I recently published a new blog post on my editing website. It discusses why self-publishing isn’t always faster or easier than traditional publishing. If you’re interested in reading it, you can do so here: https://kendraolsoneditorial.com/2021/02/25/is-self-publishing-faster-and-easier-than-traditional-publishing/
writing
New post on my editing website: The writing and editing process for self-publishers
I’ve got a new post on my editing blog, which you might be interested in. It’s about the writing and editing process, as it relates to self-publishing authors. Here’s the link: https://kendraolsoneditorial.com/2020/06/25/the-writing-amp-editing-process-for-self-publishers/
Thanks for reading.
Have a great week.
Kendra 🙂
An experiment
Hollyhock flower, photo taken by Kendra Olson
It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything specifically for this blog. Mostly this is because I’ve consciously shifted towards giving more of my energy over to my editing work and writing for my editing blog, when I have the time to. But it’s also because this blog became, primarily, a book blog. When I took on more paid editing work, I made a deliberate decision to shift my focus towards helping authors earlier on in their writing journeys. While the book blog was fun, it also took up a lot of time and energy that I needed to devote to my editing business instead. I still love reading—if I didn’t I wouldn’t have chosen to become an editor—but I (mostly) no longer feel the need to review books for my blog.
However, I do still like to write and not everything I like to write about has a home on my editing website/blog. So I’ve decided to experiment with shifting the focus of this blog (again). I’d like to use it to write about whatever takes my fancy at the moment—general musings on life, or whatever. In one way, this seems counterproductive—this is a reading and writing blog that I began to help promote my novel, then used to help promote other authors’ work. But, in another way, it is a writing blog and it is my platform. So….
I hope you’ll stick with me through this experiment but, if you’d rather not, then that’s okay too.
Until next time. Stay safe and stay well.
Kendra
New posts on my editing blog
I recently wrote a couple of blog posts for my editing website, but then forgot to post them here! The first post I wrote was about something that’s affected my creativity for some time now: fear. When I wrote this post, I wasn’t sure which blog to post it to. It seemed to fit over here better, but then the post came to me while thinking about my freelance editing business, so I added it over there instead. You’re welcome to read the post, if you’d like: https://kendraolsoneditorial.com/2020/02/19/on-fear/
The second post I wrote was simply a short reflection on my editing business and new directions I might like to go in. You’re welcome to read that one too, if you’re interested: https://kendraolsoneditorial.com/2020/02/26/february-reflections-on-new-directions/
All the best,
Kendra
Happy Halloween! Editing discount for writers
This post originally appeared on my editing website: https://kendraolsoneditorial.com/blog/
Image by Pexel at Pixabay
Have you written a mystery/suspense, dark fantasy or ghost story? If you have and you’re in need of developmental editing, then you could be in luck.
To celebrate Halloween, I’m offering a limited discount on my editing services for writers of mysteries/suspense, dark fantasy and ghost stories, or any story that contains a creepy element to it. The discount is ten percent off the cost of any full developmental edit, critique or outline review (see my Editorial Services page on my editing website for definitions of these services). The offer is available now and lasts until midnight on November 1st. The discount applies to any edit booked prior to then (even if the editing doesn’t take place until after the offer finishes). If you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer, get in touch with me via email: kendraroseolson@gmail.com with details of your project or visit my editing website’s Get A Quote page.
I look forward to discovering your stories!
Interviewed by Leslie Tate about editing
I was recently interviewed by the talented author and poet Leslie Tate about my work as a developmental editor. You can read the interview here: https://leslietate.com/2018/10/5984/
The Forest King’s Daughter, featured on Virtual Book Club
Today I’m excited to announce that my novel, The Forest King’s Daughter, is featured on Jane Davis’s Virtual Book Club, her interview series which gives authors the opportunity to pitch their novels to book clubs. You can read it here: https://jane-davis.co.uk/2018/05/22/virtual-book-club-kendra-olson-introduces-the-forest-kings-daughter/
Interviewed by The Shelf of Unread Books
I was recently interviewed by Amy over at T
From Writer to Editor–my journey
Today I’m over on WriteRightEditing.co.uk talking about my experience of being edited and how (and why) I chose to become an editor.
You can read the post here: http://www.writerightediting.co.uk/blog/from-writer-to-editor-kendra-olson.html
Why do I write? A guest post by Rebecca Stonehill
Today, as part of the #AlfredNightingale blog tour, I’m featuring a thoughtful guest post by Rebecca Stonehill on why she writes. So, without further ado, I’ll hand over to Rebecca.
You know that feeling of complete helplessness after you’ve watched the news? Watching reams of people leaving war-torn Syria, or the latest terrorist attack in a crowded market, or corrupt dictatorships making its own people suffer? Feeling deeply saddened, but not knowing what you can do about it, that the only option is to continue and make the most of our own lives?
I go through all of the above, as almost everyone does. And then, as somebody working in the creative arts, I interpret and personalize situations such as these. Toni Morrison, Pulitzer prize-winning novelist once said of the artist’s task in troubled times: ‘This is precisely the time when artists go to work.’ I couldn’t agree more. It’s an unspoken pact I have with myself, to respond to difficult situations with writing. People have sometimes asked me, How can such a cheerful person like you base your novels in such un-cheerful settings? (Think: The Spanish Civil War in The Poet’s Wife, Prejudice and Mau Mau Emergency in The Girl and the Sunbird and the Battle of Crete in The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale.) The truth is, if I didn’t write my way through such difficult scenarios, I’m not sure I would write at all.
But that doesn’t mean that all this is simple catharsis; I know there are other people out there who feel the same as me and are deeply disturbed by what we as a race do to one another and what we are doing to our beautiful planet. I completely understand why people both write and read chick lit or light romances, so we can remove ourselves from the sober realities that surround us and indulge in some much-needed escapism. This is a hard written art form to do well. Often I wish I could write these stories, but I find that I can’t and that whenever I’ve tried, I’ve failed.
Everybody says I was a serious little girl, reserving my smile for only a few; that child who listened intently, but never put her hand up in class. I’m far less serious these days and love nothing more than a good laugh with friends and family. And yet, that serious child lives on in me. She is the reader who would like to but can’t read anything lighthearted, and she is the writer who returns again and again to mine the depths of human despair in her stories.
Thankfully, there’s a flipside to all this. And that flipside incorporates those stories of courage, resilience and beauty in the face of human suffering. We are a strange, remarkable species – capable of so much destruction and hatred and yet, we also know how to love unconditionally and to be the harbingers of great compassion, generosity and joy.
Through my writing, I try hard to make sense of this complicated world and understand why things have happened. Even more importantly, I look for and create stories of hope, that beautiful little word that allows us to press on through the direst of situations. I am so inspired by tales of courage and resilience and, in many ways, my writing bears testament to the spirit of human bravery.
Author EB White said that a writer ‘must reflect and interpret his society, his world; he must also provide inspiration and guidance and challenge.’
If I can do any of the above, in any small way, then I believe I have achieved what I set out to do. Where all this will lead me, I don’t yet know. But I have a thousand and one stories bottled up inside me, so the real question is this: where will my need to make sense of the world take me and which story will be released next?
Rebecca Stonehill is from London but currently lives in Nairobi in an old wooden cottage surrounded by banana trees and tropical birds. The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale, now available, is her third novel. Her other books, The Poet’s Wife and The Girl and the Sunbird, were published in 2014 and 2016.
Rebecca loves to connect with readers and can be contacted on her Facebook page: Rebecca Stonehill books, via twitter: @bexstonehill and through her website: www.rebeccastonehill.com. If you would like to be kept updated with her writing projects, please do sign up here: http://rebeccastonehill.com/signup
Kendra Olson 