Here are the old newsletter archives. The later ones (at the top of the page) are not formatted unfortunately – sorry.
| Update 31 – Project BSmoving month, website refresh |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project BS. This time, I will talk about moving month and website refresh. Part of this newsletter was editing using ChatGPT. Moving Month – A Newsletter Shift This will be the final newsletter sent via MailChimp before I transition to MailerLite. One key benefit of MailerLite is that its free plan includes automations, allowing new subscribers to receive a seven-email, 28-day welcome sequence! You have three options:Subscribe through my website yourself.Reply to this email, and I’ll add you.Opt out if you prefer not to continue. However you choose, I’ve enjoyed sharing my journey with you over the past few years. If you’d like to revisit our journey together, you can explore past newsletters via the button below—maybe even ask ChatGPT for a summary! Website Refresh & Brand Evolution You may have noticed some updates on my website—new landing pages, an improved menu structure, and reorganized content. These changes are part of my branding collaboration with Nat from Pinch Studios, refining A Whim Away’s identity to be clearer, more engaging, and true to its essence. Upcoming EventsI’ll be at Drummoyne Markets on April 12, showcasing my books, art, and more. If you’re in the area, stop by to chat about Gentle SciFi, self-publishing, or just to say hi! Spill the Beans is taking entries for Challenge 24 – Flourish during April 2025. Send in your 400-word (max.) story or poem to beanswrite21@gmail.com for a chance to be published on their website. Members’ stories may also be included in the anthology later in the year. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 30 – Project BS Gentle SciFi manifesto, BS progress, Brand strategy for indies |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project BS. This time, I will talk about Gentle SciFi manifesto, BS progress, Brand strategy for indies. This newsletter was drafted using ChatGPT. Gentle SciFi Manifesto What is Gentle SciFi? It’s a storytelling movement built on curiosity, wonder, and a sense of possibility—without the grimdark edge. It challenges the idea that all sci-fi must be dystopian, instead offering uplifting, thought-provoking narratives. Gentle SciFi creates worlds that inspire, not devastate; where exploration, kindness, and playfulness matter just as much as the technology itself. I am working on a manifesto for this new genre. Spotlight on Project BS & Self-Publishing Progress Project BS is my upcoming Gentle SciFi anthology, bringing together uplifting, thought-provoking stories in a fresh, engaging way. This anthology represents a milestone in my self-publishing journey, blending creativity with storytelling that inspires rather than overwhelms. Here’s my progress on my self-publishing checklist: – SS Developmental Edits – Deep in revisions, tightening the narrative and refining character arcs. – Audiobook Story Choices – Working with Bede on key decisions to bring this project to life. – Cover Design – Evie and I are making great progress in Affinity Designer—cover reveal coming soon! – Interior Formatting – Finalizing layout, typesetting, and ensuring a polished reading experience across print and digital formats. Every step brings Project BS closer to reality. If you’re thinking of self-publishing, I have a copy of a checklist on my website to help navigate the process. Brand Strategy & Marketing for Indies I recently had a fantastic brand strategy session with Nat from Pinch Studios, refining the way I present my work and business. We’re honing in on the heart of A Whim Away—playfulness, authenticity, and great storytelling. This process is helping me build a brand that feels true to my vision while reaching the right audience. A big part of my strategy is working a maximum of 12 hours per week on my business. This helps me stay healthy, productive and focused. Prioritizing tasks, automating where possible, and sticking to a structured schedule ensure that I make the most of my time. Marketing as an indie author can feel overwhelming, but a sustainable approach makes all the difference. I focus on three key areas: 1. Building an authentic brand – Through newsletters, my website, and social media, I connect with readers in a way that reflects my values. 2. Leveraging niche communities – Gentle SciFi resonates with a specific audience, so I prioritize platforms where they gather. 3. Strategic, low-stress promotions – I use anticipation marketing (thanks Sara!), collaborations, and long-term outreach rather than one-off, high-pressure launches. Upcoming Events I’ll be at Drummoyne Markets on April 12, showcasing my books, art, and more. If you’re in the area, stop by to chat about Gentle SciFi, self-publishing, or just to say hi! Spill the Beans is taking entries for Challenge 24 – Flourish during April 2025. Send in your 400-word (max.) story or poem to beanswrite21@gmail.com for a chance to be published on their website. Members’ stories may also be included in the anthology later in the year. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 29 – Project BS New logo, Project BS, and behind the scenes |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project BS. This time, I will talk about new logo, Project BS, and behind the scenes. New Logo You may have noticed at the top and bottom of my newsletter, I have a new logo! Evie helped me with drawing the feather by hand, then I translated it to a digital version, and I created the logo itself. For Project BS, I have a strong idea of what the cover will look like, and Evie and I are currently working on it on Affinity Designer, which is where I created the logo. Project BS My anthology has a name! I am keeping it under wraps for now, until the cover release in a few months. At the moment I’m working on the dev edits for my longer short story, SS; working on story choices with Bede for the audiobook; working on my cover design with Evie; and ticking things off my publishing checklist. Behind the scenes Are you wondering how to start a self-publishing company in Australia? How to track your activity for your mental health through a concern index? Or wanted a checklist for self-publishing a book? Look no further than my website. I currently have Google Adsense turned on, so hopefully you will see ads that are relevant to you. I am hoping that website visits will supplement my income, as I put more information there about the business of self-publishing. Upcoming events Spill the beans is taking entries for ‘Challenge 23 – Flirt’ during February 2025. Please send through your 400-word (max.) story or poem to beanswrite21@gmail.com, and it will be published on their website. Members’ stories will have the opportunity to be included in the anthology later in the year. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 28 – Project Novella03 Consignment, volunteering activities, generative AI, season’s greetings 2024 |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about getting your book into a bookstore under a consignment, volunteering activities, generative AI, and season’s greetings 2024. Consignment I have put together an “Ask Copilot” article about bookstore consignments for the self-published author. A bookstore consignment is an agreement between the author/publisher and a bookstore for the bookstore to stock your books, and for the publisher to get a royalty from the sale. Volunteering activities For the past 1.5 years I had been part of the group called Sydney Authors Inked, which organised promotional events for authors and readers to attend. I have decided to leave this group, as organising these events take a lot of effort and this was affecting my health. I have also decided to take a step back from Spill the Beans. I had taken a break for the past 3 months or so, but the level of commitment was not something I was in a position to take on board, again due to my health. I warmly thank them for the opportunity. I leave on good terms with the members of each group, and I will continue to promote their events in this newsletter. Generative AI As others have found through the years, my writing is sparse. I would like to think that I can write a complete story with my style, but two of my biggest blindspots are figuring out everything that is relevant to telling the story and tying up all loose ends where appropriate. They are not aspects that I can train myself to identify; I need someone else to find them by reading them. Because of this, I have decided that I will try Autocrit’s fiction analyser function to help me with developmental edits of my stories. I will remain transparent about where I have used AI. I will still go to writing groups once I feel ready to share. Upcoming events There are no upcoming events over the holidays nor in January. Season’s greetings 2024 Here is a small card from me and Patchy to you. Happy holidays in 2024, and I look forward to seeing you in 2025. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 26 – Project Novella03 Greeting cards, software audit, pipeline, events |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about greeting cards, software audit, pipeline, and some events this month. Greeting cards Last month I released a set of twelve greeting cards. I painted these abstract artworks and gave them a title, bringing a mini-story to life. You can see the summary card as well as a sample of the outer part of the card. They are available for purchase as a set. Software audit After nine faithful years, my laptop has finally decided to stop updating Microsoft Office. This is a shame, because the hardware is still good, but Apple refuses to update the operating system, making it impossible to keep my software up-to-date. Soon I will be buying a new MacBook (Air or Pro, not decided yet). Then I will have the arduous job of transferring everything over. Luckily, I did a software audit earlier this year, where I listed all of the software I’m using along with which login I use for each. It will make the transfer a less painful exercise. I will still use my old laptop for recording audio, and as a backup device. Pipeline There are two gentle SciFi books in the pipeline. Short story anthology (title TBC): Currently close to my goal, at 8,700 words. I have two developmental editors for each story: Ronn Morris and Katie Yee. I have also gotten feedback at various times from the Inner West Writing Group. Finally, I have been narrating my stories, learning from Bede Smith, a local actor. Project SS: Using the Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel 15-beat cheatsheet, Adam and I were able to dissect what has happened in the story so far and where I would like it to go. It’s so close to the end, I can taste it! Upcoming events 22 November, 5:30pm-7:30pm: Spill the Beans are having their AGM at Club Totem, Balgowlah. Tickets are around $5 for the AGM, and if you want to stay for dinner after, it’s essential to book ahead. 23 November, 11:30am-1:30pm: Sydney Writers Meet will be meeting at Cargo Bar in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Please contact Hayley if you want to join us. 29 November, 6:30pm-9:30pm: Sydney Authors Inked are presenting a Local Authors Book Festival. The event is sponsored by Inner West Council, Cover Palette, and A Whim Away. We will have eighteen authors on the day, come and buy an autographed copy and chat to the authors themselves. Book your free ticket via Humanitix. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 26 – Project Novella03 Update from D2D, Self-assessment, and Two stories! |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about an update from D2D, writing self-assessment, and work on not one, but TWO stories! Draft2Digital position on GenAI Draft2Digital have collected their survey results on Generative AI and have published the results. At this time, Draft2Digital will not offer AI rights licensing opportunities. I believe this is good news for us authors, as it draws a hard boundary around our expectations on the ethical use of our intellectual property. In copyright terms, this is called our ‘moral rights’ on how our stories are used. You can read more about the comprehensive report on the survey here. Year of the Novel For the past three months, I have been working with Adam (my writing mentor) on self-assessing my writing through the lens of WritingNSW’s Year of the Novel with Emily Maguire. The website provided key topics for discussion, and early this month we came up 20 points, which I grouped into four broad areas for me to work on. These are: Writing the story: concluding plot threads Developing the story: from Blob to Bob (Adam’s words!) Developmental editing: answering questions raised by the story Line-editing: Improving the focus and quality of the work I’m not sure yet how these four areas will manifest themselves in my work. Twenty points is definitely too much to keep in mind. But I guess they can serve as a checklist while I’m writing. Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel While I was scrolling on Facebook, I came across a post about a book called ‘Save the Cat! Writes a Novel’. I heard it’s a very good book about structuring a story, so it is a satisfying read. I bought an ebook copy of the book on YA novel writing published a few years after, as I am more interested in Young Adult fiction. I am using it to ‘debug’ Project SS. Now that I have read through the markers for a satisfying story, I found that I am missing quite a few of these markers. I’m hoping that I can retroactively add these, and finally get an idea for an ending for the story. This means that currently I’m working on two books, my anthology and SS. I wonder which will come first??? Upcoming events There are no upcoming events in October. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 25 – Project Novella03 New short story, Gentle SciFi, GenAI |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about my new short story, new facebook group about Gentle SciFi, survey about Generative AI. New short story I have written a new short story, to include in my anthology. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s a Gentle SciFi story set in the not-too-distant future, about two girls Sue and Roo. This time, I pantsed the whole thing, over a few weeks. I had first and last line prompts which I didn’t end up using. I made up the world on the fly. I wrote it with the guidance of Ronn Morris, she is teaching me about developmental editing. Now that the first draft is done, we’re working on the dev edits. Gentle SciFi Are you wondering what Gentle SciFi is? Look no further than this Facebook group I started, called Gentle SciFi for Gentle Readers. Come and join to participate. Survey about GenAI Draft2Digital, who are distributors of ebooks, print books, currently cannot use works published on their platform for training Generative AI (GenAI). GenAI was made famous by OpenAI, with their chatbot ChatGPT. If you are an author who uses Draft2Digital, or are planning to, you may be interested in filling in their survey on how they use your works to train GenAI. This will be important feedback to the company about how authors wish their works to be used. There’s another survey coming up by Copyright Agency (Australia), I’ll keep you posted about that. Upcoming events There are no upcoming events in September. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 24 – Project Novella03 Making money from your copyright, update on the Concern Index, new photos, and events. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about making money from your copyright, update on the Concern Index, new photos, and events. Making money from your copyright To my surprise, I received a copyright payment from the Copyright Agency for over $500! This was the biggest single payment I have made from my writing so far. If you have copyrightable works, it’s worth visiting my new blog post about the topic, how to make money from your copyright in Australia. Update on the Concern Index It has been six months now since I’ve started logging my activities in my concern index. So far, I’ve been able to see patterns such as when my depression is too much, and when I get too elevated. It doesn’t appear to be seasonal. I have created a webpage specifically for the concern index. It is an important part of enabling my creative practice. As part of my concern index, I documented my routine based on what I have been doing the past year. So far, the only regular time I have across the seven days is 9:30am for breakfast, and 6-8pm free-form time (when I get to choose what I do). The rest is taken up by appointments, taking Patchy for a walk, my routine, as well as pockets of free-form time. New photos! You may have noticed that I have a new photo for my socials, as well as for my contact page on my website. These were taken by Chere Koh, to celebrate my new haircut after my successful fundraising for the Leukemia Foundation. Thank you for your continued support! Upcoming events On Friday 5 July 12-2pm, we will have our monthly SelfPubAus meetup. If you’re interested in self-publishing your work, come along and meet some like-minded people. On Sunday 4 August 2024, 12:30-2:30pm, Sydney Authors Inked will be presenting Free Book Talks at Little BIG House, Summer Hill. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 23 – Project Novella03 Free audiobooks, professional development, publishing checklist, events. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about free audiobooks, professional development, publishing checklist, and events. Free Audiobooks You may have noticed that my audiobooks are no longer available. This is because Spineless Wonders Audio, the producers and publishers of my audiobooks, are streamlining their business. They have decided to terminate the publishing contract with me and have asserted that I own the copyright to the audio files. This is extremely generous on their part, and I am happy with the arrangement. As the audiobooks are no longer in distribution with Spineless Wonders Audio, I have decided to publish them under A Whim Away. If you purchased the audiobook previously, please let me know and I will send you a redemption code for Spotify once they become available. Unfortunately, there are no redemption codes for the other platforms. Professional Development I have been busy with professional development the past couple of months. I have been taking developmental editing classes with Ronn Morris, so I can get the stories up to scratch before I send them to Katie. So far, we had been working on how to further expand What Was Lost. I took a class with Marty from Echidna Audio, on how to edit my audiobook files. He was the one who edited Get Off My Lawn! and Cupid’s Kiss, and it sounded seamless! I figured I should take lessons from an expert, for when I work on producing my own audiobooks moving forward. He will still mix and master the files for me, so that they’re ready to be uploaded to Findaway Voices. I am doing my own version of The Year of the Novel with Adam, my writing mentor. I thought it would be good to consolidate what I know and identify any gaps. Finally, I completed a term in music composition with Marie-Louise Bethune at Ashfield Music School. I have some advanced music knowledge, but I didn’t know how to compose a score. I converted my short story, The Spread of an Idea, into a pop song. Publishing Checklist Since I will be producing my own audiobooks in the future, I have updated my publishing checklist. I have decided to put a copy of this checklist up on my website, for any who are interested in the process of publishing ebook, print-on-demand, and audiobook formats for their works of fiction. Upcoming events On Sunday 2 June 2024, 12:30-2:30pm, Sydney Authors Inked will be presenting Free Book Talks at Little BIG House, Summer Hill. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 22 – Project Novella03 Anthology, upcoming events, charity fundraising. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about my anthology, and upcoming events. Anthology My anthology is taking shape. I currently have around 4,000 words compiled. I will go through developmental editing of each story. I will also add new stories as they are written. I have now completed the second draft of my short story where Patchy (my dingo cross) is the main character. Patchy is lost in the Australian desert, until a mysterious man appears at her watering hole. What Was Lost will appear in my anthology. Another story that will appear in my book of short stories is called No Longer Brave. It is now published on the Spill The Beans website, please have a read. There is still time to enter your story in the FORMIDABLE challenge, you have until 30 April. I have thought of a title for the book: Aussie Shorts: An Anthology What do you think? Please feel free to leave a comment on my socials. Upcoming events On Saturday 20 April, 1:30-4:30pm, I will be attending Sydney Authors Inked’s Local Author Book Festival. We have almost fully subscribed the space with our select group of local authors. Please come along, you may find your next book purchase there for your mum. just in time for Mother’s Day! On Sunday 26 May, 10am-3pm, I will be attending Ashfield Community Market for the second time. Being a stallholder at this market gives me the opportunity to support Ashfield Public School, a primary school in my local area. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 21 – Project Novella03 Writing competitions, upcoming events, charity fundraising. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about writing competitions, upcoming events, and charity fundraising. Writing competitions After working on half of the edits from the feedback from my developmental editor, Katie (bluejayes.com), it’s becoming clear that I won’t reach the minimum word limit for The Hope Prize. As you may have discerned by reading my previous works, my writing style is sparse. While the developmental edits identified where I could fill in some gaps, it’s still not enough. And I don’t want to pad it out unnecessarily. Performing the edits have been very slow as well, because my body had been fighting off an infection for the past two weeks. I put all of my creative work aside while I focused on my health. I did, however, enter an earlier version of this story to the CWL Banjo Paterson Writing Prize. This competition requires that you enter a work that was written unaided. I am excited about this competition. The man that this prize is named for, “Banjo” Paterson, was a celebrated Australian poet. You may have heard one of his works, Waltzing Matilda, sung by the crowd during sporting events. If you write about anything Australian, I encourage you to enter this competition. Upcoming events The next Sydney Authors Inked ‘Free Book Talks’ event at Little BIG House in Summer Hill, will be this Sunday 7 April, 12:30-2:30pm. Just the day before, I am planning to attend the Burwood 150th Year Street Party. This will be in the evening, Saturday 6 April, 5pm-10pm. Burwood Road will be closed for the event. On Sunday 26 May, 10am-3pm, I will be attending Ashfield Community Market for the second time. Being a stallholder at this market gives me the opportunity to support Ashfield Public School, a primary school in my local area. Charity fundraising I will be shaving my head hair for a good cause on 24 Mar 2024. Please feel free to donate to the leukaemia foundation for the World’s Greatest Shave. Here is my fundraiser profile, now accepting donations. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 20 – Project Novella03 Life tracking and writing competitions. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This time, I will talk about life tracking and writing competitions. Update on life tracking It’s been 2 months now since I seriously started tracking my life. I did make a major change though – I am no longer using Monday.com, due to budget constraints. Instead, I adapted the excel spreadsheet I exported from there, and put my own formulae in. So far, the concern index has been rising for the past 6 weeks. The higher the concern index is, the more concerned I should be. With good reason, as I’ve had three stressful events happen the past 6 weeks. It seems like the concern index is working. Writing competitions I am hoping to enter The Hope Prize in March. I had been focusing on short story competitions the past few months. I entered a story each into the Newcastle Short Story Award and into the Local Word Writing Prize. The Hope Prize is a larger prize pool, so I am investing in developmental editing, copyediting and proofreading for my entry. Even if I don’t win any of these, I am planning on an anthology of my recent short stories as my next publishing project. Website After the migration to Siteground, I made a few changes for SEO to the website URLs so unfortunately some of my links no longer work. However, you can find the pages through the menu at the top, I have organised it so it’s easier to find what you need. Events Sydney Authors Inked ‘Free Book Talks’ event at Little BIG House in Summer Hill, will be this Sunday 18 February, 12:30-2:30pm. Please note the change in time from the past events. Our first local market for 2024 is at Ashfield Public School on 25 February, 10am to 3pm. The market is organised by the Ashfield Public School Parents and Citizens Association (APS P&C). ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 19 – Project Novella03 A retrospective on 2023. |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. This is a retrospective on what was 2023. Order 2023 was very much about getting my life in order. After experiencing a setback with Project SS, I looked into my limitations and how I can work with them to be effective at living my life. It was 2020 when I left my job at the University of Sydney, Australia, and I am still figuring out what the new normal looked like. For the past few years, I was using Microsoft Office Word & Excel, Google Calendar & Keep, as a prototype. It was only in the past two months that I discovered MyFitnessPal, Paprika3 app, and Monday.com as ways to more effectively keep my lists. The most important aspect is that I can use these on my phone, which is where I do most of my work now. Monday.com with Google Calendar Mnoday.com app is a project management tool, available on the web browser, Android and iOS. While it doesn’t specifically handle ongoing tasks, I was able to wrangle Monday to do so. I migrated my Word tasks to Monday, and I tracked my week while watching my “Concern index”, i.e. how much I am missing required tasks, and how much extra I am doing. This is particularly critical for my limitation, as I usually don’t pick up whether I’m up or down based on my mood, rather only on how much I am doing or not doing. The Concern index is a trial of this. I have kept Google Calendar for my appointments. I can plan ahead for travel time, and spaces where I can do my tasks. Paprika3 app and MyFitnessPal Paprika3 downloads recipes from the web and changes it to an easy-to-follow format. It works on most platforms, although you have to purchase a one-time license once you need more than 50 recipes and to use the cloud. I can do meal plans in advance and modify recipes easily. I categorised the past year’s recipes according to the type of meat or if it’s sweet. Finally, I rated the recipes (most of them were 5 stars, thanks to my support worker Scott’s skills). I can search based on any of this information e.g. if I wanted something that used pork hock that’s in my freezer, I search in ingredients. MyFitnessPal tracks calories, macronutrients, and steps. It can be used on either phone or browser. I can create a recipe by copying the ingredients from Paprika3 and pasting them into a recipe in MyFitnessPal. I split the recipe into a number of servings, which calculates the calories and macronutrients for a single serving for me. While I haven’t really tried very hard to lose weight in the past, I felt that this tracking was missing in my ability to reach my goal. For now, my goal is to maintain my weight, and once I get used to tracking I’ll see about slowly reducing my calories. What about the novellas? In 2023, in-person appearances were my primary method for selling my books, Cupid’s Kiss, and Get Off My Lawn! This includes markets, a school appearance, a pub reading, and other events. If you were curious about what is involved in becoming a market stall holder, I have some information on my website here. I also have information about groups that I’m part of on my website, here. Next year, I will work on SEO for my website, a-whim-away.com.au. I bit the bullet and bought a .com.au domain name and am currently forwarding all of my a-whim-away.com requests to that site. I spent a good 5 hours migrating my site from WordPress.com to Siteground.com, which is based in Australia. I still highly recommend WordPress.com, if you want a simple way to learn the WordPress platform. Goodbye 2023 On this last day of 2023, I look back and think how much I learnt about myself, about how I can work hand-in-hand with my limitations, instead of ignoring, or working around, or taking advantage of it. I am hoping that in 2024, my little tweaks in my life will put me in a position to write with pleasure. And in the future, I can give you, my dear reader, something to look forward to from me. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 18 – Project Novella03 What have I been up to? |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project Novella03. You may be wondering what happened to Project SS… What happened to Project SS??? Project SS has been shelved. I was experiencing major writer’s block on the project, and no matter what I tried to write, it just felt wrong. It was affecting my mental health, and my overall relationship with writing. I hated it! After speaking with a few people about it, I decided to take a break from most of my writing-related activities, and work on a few things that are important to me. One of them is working with my Dingo cross, Patchy. She’s five years old this month! And to top it off, today is International Dog Day, so double the celebration. What have I been doing apart from training Patchy? I have been continuing my art lessons, voice acting lessons, and writing lessons. My writing lessons have been focusing on an article for 65 tips from Young Adult writers. Adam and I discussed each tip, whether I agree with it or not. I was sad to see the tip “just write” frequently. It’s just not helpful, especially when everything you write feels so wrong. Writing, to me, often feels satisfying, humorous, and surprising. When I don’t feel that, I ask myself, would I read this again? A dark horse during my break has been the voice acting. Bede, my voice acting teacher, has been working hard to create homework that will develop my skills, partly because I will actually do them through the week. Funnily, enough, one of them is rant-writing for 2 minutes a day! It feels pretty good. It was an extension of recording a daily “pinch”, something that affects me emotionally. I also think art classes have been a major part of the healing process. I started art classes with Tim in April. We’ve just been slowly making pretty abstract artworks, you can see them in Instagram. I enjoy abstract because I can put the paint wherever I felt like, it feels like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Kind of like writing! What about A Whim Away? Don’t worry, it’s not going away. I will continue to maintain my self-publishing and consulting business, A Whim Away PTY LTD. You may see some updates on the website, a-whim-away.com, and I’ve included a link to leave me a Google Review if you wish. I have added a page on the groups that I have found useful over these last few years. Through Sydney Authors Inked group, I will be participating in events hosted by the Little BIG House in Summer Hill, NSW, Australia. The first one will be on 10 September, 2023, between 10-12am. Please register so we can continue running this event next year. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 17 – Project SS Writing prompts through ChatGPT, and events |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project SS. This past month, I looked into ChatGPT to prepare some writing prompts, planned some events I will be attending this year, and an author visit. Adam is on holiday! For the past few months, I have been honing my writing skills by working through writing prompts with my writing mentor Adam. These exercises have taught me how to plan and write a short story in around five minutes, and Adam would then help me critique it. However, Adam will soon go on a month-long vacation with his lovely wife Steph, leaving me to figure out how to continue my writing practice. Adam’s prompts were so effective in stimulating my creative thinking that I decided to experiment with ChatGPT to see if I could replace some of the writing process while he was away. After some adjustments, I discovered that the prompts we had been using were called “first-sentence creative writing prompts.” By requesting a random prompt, I could continue to practice writing, even without Adam. Although it will never completely replace Adam’s critiques, I can still improve my writing skills through this method until he returns to provide his valuable insights. Happy travels, Adam! **Note: ChatGPT edited this section. Events in 2023 I am planning my event calendar for this year. So far, I will be attending: Sydney Royal Easter Show, on Saturday, 15 April 2023. I will be at the World Bazaar, along with other local authors. Flour Mill Markets, Summer Hill, on Sunday, 7 May 2023 between 9am-1pm. Book Fair Australia on the weekend of 14-15 October 2023. If you happen to be there at the same time, please come and say hi! Virtual Author Visit at Pacific Preparatory Today, I virtually visited Pacific Preparatory’s book club for their students. The ten students were between Grades 3-5, and were spread right across the USA. I was free to structure the 45-minute session as I liked, which was centred around Get Off My Lawn! While I prepared some slides and activities beforehand, during the session I mainly answered their questions about the book, about writing, and about self-publishing. It was so successful, that I decided to include author visits as part of my offerings through A Whim Away. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 16 – Project SS Business as unusual |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project SS. In the past few weeks, I actioned some of my to-do list. Self-review complete Adam and I finally finished going through the manuscript fragment of SS. It’s actually a lot closer to the end than I thought. For the past year and a half, I have had writer’s block on this piece. Not because I didn’t know what the end was. I actually knew the end I wanted, but I didn’t want to write how I was going to get there. Once Adam and I finished going through the manuscript, I wrote a different ending to the one I initially envisaged. It made me laugh-out-loud. You’ll see what I mean, hehe. Microcontent for Instagram In the meantime, I had a follow-up meeting with my marketing coach, Sara Berry, from Marketing Sense. She introduced me to the idea of microcontent, where I take parts of my blog content, and create Instagram Stories out of them using Canva. The idea is to have new people discover my content without my having SEO, which my WordPress plan doesn’t allow for. I’m still stuck on getting music on my Stories, though. It may not be possible if I upload via Canva. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 14 – Project SS New year, new look! |
| Thank you for subscribing to updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed Project SS. In the past few weeks, I looked at some tools to help with my writing and my self-publishing business. Blog: Anna Asks ChatGPT My business mentor, Sara Berry from Marketing Sense, suggested that I start a blog to improve the SEO of my business website. So here is my new blog, Anna Asks ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chat platform that has been making waves in the writing world. It’s so good, that some writers are screaming that their jobs will be taken over by machines. So I decided to give it a try. You need to register first. My first search was something about time travel. Then I broadened it out to dog training, self-publishing, and recipes. So far so good. What impressed me the most was the language structures that have been very accurate so far, and understandable in its expression. A few fellow writers and I have cottoned on that this would make a good research tool for writing fiction, better than Google. There are still limitations, however. Sometimes part of the information is inaccurate. With recipes, there’s a caveat that ChatGPT doesn’t know how things taste like, and that it only gets info from the web. The current version of ChatGPT allows you to report when this happens, so they must still be training the AI. In my blog, I ask ChatGPT a question, and I respond to the response. Let’s see how far this blog goes. Emotion Thesaurus Speaking of AI, Amazon’s AI suggested a writing book to me in the middle of my cookbook purchases (which was kinda weird). But the suggestion turned out to be a good one. It’s called the Emotion Thesaurus, and it describes how someone acts when they’re feeling a certain emotion. It’s good for authors like me, who are minimalist in their descriptions. This tool allows the implementation of that well-worn writer’s adage, ‘show don’t tell’. I would still have to figure out what the character is feeling, but this handbook allows me to see a summary of the behaviours associated with that feeling. I won’t be showing all the time, though. I like to leave certain things as an exercise for the reader. Get Off My Lawn! promotion I’ve had some interest from a private K-12 school in the USA about Get Off My Lawn!. I will be speaking about my novella at their upcoming book club meeting, and they will promote it through their network. It came about because of a Facebook post that I responded to, looking for children’s books. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
| Update 14 – Project SS New year, new look! |
| Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away’s next project, codenamed Project SS. With the new year, I looked at my writing practices to see what was working, what wasn’t, and what new things I can adopt to tell you great stories. Writing habit First up, was my writing habit. I truly believed that I should only write when I want to, but that only works up to a point. Once it becomes challenging, I’m forever waiting for that perfect moment when the perfect words magically appear on the page. This is where a habit comes in. I needed something that was short enough to be doable every day. This needs to be compatible with my concentration and motivation. So I decided to write for five minutes a day starting on New Year’s Eve. It may seem insignificant, but it adds up! For example, writing 100 words a day will contribute towards 36,500 words in a year. I was stunned. Adopting editing suggestions The second thing on my list was editing. Apart from my editors, I am part of writing groups who give excellent feedback, whether developmental, line or copyedit. Usually multiple people give feedback, so how do I incorporate them into my manuscript in a way that requires the least energy? For example, I am part of a Facebook Group that has #FirstLineFriday, where we get feedback about the first line of our writing. Just one line generated dozens of comments. Some said the same thing, but the rest tackled something different about my single sentence. I want to do minimal changes that require the least energy to get the best result. My process is (1) marking relevant words with comments containing the feedback, (2) tagging each feedback with a keyword, (3) analysing the tags for the changes, and (4) make the changes. As an example, my first line for Project SS was: “I don’t think he can afford me,” Sebastian thought, walking up the path to the dilapidated door. My analysed tags from the feedback were: (done) italics – 6 comments (done) path description – 2 (no) door then thought – 2 (done) tense (??) passive (no) door description – 2 And the final result was: I don’t think he can afford me, Sebastian thought, as he walked up the uneven path to the dilapidated door. Remember that you don’t have to take on all suggestions, but if you reject some, there has to be a good reason why. ‘Til next time! Anna Ceguerra. |
Update 13 – Project SS
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s next project, codenamed ‘Project SS‘.
I am sad to say that I am having some post-event blues, after Book Fair Australia and Woodstock Artisan Market. I didn’t sell as many books as I’d like, but apparently that’s a common feeling. There was an article written recently about a new author tweeting about this experience, with storytelling heavyweights lending their support. That article was timely, to say the least.
Now, Adam and I are working on Project SS. All this work since publishing Get Off My Lawn! is coming into fruition. I had been stuck on SS since late last year, so Adam (my writing mentor) and I worked on (1) getting the feel for endings as well as (2) finding a way to outline the story without feeling too restrictive.
I applied what I learned to a commissioned piece for Laura Miers. They wanted a short story with the theme ‘Sydney/Eora Air’, to print in their Christmas brochures for their clients. If you want to read it, please stay tuned for further details.
Coming back to Project SS, I developed a Story Template in Scrivener. This was based on my learnings with Adam, as well as my incidental discussions with Bede (my voice acting teacher) about how he interprets stories as an actor. The idea is that I have some parts of the story thought out and documented, whereas other things like the events are more free-form.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 14-28 days. If I don’t see you again soon, I hope you have a great break over the holiday season, and see you in the new year.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that twelfth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 12 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s new book, Get Off My Lawn!
I am thrilled to share with you that Get Off My Lawn! now has a theme song! Have a listen on SoundCloud. It was a collaboration between myself (lyrics) and Amanda Rae Kelly (composition). The song was a lot of fun to create, with an electronic keyboard hooked up to GarageBand on my Mac.
On the first Sunday of November, I was part of an independent authors stall at Woodstock Artisan Market, along with local authors Maria and Conchita. I sold out of copies for Get Off My Lawn! The market runs every first Sunday of the month, and Maria, Conchita, Jim and I will be there on Sunday 4 December 12-3pm, at 22 Church St Burwood NSW Australia.
Only one week left until Book Fair Australia. I can’t believe it’s finally here! There will be stickers and bookmarks on offer, as well as autographed copies of my books. I will be part of a panel on the Saturday, about writing the Australian experience. There will be a scavenger hunt, and if you come to my stall, I will give you a big clue! Come and buy your ticket to this exciting event.
Starting from the next newsletter, I will be talking about my next project, codenamed ‘SS’. I currently have a half-completed manuscript, which Adam (my writing mentor) and I are working on. I will take you through the process, from getting out of writer’s block and onwards.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 14-28 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that eleventh newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 11 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s new book, Get Off My Lawn!
Well, it’s been around three months since Get Off My Lawn! was released. I know because my book’s three-month consignment at Better Read Than Dead, Newtown ended earlier this week. On the upside, James, who handles consignments, is happy to take on my next book, whenever that may be!
If you want to know more about consignments, Better Read Than Dead’s website (under “contact us”) had all of the information I needed to pitch my book to them. In essence, they needed the Title, ISBN, author and bio, and the book blurb. They returned with the consignment terms. The first book they stocked on their shelves for me was Cupid’s Kiss. I was still figuring things out and I didn’t have a print run until several months after.
The other bookstore that holds copies of my books is Galaxy bookstore, in Sydney CBD. They still have a couple of copies of Cupid’s Kiss and Get Off My Lawn! left, if you’re so inclined to go there!
Both of these bookstores are great at supporting local authors.
If you want an autographed copy of my books, please come along to Book Fair Australia. There will be other authors there too, both traditionally published and self-published, as well as vendors who are in the publishing industry. I can’t wait to network!
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 14-28 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that tenth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 10 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s new book, Get Off My Lawn!
I will be attending Book Fair Australia on the weekend of the 26th and 27th of November, 2022. It will be held at Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW Australia.
Tickets are on sale now, and with the purchased ticket comes some promotions such as $5 vouchers, raffle tickets, and so on. But if you’re feeling lucky, all you have to do is…
Follow my profile on any of the social media platforms below, or subscribe to my email list. Then tag me and three friends to enter a competition to win a double weekend pass to Book Fair Australia’s event. I will let the very random Google RNG program select the winner in early November.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that ninth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 9 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s new book, Get Off My Lawn! The novella was quietly released yesterday, on the 15th of July 2022. The book may be released, but there’s still more work to do.
Last week, I promised talking about the audiobook production process, from the perspective of the author.
The audiobook process began when I contacted Bronwyn from Spineless Wonders about a new book. I told her the word count, and the fact that I wanted a male narrator this time. I sent across a chapter sample of my manuscript, and she returned with a narrated sample from one of her voice actors, Lewis Scamozzi. I was 90% happy with the sample, the only thing that needed tweaking was the voices of the characters.
Once I sent the manuscript and signed the contract, we booked a recording session. Marty Gallagher of echidnaaudio has a sound booth located in the beautiful Powerhouse Museum. There, I met Lewis for the first time. We discussed the character’s voices, and he told me got a better idea between doing the sample and reading the manuscript. The voices are basically Lewis’ interpretation from the text, I gave very minimal guidance, and I was very happy with it.
I only needed to wait a week or so before the final edited version was ready to final checks. Marty did a flawless edit! It will get uploaded onto the distribution platform soon.
By the way, did you know that if you bought the Kindle and Audible versions together, it forms a read aloud function, called Whispersync? It’s a nifty feature where the audiobook syncs with the text as it’s playing, and even highlights the current word for you.
In the next update, I will talk about consignments, distribution, and a book fair.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that eighth newsletter by A Whim Away.
P.P.S. There was an unfortunate typo in Sara Berry’s link… here is the correct one.
Update 8 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! Only 12 days left until release!
Last week, I promised talking about finalising the cover design, the print-on-demand and ebook uploads, as well as the WordPress updates.
First, the cover design. Since Marta had created the cover for the eBook, print and audiobook formats, I had changed the blurb and the number of pages. This meant the print cover needed to be updated. Marta was happy to do this for a small fee. Her license to her work allows me to change the covers, but not the illustrations. She did, however, provide the working files in Adobe InDesign. This was a very reasonable license, for the fee and quality of work provided.
Second, the print-on-demand uploads. The Ingram Spark upload was pretty straightforward, once I had the metadata and the final versions of the two files: cover and interior. I used Scrivener with its novel template to format the interior. It was a very easy process, once I had the final manuscript imported. That was probably the most difficult part, as I mentioned in the Update 7 of this newsletter.
Third, the eBook upload. I tried to use Draft2Digital to distribute my ebooks this time, including for Amazon KDP. Unfortunately, I could not upload to KDP via D2D because I had generated an EPUB3 file, whereas KDP was expecting EPUB2 through D2D. The other thing I needed to do was complete the USA tax form, W-8BEN. It was a long process, but the big advantage is now I get taxed 5% instead of the default 30%.
Finally, the website updates. I needed to update A Whim Away‘s website on WordPress, not just for the new product information, but also to organise the information better. I am getting some marketing advice from Sara Berry, through a government program that links business advisors to small business. She is teaching me lots of practical things I really need for my small business, and she’s conscious of my tight budget. My website is still a work-in-progress, so please bear with me!
In the next update, I will talk about the audiobook production process. I worked with Spineless Wonders Audio, both for Cupid’s Kiss and Get Off My Lawn!.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that seventh newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 7 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! I am excited to share that we are nearing the end of the journey.
Last Wednesday, I received the final version of the manuscript from Pam Sewell, my copyeditor and proofreader. She was very quick with my 9,300 word story, taking only a week to do both types of edits. That’s the advantage of having familiarity with the intricacies of editing, and having lots of manuscripts to practice on.
Then, I imported the final manuscript into Scrivener. I did have a few hiccups though. First, my italicised text weren’t in italics anymore. Secondly, all of the newline characters were different to what Scrivener was expecting, and I was getting the hash ‘#’ character after every paragraph! It was easy enough to fix both issues, albeit manually. I can’t imagine doing this on a longer piece of work…
I recompiled the manuscript into a Microsoft Word document to check everything came across into the final manuscript. I did this using the “combine documents” feature, which marks the differences between two documents. I compared the manuscript I sent off to Pam, with the manuscript with everything imported. Quite handy, as I found some errors.
After having done all of the fiddly work and I was certain everything went across, I sent the word document manuscript to Bronwyn at Spineless Wonders, who is producing the audiobook for me. She produced the audiobook for Cupid’s Kiss, and I was elated with the result. I’m happy to say we are booked to record Get Off My Lawn! at the end of the month.
There are too many updates this week… when things are a bit quieter, in the next newsletter I will talk more about finalising the cover design, the print-on-demand and ebook uploads, as well as the WordPress updates.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that sixth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 6 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! Today I will be talking about progressing the manuscript.
So, the cover is ready, the formatting templates are ready, the audiobook production is lined up. What could be missing? Oh yes, the manuscript!
After 48 days of applying the comments from the developmental edit by Katie, it finally feels ready for the next stage. This is the copyedit and proofread, which are the final edits before publication. Pam Sewell is in the middle of doing this for me, and she will edit in Australian English.
It is important to me that this story is told in Australian English. The environment I grew up in, suburban Sydney, is still very much a part of Australia and I feel it is not well represented today. By putting this story out there, it gives readers a feel for Australian culture.
I should mention that Get Off My Lawn! was written before Cupid’s Kiss, so there were a lot of high-level things I was still learning about. Like how to implement a plot and write a character arc. Adam helped me with that, by putting together some short story exercises. Once I got an idea of how these ‘tasted’ like, I was able to look at Get Off My Lawn! with a more discerning eye.
One of the things I was working hard on this week was the ‘blurb’. This is the short piece of text you normally find on the back cover. It could be the tipping point for whether you buy my book! I got many people to take a look at it and give feedback, and I landed on something that I was happy with. Keep a lookout for it!
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that fifth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 5 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! Today, I will be giving you an insight into the cover design process.
I was initially thinking of creating the cover myself using Canva. But something was always wrong with the versions I was making, and people in the self-publishing group highly recommended that I hire a professional cover designer.
As you know, I almost got scammed in that group. I seemed to be having reasonable conversations with them about the cover. In the end, their downfall was trying to change PayPal details when I was ready to pay. It was very close!
Next, I engaged a cover illustrator and designer on Upwork. Marta Khmilyar, from Ukraine, illustrated the front cover herself, and gave me a few options. Upwork kept the payment in escrow for us, so we both knew we were serious. Here’s the final illustration, as a bonus for reading!
I also have some exciting news. To celebrate the end of the financial year, and six months since Cupid’s Kiss was published, autographed copies of Cupid’s Kiss will be on sale for 40% off! Please go to to the Cupid’s Kiss product page for more info.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that fourth newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 4 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! I’ve been using Scrivener to write my manuscript, and I’ll focus a little on that today.
Scrivener is a word processing software that was created with writers in mind, and it shows! It has several templates for different types of writing, for example in the fiction section you have Novel, Novel (with parts), and Short Story.
Using a template in Scrivener is really handy when you want to send your work to an editor as a Microsoft Word document. It’s even useful when you want to format it for publishing.
What I really like about Scrivener is the multiple ways you can organise things. One way is using folders, and even documents can act like folders! Another is character and place templates. Each document also has a notes section, and you can also make comments similar to how Microsoft Word does it.
Scrivener has a free 30-day non-consecutive trial. This means you can use it on Monday, close it, and when you use it again on Friday you’re only on the second day of your trial. They have a few video guides on their website to show how to use it.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days, now that the pace of developments is accelerating.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that third newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 3 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! In these newsletters, I hope to give you an insight on the production process, taking you through the steps from a completed manuscript to a published book.
First, some concerning news. I almost got scammed a couple of weeks ago. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I was looking for a cover designer, and I thought I found the right one after having chat conversations with them about my mock-up.
After checking their identity from the PayPal link they sent, when I was ready to pay the deposit, they sent another PayPal link with an anonymous address! Things didn’t add up and I reported the account to Facebook, the Facebook group, and blocked the account. Lesson: you can never be too vigilant in verifying an identity, especially online.
For now, I have engaged a cover illustrator and designer on Upwork. Marta, from Ukraine, quickly drew a few options for me, and after I chose one, she is now putting in the detail. I’m excited!
Apart from that, I had been forging ahead with the developmental edits. I discovered ‘character sheets’ in the fiction section of Scrivener. I modified them a little to tackle the character arcs of a major character, as well as a minor character who is a catalyst for change. I hope Katie and Adam like the mods!
I’ve also been investigating Draft2Digital as an alternative to Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). The reach is wider with Draft2Digital, and it is free to publish, same as KDP. But more on that later!
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in 7-14 days, now that the pace of developments is accelerating.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that second newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 2 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn! In these newsletters, I hope to give you an insight on the production process, taking you through the steps from a completed manuscript to a published book.
For the past two weeks, I had a couple of meetings with Adam (my writing mentor) to discuss the developmental edits. First, I took the editorial letter from Katie (bluejayes.com), along with my and Adam’s comments, and grouped together the related ones. Then, I looked through the manuscript in Scrivener and decided what the changes were going to be for each general comment.
By the way, Scrivener is an awesome tool! Not only is it a word processor, it also compiles to various formats, making my job a lot easier going from manuscript to editing to publication. You can find Scrivener at literatureandlatte.com.
I’ve also been working on a tool called Canva, to mock-up my cover (see image below). Canva is a cloud-based software that allows you to design visuals. It’s a great way to play around with ideas of what things I want on my cover, before communicating with a cover designer. I will be engaging one over the next few weeks, to get a professional-looking cover. I wonder what the final cover for Get Off My Lawn! will look like??
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in around a fortnight, once the manuscript reaches the next stage.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.
P.S. In case you were curious, here’s a link to that first newsletter by A Whim Away.
Update 1 for Get Off My Lawn!
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing for updates for A Whim Away‘s upcoming new book, Get Off My Lawn!
Get Off My Lawn! follows ninety-year-old Olivia as her world is turned upside down by her seven-year-old neighbour, Dotty. It was written by Australian author Anna Ceguerra (me). For my international audience, it means we have Australian spellings, words, settings, and even the audiobook is narrated in an Australian accent!
In these newsletters, I hope to give you an insight on the production process, talking about the steps from a completed manuscript to a published book.
Right now, I am in the process of implementing the developmental feedback by the fabulous Katie Yee of bluejayes.com. Katie looked at the plot, themes, characters etc of my book, and told me what she felt worked well, and what could be improved.
By the way, she is currently offering 50% off for her editing services if you are an author with a fiction book to work on. I highly recommend her – if you do take her on, please make sure to mention my name!
Implementing the changes will take around two weeks, as I work with my writing mentor Adam. He and I have been working together for over a year now, he’s my major sounding board for my stories.
Please feel free to share this email with your friends. I have included the subscription link for them here. The next update will come in around a fortnight, once the manuscript reaches the next stage.
‘Til next time!
Anna Ceguerra.