Stephanie's Studio

This is a first for Stephanie's Studio. Please welcome Chrys Fey, who is our guest blogger for today. I met up with Chrys in April during the A to Z Challenge . With that challenge, bloggers posted every day of April on a topic built around the alphabet letter of the day. I'm not sure how I came across Chrys' blog. Perhaps it was through our mutual groups on She Writes . Immediately upon discovering her blog  Write with Fey  I was struck by the depth and breadth of her posts. Very generously, practically everyday, she posts helpful hints for writers. Her posts are informative, entertaining and engaging. You can tell she's beloved in the blogosphere because numerous people comment on her posts on a daily basis. If you're into writing, I highly recommend you visit her blog. What Chrys and I have in common is not only our passion for blogging. We are also both authors. She has been prolifically publishing suspenseful novels. One of the groups she created on She Write...

Insecure Writer's Support Group It's no big secret. I'm not fond of critiques. Last April I wrote a post called  Critique Anxiety . This was about presenting an excerpt from my manuscript for a workshop. That was the same manuscript that I almost gave up on and wrote yet another post about my loathing of rejection called  Query Burn Out . While it seemed to me that I was bathing in rejections, eventually I got a publishing deal for my debut work of fiction. Now that the book will be published I have gone about setting up a blog tour or even hiring a publicist. I reached out to a publicist and unexpectedly she critiqued my online presence. Signing up for a critique or asking for one through your actions, such as submitting work for review, is one thing. When they come out of the blue, it's quite another. Unbeknownst to me, the publicity firm combed through my social media. Then they reported back what they thought I needed to do to make it better. This didn...

Did my last installment from "No Barren Life", on the post called "Sharing No Barren Life"  leave you wondering what happens next? My bad. Here is another little excerpt from the next chapter of my novel that I am trying to get published independently with the help of  Pubslush . Without further delay, here is the excerpt...enjoy it, and if you have it in your heart, contribute  to this meaningful project today. It is a short walk. First we passed by the turquoise Arafura and Timor Sea. We then headed inland, cutting through ghost gum trees and low growing ancient cycads. I took off my shoes to fit in and walked my tender feet through the underbrush. “This is part of your dreaming. The ancestor beings residing here know and love you.  They’ve been watching and listening.” Nana tells me.  I step into the billabong, letting the cool water caress my sore feet and aching calves.             B...

Today for the letter T, I am writing about my relationship to trees, as part of the A to Z Challenge, by sharing the Preface to my book "A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for Body and Spirit." Seeing the Forest for the Trees I owe my early camaraderie with the woods to my patience, my willingness to search, and my love of mystery. The trees became my friends after my family moved from an urban suburb near New York to the desolate Pine Barrens of New Jersey. My father’s logic for moving from the city to the country seemed counter-intuitive. Most African Americans had begun the sojourn from the South and rural areas to cities in the early decades of the twentieth century, but in the late 1960's we moved to a rural community in the Delaware Valley . Whereas both sets of my ancestors had lived in Virginia, my father’s people having lived in the original shires of that state since the mid-1700's, our families left those rural communities to seek ...