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I Did a Thing! (Self-Publishing for the First Time!)

semartens

I have an exciting announcement!


My poetry book, SKULL MOSS is now out in the world and available for purchase!


You can purchase it on Amazon in either digital or paperback editions.



You can also add it on Goodreads!




This is my first foray into the exciting world of independent publishing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without some wonderful resources, which I will list and link at the bottom of the page.


SKULL MOSS has been a decade in the making, featuring poems written from 2012 – 2021. Some of these have been previously published, but many are brand-new to this collection. All of them are deeply personal and I am both excited and slightly nervous to share them.


The poems draw inspiration from horror stories, fairy tales, and the places where those overlap. You'll also see my interest in history well represented, as the R.M.S. Titanic, the Donner Party, the Flannan Isles Lighthouse and Essex whaleship all make appearances.


I worked hard to make the imagery as dreamlike and surreal as possible, to keep things constantly changing, ever-shifting. To that end, I chose Tea Jagodić's wonderfully surreal artwork for the front cover. It reminds me of the work of Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte.


This is also my deep-dive into personal mental-health and identity. While I am far from the first person to use water as a metaphor for the mind, I found it helpful to build a place out of mysterious lakes and bays and the mutable ocean, to serve as a translation of what I felt. Ocean-dwellers such as sharks, mermaids, and the kraken then take on an array of meanings.


I’m in a much better place now, then when I wrote some of these pieces – the truth is, I couldn’t have done all the work necessary to put this book together if I was in the same place I was ten, or five, years ago.


SKULL MOSS is also a journal of sorts. The View from the Cemetery was written about the historic Highgate Cemetery in London, which I visited in 2015, and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. There was a tranquility there that was a marked relief after the crowded, fast-paced, sensory-overload of London. For an introvert, cemeteries and their quiet can often serve as places of refuge.


From Toronto to Oblivion was written on a train leaving Toronto after a library conference. Late Nights in the Ghost House represents my 2020 obsession with a certain ghost-hunting program which I would put on whenever I wanted to take my mind off the state of the world.


Some flash fiction/prose poetry also wriggled its way into the pages of this collection. Of these, The Things That Were Hunting Us, is my homage to cosmic horror and Credible Witnesses loops back to ghost hunting.


Ghosts figure prominently in this collection - much to my surprise! I didn’t fully notice until the entire project was assembled, how many of them had slipped in between the cracks.


I believe hauntings tantalize us as readers because they represent both loss and nostalgia, as well as the threat of being hunted. That they linger in the space between reality and metaphor is also something that I find incredibly appealing. Poetry exits in that same liminal fabulist space, where narrative and symbolism collide at high velocity.


The process of learning how to put this together into a publishable package also provided me with a whole set of new skills (!) which I will be putting to good use in the future . . .


Yes, there is more coming.



I am currently working with a professional editor to bring my YA Fantasy novel, Blue Revolution, to life. I will be releasing this in 2022.


And you can likely expect some other things to appear between now and then, as well!




Thanks for reading, friends!




RESOURCES: Self-Publishing for Canadians by Jennifer Samson How to Publish a Book on Amazon by Sam Kerns


And some excellent books on writing/creativity that really inspired me:

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert Derek Murphy has a fantastic series of videos on Youtube on how to format your book for self-publishing. I used these to learn all about formatting in Word and if you want to get into self-publishing I would say these are a must-watch: How to Format a Book in MS Word by Derek Murphy:

Part III: front matter, back matter and section breaks Reedsy is also a fantastic resource for self-publishing, and is where I found my editor for Blue Revolution! I found and hired my dream cover designer, Tea Jagodić, through the Book Cover Designer. You can also see more of Tea's work over on ArtStation. It's amazing!

My author photo was done by Daphnee Marsh at Marshmallow Photography.


1 comentario


Invitado
24 may 2022

Just got a copy of Skull Moss Loving it! Wish there was a poetry group where I live

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