Thursday, August 11, 2011

Muse Will Celebrate Its One Year Birthday One Month From Today


Do anniversaries,

and birthdays make you

teary eyed? That was not a fair

question, actually since it suggests I ALWAYS get teary eyed over such days

marked on my calendar. The fact is very few days bring such a powerful reaction to my beleaguered tear ducts.

My children's birthdays rank way up on that list of extremely special days, but not the anniversary of the day the

dentist pulled my first tooth...which by the way, was a wisdom tooth when I was

16. I only remember it because I'd never been put under general anesthesia until then...THAT was an experience.

I remember the anniversary of my divorce, or what I call my personal

INDEPENDENCE DAY,

December

5th. Best birthday present I ever got. (I'm a December 12th baby.)Such a day deserves a

banner flying high from my "I Wanna Boast" pillar.

There are other banners that belong on that pillar.

My first book contract. Which I will explain further in this posting. My first release date, another thing I will discuss in more detail further along...BUT the one I want to brag, boast, yell from the rooftops about is the

anniversary rapidly approaching.

On

10,
2010


Muse It Up Publishing, Inc.

opened wide it's Temple e-pub doors and has been taking

the world by storm ever since.

Lea Schizas, the head honcho, AKA publisher, spent a decade learning and preparing for her entry into being an e-publisher. She began by establishing her multi-award winning FREE,

Muse Online Writers Conference. Here, Lea brings the best in the publishing world for two weeks allowing those unable for whatever reason, to attend the "regular" conferences held around the world.

Year after year Lea's Conference takes the top honors for its excellence in making brainstorming, learning, and camaraderie available to one and all...and all for free! The Conference gives those of us who would not be able to connect with agents, educators, and yes, other publishers, a place right at our fingertips. The generosity of such actions speaks highly of the character of Lea Schizas and her determination to always support the authors, the cover artists and the editors first and foremost.

Her partner, Marketing Director Litsa Kamateros is a pit bull when it comes to getting the Muse It Up Publishing word out there...but she is so much more. This is our very first year, and yet both Lea and Litsa, co-authors of

AUTISM EPIDEMIC:SHAKING THE SYSTEM
Autism Epidemic: Shaking the System
spend quality free time at Autism fairs, renting a table and arm themeselves with information for family, teachers, neighbors, friends because Autism is NOT a family issue, it's a village issue and the village is

Planet Earth.

With these two women helming Muse It Up Publishing, Inc., is it any wonder we, their authors, cover artists, editors, work twice as hard to never give them less than OUR best so they can always release to the reading world Muse Publishing, Inc.'s best?

Muse It Up Publishing, Inc. is celebrating it's first anniversary on

September

10th and I have been with them almost from the first day they opened for

submissions.

Some have asked me

why I would trust my words to a publisher not even out there releasing books yet?

Here's my story...

My daughter, Best Selling author Kat Holmes, was with another publisher. The experience was

bitter and not one I wanted to involve my own writing in, however, her editor there, told me about


Muse It Up and Lea. I may not trust anything to do with my daughter's publisher, but this editor, I trusted. Why? She was about to be fired because she'd chosen to support her authors and bat heads with the publisher, but also because she'd become more than an editor...she'd become a friend.

She asked me to let her sub my manuscript to this new, not yet open for business publishing house.

I trusted HER, so agreed.

Keep in mind this was

very early...this kind of thing cannot happen today because

Muse It Up Publishing, Inc. has grown so much.

The manuscript went to Lea Schizas on

March

28th. Five hours later, in the wee shank of March 29th, the contract came. Beside myself with excitement, I signed and began dancing on the roof.

Alas, the Fates are a capricious band of taskmistresses.

April 1st, I found myself sitting on the floor of my doctor's office waiting room, rocking in agony.

An emergency CT scan showed I was in trouble...

big trouble and it was not going to be solved quickly.

In tears I wrote Lea and told her the months ahead, when she would need me to be promoting her, Muse Publishing, and myself, I would be having

surgeries and might not even make it. I suggested she rescind my contract. She refused. What she said is, whatever I couldn't do for myself, they, the wonderful people she was putting together to create Muse It Up Publishing, Inc. would take on.

Santa Is a Lady was released on

December 1st which originally was to have been our debut. SO how come it wasn't?

Lea and our

FAMILY, and that IS what we are at Muse, worked really hard to have some books done early so we could surprise the world ahead of time with our early release...and we did it!

Mine came out on it's original date. I was sort of busy during the spring, summer, and early fall...plus mine is a

holiday themed story.

I have

no clue HOW it got nominated or by whom for the 2010 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll, but at the end of January, a mere eight weeks after it debuted Santa is a Lady took

FIFTH place in its category in the P&E poll...voted for by READERS!

Muse It Up Publishing INC., itself took a total of

TWENTY-TWO P&E 2010 awards...despite having only opened our doors on September 10, 2010.

Obviously I am here, so I survived that medical crisis.

Also here now is my daughter. After much effort she was able to extricate herself from her former publisher and follow me and her editor here to Muse It Up Publishing, INC.

Her first Muse It Hot book, THE LIGHTHOUSE even before it was released to the public, was nominated by her reviewer for the 2011

P.E.A.R.L. award.

In this past year, our people have won other awards too. Delilah K. Stephans, the head of our ever growing Cover Art Department won a

COVEY AWARD for

The Oak King's Daughter. This award means a great deal to Delilah because it is voted for by other cover artists. Not one to sit on her laurels, though Delilah returned to college so she can do nothing but improve on the skills that already won her that stellar award.

The next Online Muse Writers Conference is coming. Last years so impressed its attendance our submissions folder was inundated with new authors eager to be a part of the quality that is

Muse It Up Publishing, Inc.

We have lost this year as well and their loss aches.

Kevin Hopson, one of our authors lost his child at birth...Aydin Kendall. He is remembered in the genré of youth books Lea and Litsa created to honor him and his parents, our brother and sister.

Recently, very recently we lost one of our editors and a dear friend Karen McGrath to a long cancer battle. A

hole in our hearts will always ache because she is not with us. For her, all of us will work that much harder to give the place she gave so much of her spirit to, better and better of who we are.

We're

here to stay. Ten years from now, I plan to be here proudly touting our first decade. We've

just begun, but know this, Muse It Up Publishing, Inc. IS the

home of the



Modern Greek Gods, Goddesses, all

NINE of the Muses and all

THREE of the Fates.

Muse It Up Publishing began almost a decade ago. evolving into the award winning Publisher it is today.


WE ARE, and will continue improving and dedicating ourselves to the ultimate element of our Marketing Director's motto

 ~BUILDING THE TEAM TO ACHIEVE THE DREAM~ ...the READER. Without the readers there IS no dream.

So Happy Anniversary Muse It Up Publishing, Inc, and

Happy Anniversary to our readers. Long may we excel!

12 comments:

  1. Great post, great tribute and wonderful flower to add to the garden.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lin, you are such a Flower on the Fence! There is no one who could celebrates Muse as gloriously as you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you both, but Muse is glorious all by itself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful way to begin Flowers on the Fence. Most comprehensive coverage of anniversaries especially for MuseItUp, Lin. In a few hours I will be just one year away from my Book release's 1st anniversary, but only because of Lea and her MuseItUp. What a wonderful family she has gathered around her. Thank you. I'm blessed to be a part of it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, really, Lin, I wish you could find a little more enthusiasm for Muse It Up Publishing!! Wow--what a grand tribute to Muse. And you are right on! It's a great place and I am proud to be in the author stable or corral or whatever too. I feel especially blessed to meet so many wonderful folks from the beginning and all the new folks who are just joining. Thanks Gail for sharing Lin with us.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That was the loveliest blog post I've read in... well, maybe ever. And I can't express how thrilled I am to be among the newest members od this wonderful Muse family.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks again, Lin, for expressing so well what we all feel about our splendid Muse.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow. I learned a bunch of stuff I hadn't known before. Wow. Just. Wow, and best of Luck.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Another fine offering from Lin, our stationary trailer specialist. Well done. A year's worth of Muse books out there, wowing audiences. What a great family to be associated with.
    Congrats Gail, and Lin for a lovely blog beginning.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm sorry for responding so late but only discovered this amazing and heartfelt posting.

    Lin, the tears rolling down my cheeks are not only from what you wrote, not only because of the immense pride I feel toward everyone, but because of the 'family' mention most of all. There are far too many out there who can't understand how people who have never met can truly bond as we, Muse authors, staff, and publishers...but we have because of our open concept policy and always coming to every Muser - authors and staff - for input on anything new we may want to implement. Why?

    Because it's the authors and staff who have made Muse what it is today: the 'family' atmosphere Litsa and I hoped it would be.

    So thank you from the bottom of my heart for the kind words, and thank you to all Musers for your continued support. You rock!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lin,
    Sorry I didn't see this excellent post when you first put it on Gail's blog! I loved it as I love all of your excellent posts. Gail is so lucky to have gotten you on her blog!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lin,

    Thank you for posting this...I wasn't a part of Muse in the beginning so it's very nice to hear how it was started. I'm very happy to be a part of the Muse family, to know Lea and everyone (authors, editors, art dept and marketing...hope I didn't forget anyone :)) who makes this publishing house so special.

    ReplyDelete