IndieGoGo Campaign for Self-Publishing a Book on Publishing
Long story short, I’m living off what I earn through my writing right now. This isn’t so bad, except writing income tends to arrive over the course of months, and is less than helpful when you need money right away. So to meet some expenses in the meantime, I’m hiring myself out as a manuscript editor and self-publishing a guidebook for writers who want to get their work into print. The Starter Guide for Professional Writers is a whole-picture handbook that helps you finish your...
Read MorePromoting Your Writing: Now is the Time to Keep the Faith
In the story, that is, although it’s completely understandable if you’d rather kneel through a litany of novenas or light candles on the altar of the deity of your choice in hope of landing on the Times Bestseller list. You can’t effectively promote a story you don’t believe in. This is the most important thing to remember once your story is published and it becomes your job to spread the word about it. Driving promotion is the belief that people will buy your...
Read MoreOn 2500 Word Scenes
Depending on how you define “work in progress,” I currently have anywhere between 14 and 34 of them. And I expect to finish every last one in due time. Just how I’ll manage this at first seems a mystery of faith, but looking back, I’ve had twenty pots on the broiler for as long as I can remember. It’s not always the same buffet being cooked—I finish one piece and start on the next. For a while I had a rule that I could only count as many WIPs as I had...
Read MoreIn Which I Indulge A Moment in a Display of Ungodly Power
Hello to the reader who found this blog after, Blogger informs me, searching with the keywords “The Xeocin Empire the Halcyon”! I assume you are seeking information about the setting or story, “The Halcyon in Flight,” which appeared in Crossed Genres magazine some time ago. Never fear! It’s still archived, and as for the setting itself (you may have already read this in previous posts) I am revising a novel set in Xeocib with an eye to eventually landing an...
Read MoreOn IndieGoGo Campaigns
This week, my student team finished mailing out perks to the sponsors of our IndieGoGo campaign, which raised funds for a community-level organization in rural Ghana to extend microloans and scholarships to local women. We were able to deliver $1,290 to Capacity Rural International during our class visit, over $900 of which came through IndieGoGo. The IndieGoGo campaign actually raised $1,085, but the site takes a fee. Although we knew that going in, there are some other things we discovered...
Read MoreFriendly Reminder: Get Thee to LinkedIn
This one’s mostly for my friends and peer group, but applies to anyone really who hasn’t yet built up their LinkedIn and is wondering if they should get one. Yes, you should. Come join me. As my job search starts off, I’m spending at least an hour a week going over my LinkedIn profile—adding classes and experiences, updating and linking my network to my current projects, and just staring at my completed resume going, “Hmm…not bad, actually.” At least some of this is ego, and...
Read MoreHanging Up My Shingle
The semester is almost over, I’m graduating, and I’ve decided to give myself a few more months in D.C. searching for a job in the field. It’s a decision I’m very excited about, but in the meantime it means I’ll be living on my own without a regular paycheck in a not-inexpensive urban environment. To stretch my savings, I’m offering my services as a manuscript doctor, offering developmental critique of novels and short stories. I’ve done critiques for...
Read MoreMadwoman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge–the personalities of writing
This week my internship brought me to the Writing Staycation at the Writer’s Center of Bethesda, where my supervisor, Zahara Heckscher, is leading a dedicated group of writers on a 9-5 retreat with the goal of sharing ideas, considering mission and goals of writing, and most importantly getting some words down on the page. While I’m there to perform a number of internship duties (the staff at Trader Joe’s are becoming familiar with me) and to assist with the...
Read MoreDancing Memorials
Yesterday my blog post was about getting a dose of perspective. It came before events that offered yet another sort of perspective…and pushed me to work on this post, which has sat in my drafts for over a month now. There’s a story I’m not certain I will ever be able to write. The title is “Dancing Memorials”. For a time I thought of it as science fiction, because everything I write is science fiction or fantasy, but then I stopped thinking of it as a story that...
Read MoreThree doses of perspective
In order to make up for internship days missed while in Ghana, I worked 4 days last week instead of the usual two (class being canceled). Not only did I have plenty to catch up on, this was the week I also got to visit some consultations with my supervisor and join the other office interns for a personal sharing workshop–the kind of thing you only can get at an internship in the creative arts! Three statistics stood out this week and offered a healthy dose of perspective to my young,...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.