A month later after I published Middle Ground!
First, let me start by saying thank you! Thank you to everyone who stopped by the website, who purchased one of my books, favorited me on Smashwords, and wrote a review.

It’s always so surreal to finalize a project—and even more so with the way the entire world has seemed to be in upheaval over the past year. I remember when I first started this blog, a little over five years ago, and I wasn’t sure where any of this would end up. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to build the life I wanted, I wasn’t sure where my next paycheck would come from.

Sometimes, I dwell on the negative and so I wanted to pause and write this post mainly for me as a reminder of how much I have been able to accomplish. I’ve self-published four books in a little over six years. Full stop.

When I first started to explore self-publishing, it was something that I needed as a way to balance out the job applications, the insurmountable denials, and staring down life after college. Now I write for different reasons, but I still write. I still have to make time, carve out moments to the plot, research, edit, format—and then, oh right, actually write. And then write again.
It’s easy to get mired down in what I haven’t done—yet this is a moment for me to realize not everything may be possible at once, but commitment does bear root over time. Little by little, I write. Little by little, I can add yet another book to my shelf.

Here’s your final sneak peek 😉

God, Englishmen, she thought. Morals at the worse times. He looked soft. Hair mussed, lips red. He was flushing, red up his cheeks. Fists clenched slightly as though he wanted to touch again.

Copyright Olivia Orndorff 2021

Later that night, his mother pronounced the event a success before heading upstairs. His father chuckled. His sister danced up the stairs with so much joy. He left walking out into the dark sky. He should have danced with other ladies. He should have called on others. He shouldn’t have taken Clara to see her. He shouldn’t have gone to the opera. Mrs. Ash was showing him how easy it was to get trapped in the game and how much she did not want to play.
Still, he thought with a smile, that was some dress.

Copyright Olivia Orndorff 2021

Here’s another teaser 😊

She rode well as benefitted a cavalry officer’s wife, he supposed. He wondered what drove her out of bed in the morning. It had been disconcerting to see her with only a lone footman out so early. She had the same smile whether she was in a ballroom, study, or on a horseback. As if all suited equally, or none at all.

Copyright Olivia Orndorff 2021

Here’s a teaser in preparation for Middle Ground coming out May 1! Just two weeks to go!

Eveline had surprised most of society when she had danced the waltz before getting the nod by the Matrons of the Almanac. Robert hadn’t told her. Either way, last time, the Matrons had only fluttered fans and muttered quietly but no one gave Eveline or Robert the cut direct. It was widely assumed she had already been the permissions when she had danced in polite society abroad.

She had never danced in polite society before England.

Some days, she missed the dancing of her youth.

Copyright Olivia Orndorff 2021

In honor of National Poetry Month, I wanted to share the collection of poetry I am currently enjoying. Over the past year, I kept seeing lines of poetry from Mary Oliver in numerous places from research texts to Instagram accounts. I’ve found it’s one of those odd things about books or really any art. Even a prolific or cannon writer may not always be one I stumble on, or it may not the right time.

Receiving Oliver’s compilation of work as a gift turned out to be a gift at the right time. Complied by the poet, who unfortunately passed away in 2019, Devotions was created and arranged by Oliver.  I have taken my cue from the title and used it as a way to start my morning. While I have struggled in many ways with the idea of faith and with the structure of religion, beginning the day with a poem and one by Oliver who focuses so much on nature, on spirituality through the senses, and wonder, I have found it as centering.

What poetry have you been loving this month?

One of the fun parts of the self-published author route is getting to learn and pick up skills that I may never have considered before. The first few goes were definitely frustrating in terms of formatting my e-book and my print book. In following along the formatting style guide for the Smashwords distribution site--it all felt easy. Familiar.

                I’m still not super good in following all the bells and whistles possible, but I’ve been using the free version of Canva to make my book covers ever since my first attempt at Moonshine (may it rest in peace) was too low resolution to use.

Canva works similarly to a lot of the design platforms I’ve experienced--you build things using the concept of layers. You can make some things transparent, overlay colors, put on text boxes. It can get frustrating, to me, in that selecting the item or layer you’re working on isn’t always super intuitive. A lot of times my covers get done when I’ve thrown my hands up in the air one too many times. But Canva is helpful in that I can create covers I’m proud of using images I’ve sourced. They may not have all the bells and whistles possible, but I’d like to think they get the job done. Plus it is actually really fun to source images and put them together in a way to convey a design or aesthetic about my book. I have covers for books that have yet to see the light of day because I found an image that worked so well with the plan. It really is fun to change font types, to change an image’s orientation on the page to look completely different.

                Because I have book e-books and print books, I also need two different versions. For e-books in particular, while I tend to upload with color, I need to make sure it looks good in greyscale as not every e-reader converts. I had one of the first Nooks from Barnes and Noble forever and that was true for me. For the print brooks, it needs front cover, it needs the spine, it needs the back cover. All useful things and all things that require thinking through how the cover will look even as you design on one large rectangle. I always start with a standard size for the print cover (Amazon’s Create Space has a template as I’m sure do others). I always have to end up adjusting it though because the actual size needed will depend on the number of pages--so I always try to keep my spine style congruent with the front and back cover so that way I don’t have to do too much adjusting. If you want a very bold, very different spine, make sure you build in time for adjusting.

                Building the cover does require images. If you’re looking to keep your price low (aka free) your best bet is to use images that you took yourself or created yourself or look for public domain pictures. I’m not an expert at copyright--so I try to make sure the site I’m on notes it as public domain and I also double check the year. The older the image the more likely it is to be in public domain.

My covers themselves have images from different places. Moonshine used a photograph I took in Ireland. Catspaw was from looking through photographs posted on Morguefile. Morguefile is a great site because it’s images that photographers have taken and then posted that are free for commercial use. I reached out to the photographer that posted the image I used in my basis for Catspaw and received permission to use it. Don’t Belong to No City had a much simpler search as maps often fall under federal agencies, many of whom also provide public domain images. The map I used was from the late 1880’s increasing the chances it would fall under public domain.

                For Middle Ground, my next book, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted the cover to be. I ended up using two images that are listed on public domain after searching Europeana. Europeana is a one-stop show to browse digital collections from libraries in the European Union. You can sort by types of permissions as well--which is really helpful.
Here are the two images I used to build my Middle Ground cover--and I also used the still life of flowers to create new blog headings to match:

Quick tip! Always make sure to save the link of where you found the image along with the creator’s name in order to give proper credit. You can find that usually in the front or back matter of any books you look at including information on who designed the cover. My books tend to list that at the front cover.

Here are the full links for the two images used above:
https://sammlungonline.mkg-hamburg.de/de/object/Kopf+mit+Heiligenschein/AB1988.336/dc00029988
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2021672/resource_document_mauritshuis_548

I had a chance over the holidays to sit down with the wonderful book, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book weaves together Wall Kimmerer’s experiences and knowledge from the multiplicity of her identity in a way that takes the reader on a journey through scientific knowledge, history, and cultures. Wall Kimmerer showed how her approach to teaching changed as she grew more confident that the ways to reach her students also meant reframing the paradigm. She challenges the western approach to scientific knowledge, the patriarchy and the hierarchy of academia, and the view of nature as driven by their value as resources. She does the by demonstrating that humans are in a relationship with other entities; a plant, a rock, an ecosystem, have their own knowledge and abilities. The book frames ways to consider knowledge and viewpoints and encourages all readers to consider their relationship with land usage and how it is a fraught conversation.

After finishing the book, I was left with a great deal to ponder and examine. My parents garden but in my own adult life, I have never attempted to keep plants. To read and hear about all the knowledge within the cycle of chestnut trees, as one example Wall Kimmerer uses in her book, furthered my understanding.  Her book showed how many natural cycles have been disrupted and knowledge lost. Humans have a hand in the disruption and the destruction. Humans will be needed for the solution.

Happy New Year!

I spent New Year’s Eve playing a Sherlock Holmes game, where my parents and I looked for a conspiracy at every turn. I also spent some time thinking about resolutions, about what I wanted to accomplish this year. It is an odd time to consider goals, to plan, to consider how to step away, when events in the world, and in the U.S., without stop.  

Yet, I am attempting to carry on and, in some ways, have tried position it in my brain as a way to rebel. There is a lot I cannot do so I do what I can. I wear a mask, I try to avoid populated gatherings, I vote, I donate money. I also write. I plot and research for my next book. I’ve started journaling, and a quilt, and planning my next trip.

Self-care has been a buzz word, I have no proof, but I’m guessing its popularity tracked right after the time burnout became a part of mainstream conversations. Like many things, self-care has often been positioned as a way to increase purchasing. Self-care as in new bubble bath, wine, sneakers. Self-care as code for eating healthy as code for losing the weight. Self-care as a new skincare product because we all deserve it. Maybe that’s my experience based on the ad algorithms and a sign I spend too much time scrolling through social media.

At its heart though, self-care does suggest the need to check-in. Check on those standing calendar appointments, check on those spiraling thoughts, the people and support systems in your life. What’s working? What’s not? What’s missing? What’s too much? This self-reflection is new to me, and while I’ve done it previously it’s normally in reaction to event, to when I’m feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or when I’ve already through it and realize wow, I was not doing good for a while there.

When I had migraines on a more regular basis, my doctor told me to keep a journal. I was supposed to record when the migraine hit, symptoms (aura, nausea, pain scale), along with triggers I could identify. There is something about being purposeful about my emotional state in much the same way that has gone a long way to helping me. Getting stressed or annoyed? Take a deep breath. Write it out on a piece of paper. See what I can change and then put in the steps to do it.

If there is anything 2020 has taught me, it is the need to be purposeful with myself and finding out what I actually want to spend time and focusing on and what I don’t.