Writing

Money Management and Living on a Budget for Freelancers: the Ebook

First, I’d like to thank my mom and dad. In all seriousness, they raised me to be frugal, or at least to focus on value rather than flashiness when making purchasing decisions, and to save money whenever I could, whether it was in a piggy bank or a CD. Then I became a freelancer, and I had to be frugal by necessity. I’ve developed habits to make frugality more automatic, and I’ve learned ever more tips and methods to save on expenses or to earn extra income. Some of them I wish I’d learned much sooner.

Every so often, I’d advise a friend who wanted to become a freelancer, or just could use some advice. There’s nothing to help you know what you know like telling someone else about it.

Ultimately, I started writing some blog posts to help people from all walks of life discover options that can help them financially. I had a good friend who didn’t realize credit cards could offer cash-back rewards until I helped him sign up for one at Costco. People miss the chance to clip coupons, buy generic, or take advantage of sales. People have recurring subscriptions to websites they never visit and storage units they haven’t stored anything in for months. My fellow Wisconsinites don’t know they can receive energy-efficient lightbulbs for free through Focus on Energy. People who don’t have MyPoints might not realize they could earn points for shopping at sites they use routinely, or for clicking a few emails each week. People dread the thought of having to negotiate with their phone company and don’t realize services like BillFixers exist.

Anyway, those blog posts–originally intended to be a single quick post listing ideas–grew to be 12,000 words long.

For your ease of reading, I’ve now bundled those blog posts, revised them for clarity and to remove some typos, and made them into an ebook, which you can download for free from this blog post:

Money Management and Living on a Budget for Freelancers by Therese Arkenberg

While I help create Kindle and Smashwords ebooks for a living, this is an ebook of another order. By which I mean, it’s a 27-page PDF. There’s no DRM or anything. I didn’t even make cover art for it. The value is in the content. And if you find that content useful, please feel free to spread this book far and wide. Again, there’s no DRM. Email it to your friends. Post it on your own blog. Can you put PDFs up on Instagram? Do it if you’re so inclined, with my blessing.

Some of the websites I discuss in the book are linked to with affiliate links, so I could earn a few points, or dollars, or discounts, or a gift card if you sign up for programs through them. These referrals add no cost to you, and they have not affected my choice of what to recommend. All the services and websites linked to in this ebook are ones I use myself because I’m satisfied with how they work for me. And ultimately, this ebook is a guide to what works for me: I hope it’ll work for you too, but I can’t promise anything (and I’m not a tax lawyer or financial advisor). Take what sounds good, pass on what doesn’t, and do your own research. I hope it’ll inspire you to be a bit more aggressive in hunting down savings, a bit more encouraged in building up a bank account balance, and a bit less nervous of numbers with dollar signs in front of them.

Release Day

Three collections of revised and reprinted short fiction are out today!

John Kosichev and Other Heroes: Stories of Resistance
In small ways and large, ordinary people and extraordinary ones defy the regimes that would crush them.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital – and in paperback!

The Astrologer’s Telling: Stories of Worlds Ending and the Cost of Survival
What would you be willing to sacrifice to go on? And when going on becomes impossible, what choices are left to make?

Available on Amazon (including Kindle Unlimited) and as a paperback. Coming soon to wider distributors through Draft2Digital, and an audiobook!

The Halcyon in Flight
The friendship between an outlaw messenger and a sorcerer of strange loyalties may change the shape of history.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital .

New Story Collections: Heroes, Apocalypse, Loyalty and Betrayal

Embarrassment is a poor motivation for writing, so I won’t be ashamed about how little readers have seen of me over the past few years. I haven’t been wasting my time – I’ve edited dozens of amazing novels, helped to plan two Waukesha County Sustainability Fairs, and found out this online dating thing might be all it’s cracked up to be (even if it means off-line interactions require an hour-long drive. I’m taking audiobook recommendations, by the way!).

All that said, I agree that it’s high time I published some fiction.

And now I am!

This December, I’m putting together three ebooks of re-released short fiction – a great opportunity to revisit old stories (some of which I’ve revised) and to discover new ones. They’re currently available from Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and more, and I’m so excited to share their cover art:

Six stories explore the ways and the price of survival when everything seems lost:

An astrologer loses her stars but not her faith in them. A woman watches as her lover and her planet transform with new life—or die with it. A young man seeks revenge for unwelcome mercy granted in a world where every breath is agony. A group of artists discovers the strange loveliness which is all that remains of all the other worlds.

At the end of things, people display selfishness, exhaustion, but also connection. Friendships are betrayed and nurtured. If hope is gone, there is still determination, curiosity, and beauty.

Available on Amazon (including Kindle Unlimited)

Four stories of courage, compassion, and endurance celebrate:

The young man chosen to die in the place of a hero who can never lose
The secret at the core of a marriage society approves
The woman who built a forbidden flying machine, and the woman who loved her
Resilience under terrible odds

These are the things no regime can entirely repress—and they can make anyone a hero.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital 

An epic, tragic, bewitching tale of strange spells and unexpected loyalties.

To Hethan A’Manth, it seemed like a routine enough mission: one more message to deliver. Certainly, this time it was to a rebel queen, but he knew to keep his head down as he passed through the affairs of monarchs, armies, and sorcerers.
Yet he becomes beguiled, entangled in the last stand of southern kingdom against the most puissant Empress—and in the friendship he forms with Asmadene the Halcyon, which might yet change the shape of history.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital 

Aqua Vitae

Jenes Inarya wants to live to experience everything, and it just might be possible. Her quest for immortality leads her through myth and legend to the farthest reaches of the galaxy (well, so the Jericho magazine article said, although it’s prone to exaggeration). And it’s only the beginning. The rest of a very long life is about to start–but Jenes doesn’t yet know how to live it.

“Aqua Vitae is only 70-pages long, but manages to pack a lot…part science-fiction drama, part cautionary fable…by the end, Aqua Vitae offers an interesting discussion on mortality and what it means to live, through the lens of a character who wants more from her life…Overall, this was a quick and thought-provoking read, set against an universe made interesting by its reaches into various mythologies, and I would recommend it to anyone with a little free time on their hands and an appetite for the speculative.” -James N. (Amazon reviewer, 4 stars)

“Bottom line: an engaging and challenging read, with some food for thought if you have the patience to ferret it out. “-Joan Leib, The Future Fire Reviews

•  Find it at:
  Amazon  Barnes & Noble  iTunes  Kobo  Powell’s  Diesel eBooks  BetterWorldBooks

Short Stories: A Dark and Wonderful History

Dark fantasy stories based in the same secondary world, centered around women.

• “The Gallows Wife,” Semaphore Magazine & 2009 anthology, reprinted in Shadows Within Shadows.
  • Find it at: Amazon  Alibris  Barnes and Noble  Better World Books
• “The Loving and Keeping of Wolves,” WolfSongs 2  EPPIE Winner Best Anthology of 2011
  • Find it at: Amazon  Powell’s  Kobo  Barnes and Noble  Better World Books
• “How the Woman Brought Death,” All About Eve
  • Find it at: Amazon  Powell’s  Kobo Barnes and Noble Better World Books
• “The Godslayer’s Wife,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #71 (available on Kindle)
• “Invitation of the Queen,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #52 (available on Kindle)
• “Goldenseed,” Thoughtcrime Experiments anthology
  • Find it at:  Amazon   Better World Books
• “Silver Chests and Plain Sight,” Bards and Sages Quarterly, reprinted online at Voluted Tales
• “So Cold My Blood Freezes,” Champagne Shivers magazine
• “The Forest Gods,” Fantastique Unfettered #5

Short Stories: Across the Curse-Strewn World

Stories featuring Aniver, a wizard of the city Nurathaipolis-that-was, now lost to rogue time, and Semira, the sailor who joins his quest to save it.

• “The Storms in Arisbat,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #110 (available on Kindle) Recommended review from Lois Tilton, Locus Online
• “For Lost Time,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #165 (available on Kindle)
• “The Grace of Turning Back,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #179 (available on Kindle)
  

Other stories in this setting:

• “After Zandar” at Sorcerous Signals

Short Stories: Heart’s Kindred

The adventures of Rathin and Anweth, a wandering couple equipped with sword and sorcery.

• “Every Mother’s Child” in Fantastique Unfettered Issue #2
  • Find it at: Barnes and Noble  Amazon.com  Alibris
• “An Honorable Aunt” in Silver Blade #18
• “Through the Father Range” in Outposts of Beyond #4 
• “Eisiden’s Sister” in Fictionvale Episode 4

Other stories in this setting:

• “Of the Generation” in Roar and Thunder magazine; reprinted in Different Dragons II from WolfSinger Publications;  also reprinted in the Heroic Fantasy anthology from Flame Tree Publishing

Short Stories: Xeocin Empire

• “The Halcyon in Flight,” Crossed Genres
• “The Twilight People,” originally in Tower of Light magazine
• “Goddess of Ashes,” originally in Tower of Light magazine, reprinted in the Tough as Nails anthology
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble   Alibris
• “The Sorceress of Avalo,” originally in Byzarium magazine, reprinted in Sorcerous Signals
• “In the Mirror,” originally in Silver Blade, reprinted in the Lorelei Signal.
• “Ameran Theater” in Every Day Fiction

Short Stories: Science Fiction Stories

• “John Kosichev” in Storyteller Magazine, Vol 1, No 2
• “http://amzn.to/2ra5H4mArnheim’s World” in Analog Magazine, May 2015
• “Drown or Die” in The Future Fire and TFF-X: Ten Years of The Future Fire
• “To the Altar” in Warrior Wisewoman 3
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes and Noble  Powell’s  Alibris  Better World Books
  • Reprinted in Andromeda’s Children
• “Reila’s Machine” in M-BRANE Science Fiction’s anthology Things We Are Not
  • Find it at: Amazon Barnes and Noble  Alibris   Better World Books
• “The Astrologer’s Telling” in Daily Science Fiction
• “Charismatic” originally at Crossed Genres, reprinted in Ares Magazine issue #3.
• “The Equation in the Mirror,” originally in Perihelion, reprinted in Comets & Criminals
• “The Fosterling” on Daily Science Fiction (available on Kindle)
• “Ayema’s Fleet” in the Battlespace charity anthology. Reprinted in Veterans of Future Wars (BN.com)
• “Outlive” in M-Brane SF #21
• “The Last Veteran” at Every Day Fiction
• “Following the Mercy Man,” in Comets and Criminals
• “Farther Than That” in Queer Fish 2
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Alibris  Better World Books
• “Two Rivers” in Daughters of Icarus
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Alibris
• “A Marriage, Pure and Good” in Scigentasy’s Debut issue
• “The Witch Hunter’s Account” in Nameless Magazine 
• “Fortune Cookie” in Kaleidotrope #5
• “Mother,” originally in M-Brane SF #4
• “Harmony” in Kaleidotrope #8

Short Stories: Fantasy Stories, Secondary World

• “Of the Generation” in Roar and Thunder magazine; reprinted in Different Dragons II from WolfSinger Publications; also reprinted in the Heroic Fantasy anthology from Flame Tree Publishing
• “Lord Shashensa” in Sword and Sorceress XXIV (with a shorter version reprinted by Nevermet Press in Stories in the Ether)
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes and Noble  Alibris  Powell’s  Better World Books
• “The Void Test,” originally in MindFlights magazine, reprinted with audio at Cast of Wonders
• “The Beacon and the Keeper,” winner of AnthologyBuilder’s Match That Artwork Contest, youth division.
• “The Wall” in Labyrinth Inhabitant
• “Bequeathment” in A Fly in Amber
• “The Opening,” Raven Electrick
• “Playing the Cloud Flute” in Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Magazine
• “The Wayab’s Tower,” originally in MindFlights
• “Murderer, Confessor, Executioner” in Outposts of Beyond Issue #2 (also available at Smashwords)

Short Fiction: Unsettling Stories That are Almost in This World

• “Hans and Gretta,” originally published in Everyday Weirdness, reprinted in Bete Noire Issue #8
• “The Family,” a charity story published on this very blog.
• “A Wizard of the Roads” in Daily Science Fiction
• “Sibial’ In Exile” in Neo-Opsis Magazine Issue #24 
• “Ms Brellin,” originally in Semaphore Magazine, reprinted in the debut issue of Grim Corps
  • Find it at: Amazon   iTunes
• “The Sorcerer Next Door” in Semaphore Magazine, reprinted in Voluted Tales
• “Underground,” originally published in The Harrow
• “Welcome,” originally published in Everyday Weirdness, reprinted at Dark Futures Fiction

Short Stories: Myth & Humor

• “What’s a Demon For” won Second Prize, Youth division in OddCon’s 2008 OddContest for flash fiction.
• “Dragon Snot and Chosen Ones” at Untied Shoelaces of the Mind (and in its first anthology)
  • Find it at: Amazon   Barnes & Noble
• “Few Are Called” at Every Day Fiction
• “Firebringer” at Every Day Fiction
• “The Queen’s Arrival,” originally in The Lorelei Signal and Mystic Signals #1, reprinted at Liquid Imagination.