Tag: writing

The Pixelvania Proclamation o’ Progress, February 2020

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The State of the Pixelvania Pixelvania Proclamation o’ Progress is a semiannual post detailing what’s going on around here, and what might show up in the future. It’s only posted twice a year so as not to clog up your valuable, beautiful brain space.

The Recap

Since the last post, I’m happy to announce the publishing of:

(As you know, that last one’s been a long, long time coming!)

Additionally, I upgraded Pixelvania Publishing’s site theme and tinkered with the organization some. Hopefully, it’s easier to find any story to match the mood you’re in. If there’s an organizational category you’d like to see added, please drop me a line.

Currently in Production

Steel City, Veiled Kingdom (SCVK) – Print Books

Funny story—up ‘til December 2019, both me and my lovely print formatter, Colleen, thought we’d be publishing this behemoth as a one-volume paperback. One book. But after she received the final manuscript, she realized this CHONK of a novel was too big for Amazon’s Print-on-Demand to handle. She notified me of the hiccup and advised me to do the paperback in five separate chunks, to go with the five different sections of the story.

I agreed.

I spent all of December scrambling to get 6 ebooks—each of which needed slightly different cover designs to differentiate between parts—out by January 11th.

But none of the ebook OR print work could go forward until I created five new book descriptions, one for each of the now-separate parts. Keep in mind the original book description (currently in use for the Complete Edition) took me over a year to develop. Read More …

New release! DEBUTS AND DRAGONS, a scaly fantasy romcom

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Cover for DEBUTS AND DRAGONS, featuring a green dragon wearing sunglasses, earrings, and a necklace

Though she’s not much to look at, dragon Sellafield Terrormouth never worried about snagging a mate for herself. But now that her little sister is about to debut in dragon society, Sella’s got one night to go from drab to fab. If she fails, she’ll lose her entire dowry—and quite possibly doom herself to eternal spinsterhood!

Can this plain dragon get herself a date, or is her future about to go up in flames?

Contemporary fantasy fans won’t want to miss this lighthearted look at love, friendship, and inner beauty.

Prepare yourself for crazy awesome dragon names. This sunny comedy makes a great stocking stuffer for anyone stuck in the snow and cold this time of year!

State of the Pixelvania, August 2019

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Introduction

Like a lot of entertainment, much of story writing is an invisible process to the end audience. While I’m hard at work on projects, y’all see nothing but a silent website. I want to change that.

At the same time, I don’t want to post for the sake of posting—that would just add to the tsunami of digital clutter that’s already got us addicted to checking our devices (read: miniature slot machines). With that in mind, I’ve decide to start a semiannual post, tentatively titled “The State of the Pixelvania” where you can get a picture of what’s going on around here and what might be showing up in the future.

This semiannual post was inspired by a recent video by Christopher Barnatt at ExplainingComputers.

What I’ve Been Working On: New Stories

Last year I realized I had a fair amount of stories under Horror and Humor but not even a scant handful in Wonder. Yet here I am on a purple website, calling myself a scifi/fantasy author! So I set out this year to fill out the Wonder section of my works, starting with a one-story-a-week challenge in Feburary! It…didn’t go so well.

This was also the first year I’ve tried submitting to the magazines. It’s been a good experience, though I haven’t had any stories accepted yet! Let’s look at this year’s crop o’ stories so far. Read More …

Valentine’s eBook Sale

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Winking French BulldogDid you know I wrote a feel-good Valentine’s Day book? Don’t worry, it’s not too mushy. It’s called LOVE POTION COMMOTION and it’s got talking French Bulldogs. If you’re still jonesin’ for Hallmark movies, you’ll probably get a kick out of this. It’s normally $4.99 but it’s on discount for $1.99 ’til the 19th. Get it at: http://books2read.com/frenchies1

Sale price is active at Amazon right now, but the other stores are soon to follow!

The perfect last-minute (digital) stocking stuffer – MIDWINTER MAGIC

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Cover for MIDWINTER MAGIC: A stylized glowing reindeer leaps against the blue Northern Lights

Once upon a time, magic left the world for a night. It sighed back in through the scullery door in the morning with the cat, but by then, the Queen of the Northern Elves had fallen into a deep sleep, and, greatly diminished, the returned magic could not wake her.

From the author who brought you The Purrfect Christmas and A Gingersnap Cat Christmas comes an enchanting collection of three original yuletide fairy tales, written in the tradition of Jane Yolen and Ursula Vernon.

A little Christmas present from me to you. If you like reindeer, Santa Claus, elves, and mythic origin stories, you’re probably gonna dig this.

Buy from your favorite eBook retailer here (includes Amazon)

More info and excerpt here on MIDWINTER MAGIC’s Pixelvania Publishing page.

New horror novella for your Halloween reading pleasure

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Cover for THE GIRLFRIEND WHO WASN'T FROM DELAWARE - A giant hand made of blue static reaches down to pluck an apartment out of a building like a Jenga block

Apartment walls are thin.

Reality may be thinner.

Ray Belga lives in the ugliest apartment building in town—but at least it’s quiet. Until a mystery neighbor’s fridge starts acting up.

At least…Ray thinks it’s a fridge. But he’ll soon learn you can’t trust everything you hear through apartment walls…

I hope you enjoy this (slightly twisted?) story about a guy with noisy neighbors.

Buy from your favorite eBook retailer here (includes Amazon)

More info and excerpt here on THE GIRLFRIEND’s Pixelvania Publishing page.

Sneak Peek: Gingersnap Cat print novel in progress!

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Screenshot of A GINGERSNAP CAT CHRISTMAS as it's being worked on in Scribus

As previous reported, A Gingersnap Cat Christmas was written last year but didn’t get out in time for Christmas 2017. So once I was finished, I vowed to use the extra time before Christmas 2018 to turn it into a print book.

So here it is! Being worked on in the free program Scribus.

I’m sitting here realizing that it’s kinda wild that I went from knowing nothing about book production to, you know, making pages of a novel I wrote. When the proof’s actually in my hands, though, then I’ll know I can conquer the world.

Free Fiction Blog Event: Growing Shadows in the Desert

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The DuFresnes are gone.

The sheriff’s horse disappeared weeks ago.

Now the vampire that took them wants to chat…

“Growing Shadows in the Desert” is a short story by Danielle Williams, free on this website for one week only. Also available as an ebook through various online retailers.A dark bat flies over the desert, its head silhouette by a red sun. Text reads GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT. Author name: DANIELLE WILLIAMS

A GINGERSNAP CAT CHRISTMAS cover reveal, plus vampire novel news

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Hi, everybody! February knocked me down with a nasty cold/bronchitis illness so I’m still getting into the swing of things.

A Gingersnap Cat Christmas was finished, um…January, probably? And is in “post” so to speak. But since I missed my deadline, rather than releasing it right away, I’ll be looking into making it into a print book for next Christmas!

In the meantime, please enjoy the fabulous finished cover!

A GINGERSNAP CAT CHRISTMAS Book Cover: A ginger cat with a halo smiles at a terrified black and grey kitten hiding behind him.

(My husband desperately wants me to animate the kitten rising up…Any volunteers?)

In other news, my nosferatu novel hit 40K…and it’s just getting started! Hoo-wee!