📚 lisa writes stuff issue #34 📖 Introducing Scarlet MacKenzie

EXCITING NEWS!

Apr 17, 2024

Dear Internet,

GOD. I’ve been sitting on this news for over a year. Who knew I could have so much patience?

First, I’ve been getting more involved with local and national writer’s groups. (This is not the big news.) I’m now the blog and social media chairs for Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal RWA special interest chapter and I’ll be helping Great Lakes Fiction Writers social media. FF&P’s blog was a hot mess which I’ve cleaned up and they also passed social media chair to me as well since the two are connected. I’ve worked super hard over the weekend writing up the social media plan and scheduling posts. The floodgates have opened.

I also started my own writers’ group and we meet virtually every Tuesday. We chat about everything from what we’re working on to craft stuff and everything in-between. It buttresses up against my in-person writer’s group here in Louisville so if I want to go to that, I need to do a hard stop 30 minutes before.

I’m engaged and I like it. I’m not adding more to my plate because that is what I tend to do. I feel a sense of purpose.

Now, on to the big news!

As many of you know, I’ve been swapping out nom de plumes since the case because my name is so tainted. I never went through it, clearly, but I liked the idea of at least having one for writing.

I came up with two names and I spent a lot of time in the last year talking to writers of all types and sizes about nom de plumes. There were scattered opinions but what remained consistent was the need for nom de plumes when writing across genres. If I wrote a contemporary romance under Lisa Rabey and gained a following and then published smut under the same name, I could lose readers if they are a fan of one genre and not another. This made sense to me.

I have rarely run into a writer who doesn’t have at least one nom de plume. It was also the rare outlier who didn’t connect their names together such as Lisa Rabey writing as X. Every nom de plume has its own website and social media presence.

It’s a lot of fucking work being more than one person!

But the more I dug and talked and interviewed, I decided to make my two nom de plumes to the wide world. And while I’m making no secret it is me, I’m not advertising it is me. Both will have at least their own website and voice.

First, Lisa Rabey will write non-fiction, reviews, and the newsletters. I’ve pitched a few stories to local newspapers so I’m hoping to build up my clips. You can find me at lisarabeywritesstuff.com. My other links remain at linktr.ee/heroineinabook.

Second, let me introduce you to Scarlet MacKenize. Scarlet will be writing contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal cozy mysteries. I will be using Scarlet for all primary fiction (except for erotica). Scarlet can be found at her website, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. She will also blog once a week on her work. Unlike my government name, the blog posts are going to be under 400 words. Please do give me a follow.

Second the half, the other big news is Scarlet will be publishing Going Crazy on her social media starting on Wednesday. I’m pulling down stuff from my government name’s IG and reposting it on Scarlet’s. Schedule will remain posts on Monday and Friday. It’ll be a few weeks before I caught up. I know a few of you are following along so I’ll let you know when the new episodes start.

Third, let me introduce you to Kat MacFee. (I do have a thing for Scottish names). Kat will be writing only erotica and she only has a website and a newsletter if she warrants one. I am not planning on putting her on social media. She’ll be posting to Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Vella. (Vella is serial stories where people post episodes and completed stories are called seasons. You get paid per page read or per episode is read; I’m not sure on which.) Kat already has a piece published on her name at a now defunct webzine (because of course it’s defunct).

You may be wondering, Lisa! How are you going to handle this plus a job plus the actual writing? Easy. It’s called automation! I’ve found tools to schedule posts (like I do with the newsletters). FF&P is front loaded with nearly 20 posts already and I’m soliciting guest posts and interviews, so I won’t tax my itty bitty brain. Scarlet has her weekly blog post (which you can subscribe to) and she’ll be telling the story of Alex and Seth on IG which is 90 – 100 words per image. Since that can also be front loaded and automated, less time! And me? I’ll keep up with my newsletters and sporadic posting on my own social media.

I’m envisioning four or so hours a week which I can easily handle since it doesn’t need to be all at the same time. And yes, Best Kate, if I get overwhelmed, I’ll back off. 🤟🏻

Worked on my edits for the beginning of Going Crazy last week and sent them back to my editor. She really liked the changes I made which was a relief. I told her to hold off for another pass until I give it another pass in a few weeks. I read bits at my last virtual writer’s group and I picked up some dropped words. The group really liked what I had.

I have not worked on other work this week. Normal life and work work has kept me pretty busy. My goal for the week was to work on the short story for an upcoming anthology so I’m going to start that tomorrow.

A Most Unreliable Narrator

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