Wow, I can't believe it's been almost two years since I last posted on this blog.
But a lot happened in those two years.
Let's see -
May 2014 - I began Denouement Literary Agency, LLC
July 2014 - a very large lump between my scalp and my skull turned out to be cancerous and led to two surgeries.
Also July 2014 - Published The Island Remains through Whiskey Creek Press.
Fall of 2014 - I did not slow down. I went to conventions and conferences as a guest author and spoke at writers groups around the state at least once or twice a month.
Winter of 2014 - I crashed and burned. It caught up with me. So I regrouped and focused within. I relinquished command of Writers for All Seasons to the outstanding and ever-talented Dr. Tracy Zielinski.
Spring of 2015 - struggled to make a go of Denouement. I had about 30 authors interested in this new-style of agency. I was working day and night - editing novels and contacting publishers and helping set up marketing for already published authors. I found a publisher for an author and was so excited!!! Only - the author did not follow through on our contract, and 6 months of hard work didn't pay off. I realized - probably during the dead of night - that I was basing my success - not on my own hard work, but on the ethics of others: no matter how hard I worked, I would not be successful unless other people did their jobs and/or followed through with their responsibilities.
Summer of 2015 - one year cancer free!
July 2015 - Edited and helped publish Stories for All Seasons - an anthology written by the group I'd facilitated for 10 years - Writers for All Seasons.
August 2015 - The idea of helping people become published authors still impassioned me - I just realized a literary agency was not the best way - for me - to accomplish that. So I began to think about starting my own publishing company.
So I did. I began with Portals Publishing as an imprint of Denouement Literary Agency, LLC and focused on Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and History. I published Laughing Humans - mostly to walk my way through the process - as trade paperback and an e-book.
It was so much fun!! And the end result was beautiful!! So I started promoting Portals Publishing.
But something was missing. I had already bought several domains for Building Life-long Inspirational & Successful Strategies - the workshops I was teaching at Women's Resource Centers around the state. So I started BLISS Books to focus on inspirational books. I began marketing BLISS Books - seeking authors - through the Unity churches around the world.
Between the two houses, I've produced ten books so far - in trade paperback and Kindle, and am now producing Audible versions of each of them.
All of these books are available internationally through Amazon, Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble, and other on-line stores.
So many books are being sold per project that I'm re-thinking the standard "royalties every 6 month" thing and would like to send out royalty checks every month.
I have 65 projects (manuscripts) lined up and contracted. I've passed by a few proposals, but always tried to give detailed reasons (hopefully in a helpful manner) to those whose books I declined.
Spring 2016 - I began a new writing group at Unity in the Grove Chapel called Writers at Unity. Critique based, I teach a 30 minute lesson and then we share our writing. We meet twice a month and I have fallen in love with writing again.
May 2016 - several classes opened up at Gibbons Street Elementary - where I spent 12 years teaching before someone talked me into becoming a Teacher of Gifted. I prayed about this, applied for 2 of the jobs, interviewed, and was offered a position within 15 minutes of the interview.
Summer 2016 - I am following my BLISS.
