✍🏻 lisa writes stuff 🧙🏻‍♀️issue #46 love in the time of cherry season

This week: website gets a refresh, updates on the new anthology, and author readings

Oct 02, 2024

Dear Internet,

Last week I spent some time working on my writers’ website: lisarabeywritesstuff.com (lisarabey.com will also take you here). I’ve kept up with list of published works over the years but the site has always been a bit meh. Now it’s super clean, accessible, and mobilized. Lots of writers get whiz bang websites and I don’t know; I don’t think that’s my jam. It may change once I start publishing more but right now, I’m loving the minimalist look.

My smutty heroine, Kat MacFee, website (katmacfee.com) just points to a page on lisarabeywritesstuff.com. Kat’s had one piece published but the lit mag closed down. The site was sporadically indexed by Internet Archive so I can’t link to a cached copy.

Ms. Scarlet has her own website (msscarletwrites.online) but it’s also a hot mess and I need to clean up. Like Kat, she has one piece published, but that is linked!

Speaking of pen names, I need to come up with how to handle Kat and Scarlet aka do I want to continue with them or retire them? Granted, each has only had one piece published, but here is opportunity for more. I think? Not a big rush right now to decide. Just thinking out loud.

I’ve non-Lisa published a lot more than I thought which surprises me. The publication comes spurts and I’m hoping to be more regular about submission and getting published.

I’ve added a section with interviews with me as well since I’ve already got one interview and two more coming up. Possibly three. I’ve been shilling the anthology hard to local newspapers in Michigan and they love a good “people in the community” stories. These interviews will be helpful with not only my books but also for my business. Any kind of hustle is a good hustle (I think).

I’ve added info of my novels in progress of which there are five in all various of first drafts. Going Crazy (tentative title) is the farthest along and it is also the first chapter of that novel that is getting submitted to contests. I’ve been debating on adding the links to the novels in progress, but I don’t know why. Even if someone dug the idea enough to write their own, we’d still have different spins on the same tale. Reminds me when I took a web class on Plottr earlier this year where, by using the software, we plotted out a paranormal romance novel in less than 90 minutes. I joked there will be 24 different versions coming out and the instructor laughed and said we’d each have our own voice and spin to the story, which is true!

Who knows? A story of a witch and a tattoo artist whose uses magical ink will appear with my name on it.

The anthology I signed up for is clutching its pearls right now. Romance Writers of America is 80% white (compared to 61% of the US) and predominately female. Keep that stat in mind. Someone on the anthology list said “hey, let’s not forget not everyone is heteronormative and let’s get some 2SLGTBQ+ action up in here!” I chimed in with, “And don’t forget us neurodivergent / disabled / different bodied folks!”

You would have thought we asked the writers to give us to kill their mothers!

One white woman (she identified as such) got pissy and said why were we attacking men and skinny white women? Boy, did my dander get up! I took her down as did the poster who reminded people that 2SLGTBQ+ love exists.

So yeah, cluster fuck.

I begged if we can just go to poll now, so we have a theme and topic for the anthology and the editor agreed. I’m excited to see what we end up with. I’ve got four or five months to write it and not like my usual “oh, it’s due next week Let me whip this up for you!”

A fair number of submissions that I was aiming to write for come and gone. Upcoming due dates start in the middle of the month and go forward. The rest of this week is atrocious to write, but this weekend should give me a breather to get work done.

These are all written to spec which means the call is themed and so will my entry. I like themed events!

My blog post this month for International Bipolar Foundation and that is almost done. When I finish editing this issue, I’m working on it next.

I almost scheduled this without mentioning my author reading!

This Thursday (tomorrow), I’m reading a portion of “Love in the Time of Cherry Season” at a local library. It’ll be me and three other authors. I can also sell my wares so I’ve got author copies of the anthology and my chapbook.

I’ll see if I can get photos of the event!

If you read yesterday’s AMUN issue, you know there is no new issue until October 20^th , however, Lisa Writes Stuff will continue to publish on schedule.

A Most Unreliable Narrator

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