Illustrations of Characters

I commissioned these drawings from a college friend of mine, specifying what I want in each picture. I'm paying her in advance for a Human and Demons and Elves one next time I see her. At readings, I have prints of these so that those who have an electronic copy of a book or can't currently afford a copy can have something signed for a small donation of their choice. It has worked out pretty well.

This Halloween Romance illustration shows Ferdinand putting his fangs to use as a letter opener. Selene is showing some amusement; this is one of her good nights.

Here we have Dianne Anghel, only her eyes transformed, for Bite Me. She is with both her parents in their animal shapes. Ferdinand is a bit tiny at the moment, but that's okay.

Here Taylor Calvin from Waking Echoes is reluctant to hear from Tylianvornika.
I'm excited to see how the next one turns out.

My second book reading Friday!

I'll be reading extracts from all three published novels, and a bit from Humans and Demons and Elves. Only two people attended my first reading, but that was on a Monday and the store didn't have time to promote it heavily beforehand. Fridays are better, they said, and I have put up a score of flyers and written in chalk all over campus.

To RSVP, go to this page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170054053044827&index=1

Waking Echoes Appears in an Ad

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been having a lovely morning and afternoon with only one class, lunch with my new boyfriend (so we're still in the excessively silly & sweet phase), chocolate-covered strawberries, and the promise of cuddles during a movie this evening.

But when I went to check my mail, things got even better. I received an issue of Realms of Fantasy, which perplexed me because I have submitted a short story of mine to RoF before and was turned down, and I didn't recall ever ordering a copy, what with sour grapes and all that. Lo and behold, on the inside cover of the February issue is a full-page ad for several Eternal Press Young Adult titles. As you can see, on the top right corner is Waking Echoes by Donaya Haymond. (Forgive me for the blur, please; I have perpetually shaky hands.)

<--- This is the outside cover, for those of you interested in picking up a copy. You can get one at http://www.rofmag.com/. I like the art.

I must say that I feel somewhat vindicated now, after RoF rejected what I consider the best short story I've ever written, though I understand the problem with the bottleneck between slush pile and restricted column space. Tyree Campbell of Sam's Dot publishing accepted the story, called "Phantom Limb(s)" for Aoife's Kiss, where another story of mine, "The Mormon Bohemian", was published in 2007 and voted Best of Issue. "Phantom Limb(s)" would have appeared in a regular Aoife's Kiss and "The Mormon Bohemian" in an anthology, except that Aoife's Kiss appears to have gone bankrupt - at any rate I can no longer seem to contact anyone involved in it, and it no longer appears in new volumes of Writer's Market. My fairy godmother (my editor/mentor Sally Odgers) tells me that this is a common problem in the fiction industry.

Ms. Campbell said that though she loved "Phantom Limb(s)", she recommended that I send it to a journal that could pay me more, and gave a few suggestions and tips. Realms of Fantasy was one of her picks. I've put my ambitions for the story on hold for now, though I may try submitting it other places later. If all else fails, the protagonist holds a supporting role in my incipient first non-Laconia novel, and I could integrate the story into the book. Or, as Sally once advised, I could try getting a short works collection published.

Anyway, I'm very pleased by this development, and especially honored that Eternal Press chose one of my titles to feature in the spot.

Waking Echoes Now Available!

Gentle, perhaps-imaginary readers,

I feel guilty for going so long without posting something, despite the two very problematic facts that blogging is not my style and no one seems to have been suffering in my absence. But nobody's reading because I'm not blogging because nobody's reading, and I have decided to take the important step of blogging anyway in order to break the vicious cycle.

But now Waking Echoes is out, and I have told Facebook, the Eternal Press Blog, the Eternal Press Readers loop on Yahoo, anyone who happens to visit my Google Site, all my friends, and a bunch of students at my long-ago place of study, the Vientiane International School (part of 1st grade through 4th grade; 1 faculty member both was still there and remembered me), and a hundred or so of my fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com fans. So, you know, I think if we whack this horse a couple more times it may come to life.

SO!

WAKING ECHOES

Accepting yourself can be unusually difficult. Taylor Calvin is a hardworking, intelligent high school student who’s been stretching herself a bit thin lately. This is not improved by the appearance of Tylianvornika, a ghost that claims to be Taylor from a previous life in another dimension, one she shared with her closest friends. Now Taylor must juggle daily problems that merely feel like the end of the world, along with memories and a persistent haunting concerning the actual ending of a world.

“Are you an angel?” Taylor believed strongly in angels, but never thought one would come to her.

“Again, sort of. I’m kind of a transfigured being. Did you think what happened today was a string of coincidences? They were echoes, Taylor Calvin. Your memories have been asleep, and they are awaking.”

“Can I at least know your name, kind of a transfigured being?”

The girl’s insubstantial, colorless lips smiled slightly. “I’m glad I didn’t change much.”

“Excuse me?”

“I am Tylianvornika, resident of Canyonar, which is now pretty much nonexistent. The entire universe vanished too. Kind of upsetting, really. Right now I am sleeping in my world, in the split second before I die. I have been promised that, after I die, I and my friends will be reborn into a new world passing through the test that Canyonar failed. That is, I’m you.”

“Me?”

“Today seems familiar because it happened before, but on a greater scale. I am here to tell you about the last year of your previous life—the last year of my life.” She laughed, dropping all the mystical pretension in her voice and sounding like an adolescent again. “It’s pretty exciting for me too.”

Trivia, stories, behind-the-scenes peeks, more guest blogging, interviews, and all sort of things hoped-for in the near future.