Introducing Regan W. H. Macaulay and Mixter Twizzle!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve announced our upcoming 2017 titles one at a time. This week, we’re giving you a little sneak peak into 2018 by introducing our newest author, Regan W. H. Macaulay and her upcoming children’s picture book: Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast!

Regan, a Toronto-based writer, met us while we were at the Word on the Street Festival. She saw Nate Friedman’s The Coffee Monster, and thought (rightly so) that Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast would be a good fit for us. Here’s what Regan had to say about the star of her children’s book:

Mixter Twizzle is an odd, red, round-shaped, mischievous creature.  He lives in a hovel, beneath a rustic barn, underneath the chicken coop.  He’s a snoozing sneezer and a snoring barker; a peculiar sort that both annoys and pleases. 

The illustrations for Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast will be done by Regan’s husband, Kevin Risk. Here’s a sample of what you have to look forward to:

We’re super-excited to watch this project come together and we hope you are as well. If you want to be kept informed of Regan and Kevin’s progress, and be the first to know when Mixter Twizzle’s Breakfast will be available, please subscribe to this blog, or to our mailing list. Thanks for reading!

 

Regan writes novels, short stories, children’s literature and scripts.  Writing is her passion, but she’s also a producer and director of theatre, film and television.  She is an animal enthusiast as well, which led her to become a certified canine (and feline) massage therapist.  Other books by Regan include picture storybooks Beverlee Beaz the Brown Burmese, Sloth the Lazy Dragon and the novella adaptations of her feature film (available on iTunes and on DVD), Space Zombies! and her screenplay They Suck (both co-written with her husband, Kevin Risk).  Coming soon, two other picture storybooks:  Tamara Turtle’s Life So Far and Merry Myrrh: The Christmas Bat.

Introducing Sandra Unerman, author of Spellhaven

2017 is here and the Mirror World family is growing again! We’re extremely proud to be able to announce that UK author, Sandra Unerman will be joining us with her fantasy novel for adults, Spellhaven.

There were a number of quality submissions this year, but Sandra Unerman’s Spellhaven blew us away. The story opens in the years leading up to World War I, when a young English musician, Jane, is kidnapped and taken to an island city ruled by magicians, where she is required to help entertain the Unseen Spirits who keep the city going for a term of three years, or face prison for six.

The world in Sandra Unerman’s novel is richly detailed and we think it beautifully encompasses what we’re all about here at Mirror World; taking the reader on a journey to a far off place and bringing them back to the real world with a newfound knowledge or appreciation for what they seen and experienced.

But, you don’t just have to take my word for it. Spellhaven by Sandra Unerman is coming this Summer, August 17th, 2017. Subscribe to this blog, or to our newsletter to keep up with all the news regarding our new releases!

 

Sandra Unerman lives in London in the UK. When she retired from a career as a Government lawyer, she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, specialising in SF and fantasy, and graduated in 2013. Since then, she has had a number of short stories published. In 2016, these included stories in Three Drops from a Cauldron, the Midwinter issue and  Aurora Wolf, the September issue, both available online. She writes reviews and articles for the British Science Fiction Association and the British Fantasy Society. She is a member of London Clockhouse writers and other writing groups. Her interests include history, folklore and medieval literature.

Also in 2017: A Brand New Series!

So far, for our 2017 releases, we’ve announced the upcoming romantic comedy, Uncharted by Justine Alley Dowsett and Murandy Damodred, which you can read all about here. We’ve also announced the third and final installment of Joshua Pantalleresco’s The Watcher series, The Wandering God. Which you can find here.

And now, we’re excited to let you know that Sharon Ledwith, author of The Last Timekeeper Time Travel Series, has a new series in the works for us!

Her teen psychic mystery series, The Mysterious Tales of Fairy Falls, is a planned five book series with each book focusing on a different psychic-powered character drawn to the mysterious northern Canadian town of Fairy Falls. The first in the series, Lost and Found, will be coming to Mirror World this summer!

The Blurb:

Imagine a teenager possessing a psychic ability and struggling to cope with this freakish power, all the while trying to lead a normal life. Now, imagine being uprooted and forced to live in a small tourist town where nothing much ever happens. It’s bores-ville from the get-go. Welcome to Fairy Falls. Expect the unexpected…

The Fairy Falls Animal Shelter is in trouble. Money trouble. It’s up to an old calico cat named Whiskey – a shelter cat who has mastered the skill of observation – to find a new pack leader so that their home will be saved. With the help of Nobel, the leader of the shelter dogs, the animals set out to use the ancient skill of telepathy to contact any human who bothers to listen to them. Unfortunately for fifteen-year-old Meagan Walsh, she hears them, loud and clear…

 

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the young adult time travel series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, among others. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, exercising, anything arcane, and an occasional dram of scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario with her hubby, one spoiled yellow Labrador and a moody calico cat.

Setting Sail into 2017

Our 2017 line-up has been chosen! Instead of giving them all to you in one post though, I’m going to introduce one upcoming title each week, introduce you to the author/creator, and tell you a little bit about what’s to come.

Up first, is Uncharted by Justine Alley Dowsett (me) and Murandy Damodred.

I’ve talked about this title on this blog before, but it’s now time to make the official announcement. Uncharted is expected to launch April 17, 2017!

Set in the world of Ismera, the same setting as Unintended, Uncharted is not a sequel, but an entirely new story, with a new set of lovable characters. Instead of lords and ladies, the story centers around Meredith, an apprentice Priestess of Saegard, Reginald Lawrence, a ship’s Captain, and Grey Rhodes, his business partner. Uncharted is still a romantic comedy in a fantasy/historical fiction kind of setting, so it has all the humour and adventure you’ve come to expect from Murandy and myself. We hope you have as much fun reading it as we did writing it.

Here’s the description:

There are no coincidences…

Fated to be a Priestess of Saegard, Meredith dreams of leading a normal life with a family and a home of her own, something she’ll never have if she swears her life to the Order.  A chance encounter with a stranger in the sacred Celestial Chamber sends her previously well-ordered life into a tailspin of adventure and mayhem as she is blamed for the theft of a legendary artifact. Now a fugitive, Meredith must join forces with Captain Reginald Lawrence, the son of the man who initially brought her to the Temple, and his enigmatic business partner,  the charming yet at times infuriating, Grey Rhodes, to find the Celestial Bowl and clear her name. From the cosmopolitan capital of Saegard to the coast of Ismera and back again, Meredith’s journey will reveal the true nature of her past, present, and ultimately, her future.

From obtaining a BA in Drama at the University of Windsor to becoming an entrepreneur in video game production and later, publishing, Justine Alley Dowsett’s unswerving ambition has always led her to pursue her dreams. Today she lives in Windsor, Ontario and is still writing and publishing fiction novels. When not focusing on growing her business, she enjoys role-playing with friends and developing new ideas to write about.Her previous works include, The Crimson Winter Trilogy, Neo Central, The Mirror World Series, and Unintended.

With a background in Drama and Communications from the University of Windsor, Murandy Damodred enjoys fantasy fiction with strong romantic subplots. She is an avid role-player and is happiest when living vicariously through her characters. Though she’d rather think of herself as the heroine of her next novel, in the real world she is studying to be a medical technician in Windsor, Ontario. She has co-written Neo Central, The Mirror World Series, and Unintended with her sister, Justine Alley Dowsett.

For more updates and insights into our 2017 publishing schedule, I encourage you to subscribe to this blog or check back often! Thanks for reading!

 

2016: A Year in Review

Well, I said we would publish 5 books in 2016. We actually published 6.

In May, we released Black Lightning by the exceptionally talented and award-winning
author, K.S. Jones.  We certainly love this middle grade adventure into another world, and hopefully you did too. If you haven’t read it, you can learn more about it here.

Soon after we brought you Elizabeth J.M. Walker’s hilarious teen vampire comedy This Night Sucks, which if you haven’t read it, you are certainly missing out.

In the summer we prepared for the rest of our releases, bringing you book three and book two respectively of Rita Monette’s Nikki Landry Swamp Legends Series and Sharon Ledwith’s The Last Timekeepers Time Travel Series. You can find both in our store. 

We launched our membership program, which you can learn
more about here. We attended a host of local events and we also made it to Toronto for The Word on the Street Festival, which was a great new experience for us. Murandy had a baby and named him Hunter Creston. Creston, for a lovable character in our book, Unintended, for those of you who haven’t read it.

In the fall, David McLain and Felix Eddy ran a gofundme campaign for their illustrated novel, The Time Traveller’s Resort and Museum, which was a huge success and in November we launched the book in ebook, paperback and also in hardcover, which we had never done before.

On September 30^th we announced our partnership with Sho Art Spirit and Performance, and held Worlds Collide Gala, where we introduced our new imprint, Adventure Worlds Press, run by Christian Laforet and Ben van Dongen.

2016 brought the closure of a few local stores where Mirror World Books were sold, but we added some new ones, like Story Tellers Books on Ottawa St, and From the Heart (also on Ottawa St). And we took a chance on a local artist, Owen Swain, and together created an adult colouring book/ode to Windsor, #tourdesketch Windsor, which has been selling out all across the city since we launched it a week ago. Next week, on December 15^th will be our final hoorah of 2016 as we host a book launch / open house christmas party for Owen Swain’s #tourdesketch Windsor Colouring Book at Sho Art Spirit and Performance 628 Monmouth Rd, in Windsor.

All in all, 2016 was a busy year, full of growth and trying new things. Stay tuned for our plans to make 2017 even bigger and better and for the announcement of our 2017 line up of new books!

Join us!

It was last year around this time that Murandy Damodred and I heard about the #85k challenge. The goal: write 85,000 from January 1st to March 31st. We didn’t decide to participate right away, but it just so happened that we were about ready to start writing Uncharted near the end of December, so we held off the few days and started the challenge with everyone else. We hit 85,000 words with two weeks to spare and spent the next month finishing off our novel. Now, a year later, we’re pleased to announce that Uncharted will be released in the spring of 2017!

This year the challenge is happening again. Murandy and I will be participating (less intensely due to the birth of Murandy’s son) but we would like to invite any writers that read this blog to consider joining in. We found the challenge to be just difficult enough that you have to work for it, but not as overwhelming as other writing challenges, like Nanowrimo, for example. 85,000 breaks down to a little under 1000 words a day, which is completely reasonable, but requires dedication and consistency. Sign up here!

In other news, we have a local launch party for Owen Swain’s adult colouring book #tourdesketch Windsor on December 15th at Sho Art Spirit and Performance, 628 Monmouth Rd, Windsor. It’s open house-style, so we encourage you to stop by and colour with us if you’re in the area between 1 and 9 pm. The official launch of the book is at 7pm and Owen Swain will be on hand throughout the day to sign copies. RSVP here.

Also, on December 10th, I will be at Bizarre Bazaar at Villains Beastro Pub from 8pm to 1am with the entire Mirror World collection available for sale. This is a unique venue to buy books and local crafts, so I encourage you to check it out if you happen to be within driving distance to downtown Windsor. RSVP here.

Bringing it back full circle, here’s the blurb about Uncharted by myself and Murandy Damodred:

There are no coincidences…

Fated to be a Priestess of Saegard, Meredith dreams of leading a normal life with a family and a home of her own, something she’ll never have if she swears her life to the Order.  A chance encounter with a stranger in the sacred Celestial Chamber sends her previously well-ordered life into a tailspin of adventure and mayhem as she is blamed for the theft of a legendary artifact. Now a fugitive, Meredith must join forces with Captain Reginald Lawrence, the son of the man who initially brought her to the Temple, and his enigmatic business partner,  the charming yet at times infuriating, Grey Rhodes, to find the Celestial Bowl and clear her name. From the cosmopolitan capital of Saegard to the coast of Ismera and back again, Meredith’s journey will reveal the true nature of her past, present, and ultimately, her future.

It’s Launch Day for Owen Swain’s #tourdesketch Windsor!

I know I just talked about this earlier this week, but today is the big day, and it warrants an announcement! As of today, December 1^st, 2016, you can now order Owen Swain’s adult colouring book #tourdesketch Windsor from the major retailer of your choice, OR you can visit any number of local book and gift shops in Windsor and pick one up there! List of local shops currently carrying #tourdesketch:

Juniper Books (on Ottawa St.)
From the Heart (Ottawa St)
Story Tellers Books (Ottawa St)
City Cyclery (Lincoln St)
Levigator Press (Wyandotte Ave)
PB Books (Tecumseh Rd)
Artspeak Gallery (limited time for their Mistletoe and Snow Show, Wyandotte Ave.)

Of course, you can always order it from our online store and get free delivery with the promo code: WEDELIVER. Only, if you do that, please be aware that due to an overwhelming number of pre-orders and requests, we are currently out of stock and awaiting a large shipment, so any orders place through our website now will be delivered after the official launch party on December 15^th.

Speaking of the official launch party… if you’re local, you should join us! More information can be found here and you can RSVP here.

And, in case you missed it, #tourdesketch Windsor and Owen Swain were featured on CTV News just a few days ago, and you can catch that feature here: http://windsor.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1004939

***

I don’t have too much more to add right now, but I’ll leave you with this teaser: We’re almost done selecting our 2017 line up. We’ve got one more selection to make (and some contracts to send out) and we’ll be making some exciting announcements soon!  So subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already to be kept up to date!

Colouring Book Cover Reveal: #tourdesketch Windsor

On December 1^st we’re launching an adult colouring book featuring the sights of our hometown, Windsor, Ontario. The book is the collected work of Owen Swain, local artist and creator of #tourdesketch, a monthly cycling/drawing event.

Owen Swain is a Windsor, Ontario illustrator and painter who works in a variety of media and styles and is interested in all manner of subjects while specializing in on location, observational drawing, sketching, mentoring and portraiture. He is never without a sketchbook.

Owen’s creative impetus is daily observational drawing that moves beyond looking to seeing, from thinking to being, and from mere drawing to discovering and developing one’s own mark. Owen believes that the Zen of what Frederick Franck coined as ‘seeing/drawing’ has transferable life skills for all.

He is the creator of #tourdesketch, an art-for-all monthly event that includes in-season slow-bicycling Sketchouts with a focus on local culture and heritage and during autumn and winter months, sketch meet-ups with instruction on ‘seeing/drawing’ as meditation as well as good fun drawing, tips, and sketchbook skills for the artist within each of us.

Here’s the cover:

Pre-Order of this colouring book starts now! You can order this book from our webstore, or soon be able to find it on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, or wherever you buy books. For more information, please visit our store: http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/adventure/products/tourdesketch-windsor-colouring-book

 

Our Submissions are OPEN – Here’s what we’re looking for…

This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for;our submissions are open once again!

As a small independent publisher, what we’ve found works best for us is to open our submissions in the fall and leave them open until we’ve confirmed our new releases for the upcoming year. This year we’re looking for 3-5 titles to release in 2017 and we’ll keep accepting submissions until we find them.

So how do you submit to us? Well, it all starts here. On our website’s submissions page we list all the types of books we’re looking for and all the ones we absolutely will not be interested in. We also outline what to send us, where to send it, and how long you should expect to wait for a response. We’ve also included some helpful links to videos we’ve made to help you prepare your manuscript and submission package, not just for us, but for anywhere you choose to send it.

But what’s going to set your submission above the rest? What are we really looking for? Well, I’ll tell you.

Your Query Letter

When we receive a submission, the first thing we look at is your query letter. Typically this should be in the body of your email to us. What we’re looking for here is a sense of who you are and what your book is about. Your ability to write well matters even in your query letter because it is your first impression. We’re also looking for the following bits of information:

• Your genre (or target audience)
• Your word count (or scope of the project)
• Your credentials (or writing history)
• Your concept, what hooks your reader.

Your Synopsis

Next, we’re going to look at your synopsis. This should be no more than one page and is simply a way of introducing us to your story, your setting, your characters, and the plot. We’re looking to see if the story interests us, but we’re also trying to gauge your ability to tell a story and wrap it up effectively. We want to see how the story ends and we want to see your style as a writer. Please include:

• Your setting
• Your main characters
• Your concept, what hooks your reader
• Your major plot points
• A satisfying conclusion

Your Sample Chapters

We ask you to send three chapters with your submission package. We’re looking specifically for an engaging opening. We want to be drawn into your story’s world immediately; We want to care about your main character and we want to be interested in what’s going to happen to them. In short, you need to hook us, your reader. Then, you need to hold our attention for three chapters. If you can do that, we’ll ask to see more. We’re looking for:

• Your style, or ‘voice’ of your writing
• Your inciting incident, (again, what hooks your reader)
• Your writing ability (and level of polish)
• Your world-building
• The believability of your characters
• How well you’ve realized the potential we detected in the query letter or synopsis.

If you receive a rejection letter from us:

There are a number of reasons that we might not want your manuscript and we will do our best to tell you exactly why that is. We strive to provide detailed notes for you so that you will be better prepared no matter what steps you choose to take next in your publishing journey. Keep in mind that publishing is a very subjective and selective business and that what doesn’t work for one publisher, may work well for another. Some of the common reasons we pass on a manuscript are as follows:

• It’s not in our genre, or doesn’t fit with our current list of titles (see our collection here)
• It’s not ready for publication and needs improvement of some kind
• Something in it conflicts with our message or values (learn more about us, here)
• It just didn’t interest or engage us
• We ask for the full manuscript, but the story doesn’t realize the potential we see in the sample

I hope you’ve found this blog post helpful and I look forward to reading your submissions!

Go to http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/submissions to get started!

 

The Time Traveller’s Resort and Museum is coming…

When I called David McLain to tell him I was accepting his manuscript for publication, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘This is going to be an ambitious project.’

And it is. The Time Traveller’s Resort and Museum is going to be our longest and biggest book yet. It’s also illustrated by the very talented Felix Eddy, who has also done the cover. But the ‘ambitious’ aspect of this book goes much deeper than that. It just so happens that this book embodies every. single. genre. that we have an investment in. That’s right, it has time travel (obviously), science-fiction, fantasy, adventure, comedy and romance. It has not one time, or place, or version of reality, not two or three, but a multitude. It is masterfully done, and David McLain should be really proud. We know we are.

So, in honour of this very special book, we’re going to be offering it in both paperback and hardcover editions, as well as Ebook. This will be our first hardcover book, which is another thing to be excited about.

David McLain is also running an indiegogo campaign to help get The Time Traveller’s Resort and Museum off the ground and if you donate, there are all sorts of perks, from pre-ordering your paperback or hardcover book right now, to getting an original piece of art from Felix Eddy herself. You are also incidentally entering a draw to win a handwritten copy of this massive novel, or to put it more cruelly, for the right to make David McLain cramp up his hand for good trying to write this book out for you.

Here’s the details: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-time-traveller-s-resort-and-museum#/

“If you need to know men’s secrets

Or if there’s something you need to find

If you want to see the dinosaurs

Or the insides of your mind.

If you want to watch the earth begin,

Or see what the apocalypse will leave behind,

You need to thank Alice Anderson,

For Alice is the mother of time.”

That was how the rhyme went. Every time traveler knew it. Everyone that is, except of course, for Alice herself, since she hadn’t invented time travel yet. Since returning to London, Alice’s life has been turned upside down. She’s been accused of murder and lost her position in the scientific community. Her only ally in this journey is a strange man who seems to think that Alice may be about to open up a strange new world of possibilities, but is probably not telling her everything he knows.

Obviously fake quotes made up by the author for the purpose of filling up space on the back of the book.

“The torch has been passed to a weird generation.”

John F Kennedy

“I remember the time David came over for drinks. ‘Twas the best of times, it ‘twas the worst of times.’ No, wait, it was just the worst of times. By the by, what exactly is ‘Tequila?’’”

Charles Dickens

“The first time I met David, he told me how much he liked my book. I said “Which one?” and he said “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” It sort of went downhill from there.”

Jane Austen