Celebrating the Belles’ latest project: Release Day has finally arrived!
As the village of Reabridge in Cheshire prepares for the first Harvest Festival following Waterloo, families are overjoyed to welcome back their loved ones from the war.
But excitement quickly turns to mystery when mere weeks before the festival, an orphaned child turns up in the town—a toddler born near Toulouse to an English mother who left clues that tie her to Reabridge.
With two prominent families feuding for generations and the central event of the Harvest Moon festival looming, tensions rise, and secrets begin to surface.
Nine award winning and bestselling authors have combined their talents to create this engaging and enchanting collection of interrelated tales. Under the Harvest Moon promises an unforgettable read for fans of Regency romance.
Check this five-star review from N.N. Light Book Heaven.
Order now at $0.99 before the price goes up to $5.99!
It’s a Long Process
You might not realize how much effort it takes to create an anthology such as this, where tales written by very different authors share the setting and characters all come together to form the overall panorama of the event. In a nutshell, it involves:
- rounding up authors
- determining a project manager, promotion manager, proofreaders, cover manager, and formatter.
- setting up a schedule: deadlines for first drafts, two rounds of beta reading for and by each author, cover, blurbs, media kits (with excerpts, tweets, and memes), review requests, etc.),
- brainstorming ideas (authors)
- building a consensus on: setting, time, events, plot, characters, background information, etc. (In essence, creating a story bible for the project)
- writing the story (frequently referring to the story bible and also a Facebook page for the purpose of conversing with other authors)
- reading and commenting on the work of other authors (the Belles do two rounds, so that authors end up reading all of the stories by the end of the second round)
- discussing and coming to a consensus on the cover (cover manager)
- forming a media kit from the individual marketing collateral sheets created by each author (promotion manager)
- uploading a “dummy” file to enable preorders (formatter)
- proofreading the entire Word document (proofreaders)
- formatting the entire document (formatter)
- proofreading the entire formatted document (proofreaders)
- correcting the formatted document (formatter)
- requesting reviews (authors)
- participating in promotional activities (Facebook, etc.)
- uploading final version of project at least ten days prior to Release Date (formatter)
Of course, things don’t always go according to plan. Deadlines don’t always get met because Life interferes. Somebody discovers that something doesn’t fit in with the historical setting, so a Plan B must be created. Things like that. But the more you can keep people on schedule, the easier it is to get the job done with a minimum of stress and anxiety.
It takes time. For the Belles, at least 15 months. Because let’s face it, we’re working on our own stories at the same time. And Life, you know.
But the Belles have become really, really good at this sort of thing. Storm & Shelter (2021) won a RONE Award. Under the Harvest Moon has just become a finalist at N.N. Lights Book Heaven. The Bluestocking Belles do anthologies quite well indeed. And we’re just getting started!
Find out more about Under the Harvest Moon here.
Winners! We Have Winners!
We’ve given away nine weekly prizes, which included a Bluestocking Belles pouch, an Under the Harvest Moon amulet, and a choice of one of the Belles’ books. Congratulations to all the winners!
- M.S. Funderburk
- Catherine Maguire
- Glenda Martillotti
- Cathy French
- Merysa Rios
- Peggy Salkill
- Lysette Lam
- Annette Prejean
- Susan Heim
After compiling every entry from all nine Rafflecopters, the Grand Prize Winner was randomly chosen. And it’s
Lysette Lam!
Congratulations, Lysette! You have won a $100 gift card from the store of your choice!
You Can Be a Winner Too!
A random commenter on this post will win an Under the Harvest Moon Amulet. Contest ends October 18, 2023.
The Maumee Valley Romance Authors, Inc.
I’ve even got my local writing group involved in an anthology project for December 2024. Which will be a bit different because we all write very different sub-genres. The only connection between the stories (besides us) is that they will be Christmas stories. (I used the Belles’ basic scheme to come up with a schedule similar to the above outline.) I think the excitement of getting everyone published will keep us all on task for the next year. One member has already completed her first draft, and it’s not due until January!
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