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Swan Sister

I’m delighted to announce that 99 Fleeting Fantasies has been released as an ebook! My story “Swan Sister” is one of the 99 stories published therein. It’s a snarky retelling of the Six Swans fairy tale (sometimes called the Swan Brothers) wherein the Sister fails to complete the task required to save her brothers, but looks after them anyway.

  This story was inspired by a viral video from a few years ago of an elderly lady picking up a swan on the Berlin bridge and tossing it off the side. Swans need 25-30m of water to be able to take off and fly, so this swan was effectively stranded on the bridge. Along comes our brave heroine, who picks up the swan with obvious understanding of how to handle large avian species. She quickly huffs it over the railing into the water, where it presumably lives happily ever after. You can view the video here.  

  Needless to say, that lady struck me as an awesome character. Once I started wondering about her swan hero origin story, “Swan Sister” spilled out onto the page. If you have the chance to read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  

Here is a universal book link if you’d like to give the collection a closer inspection:  https://books2read.com/99FleetingFantasies   Pulse Publishing has let us know that there will be an upcoming Kickstarter campaign that will offer a hardback copy of this collection as well, if that’s more your style. I’ll post about that here on the blog when it happens.

Posted on by JenniferShelby

The Second Form of Ginny Elder

I’m delighted to let you know that my story, The Second Form of Ginny Elder, is now available in the inaugural issue of Hearth Stories.

Ginny calls herself a failed human, but she’s also a grandmother, a hermit who looks after the ghosts of the animals who live in her wood, and maybe a leshy????

You can read all about her in the Winter Solstice 2023 Issue of Hearth Stories, available to download here.

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The Girl with Starlight Hair

My latest story, The Girl with Starlight Hair, is now available in Kaleidotrope’s Autumn issue. You can read it by clicking here.

I first drafted this story when I challenged myself to write fairy tales that involved space and space travel. That challenge was borne of reading a comment that fairy tales don’t belong in space. I’m not the sort of person who has interest in arguing, but I will go home and write a story, dammit.

Very threatening, I know.

One of these fairy tales I wrote to claim space for myself in, um, space, is The Girl with Starlight Hair. The girl in question hasn’t always been a girl. She used to be a planet, and over her shoulder, she carries her dying sun. I pulled inspiration from folklore, daydreams, and the softness of my heart and I hope that she sparks something in you like she did for me.

Photo by Hristo Fidanov on Pexels.com
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it’s been a year!

This month’s issue of my newsletter, Enchanted Side Quests, marks one year of its existence, huzzah! It’s grown a lot, changed a lot, and it’s provided me with a rather fascinating look at a writer’s life. I enjoy writing it, and I hope my readers enjoy it as much. You can read this month’s issue here and, as always, you are cordially invited to subscribe (click here for that).

In the year ahead, I hope to grow this newsletter. I’m working on a reader magnet novella to pair with my latest romantasy novel work-in-progress and with that I’ll be able to join newsletter campaigns in Story Origin and Bookfunnel that will allow me to provide you with lots of free books. And, of course, that novella will also be gifted to my newsletter subscribers. It’s going to be a wild ride!

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The Incredibly Truthful Diary of Nature Girl

The re-release of my book The Incredibly Truthful Diary of Nature Girl is now available everywhere fine books are sold. This re-release has been updated, stuffed with fresh stories, and she’s got a gorgeous new look:

No re-release would be complete without a blurb overhaul as well, so here’s what I came up with after reading waaaaaaaay too many books about writing the things, and consulting several author groups:

Eleven-year-old Nature Girl’s backyard is an enchanted forest.

Ever since a talking tree saved her life, she’s explored every leaf and shadow. She’s named her favorite spots, frolicked with fairies, and even rescued an orphaned porcupine. And she’s written it all down in her trusty diary.

But everything’s about to change. And when the forest needs her help, Nature Girl and her diary are ready. Will she be able to keep her promise to the tree that started everything?

The Incredibly Truthful Diary of Nature Girl is a cozy middle-grade fantasy that will ignite your sense of wonder.

“If Anne of Green Gables kept a nature diary, this would be it” – Trilby O’Quinn

“Whimsical and delightful” – Rural Delivery

Buy The Incredibly Truthful Diary of Nature Girl to get lost in an enchanted forest today!

This is also Nature Girl’s first time EVER in ebook form. How exciting! Here’s a quick link to find her on the mighty river, but you can also order through your preferred bookstore as well.

This re-release is coming ahead of a middle-grade series I’m planning, also as J. D. Shelby (this way my kidlit adventures won’t get confused with my adult stories). More on that coming this fall.

Wishing all of you a beautiful summer!

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2023: the year of the Fae

It’s been a YEAR. I got invited to send a collection of short stories to the Moon with the Lunar Codex, which kickstarted my newsletter (which is still very humble, but if you’d like to sign up, you can click here). My first ever poem publication came out in Issue 5.2 of Augur Magazine, entitled Mother/Murder.

And somewhere around the finishes touches of my Borrowed Wings and other Stories collection for Lunar Codex, I decided it was time to apply for artist’s grant from artsnb (Arts New Brunswick of Canada). The main reason for this was because the Lunar Codex had given me a boost of confidence that temporarily quieted my raging imposter syndrome. I had an idea for a novel that was timely, that fascinated me, and seemed like it would be an appropriate project.

Off I went, deciphering the mysterious ins and outs of the application process with a LOT of help from my writer friends Julian M. Smith, Peter J. Foote, Matthew Ledrew, and artist Bella McBride. I’m confident in saying that I could not have done this on my own.

This application ate up most of September and then it was off. I told myself that if all that work gave me was the knowledge of the process to try again next time, that was fine, but I kept this secret longing to write that book. It was hard to wait, but soon I was lost in the first draft of Book 1 of my fantasy trilogy idea, my imposter syndrome came back, and I tried not to worry about that grant too much.

I started writing freelance fiction, which started out as a strange new world, but then I quickly landed a decent and steady contract writing fiction full time (albeit temporarily). This introduced a whole new level of discipline into my routine, and made me pinch myself more than once. A writer, getting paid by THE HOUR. What sorcery is this?

Like I said, it’s been a year. The last six months have been amazing.

And I’m a little sad to see a good year close because the last few before this one? Yikes. But, as this year started winding down, I heard back about that grant:

So 2023? That’s going to be the year I take a deep dive into this wild Fae book I’m so glad I get to write. Inside these pages, I’m going to be exploring connections between recent technology and fairy folklore and this is going to be such a wild ride. I’m thrilled and humbled by the writers and artists who helped me with my application and with the artsnb jury who believed in my story idea and also me as a writer.

This project, The Fae in the Machine, is going to figure greatly in my upcoming newsletters. If you’d like to join me in this journey, I’d love to have you. You can sign up here and you’ll get an e-copy of my Lunar Codex collection, Borrowed Wings and other Stories, to read at your leisure.

Happy New Year everybody, make it a wonderful one.