New year, new look, exciting news!

It’s a new year, so I thought my blog deserved a new look. I’d had the same theme, the default 2016 WordPress theme, since I launched this website in July 2016, a year and a half ago. The main reason I didn’t change it was because I liked the layout and the color choices available for the theme. This new theme offers some of those same options while adding some features the other theme was lacking.

As promised, I have exciting news about the upcoming publication of Jordan’s Sister! That’s right! It will be published later this year, in the spring. The target date is April through Luminesce Publishing, a new indie publishing company owned by none other than yours truly.

Luminesce Publishing has been in the works since I had a crazy idea last fall about starting my own publishing company. It was in the middle of the query process for Jordan’s Sister, after the first rejection and before the second one, when my heart told me remaining independent is the best option for me at this time.

What does the name mean? Luminesce means to exhibit luminescence, which is the creation of light by processes that do not involve heat. Stepping out of darkness into illuminating light. That’s what this imprint is all about—following that dream of light from within without burning up from it. What does the logo represent? Well, how does it make you feel? I’ve had people say the image looks like planets, an eye in glasses, a telescope, a flashlight, and a lamp with a lightbulb in it. Who’s right? They all are. I wanted a logo that makes people think, and I think this accomplishes my vision.

Is it because I think can’t cut it in traditional publishing? Absolutely not. I could try for years to get an agent or find a small-press publishing company who will publish my book without agent representation. I could make changes to make it more appealing to some of these publishers, i.e. fantasy series for young adults or soft core porn for new adult and adult novels. Jordan’s Sister is a new adult/adult novel. Sure, it has adult content and language, but I don’t care to describe in great detail the sex the characters have. Some authors are great at describing intimate acts, and some make it laughable with the descriptions they use. To each their own. I’m not offended by that type of content as long as the writing and story are good. What offends me is terrible writing.

I honestly feel that my novel stacks up against traditionally and independently-published work that’s out there. I think it will find its audience. I’ve worked on it much more in the editing process than I did with the writing process. It’s very important that I make the changes recommended by one of the editors at the company that rejected it. I see her point about my story being dialogue-heavy, so I’m toning down the dialogue and adding more narrative. I’ve searched for commonly misused words, my common overused words, phrases the characters may have used too much, and so on, to make sure my book is the cleanest it can be. It’s been run through spellcheck and Grammarly multiple times and will do again as a final check after my final read-aloud proof, in which I print out the entire novel and read it aloud with my trusty red pen in hand.

So, it goes without saying, I put my heart and soul and my blood (darn papercuts), sweat, and tears into my work. I want the final product to be a representation of all the dedication I have to my artistic expression of choice. As I’ve always said, if one person reads it and it changes their outlook on life, makes them happy, makes them smile—that’s enough for me.

-Brandi Easterling Collins