I don’t know if the grapevine has reached as far as my blog readers, so I wanted to let everyone know what’s up now that I’ve had a few moments to breathe.

  

Yesterday was my last day with Mirrorstone. I am no longer an editor at Wizards of the Coast. It breaks my heart, but after all the changes lately, some of which I’ve posted about and some which I haven’t, the corporation has really streamlined its vision for what Mirrorstone should publish and with that came some streamlining of staff. Sadly, that meant me this time.

 

But I have plans and options, so don’t worry about me. I see this as a chance to move forward–to freelance for a little while (perhaps until the right opening comes up in children’s publishing), to move to the desert where my sinuses will dry out and I’ll be much healthier than I have since I moved to Seattle (really,
this great job and the people I work with have kept me here in a place I’m allergic to longer than my doctor would recommend–“either move away or you’ll need to start living in a bubble,” she once said; Seattle is gorgeous and I love it but it’s trying to kill me), even to work on my own writing for a while and to live near good friends who also write and join their writing group.

Things are working out for me, so I don’t want anyone to worry. I worry more for my coworkers who are in a similar situation who might perhaps not have the strong support network I’ve been fortunate enough to have, as I was not the only one yesterday to receive this news.

  

But sad news aside, life goes on, as it always does. I leave Mirrorstone in the capable hands it’s always been in, and the imprint will still continue forward. Nina Hess is an amazing editor and she’s been at the editorial helm this whole time, mentoring me and building Mirrorstone with her vision. We’ve–they’ve–got a really strong fall lineup with Sucks to Be Me and The Stowaway (which
I want everyone to go out and buy and read as soon as you can get your hands on them!) and with the streamlining, the books coming in the future will be just as excellent as the New York Times best-selling A Practical Guide to Dragons and A Practical Guide to Monsters and the adventurous fantasies for children and young adults we’ve been publishing.

 

Continue to watch Mirrorstone’s website as new books are announced, and if you’re a writer, keep in mind the new submission guidelines. They’re still looking for great writers for the shared-world series, for which there are all sorts of possibilities. They’re looking for ideas as creative as the Practical Guides and the Dragon Codexes, so put your imagination caps on and get to work getting to know the various D&D worlds and how to write stories in those worlds that will really hit Mirrorstone’s target readership. D&D is a very open-ended fantasy setting and they’re not looking necessarily for writers with experience playing the game. As always, great fantasy writing is the main requirement.

  

As for me, I’ve already got a couple of freelance gigs in the works, and I will be working to establish my freelancing in the next few months. So watch this space for more news on that. At the moment I’ll just consider each project on a case-by-case basis, and I’m going to look into whether I should put up a website or not. So far my options are with several publishers, but perhaps I will consider individual editing jobs as well on a referral basis. I’m going to do a little more thinking on that before setting anything in stone.

 

It’s a change, but it is a good change. Please continue to read the Mirrorstone books that I love so dearly. (I will!) And here’s to me, off on a new adventure!