
Happy Labor Day to all of you! Hopefully you’ve set aside some time to relax- I know I have! As we go into the next week, I just wanted to announce a few exciting things that have happened as far as the anthology I mentioned a while back is concerned and give anyone who is interested some updates on Haywood Micaye.
First of all, I have recently decided that in an attempt to get onto a more defined blogging schedule I am going to start a blog series. I haven’t quite determined a theme, but I’m liking the idea of something about art and creative expression. The way I envision it, there will be a new post uploaded weekly, along with my presently irregular updates about the other projects I have going on.
Speaking of my other projects…
A few weeks ago, I sent Haywood to a professional editor I found through Reedsy.com, and I should be getting those comments back within the next two weeks! After that, I’ll have a few months to fix anything he suggests, then I send it back for a final look over and we’re ready to transition into publication!
As of right now, I am in the process of getting a marketing plan built up so that awareness can be raised on the book itself and also so I can hook you guys up with some cool swag- because let’s face it, we all need more cool things in our lives. I won’t give away any of the details right now, but if I can get everything to work the way that I want it to, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
As far as a release date, I’ve made mention several times in the past that I had intents on getting Haywood Micaye published before graduation. With the graduation date now set, I can confidently say that you can expect a completed novel to drop sometime early that month. Until I see how much work I will have to do with the draft I receive back from the editor, I am hesitant to set a date in stone right now. However, once that is all sorted out, for all of you Indiegogo supporters I’ll send the reward tier items a few days before the actual day, as a way to say thank you. Go, you! You’re incredible!
Now, for something actually that has an actual end in sight… For those of you have been following the blog, you know that back in July I was a part of a creative writing workshop led by Angela Roquet in which the participants had the opportunity to get their short stories featured in an anthology. Over the weekend I made a teaser announcement on my Snapchat to my friends about the anthology, but I am going to put it on the record now and say that it’s been made official that we are going to have a signing event for it this October!
The signing will happen October 22nd at the Boonslick Library in Sedalia starting at 10:00 AM, as that is where the majority of the workshop kids met. I know for some people it might be a bit out of the way, but if you’re free that morning I would really appreciate it if you came out! There will be eleven short stories in the anthology, including “A Society of Twilight”, written by myself. If you would like to get a copy beforehand, the anthology should be released on several platforms at the end of September.
The magical Volume Two cover (It’s in red! I love red!!)
All the money generated by the anthology is going to go back to the libraries that sponsored the workshops to help fund other events. Not only that, but it’s a really great opportunity for all of those involved to get a credit to their writing careers. For those of you who are unaware, unless you have established a name for yourself or are simply insanely lucky, short stories are very challenging to get published. Granted, you can always upload your works to a blog or to sites like Wattpad, but neither hold very much credit when compared to getting your work published in a book like this anthology.
I think another interesting thing about the anthology is the fact that is has pulled together a wide variety of young writers under one cover. Many of the other contributors are young writers who are, like myself, learning the ropes of fiction. We might be at different places in our pursuit of our craft, but in regards to the age group it comes out of, each story is very well done. I haven’t read all of the ones in the anthology yet myself, but from the handful that I have seen I have been impressed. We’re may not be professionals yet, but by golly, we all have a story to share and we do it to the best of our abilities.
Anyways, that’s all I have for today. I’ll be sure to let you guys know when the series starts up!
Until next time,
Ashlynne
Ashlynne Doyle 