Random Bits of News: PCA/ACA Conference, Writing Guides, and Fellowships

Much is happening at ArchEditing this week.  The three of us are packing up and heading to San Antonio where Lindy and I will present papers at the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference.  Haley is coming along, although she won't be presenting.  She'll be there to represent ArchEditing, to network and hobnob with the awesome academics who inevitably show up at this conference, and to promote our college writing guide, Put the Body on the Slab: the Anatomy of College Writing. 

Speaking of our writing guide, Haley and I will be putting together the second part in the coming weeks, The Anatomy of Analysis.  This part of the guide will focus on how to construct an analytical response to a text, and it will feature analytical papers written by myself and our minion Lindy.  If you're lucky, you might be able to expect some awesome analyses of Mad Men and/or zombie movies, with some fine art analyses thrown in there for good measure because that's how we role.

In other news, we are still looking for more writing interns, but we have found cover artists to add to our staff as we move into self-publishing services.  We're really excited about the self-publishing and about the amazing artists we now have on board for covers.  In the coming weeks we plan to feature a couple of blog posts about Mel and April, but for now you should check out their websites.

Finally, some personal news.  I found out last week that I've been awarded a fellowship at the University of Louisville beginning this fall for the Humanities PhD program.  That means I'll be moving from London to Kentucky, which might sound like a bit of a downgrade, but I intend to make the best of it.  The fellowship will at least allow me to finish my PhD and focus on ArchEditing without worrying so much about having money for food.

So there's some ArchEditing housekeeping and news. Let us know if you plan on attending the PCA/ACA conference this week in San Antonio.  We'd love to meet you!

Click here for your copy of Put the Body On the Slab: The Anatomy of College Writing, available for a limited time for only $2.99.

New Self-Publishing Services From Arch Editing

Last week at the Romance Times Convention, I spoke to many authors, editors, and industry professionals. People were interested in our editing services, but what I heard again and again was a demand for self-publishing services. Not that I'm particularly surprised! There were more panels for self-publishing this year than ever before, including a well-attended panel by HP Mallory on how to sell 100,000 self-published books. Even authors who are quite happy with their publishers are looking into self-publishing out of print titles or free reads for their regular readers.

As a result, we've added more self-publishing services to Arch Editing. We've lowered the cost of fiction editing, and we've added formatting for digital outlets, as well as cover art design. Once I'm more comfortable with the marketing aspect, we'll probably branch out to include that as well. I'm really excited about these additional services! It's an exciting time to be a writer right now, with more options for publication than ever before, and I'm happy to provide whatever support and assistance I can.

I've also started a group called Daily Editing Tips at the new ARe Cafe. I love the Cafe, I think it's a brilliant idea and format for a community, and I'm already looking forward to seeing you there.

Romance Times Convention 2011 Los Angeles

We've been quiet for the past couple of days because we've actually been offline for once. Jasie arrived in Utah late Thursday night and since then we've had to run errands, go on a shopping spree, take hundreds of pictures, have a birthday party, and spend one day walking around in mild spring weather and the next driving through a blizzard. But we'll be back to our regular schedule tomorrow, which will include special features to celebrate National Poetry Month.

I'm also busily preparing for the Romance Times Convention in Los Angeles. I'm really excited about it because it's always a blast and there are so many people I can't wait to see and catch up with. I hope to post regular updates from the convention featuring some of the best names in romance, urban fantasy, and more. I can't make any promises, though. I may get sidetracked at the bar.

Saturday April 9 is the Romance Times Book Fair. There are going to be 300 authors there, and one of those faces in the crowd will be mine. So if you're in the LA area and you love romance or meeting awesome people, you should come by the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Resort and say hi.

Sunday Housekeeping

As you can see, we've moved to new digs. We realized that while weebly was wonderful for a website, its blogging option sucked. None of the widgets we wanted to use work properly, and there were other little annoying things that added up until we decided we needed to find a new home. Fortunately, that happened after only 3 weeks, so it was a relatively simple matter of moving all the posts (weebly doesn't support importing/exporting, apparently). So here we are and some of our exciting blogging plans can move forward.

I'm devoting most of my time to building up College Writing Resources. It now has several helpful articles, an essay guide, and a research guide.

I think we found one of our writing interns, but we're still looking for one more.

This week we'll be discussing Writer's Block. We'd love to hear about some of your experiences with writer's block, or some of your tricks to combat it. What do you do when the words just aren't coming?

Sunday Housekeeping

I can't believe it's already time for the Sunday Housekeeping, not only for the blog but for my poor neglected house. I haven't been doing my chores this week because I've been so caught up in putting Arch Editing together. It's still growing so fast, and this week we've had several knew ideas we intend to implement over the summer. If you'd like to help us with all of this exciting work, just fill out this simple form and dazzle us with your charm and brilliance. Jasie started a new tumblr, and I immediately announced it would be for funny macros and inappropriate jokes. Because quite frankly, most of my life is devoted to funny macros and inappropriate jokes. I'll probably have another post about this later this week, but we're looking for authors of poetry, short stories, or narrative nonfiction to review. We'd love to feature chapbooks, self-published or independently published collections. My degrees might be in literature, but I feel a strong kinship with my MFA and creative writing brethren. Contact me at haley(at)archediting.com and tell me about your work. We've also been busy updating the Arch Editing website, including our About Us page. And finally, we're still trying to build up our Facebook page. If you've read anything around here that you found worthwhile, please like us on Facebook. We'd very much appreciate the support.

Sunday Housekeeping

I have a deadline looming over my head and not a lot of time, so today's post is just general housekeeping. First, we've officially named the blog after two weeks of agreeing we should really have a title: Triumphal Blogging. Arch editing and triumphal blogging, that's us. It was either that or Triumphal Writing, but that seemed a little bit too stuffy.

I've also created a feedburner for the blog, and have it all set up now. So add us to your favorite reader and we'll continue to delight and charm you, I'm sure. I'll have exciting news to post in the upcoming days and weeks.

We're finalizing Put the Body on the Slab, we're created some amazing supplemental materials to be released along side the book, and once the papers have been signed and everything is finalized, I'll be able to share news about publishers and future releases. I'm also beginning a project with a friend of mine that should be very exciting and I can't wait to share it.

Now work is calling. I better stop procrastinating. I hope everybody has a lovely day. It's spring here in Utah and if I finish my work in time, I'll be able to go out for a delightful walk in the park.

Home Sweet Blog

After spending the last couple of months building our website, decorating and organizing and picking out website curtains, it's time we settled in to our new home and start living.

That means blogging. I've been blogging for a lot of years now, and the first blog post is always a little awkward. Who is my audience? How should I introduce myself and what I'm trying to do here? How can I keep readers reading and not clicking away after the first paragraph out of boredom or disinterest? I'm not sure if I have the answers to all those questions yet, but I'm going to do my best and see if I can't at least make a decent start on this blogging journey.

Blogging really is a journey, and one we're excited to begin at Arch Editing. We are an editing service, but we are also educators, writers, researchers, academics and students. I (Jasie) have never spent more than 8 months away from school since I was 5 years old. I am working on my third degree, I've taught university level Humanities classes, I've presented at conferences and I'm in the process of publishing in academic journals. Haley has been writing fiction since she was 5 years old, and publishing her work for the last ten years. She also has an advance degree and years of experience teaching writing courses.

Because of who we are as people, this website and this blog is about a lot more than simply offering an editing service. We want to become part of a community, a community of writers, students and researchers. We want to contribute to this community, to expand it and and help those out there who know that they want to write and research, but need some advice and a little direction.

We hope this blog will become a resource for you as a writer or educator or editor. We will post book reviews and website reviews for writing and publishing resources. Under our "Quick Guides to..." section we will have tips and tutorials ranging from how to use semicolons to how to submit queries to publishers. We will update our blog on a regular basis so that you can return and find more tips and advise to help make your writing awesome.

The best part of moving in to a new house is the sense of possibility, a chance to build something real out of hopes and dreams. This website and blog is that chance for us, and we hope you enjoy our home here and always feel welcome!