It’s Here!

Yes, this is the official release date for Aunt Anne’s Archive. I’m excited to bring out my second short story collection, spanning most of my career.

What’s in it? Twelve short stories, from the brooding “Bonewood Forest” and “Hag” to the humorous “Buried Treasure” and “Rosewood’s Challenge.” Some of them are previously published, while others are coming to the public for the first time. And all for just $9.95!

Get it from Amazon or Books2Read and prepare for a great read.

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Aunt Anne’s Archive

Behind the velvet curtain, beyond the secret door, lies a lost archive of literary enchantments. From the creepy to the cozy, the mysterious and the magical, the witty and the wondrous, each tale casts its own rare spell. Welcome to Aunt Anne’s Archive.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Aunt Anne’s Archive

Yes, it’s up for pre-orders, with a release date of May 15th. I just received the printed proof, and am going through it for last minute corrections.

What’s in it? Twelve short stories, from the brooding “Bonewood Forest” and “Hag” to the humorous “Buried Treasure” and “Rosewood’s Challenge.” Some of them are previously published, while others are coming to the public for the first time. And all for just $9.95!

Pre-order from Amazon or Books2Read if you’re interested.

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Behind the velvet curtain, beyond the secret door, lies a lost archive of literary enchantments. From the creepy to the cozy, the mysterious and the magical, the witty and the wondrous, each tale casts its own rare spell. Welcome to Aunt Anne’s Archive.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Works in Progress

Lately I’ve been posting a lot about books that are on special or being re-issued. It’s time to talk about the new things I’m working on.

My current work in progress is The Spirit Binder. Cleodora is a young girl who can see nature spirits. Her land of Tenebira has been suffering a drought for seven years or more. Cleodora has learned that someone offended the spirits and they stopped letting it rain. She’s off to find out what happened and try to fix it.

A trend I’ve noticed in my novels is how often my characters are traveling. I’m kind of proud that she got 30+ chapters in before she had to go anywhere. It’s been slow of late, but I’m still making progress. After I finish this blog I’ll start in on chapter 37, and the story is over 48,000 words. That’s quite a bit longer than I expected. The second draft is likely to see some severe cuts.

My secondary project is Aunt Anne’s Archive, a short story collection that I plan to bring out in early May. That’s the one I showed off a possible cover for last week. I’ve got the stories in their final order. I’ve almost finished the layout in print format, as well. I’m hoping to get that mostly set up by the end of spring break, so I can focus on Queen Titania’s Court and just click “print” when the time comes. We shall see.

Speaking of Queen Titania’s Court, there’s still lots of space for more authors to take part. If you know someone who might be interested, I hope you’ll pass the info on to them.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Future Release

Illustration by DeKreator

Here’s a sneak peek at the cover for my next planned release, Aunt Anne’s Archive. Isn’t it pretty? Bear in mind, this is a work in progress and there are bound to be changes. It gives you an idea what I’m going for, though.

This will be a short story collection, companion to one of my first independent releases, Aunt Ursula’s Atlas. Where Aunt Ursula collected Lucy D. Ford’s short work, Aunt Anne will be under Deby Fredericks’ byline. My initial plan was to also re-release Aunt Ursula with a new cover. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to determine whether AI had been used in that image, so it’s temporarily on hold.

I almost have enough stories for a second collection of Lucy’s work, but one thing at a time. Besides, I’d have to decide which literary aunt I wanted to dedicate to.

Anywho, I’d love to hear what you think about this cover. Tell me about it in the comments!

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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A Pause

My latest short story is called “Poppet,” and it’s about a person who casts curses via Voodoo dolls. They’re part of a guerilla war to keep some invaders from occupying their land. I’ve finished a solid first draft, but now I have a quandary.

The issue is that guerillas fighting occupiers could readily be taken as a reference to current world events. At the time I started working on this story, Hamas hadn’t yet opened the new front in their long conflict with Israel. My story is set in a fantasy world, and the main characters are Elves. Even so, it’s a sensitive subject to even hint at.

I’m conflicted because I don’t like abandoning a story for any reason that doesn’t involve the story itself. I also don’t want to censor myself. Censorship is bad. At the same time, it’s important that writers “read the room,” if you will. Writing something that inserts myself into the Israel/Hamas conflict seems inappropriate and potentially harmful.

Maybe it won’t matter. Publication can be a long journey, and it’s possible that matters will be more settled by the time I actually get to submitting this story, let alone see it in print. However, I’m taking a pause on “Poppet.” The reissue of Wee Folk and Wise needs my attention, and working on it will give me time to mull things over.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Fall Folk Festival

_{Photo courtesy of Fall Folk Festival, 2023}

Coming up this weekend! I’ll be making a personal appearance at Spokane’s Fall Folk Festival. It’s our annual celebration of heritage music, dance, crafts, and more. It goes Saturday and Sunday at Spokane Community College.

My part is to read from short work by Lucy D. Ford. I’ll be doing that in the Skitch Conference Room, at noon on Saturday, November 11th. Books will be for sale in the festival store. It would be great to say hi to a few friends there, hint hint.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Relief

I’m working on another short story. Yes, I’m using the new Default that I mentioned last post. This is actually a big relief. (The story, not the Default.)

When I complete a novel, I usually have a new project in mind. If I don’t, then I get this low grade panic that I have no more stories to tell. That my career is over.

It might have been stronger when finishing up The Tale of the Drakanox, because this novel ends a series I’ve been working on since 2018. During that time, the next project was always another Minstrels of Skaythe novella.

Now the whole series is in the bag. What am I to do with myself?

That’s why it’s such a relief to have new stories pop up. The latest one is an idea I’ve had for a while, but I didn’t focus on it because of Minstrels. The previous two were totally new. I’m more of a novelist, so I’m reading through my journal of ideas and seeing if anything is substantial enough. Or if Wolfsinger decides to reprint The Grimhold Wolf, I can ask her if she wants a sequel to that. We shall see.

Anyway, I guess my career isn’t so over as I feared.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Hard At It

Now that some summer travel got done and enjoyed, I’ve been back at my writing. First, of course, I published the paperback, Renegades of Skaythe, as mentioned last week. Since then I’ve been working on a new short story. My intended market is Wolfsinger’s Borne in the Blood anthology, which I also mentioned last week.

So far I’ve just finished the rough draft. A skeleton, if you will, that mostly puts the plot in order and does a crude bit of characterization. Starting today, I plan to go back and start putting muscle on the bone. I’m pretty excited about how this story is coming together. You can expect to hear more about it as time goes on.

Hope you’re all getting some good writing time in, too!

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Aunt Ursula’s Atlas

This weekend I’m away at RadCon, supporting my re-release of Masters of Air & Fire, by Lucy D. Ford. This seems like a good time to mention Lucy’s other book, Aunt Ursula’s Atlas. This is a fantasy short story collection for all ages.

Unlike Air & Fire, Aunt Ursula was self-published, so it’s always been available as an e-book through Amazon or Books2Read. Paperbacks are also available directly from me. I can take PayPal or Venmo. Feel free to reach out in the comments if you’re interested in that option.

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Fairy Tales Told by Lucy D. Ford

On a high shelf, in a hidden library,
There is a book of unknown wonders.

Open its pages. Explore mysterious lands.
See for yourself what lies within
Aunt Ursula’s Atlas.

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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Out of Order

The paperback layout and cover for Masters of Air & Fire are complete. Only now do I realize that Amazon wants you to do the e-book before a printed book! Ah, well. I’ll start on the e-book layout when I get done with this post.

Although Air & Fire is taking up a lot of my attention, I am still working on the rough draft of my newest short story. I felt like it was stalling out, and backed up to figure out where I got off track. The issue in this case is with the setting. I thought it would be cool to have a secret shrine hidden underneath another building. A rival religion wasn’t able to raze the shrine because of magical protection, so they built their own temple over it and tried to literally bury the old shrine. As I got into it, though, that setting wasn’t working. If you’re going to have a mystery, it helps when lots of suspects have access to the site. Today I sketched out several alternatives for where the shrine might be. One of them sprang to life for me, and I have that to push me in a new direction. Since one of my resolutions is to write more short stories, I’m glad to be working actively toward that.

The other complication is in my extended family. Our father is 94 and has been declining rapidly. Since early September, he seems to be moving from one medical facility to another. My younger sister is carrying the load on this, and then there was a huge fight over Christmas (no doubt due to stress and worry about Dad). Both sides say they aren’t speaking to each other, but they are all talking to me.

I don’t have enough oil to pour on these waters. But I do have an e-book to lay out, so I’d better get to it!

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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 website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

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