Monica Valentinelli

Aug 20, 2020

Find Books and Games by Monica Valentinelli on DriveThruFiction.com, DriveThruRPG.com, Amazon.com, and More!

This Timeline SUCKS!

Hello friends,
First, the important part. A picture of his majesty Lord Lardbottom the typically disdainful.

!

Second, the next important part: I'm updating Raven and Toad Studios again. I even have coffee mugs. Woop! Woop! Right now, I feel like I have 10,000 things I want to do and no time to do it. I'm exploding with creative energy and LOTS of words--which is fabulous after WEEKS AND WEEKS of awful, terribad news. To get through this, sometimes I adopt mantras and this time? The Work is The Way. (It's a riff off of the Mandalorian's catch phrase from... The Mandalorian.

Releases are going to be slow for a bit and yes, it goes without saying my work is dramatically affected by COVID-19. I am still writing middle grade; another installment in the adventures of Jesse and Tanner at Miss Adelaide's School of Circus Arts for Wonder Stories is being illustrated as we speak! I'm also working on slides for some of my classes so you can purchase them on demand. More on that soon!

In blogging news, if there's something you'd love me to write about--don't be afraid to reply to this email. I know everything is weird right now, but it's okay if you want to reach out and request a topic OR send pet pics of your own.

'Til next time!

- Monica
Website: www.booksofm.com Patreon: https://patreon.com/booksofm
Ko-Fi (Donate Coffee): https://ko-fi.com/A527F5H

In the 08/13/2020 edition:
*|MC:TOC|*

Excerpts:

Now Available! Coffee Mugs at Raven and Toad Studio

Hiya! Wanted to give you a quick update that I’ve added some fun, colorful coffee mugs and tumblers to Raven and Toad Studio. The designs are 8-bit and were inspired by my beadweaving patterns. There’ll be more of those soon enough! Here’s one of the mugs. It’s called “Boos and Hexes” and is filled with […]
Read on »

Post Clarion Write-A-Thon Update!

Hiya! I am so pleased to mention there were 550+ authors participating in the Clarion Write-A-Thon, and together we raised over $22,000! Thank you so much for sponsoring me and for helping fund this workshop! The Clarion Write-A-Thon is over, but the workshop offers donations year-round. I encourage you to support Clarion West! My goal […]
Read on »

Announcing Raven and Toad Studio

Hello everyone! Today, I am pleased to mention that I have opened up an Etsy store called Raven and Toad Studio. My plans for this store, including commissions, have been delayed due to COVID-19, so to start I am focusing on digital downloads for beadweaving patterns where I don’t have to ship you anything directly. […]
Read on »

Now Available! Coffee Mugs at Raven and Toad Studio

By Monica Valentinelli on Aug 13, 2020 11:26 am

Hiya! Wanted to give you a quick update that I’ve added some fun, colorful coffee mugs and tumblers to Raven and Toad Studio. The designs are 8-bit and were inspired by my beadweaving patterns. There’ll be more of those soon enough!

Here’s one of the mugs. It’s called “Boos and Hexes” and is filled with spooky ghosts, pumpkins, a bubbling cauldron, and a witch’s broom. Yay!

Boos and Hexes Coffee Mug | Raven and Toad Studios

I’m updating the store weekly, so if beads and 8-bit fun are your jam, do me a favor and heart the shop? Thank you so much!

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Like Now Available! Coffee Mugs at Raven and Toad Studio on Facebook

Post Clarion Write-A-Thon Update!

By Monica Valentinelli on Aug 10, 2020 02:25 pm

Hiya!

I am so pleased to mention there were 550+ authors participating in the Clarion Write-A-Thon, and together we raised over $22,000! Thank you so much for sponsoring me and for helping fund this workshop! The Clarion Write-A-Thon is over, but the workshop offers donations year-round. I encourage you to support Clarion West!

My goal was six Italian fairy tale retellings and I was able to write four on top of regular freelancing. I had a great time with the workshop; I managed to revisit my productivity style and goals. What I’ve learned is that I need to go back to word count as my primary metric. I was going by project, but that doesn’t work for me anymore. Sometimes, I’ll write a small thing and call it a day if I have revisions to do, too–and right now I’m focused on productivity. I can’t sleep my way through this pandemic, because I can’t afford to. Instead, I’m going to focus on raw word count on top of whatever revisions I’m going through during the day, too.

Part of my challenge has been: “How do I keep up with blogging and writing?” I don’t know the answer to this right now, but I’ve set a goal of two posts per week–including this one.

I’m dealing with a lot of unknowns right now. The only certainty is my To Do list and whatever form that takes. I have decided to complete the Italian fairy tale retelling project on my own schedule and did add that to the list. So, on to the next To Do!

Announcing Raven and Toad Studio

By Monica Valentinelli on Jul 15, 2020 11:57 am

Hello everyone!

Today, I am pleased to mention that I have opened up an Etsy store called Raven and Toad Studio. My plans for this store, including commissions, have been delayed due to COVID-19, so to start I am focusing on digital downloads for beadweaving patterns where I don’t have to ship you anything directly. I will have more uploaded soon! Most of my patterns will require knowledge of the basic stitch, but I’ll keep you posted as the store develops.

This is an example of a pattern you can purchase for a peyote-stitched beaded ring:

To start, I have some fun patterns. My philosophy is that you should be able to find adjustments regardless of your measurements. I do scale bigger for my patterns and include instructions to size up and down. There’s a few more elaborate designs I’m working on, too, that I think you’ll really enjoy. Exciting!

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