Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Writing Contests in May 2025 - No entry fees

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Writing Contests in May 2025 - No entry fees: This May there are more than six dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range fro...

Going Wide and Long

 The freelancer industry, like any other, has been hit by this forced recession.  So I'm experiencing a lot of ghosting among my clients, a lot of reduced workload, it's kinda exhausting.

But seeing as life goes on whether or not your clients are acting right, I've had to look inward and find new pathways to income. Short term solutions, and long term solutions are what I'm thinking about.

It's not easy, I need a master mind group if anyone is so inclined to join. Times like these is when I wish I went the trad route and got myself a husband so that I have a partner in this madness. Actually, no. What I need is a wife who can support me.

Did I just come out? I guess I did.

Anyway, one of the ways I'm thinking long term solutions is to build up my readership in the subscription space (and also to write some strictly commercial books for traditional publishers). In the short term, I'm still figuring that shit out. 

So I've been uploading my work on various sites aside from the same old same old, in the hopse of expanding my customer base. Social media is helping out with that at least. People are free with their information and also, I've gotten on a black freelancer discord which has been helpful with tips and tricks.

I just need to implement. I think that's my major weakness. I think too small. 

So I'm trying to think bigger, be more ambitious and generally take some big swings. It's not like I have another option.

How is this recession treating you?

Unprovoked

I posted all my podcast episodes on Youtube and this is the latest one where I sat down with my son and we shot the shit for an hour. Revelations were made, philosophies were aired, it was a surprise, to me too.

I would advise you to listen if you have experienced challenges to do with mental health, career or just feeling like you're disappointing your parents.

Or if you want to hear us argue about Kanye. 

Contemporary Romance on Ream

I was riffling through my WIP folder  and I realized that I have so many half finished stories. So I decided to put them on ream where I can keep writing as you're reading. So go follow, and subscribe. 

Dear, Reader,

I'm doing a fundraising for some unexpected bills that have arisen by discounting my print books for the week. This is your chance to buy one copy or all copies of my books and have them delivered to your doorstep. 

Nuria books are very good at getting your orders to you fast and they ship worldwide. 

This will probably never happen again. 

Hurry while stocks last as they say.

Beware the Ides of March Madness

Being a writer is  hard, right? We all know this. It's not the writing that's difficult - at least not for me. It's all the other shit that goes into it like publishing, marketing, getting repeat readers, all that good stuff.

I'm not good at it. It requires me to be social which ugh.

But I am good at the making of content portion. I just wish y'all could find it on your own. Since you won't...

1. Let's talk about erotica. 

    Do you know how hard it is to market that shit? Everyone reads it but nobody wants to cop to reading it. So they won't join your mailing lists or want to be advertised to. 

It's a pain in the ass I tell you. 

So I took down my erotica books (aside from the collection) and transferred the stories to Ream. You can read them there, at your leisure, just as long as you subscribe. I promise never to send you any mail or look at your names...unless you tell me you want updates.

I'm currently writing a very unhinged mafia paranormal postapocalyptic gay romance there. It's fun. I update weekly. That's in addition to all my other erotica tales which are now on there. Bonus, I will be adding a new every month. Personally I think the subscription fee is a steal. 

Go see for yourself. 

I think this will be a good home for them. 

2. New Podcast Episode

As you can see from the links on the side of this blog, there's a new podcast episode about suicide. You should listen to it if only to see whether you relate or not. I think you will. I surprised myself by doing so. It gets rather philosophical in places so I hope you bear with us. 

3. New Harlequin

I told you about the romance that I'm writing didn't I? The man is Palestinian and I'm a bit worried that Harlequin will reject it on that premise alone. I know we all like to pretend that Palestinians are the villains. We'll see how it goes.

It's nice to be writing something new again. Marcus Devereux has kind of stalled as I try to get over my intimidation of my own writing. 

That girl who wrote the first ten chapters was on a roll. 

She was cooking. 

She ate down.
I don't know if I can match her level of badassery. You're supposed to look back on your writing and cringe (at least according to so-called writers on twitter) but me I look back on my writing and I'm like whoa girl! slow down.

Self belief has never been my problem.

Anyway I got work to do. I have provided you with news, so click on link, click follow, enjoy the content.

In The Shadow of the Styx

I haven't done much advertising of this promo on smashwords and today is the last day. I'm a hot mess, sue me. Anyway, In the Shadow of the Styx is 50% off for a few more hours. This story is about death. But really it's about life, because death is not the end. It's a great book if I do say so myself. So, if you're late to the promo, message me and I'll send you the discount code. Because I want you to read this awesome body of work.

Do feel free to leave your review as well.