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 |  Life, Adventure, Family, Writing what else is there? Random thoughts. |
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WELCOME TO: GEMINI RISING   UPDATED INTRO 28 MAY 2024: Just a little about me. I've been married for 32 years this past NOV and currently live in Southern California, but I grew up in New Hampshire. I've got 2 boys who are young adults. I work as a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. I enjoy my job a lot. Still. If you can believe that. I love to write. Thankfully both of my boys achieved Eagle Scout. My Scouting days are over and I'm back to focusing on my writing. I like to get out in nature, drink coffee and watch football. Here's a little bio about my zodiac. GEMINI: Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory. On the one hand it produces the virtue of versatility, and on the other the vices of two-facedness and flightiness. The sign is linked with Mercury, the planet of childhood and youth, and its subjects tend to have the graces and faults of the young. When they are good, they are very attractive; when they are bad they are more the worse for being the charmers they are. Like children they are lively, and happy, if circumstances are right for them, or egocentric, imaginative and restless. Their good qualities are attractive and come easily to them. They are affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, and thoughtful towards the poor and suffering - provided none of the activities resulting from expressing these traits interferes too greatly with their own lives and comforts. Geminians can be successful in many walks of life though their general characteristics tend to make them unreliable. They are often skilled manipulators of language, in speech and writing, and may be: debaters, diplomats (though in politics they are more interested in theory than practice), orators, preachers (brilliant rather than profound), teachers, authors, poets, journalists, or lawyers. This is me. I am a Gemini. Pure, Raw, passionate. The NEW focus of this blog is to share my adventures, travels, random thoughts, book reviews, thoughts, opinions, and writing adventures from actual writing, writing/editing tips, marketing, research. I'll get there. BLOG ACCOMPLISHMENTS: SEPTEMBER 2024: I participated in the
![Merit Badge in Nonfiction
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Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Nonfiction.gif) Big thanks to WakeUpAndLive~doingNaNo'24   for hosting the contest! OCTOBER 2024: I participated in the
![Merit Badge in Halloween
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Congratulations on completing the 13 Poetic Days of Halloween.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Halloween-2026567.gif) Big Thanks to Lyn's a Witchy Woman  for hosting the contest!Find me at: WEBSITE: http://www.stephanieburkhart.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor GOOD READS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart YOU TUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee Previous GRATITIOUS Warning, that I decided to keep in case I post about something that might offend.  WARNING I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare"  check out the "Gemini Rising..." 
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| Just recently the small press publisher that held my titles, Journey of the Heart, Night of Magic, and Mr. Christmas Elf downsized and I received my “Revision of Rights.” I was bummed to have this happen, as they were great stories which were well received. Journey of the Heart had been my best seller over the years and had over 59 reviews. That said, I’d thought I’d do a mini blog series on Self-publishing. Honestly, it’s not something I saw myself doing. I’m confident in my writing skills and I wanted to get my stories out. Back in the day I still had some growing to do. In the aughts I queried a lot of traditional publishers and didn’t hear anything back. So, I went back to the table to grow and really fine tune my writing. I joined Writing.com, got a subscription to Writer’s Digest, bought a couple of books on self-editing and the writing process in general, and fine-tuned my stories. Mind you, I could probably talk about this process, growing as a writer, which maybe I will in the future, but today, I just want to give you some background as to what led me to self-publish. In 2010, my first novel came out “The Hungarian” with a small press. I thought I’d go the way of small press after honing my craft because they responded to my queries. Kindle on Amazon was just getting big about that time. Small press in the teens was a big rage. Also around this time, a lot of independent writers were exploring the self-publishing market. I’d say the self-publishing market has a had a “bad rap,” but with advances and more care, you can find a lot of good stories and great products these days. Mind you, you can still get a self-publishing book or story that looks very amateurish, so it’s important to follow the process, take your time, and make sure every step is polished. Well, my small presses went out of business in 2018. Another small press picked up 3 of my Amazon kindle titles, but then told me they weren’t going to pick up any more and recommended I self-publish. So, there I was. In 2019 I found myself looking at self-publishing. I knew my stories were solid. I had pretty good reviews for my stories, and several had been recognized by Reader’s Favorites and other small press magazines that had recognized small press writers. 2 of my short mainstream fiction stories had placed 8th in the Writer’s Digest Annual competion. The big question was – where to start? I think the first thing was knowing my limitations and understanding I needed patience. My limitations included being committed to the boys, their schooling, and scouts. Time would be limited. I decided to respect that. I also decided I would focus on the short stories that I had published with Victory Tales Press first. They were mostly between 10,000-20,000 words and would need a light edit. I had coordinated to buy most of the covers when they went out of business, so that was one worry that I didn’t have. Mind you, I had a bunch of titles. They were: Christmas in Bayeux A Polish Heart Journey Through the Heart Feast of Candles Night of Magic Gifts Young Witchcraft Mr. Christmas Elf Arrow Through the Heart I’d work on my Desert Breeze titles after that. At least that was the plan. Journey of the Heart, Night of Magic, and Mr. Christmas Elf were published with my “new” small press Prairie Rose Publishing. First up, I decided to tackle Christmas in Bayeux. It was a short story, about 12,000 words, but when I re-read it, I wanted to expand it and make it longer. That would take time and patience. Next: The Process |
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