I have always kept extensive notes for stories and novels in binders and notebooks. The idea for the Novel Planner grew from having decades worth of details floating around in various places, some as intangible and fickle as the Goblin King’s labyrinth (IYKYK). I am a slow reader, so if I can't find my note about it, I have to slog through five chapters worth of text to figure out if I’ve already said whether my main character’s father is a physicist or microbiologist. It sucks…and it wastes far too much of my precious writing time. Enter the Novel Planner!

This workbook contains layouts to record details from the conception and brainstorming stages of novel development, to worldbuilding and character sheets, to submissions and marketing trackers. If you’re self publishing, you can record the contact information for the three editors you sent sample chapters to, note their rates, and which one you ended up contracting. For authors who are looking to traditionally publish, you can record the contact information of the agents and publishers you’ve sent queries to, if you’ve received responses, and what they were.

I hope this novel planner saves authors from the headaches and heartaches of losing information.

HAPPY WRITING!

The idea for my yearly Author Planner germinated from not being able to find a planner that fit my needs. I wanted a work planner to schedule and track my writing projects and time with no added motivational quotes or writing prompts cluttering the pages. Size did matter. In this case, larger was better as it would stay on my desk and I wanted enough room to jot down notes. I also needed undated monthly and weekly layouts because, quite frankly, I have too many irons in fires all over the place. My writing time is sporadic and I frequently end a month wondering where it went and if I accomplished any of my writing goals. My memory also isn't great...hence I wanted this planner to be a tool for understanding how much of my time was spent on projects vs. administration vs. marketing, etc. It's so easy to get mad at yourself for taking too long to finish a task, forgetting the twenty other little interruptive tasks you did along the way.

The Author Organizer spawned from my dislike of having to transfer the same contacts and business information into new planners every year. I wanted to eliminate this time waste by having a permanent partner to my yearly replaceable planner. I included pages to keep all the information I needed to run my author business, including the once a year payments I was always frantically sifting through piles of paper to check the due dates for. So annoying.

Anyway, this was supposed to be my year of getting back to writing :) My kiddo started school, so I had at least part of some days free and there was that looming third book in our trilogy that needed to be written. So, I did what most authors do...got distracted by a side project that I thought would be a quick Amazon search for a planner and turned into a 6 month deep dive into planner culture, Canva, and artwork. I loved every second of it, but my quest has come to an end and it's time for me to get back to writing. I intend to use my Author Planner and Organizer to help keep me focused this time. I hope they will also help other authors.

HAPPY WRITING!

The winner of the Douglas Barbour Award for Speculative Fiction is Tyche Books for WATER Selkies, Sirens, and Sea Monsters edited by Rhonda Parrish. Congratulations! Rebecca has a story in this one "The Witch's Diary: Adventures in Hut-sitting".

I am over-the-moon excited to announce that there is now an audiobook version of The Witch's Diary! Tyche Books organized this amazing unabridged edition which is narrated by Tara Yelle.

Themes of diversity and disability are woven throughout this novel, so it was particularly important to myself and Tyche Books that it be accessible to as many readers as possible. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! There's nothing quite like hearing your written words spoken aloud in someone else's voice. Tara Yelle did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life.

Rebecca has a new short story out in Tyche's Home for the Howlidays anthology edited by M.L.D. Curelas!

The Witch's Diary has been picked for the Alberta Reads Sept/Oct book club! There's book club questions to answer throughout the month which enter you to win a prize at the end. 🎃🌙🕷🦀 (re the crab...IYKYK) Read, my lovelies, read!

There was an entire scene in The Witch's Diary that had to be removed (for length) where Hester tries her hand at what should be the most relaxing and stress-free of all her temp jobs, hut-sitting. Read all about her unexpected adventure in the Tyche Books Water anthology, edited by Rhonda Parrish.

As you might guess, things don't go exactly to plan!

First fan art for The Witch's Diary! So amazing! I am beyond honored that aroacehufflepuff enjoyed Missera enough to create this beautiful drawing ❤❤❤

We're so excited to see The Witch's Diary head out into the world! We hope it brings some much needed giggles to readers 🌙🕸🕷 The paperback and ebook are available at online retailers.

Stay tuned for details about Tyche Books' awesome launch event in October.

Pirates! Cats! It doesn't get any better than that!

I was immediately psyched by the concept for Swashbuckling Cats and knew I had to contribute a story, but what? Then an idea emerged. A story of suspense, revenge, bloodshed, and daring on the high seas. A pirate with a soft heart and a lost soul in need of healing.

My story turned out far better than I expected (with a little help from Adriaan on the one action sequence - He doesn't even like action movies, but he's got a knack for action scenes) and I'm so glad it was selected to be part of this awesome anthology so you can all read it.

My fantasy novel, The Witch’s Diary, has found a home with Tyche Books and I couldn’t be more excited! It is scheduled for release in 2020. This book was so much fun to write and we know that it is going to get even better in the talented hands of this fantastic publisher.

This book started as a side project, for me to clear my mind when struggling through some chapters of Chaos Bound (the very first book Adriaan and I wrote together). I never expected to finish it, let alone pull it together into the wild and soul-mending journey that Hester goes through, but I'm super glad I was able to invest the time it deserved.

I'm not a huge fan of hand-selling books. In general I prefer the comfy silences of the internet for connecting with readers, but the indomitable Sandy Fitzpatrick organized a multi-author table for this year's Calgary Comic Expo, and felt I should give it a try.

I learned that I'm exactly as awkward at enticing people to look at a table full of books as I expected, but it was kind of fun too. And, we ended up selling four Chaos Bound, and one Curse Bound, to a reader excited enough about the premise to buy both books in the series at once!

I'm not a big fan of horror, so I really thought my first horror drabble in the first 100 Word Horrors anthology would be my last, but when the call to contribute to the second instalment in the series came around, both Rebecca and I found we had some great and terrifying ideas. So here we are again amongst this fine crew of horror writers.

Here's what we've been up to since we published Curse Bound earlier this year:

Rebecca completed an adult fantasy/humour novel, working title: The Witch's Diary. Our first-readers have provided feedback and she's gearing up to query it.

Adriaan completed a YA low-fantasy novel with a gender-fluid theme, working title: Part Time Girl. He has been querying it and has had some partials requested.

We have not forgotten the Mist Warden series! We recently completed the outline for book 3: Death Bound. There's death and mayhem in Coldwater as the gate's magic pushes farther into this reality. Jess, Drew, and Mac face the toughest challenges yet, making decisions that will change the course of history.

There have been a few changes at BraeVitae lately, all related to this adorable, if somewhat demanding creature. Starting a family of our own has been our greatest wish for about ten years and last December a wonderful birth-mother chose us! We're now the proud and slightly frazzled parents of Elizabeth (Ellie).

This is having a significant impact on our book release schedule.

We're inching closer to completing The Witch's Diary, now including some incredible illustrations created by our good friend Miles MacLean (also purveyor of fine Fantasy and SciFi inspired tea blends).

Part Time Girl and Mist Warden book 3 are on the back-burner for the moment. As we only have a few moments of baby free-time in a day, we're going to work on a few short stories that we've been jonesing to write.

Cheers

For a while, I've had this vague idea for a quirky, gender-bending story about a royal child, and the guard assigned to protect them from assassination. When I saw the call for the 'Askew' series of Anthologies, I thought, here's a venue that might appreciate my quirky story idea, and I was right!

"Broken Bonds" is the first short story I've been able to place in an anthology. I'm excited to get my name out there!

We have both (Rebecca and Adriaan) had a 'drabble' ( a 100 word flash fiction ) accepted in a new anthology hosted by Kevin J. Kennedy. Neither of us had ever written flash fiction before, let alone a drabble with its specific word length. Coming up with an idea, and then fitting it into exactly a hundred words was a fun challenge.

Chaos Bound and Curse Bound (top right) in very good company with a bunch of other Alberta authors & publishers in a very cool store! (Pandora's Boox in Olds, Alberta)