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Writing Update: Short Story Anthology

September 13, 2016 by Emily Dill Leave a Comment

Hi, beauties.

Just dropping a quick update here before I go about the rest of my day. I wanted to let you all know that a flash fiction piece of mine, Samantha, has been accepted into a short story anthology by Centum Press, an imprint of Allegiant Publishing Group. My story will be in volume two of their 100 Voices Anthology series, and I’m extremely excited. I’ll share more information here when I know pre-order date, publishing date, price, format, and more. I’m just happy they were interested in my little story about a priest and a creepy little girl. 🙂

Have a wonderful week, and remember – it’s always a great day to have a great day.

My 2016 Writing Resolutions!

January 2, 2016 by Emily Dill Leave a Comment

Welcome to the New Year, my friendlings! I know, some people don’t get as excited about new years/resolutions/fresh starts/goals as I do (I have a list for pretty much aspect of my life). But I personally love the whole restart/refocus thing that comes with new months and years (or weeks – sometimes I legit have to refocus myself weekly, or ummm daily).

I have a lot of personal resolutions, but I also made some specifically for writing. Here are my main ones:

1. Newsletter for my blog This one is probably the second easiest on my list, but for some reason I’ve put it off for about a year. I definitely want to start a newsletter this year – that way, I can get news about my books/collections immediately to the people who want to know about them! Plus I think agents really like to see the author platform/newsletter in place, so it’s kind of important.

2. Finish my novel/send it out on submission This was also on last year’s resolution list haha – oops. I don’t think I realized then exactly how long the revising process can be. I wrote a large chunk of the book in 4 weeks, and then have spent over a year revising, editing, and staring at it. Ahhhh, the writing life. I do fully intend to finish it this year though, hopefully in the next 2-3 months, and send out my query letter in the spring!

3. Collection of Poems I’ve finally gained enough confidence in my poetry to put them out into the world, and I’d love to publish a book of my poems this coming year, probably in ebook format on Amazon, although I know some poets have been successful at self-publishing pretty books of their poetry then selling them on Etsy.

4. Short Story Collection I’ve been meaning to do this for months – I have written several short stories (and have 3 or 4 more in the process) and want to start publishing an annual collection of creepy short stories.

5. Hit 1,000 followers on Twitter This is the easiest resolution, considering I’m only about 25 followers away. I’ve been creeping up on this number for a while, so it’s going to feel good to finally get there.
UPDATE 1/10/16: Done! See? That didn’t take long. Thank you, Twitterlings. 🙂

6. Win a Writing Contest (or two, or three..) I’ve been wanting to win a writing contest since the beginning of 2015, when I first started looking in to entering them. I think I’m pretty close to winning one this coming week – I’ll keep you posted. 😉
UPDATE 1/4/16: Done! That resolution was completed fast – if only they all could be that quick haha. But I won a weekly contest Prose held this past week + $100. I’m REALLY excited about this. Here is the link to the winning details, and here is the link to my winning poem, Tales. 🙂

7. Read 50 books this year And this isn’t about my writing necessarily, but I firmly believe that good writers read. I read 44 books last year, and I’d like to top that this year. (My favorite person to compete with? Myself.)

I’d love to hear your own writing/reading resolutions – leave them in the comments below or shoot me a message. Let’s crush this year, people! 🙂

Writing Wednesday: Short Story Excerpt and Updates

December 9, 2015 by Emily Dill Leave a Comment

Hey, you. And you. And even you.

I’ve gotten behind on some of my Writing Wednesdays, so I’ve decided to aim for every other Wednesday. (Set the bar low, friends.) I’ll talk a little bit in these posts about where I am in my writing, maybe share some excerpts, or give you some tips I’ve picked up on.

In today’s post I wanted to share news about my short story, Seeking Spirits. I’ve finally completed/edited it, and my plan right now is to release it digitally on Amazon on New Year’s Day. Right now Seeking Spirits: A Paranormal Short Story is sitting at 11,500 words and I’ll be selling it for 99 cents. I can’t wait to finally get my writing on Amazon and to hear what you all think of it. 🙂 Here’s my blurb about the story:

Elizabeth Harding contacts the crew of cable TV’s smash hit ghost-hunting show, Seeking Sprits. She has a major problem with her new house – it seems to be haunted by a jealous, territorial male spirit who won’t let her entertain any male guests. The crew heads to her house to shoot an episode, expecting to hear maybe a few bumps in the night and see a shadow or two. What they don’t expect is to be locked in overnight with an angry, vengeful spirit who doesn’t like even one male visitor, let alone four.

Alsooooo, here is the intro section:

The television crew had finally arrived.Elizabeth had been nervously fluffing couch pillows when she heard their van doors slamming from outside.

She peeked through her living room blinds and saw the huge van sitting in her driveway. She watched four men pile out of the vehicle, stretch, laugh, and push each other around, then open the back of the van to start unloading equipment.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened her front door, letting the four men into her house, and into what had recently become her nightmare.

Make sure to follow me on social media for updates about when my story will be available for purchase!

I’m also in the process of working on two other short stories (one is supernatural, the other is about a psychotic truck stop waitress), and those will be available on Amazon as well, although I haven’t decided if they’ll be sold separately or as part of a short story collection. Exciting stuff!

Speaking of exciting, this month I saw my name in Writer’s Digest for the first time. (Yes, I said first time. I’m an optimist. That glass is freaking full, people.)

Lastly, I’ll be sending my query letter (and hopefully manuscript) to agents early in the coming year. Send good thoughts and prayers my way, por favor! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the heck out of the season. 🙂

Closets.

October 3, 2015 by Emily Dill 2 Comments

Every house has a certain closet.

You know the one – you have one yourself.

The closet that opens on its own.

The light bulb in this closet never works, even when you put in a new bulb. As soon as you flip the switch, the bulb blows.

Every time.

This is the closet that you hear noises coming from. Something always seems to be falling in there.

It’s the closet that freaks your pets out. Maybe your dog sits and barks at it. Or your cat’s hair stands on end as she creeps past it, back arched.

This is the closet you don’t like to open when you’re home alone. It feels extra warm inside this closet – almost full of energy.

You would never – under any circumstances – sleep with this closet open. You don’t like to sleep facing this closet, but the idea of turning your back to it is equally undesirable.

Tom next door has one of these closets in his hallway. He’s positive he has heard laughter come from his closet, but he’s too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Your aunt Susan has one of these closets in her guest room, but she won’t open it anymore. Not since she heard something slithering in there.

Your mailman’s closet is in his bedroom. On three separate occasions, he has woken up to see the door cracked and a dark shape standing in the opening watching him.

Everyone has a closet.

But back to yours.

Oh, yours.

Your closet is worse than anyone’s. Because I’m in your closet. I’ve watched you, listened to you, reached for you, and come within inches of touching your hair.

I feel like it’s way past time for us to finally meet.

So I’ll see you tonight.

Shoutout Sunday: Showing Some Love (02/22/15)

February 22, 2015 by Emily Dill Leave a Comment

Welcome, my lovely winter friends, to this week’s Shoutout Sunday. It’s a pretty good edition, if I do say so…LOTS of good articles for writers this week. I hope you find these links as informative and inspiring as I did!

Should You Sell Your eBook On Amazon? Pros And Cons This a pro/con list from Rebecca Livermore about putting your eBook on Amazon, vs. selling it on your own website. I personally plan on putting my works on Amazon once they’re finished, but I can see why authors would not do that. Very good read.

3 Tips on How Not to Stink at Writing – The title alone makes this article amazing. This is a fairly short but inspiring article from Robert Blake Whitehill about not totally sucking as a writer and a few ways to help yourself in that vein. Great gifs, too. 🙂

How to Get Serious About Social Media – What a surprise, another fantastic article from Regina. Seriously, this is GOLD. Read it, then read it again, then go get some coffee, then read it once more.

Instagram for Writers – This is a great read from Laurie Tomlinson. I’ve grown very fond of Instagram, and it’s actually the first social network I check in the morning now. I especially love the shoutout to Jenny Bravo in the post, because she’s one of the new authors I’m most enjoying following online.

Fatal Submission Mistakes – I LOVE this. It’s a faux-quiz from literary agent Wendy Lawton, and it assures paranoid writers (Hi! *waves*) that mistakes are okay and very rarely fatal.

Shoutout Sunday: Showing Some Love (02/15/15)

February 15, 2015 by Emily Dill Leave a Comment

Hey, awesome person. Welcome back to Shoutout Sunday, during which I just shout things. Okay no, no actual shouting, but allow me to extend an invitation to you…an invitation to check out these awesome links that inspired me this week!

The 5 Most Important Myths and Truths for Hiring an Editor – I’m not quite at the stage of writing where I’m starting to look for editors, but I’m sure a lot of you are (and I will be at some point in the next few months). This article from Lauren Wise at Midnight Publishing outlines some of the myths (and truths) that surround finding an editor for your project. Something writers have to remember: the editor is not trying to destroy your darling work, kill your favorite sidekick, or make you feel bad about your writing. They’re there to help.

Pep Talk: How to Deal with the Siren Call of the Shiny New Idea – Susan Dennard is an author who also shares wonderful advice for other writers, and this is an article she wrote for Write All Year about getting distracted by “shiny new ideas”. We’ve all been there. I know I have (and don’t lie, you have too). Do you abandon your work-in-progress, or do you keep trudging on, even though this new idea seems so much more attractive and smells so good? Susan tries to help you out with this dilemma.

The 5 Major Reasons People Procrastinate + How To Overcome Them – This article from Mind Body Green isn’t specifically about writing, but it’s about procrastination, so I think every writer out there will agree that it applies to our beloved activity.

21 Book Marketing Tips for Authors – Again, I’m not at the stage of my book where I need this yet, but I’m bookmarking for the future, because this article by Heather Hart is FULL of great marketing ideas.

All right, I’m off to prepare for the snowpocalypse we’re expecting here in Kentucky…stay safe and warm out there, friends!

Writing Update: Short Story Anthology

My 2016 Writing Resolutions!

Writing Wednesday: Short Story Excerpt and Updates

Closets.

Shoutout Sunday: Showing Some Love (02/22/15)

Shoutout Sunday: Showing Some Love (02/15/15)

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