alexandraerin

No more placeholder cover mock-up, because Angels of the Meanwhile is now live! We’ve sent it off to the poets and authors, we’ve sent it off to the pre-orderers and donors, and we’ve found it a place to live on the web where any further sales can go directly to Pope Lizbet with no intermediaries.

Check your inbox if you’re expecting a copy (and your spam folder if it’s not there). If you’re not… well, it’s not too late to help Elizabeth or to help yourself to phenomenal writing. Just follow the link!

Originally published at Blue Author Is About To Write. Please leave any comments there.

Well, folks, Angels of the Meanwhile has had typesetting/formatting issues, rights issues, computer issues, communication issues, and my own personal issues, but it’s very close to being a done thing and there will be an announcement of the actual “street date” soon.

I apologize for the delay, as I did not mean for this “little chapbook” to be a year in the making… I’m sure a more experienced editor could have done this better and faster, and shown better coordination with the talented contributors. For a long time, I’ve let this knowledge paralyze me, certain that I’m not worthy to complete what I foolishly started. Now, I look back on the past year and realize that I myself am now a more experienced editor than I was when I started. I’ve gone from feeling like “I’m never doing anything like this again” to “Well, of course I’m not… because next time I’m doing it right.”

Anyway, thank you for your patience.

Originally published at Blue Author Is About To Write. Please leave any comments there.

I have to tell you, when I first pitched the idea that became Angels of the Meanwhile to Elizabeth, she wasn’t sure that many people would be interested. I knew how so many people in our various overlapping creative and spiritual communities felt about her, and I assured her that people would be eager to help.

I still underestimated the magnitude of the response, and to say that it humbled me… well, that’s an understatement. At times I’ve struggled to even come to grips with the reality of what I’m doing. I was already feeling like a bit of a phony, like a kid standing on the shoulders of another kid wearing a trenchcoat to pass as an adult, when my work computer died this summer and took the assembled draft of the e-book with it.

I only lost maybe two weeks’ worth of work that wasn’t backed up to the cloud, but it took a lot of my willpower and ability to cope with the undertaking with it.

I realize now that I made a mistake, not in taking this project on but in taking it on alone, in seeing it as something that only I could do. It’s not the only mistake I made. I continued to underestimate people’s excitement for it. I saw the contributions purely in terms of people doing a huge favor at great cost for no reward… and I don’t want to shortchange our contributors, because it is a huge favor… but this is why, without bothering to sound anybody out, I immediately proclaimed that it would be a one-time deal. The book would be sent to the people who donated, and that would be it. It had to be that way, in my mind, because it wouldn’t be fair to ask people to give more than that.

Well, I’ve had a lot of people—contributors included—ask me about things like a print-on-demand for physical copies, or extending the e-sales past publication so that people who only heard about the project after the pre sale have a chance to get it. I didn’t think that would be fair to the contributors, but I didn’t ask anyone how that felt, and what I’m hearing now is that maybe it’s not fair to let this remarkable collection we’ve assembled together disappear into the ether.

Still… with the book not actually existing even in e-form right now, any talk of future sales is getting way ahead of the game. I’m putting this out there now just so it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Once we’ve got the initial promised volume put together and in the hands of the people who bought it, we can talk about other options.

I am maybe too hung up on starting and finishing things at clean break points on the clock or calendar, but that’s how I am. There is one week left in August. I believe I can re-create the lost formatting work during this week. I want the book to be proofed by more eyes than mine, especially since I have less of an idea how much of the proofing I lost in the crash. I don’t know how long that will take, so I’ll say that our new target for delivery is the end of September, though I’ll be hoping to get it out before then.

That’s where things stand now.

Originally published at Blue Author Is About To Write. Please leave any comments there.

I am sorry to interrupt your web surfing day, but I need to ask your help with something very important to me.

A few months ago, genre poet, author, and my functional muse Elizabeth R. McClellan was injured in the process of avoiding an auto accident. What’s a functional muse? It means she inspires me to get stuff done, mainly by saying, “ALEXANDRA, GET STUFF DONE.” It’s a rare gift, don’t ask me how she does it.

It is not exaggeration to say that she’s the reason I kept writing fiction when I started out, nor is it an exaggeration to say that she’s the reason I started writing poetry.

She needs help dealing with the unforeseen expenses that mount up in the aftermath of an unforeseen injury. To that end, I’ve been putting together a e-chapbook of sorts, a quick-and-dirty anthology consisting of poetry and prose and stuff in-between from the people in our extended community of artists.

This book, Angels of the Meanwhile, contains works by such numinous luminaries as Bryan Thao Worra, Rose Lemberg, Catherynne M. Valente, Phil Brucato, Amal El-Mohtar, S.J. Tucker, Ellen Kushner, and many more. You can read more details and the entire table of contents so far beneath this post, minus some late additions still being slotted in.

In order to raise funds quickly while they can still have an impact, we’re offering this book as a pre-order on a pay-what-you-can basis. The way it works is this: you PayPal any amount directly to Elizabeth, we add your email address to the list. On our release date (currently estimated to be late July, so we have time to deliver the best product possible despite the haste), we’ll send you a packet containing both Kindle and epub formats and a PDF, for easy reading on whatever device pleases you best. All 100% DRM free.

We are only able to offer this remarkable book through June 1st. That’s today. Please make your contribution before midnight today 

Just use this simple form. If you don’t fill in an address, we’ll use your PayPal one.

Email Address (For Delivery)

Thank you.

---

Table of Contents

Bits of Prose (Flash Fiction, Prose Poems)

• This Is The Place Where Lost Things Go – Kythrynne Aisling
• The Merry Knives of Interspecies Communication – Bogi Takács
• The Choices of Foxes – Sonya Taaffe
• Foam – Dusti Morton
• The Sweat of their Brows – Alexandra Erin
• The Dirty Fairy – Deborah Walker
• Beauty Sleeping – Ellen Kushner

Verse

• Beastwoman’s Snarled Rune – Rose Lemberg
• Pain Shared Is Catching (For April Grant) – Erik Amundsen
• Gorgon Girls – Saira Ali
• This Is What It’s All About – Lupa
• Blodeuwedd – Amal El-Mohtar
• Burning Wings (For C.S.E. Cooney) – Jennifer Crow
• The Changeling Always Wins – Nicole Kornher-Stace
• The First Wife – Lev Mirov
• Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527 – Lisa Bradley
• The Secret of Being a Cowboy – Catherynne M. Valente
• Firstborn – Christina Sng
• Children of the Faun and Fae – Merideth Allyn
• Ivan Icarus – by C.S.E. Cooney
• We Named Our Grief Irene – Virginia M. Mohlere
• Fucking Doughnuts – Legoule
• Allison Gross Speaks of the Worm – Gwynne Garfinkle
• Sand Bags – Dominik Parisien
• Hot Wet Mess – S.J. Tucker
• These Are Days – Roni Neal
• lis pendens – Mike Allen
• Thread Between Stone – Bryan Thao Worra

Prose Stories

• The View of My Brother’s Profile In The Rear-View Mirror – Randee Dawn
• Inside, Looking Out – Alexandra Erin
• Changed – Nicolette Barischoff
• Fire Flight – A.M. Burns
• The Legacy Box – Satyros Phil Brucato
• Illusions of Safety – Angelia Sparrow

Originally published at Blue Author Is About To Write. Please leave any comments there.

...by folks who missed hearing about it while we were calling for submissions. It's true the initial deadline has passed. It's also true that there are a few folks I've been holding the door open for as they've promised works but life has been doing what life does. It's also true that I never imagined I'd get enough responses to be in a position where I'd have to make hard choices.

I'm trying hard to strike the right note here because I neither want to throw open the floodgates nor suggest that everything will be circular filed. So, here goes...

In the interest of fairness, I will still consider works from anyone who wants to send them in. As there is now an established work to fit new pieces into, I will be a bit choosier than I was early on. I will say that the sooner they get to me, the more likely I am to find a place for them... and I'm going to make a hard, hard cut-off of April 24th. That's just over two weeks from now, but it's only one week before the once-and-only ordering window closes. There's only so much good that can be done by adding another layer of even the snazziest paint at that point.

Send to contactme -at- alexandraerin -dot- com, with the subject line "FOR POPELIZBET". No need to query first... I'd prefer you skip any kind of preliminary and just get down to it, given the late hour. We'll take prose, poem, or in-between. Don't worry about maximum and minimum lengths, as part of the fun is finding places for them.

Thank you!

Hey, folks! When I started canvassing for Angels of the Meanwhile, I knew the situation was fluid and likely to change, and it has, mostly for the better. I'll let Elizabeth describe how things stand (and tell some more about how she got here) in her own words.

Angels of the Meantime began because I panicked, and someone decided to be proactive about the worst case scenario.

In January, things were looking OK for me. I had just paid off some significant debt. My insurance had changed to a more affordable plan. 2015 was looking up.

On my first day back to work, January 5, I didn't hit a negligent driver.* In the course of not hitting him, I felt a strange sharp pain go up my right arm where it was braced against the steering wheel. Twenty minutes later it was unpleasantly tingling. Four days later I was in agony.

So I went to the doctor, and then the specialist. I had torn my supraspinatus tendon almost in two. Because it was a trauma tear to a healthy tendon, my doctor recommended surgery. Oh well. I had insurance, I thought. This will be OK, I thought.

Cut to months of insurance garbage. "We want four months PT before you can have surgery." Never mind that PT isn't recommended for trauma tears. Had I torn it all the way, they would have let me off with a month. My doctor appealed. Appealed again. Sent me to PT that made my almost unusable right arm totally unusable. Copays upon copays. Days I couldn't work because I couldn't sleep more than two hours before shooting pain woke me up and kept me there.

In the midst of this, Alexandra Erin, knowing I was out of pocket far more than I could afford, and while it was still uncertain how long this would drag on and at what expense, sent out a rallying cry to authors and artists: Elizabeth needs your help.

The response was overwhelming. Plenty of people donated money out of the goodness of their hearts, before a plan came together.

That plan is now a reality. Angels of the Meantime, a benefit eBook featuring so many of my friends who were happy to send original or reprint work, or, as Rose Fox did, donate their expertise.

Things aren't as bad as we first thought. I have surgery next week, thanks to my doctor's tireless fighting with my insurer. But I am several thousand dollars out of pocket. My maximum out of pocket is about a month's salary. I'll hit it next week. The vast majority of those bills, about $3k, have not yet been paid. The lost time since January and the time I will lose in the next two months also add up, as do the added expenses of recovery itself when your dominant arm is out of commission and you can't wash your own hair, much less drive. My local community has already been a huge help in making sure I didn't injure myself further trying to handle these basics - but gas isn't free, even though their time is freely given.

Ergo, Angels of the Meantime. Pay what you will shall be the whole of the fundraiser. Want to venture a dollar on over 30,000 words of everything from poetry to flash and short fiction to art? Every dollar helps. Want to venture more? Given the lineup below, there's a little something for everyone. And every little bit helps. Every little bit gets me closer to spending my time creating more and worrying less about who's going to get paid this month and how.

I am so very grateful to all who have boosted signal or already preordered. I am humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support already exhibited. But it's not too late. Check out the TOC below. Pay what you think it's worth, or what you can spare. Share the post, boost the signal.
You are all my angels. Many hands make a light burden. Thank you. For lifting some of mine.

*Because I didn't hit him & had no third party witness to the guy who fishtailed a pull behind trailer trying to make a turn too fast onto Sam Ridley from Murfreesboro Road until the trailer was perpendicular across my lane, my uninsured motorist policy had no coverage. I have no dispute with the UBI statute. I do hope that wherever that dude was going was *really* important. Sincerely.

So, that's where we are. Surgery is happening, and the expenses are shaping up to be less dire than they could be, though still substantial. Life has been hectic for both of us since this began, but we'e running now, and more to the point, we're running this pre-order through May 1st. That gives just over three weeks to get the word out. This is your opportunity to help, and your one and only opportunity to own this unique collection of gorgeous words. Our slate contains a beautiful mix of prose and poetry (including many pieces that straddle the lines between both), a mix of brand new, old, and out-of-print works. I'm very excited in particular to be debuting a punchy new piece by Satyros Phil Brucato, known among gaming circles for his work on Mage: The Ascension.

Though there's not a single guiding theme to the collection, be assured that monster girls, mermaids, witches, and wonders abound. Please order, spread the link, boost, make noise, share to high heavens. Anything you can give, even attention, helps.

-<3 AE

Angels of the Meanwhile Contents

Bits of Prose (Flash Fiction, Prose Poems)

• This Is The Place Where Lost Things Go - Kythrynne Aisling


• The Merry Knives of Interspecies Communication - Bogi Takács


• The Choices of Foxes - Sonya Taaffe


• Foam - Dusti Morton


• The Sweat of their Brows - Alexandra Erin


• The Dirty Fairy - Deborah Walker


Verse

• Beastwoman's Snarled Rune - Rose Lemberg


• Pain Shared Is Catching (For April Grant) - Erik Amundsen


• Gorgon Girls - Saira Ali


• This Is What It's All About - Lupa


• Blodeuwedd - Amal El-Mohtar


• Burning Wings (For C.S.E. Cooney) - Jennifer Crow


• The Changeling Always Wins - Nicole Kornher-Stace


• The First Wife - Lev Mirov


• Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527 - Lisa Bradley


• The Secret of Being a Cowboy - Catherynne M. Valente


• Children of the Faun and Fae - Merideth Allyn


• Ivan Icarus - by C.S.E. Cooney

• We Named Our Grief Irene - Virginia M. Mohlere


• Fucking Doughnuts - Legoule


• Allison Gross Speaks of the Worm - Gwynne Garfinkle


• Sand Bags - Dominik Parisien


• Hot Wet Mess - S.J. Tucker


• These Are Days - Roni Neal


• lis pendens - Mike Allen


• Thread Between Stone - Bryan Thao Worra


Prose Stories

• Inside, Looking Out - Alexandra Erin


• Changed - Nicolette Barischoff


• Fire Flight - A.M. Burns


• The Legacy Box - Satyros Phil Brucato


• Illusions of Safety - Angelia Sparrow


Note: While we've got a quite bit lined up, including some fairly big guns, I have been told there's more to come from people who are still working on their pieces, particularly from the local poetry community that surrounds Elizabeth. There are a lot of people who want to help. I'm not trying to be coy or drum up more interest by not naming names... I don't want people making up their minds based on something I don't actually have on hand yet. I just want to make sure everyone knows that you might wind up with even more than you bargained for.

Pre-Order Angels of the Meanwhile Today(You will be asked what price you wish to pay after pressing the button.)



Update 4/9/2015: This post has been updated to fix a problem with the PayPal form and to fix the omission of C.S.E. Cooney's lyric piece "Ivan Icarus" from the table of contents. I sincerely regret both of these errors. - AE

This is an update post on the status of the chapbook Angels of the Meanwhile, being assembled to benefit popelizbet (Elizabeth R. McClellan).

I have received a number of submissions of both poetry and prose, enough that I feel comfortable beginning to assemble them and put them into some sort of prospective order. This does not mean that submissions are closed. If you would still like to be included in the booklet, please just let me know by February 20th.

Once I have a tentative table of contents, I'll get a pre-order site set up, with the caveat that the contents of the book may change at any point up to actual publication.

Why a pre-order? Some of the material that was offered has rights issues that will lapse at various points in the month of march, and some people have pledged original works that will take a bit longer to put together (for obvious reasons) then reprints. This coupled with the fact that there have been some offers of original artwork is why we've decided to do a pre-order. It's a question of something thrown together that offers nothing new and is just bare-bones, versus something that holds a greater value.

I don't feel comfortable creating the pre-order site before I can offer a tentative table of contents, but for those who want to jump in with both feet as I have done in creating this project can send a contribution to Lizbet through PayPal now... since we'll be doing a pay-what-you-can model for this, everybody who has contributed will be offered the finished chapbook.

Okay, folks, so yesterday I tweeted a bit about the medical and financial plight of popelizbet and then, once I had both a clearer picture of the scope of her problem and her permission, I kicked off an impromptu campaign to put together a chapbook with contributions from her friends and fellow writers that we could offer on a pay-what-thou-wilt plan, with proceeds benefiting her.

The details are still coming together, but there are more of them than there were yesterday.

The Situation

Lizbeth has a near complete tear of a tendon in her shoulder, leaving her in intense pain and unable to use her dominant arm. Doctors say she needs surgery to repair it sooner rather than later if she's to regain the full range of use and motion. The insurance company says they will only cover physical therapy.

She already owes $700 for an imaging scan that did not meet her deductible [Note: A previous version of this post said her insurance declined it. This was my own misunderstanding.]. Thanks to the generosity of the internet over the course of yesterday and this morning, that is now 80% taken care of.

The surgery is going to be a much higher hurdle. The procedure alone is a couple thousand, but having it means paying not just the surgeon but the anesthesiologist and the facility. She has been told that all together, she is looking at an out of pocket cost in the neighborhood of $20,000, hence the abrupt shift yesterday from "please kick in" to "let's put on a show".

Because we're going to be using a pay-whatever model (and to encourage people to keep giving while we're putting stuff together), it is my intention to offer the finished chapbook to everyone who has sent Lizbet money before it goes on sale, too. You can pitch in here.

The Chapbook

Inspired by Lizbet's characteristic outbursts of gratitude over those who have helped, I've dubbed the book Angels of the Meanwhile. It will contain a mixture of poetry and prose. I have received a number of both submissions of finished work and what I'll call pledges of interest from those desiring to contribute something new. Among those who have offered their work for inclusion are Saira Ali, Rose Lemberg, Amal El-Mohtar, C.S.E. Cooney, S.J. Tucker, Bryan Thao Worra, and Satyros Phil Brucato. Cover art has been donated by Amanda Sharpe. Other individuals have offered to help with copy editing and such behind the scenes tasks. All donated content still belongs to its creator. We are not requesting any rights except the bare right to include it in the chapbook.

The line-up of the chapbook is not set. If you have something to contribute (poetry, stories of any length, fantasy artwork), please send it or a query to contactme@alexandraerin.com with the subject line "FOR POPELIZBET". Flash fiction/microfiction is fine. Reprints are fine. I cannot guarantee to take all comers, but there's definitely room for more love. I'm trying to get a tentative table of contents or at least a roster of contributors together as soon as possible, though, to use for preorders.

The chapbook will be an electronic publication bundled in PDF, epub, and mobi formats.

The Logistics of this Whole Thing

Maaaaaaan, I don't even know. Before yesterday, I didn't dream I'd be trying something like this.

First thing is that this is a personal fundraiser. It's friends pitching in to help friends. It's a community coming together. There is no tax-exempt status involved here, no formal organization. I know that there are people who aren't in these kinds of communities who react to this kind of effort as if it's inherently a sucker's bet to get involved, but I think the people who have offered money, content, or aid have done so with the understanding that it's a gift of the heart.

If Lizbet is important to you, or if any of the kind souls who are lending their voices are important to you, or if you're just interested in paying whatever strikes you as a fair price for a mix of poetry and prose from some very talented people, this is for you. That's all.

In the interest of raising money quickly, I'm going to be both trying to get the chapbook put together with some modicum of speed, but also putting it up on offer as a pay-what-you-can preorder while it's still in production. I'm just not sure what the best platform for that is going to be, though I'm looking at a few potentials. In the interests of keeping things simple, I'm looking for a digital delivery solution that lets you upload files, then lets buyers name their price. For simplicity of accounting and transparency, the money will go directly into Lizbet's account.

I also don't have an answer for "what happens to the chapbook after the fundraiser is over?" My inspiration for this was Ravens in the Library, a physical book that was produced as a fundraiser for S.J. Tucker when she had a medical emergency. The advantage that had was that they could produce a limited run, devote proceeds from that run towards one end, and then when the run was sold out, it was over.

I don't have the resources to produce a physical book, much less to make one of good quality on short notice. It also takes a lot more poetry to fill the physical pages of a bound book than it does to create an electronic chapbook, and a lot more drawing power to sell enough to offset the production costs.

The idea of getting enough attention and selling enough e-books to fully pay for the medical expenses and the post-surgery recovery-related expenses (she's going to be without an arm for a while) right now seems like an impossible pie-in-the-sky dream, but it's something we'll have to figure out how to handle. I will make sure all the contributors know what the deal is before anything is finalized.