Wednesday, January 05, 2022

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group – Anthology Winners!


It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, founded by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

January 5 question - What's the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it?

I regret starting on the wrong path and not learning all I needed to publish correctly. But I did study, I did learn, and I did publish correctly through Dancing Lemur Press.
And now I have a whole slew of authors I can help publish right.


The Seventh Annual IWSG Anthology Contest Winners!


The genre was sweet romance and the theme first love.

Thanks to all who entered – it was a record amount of entries this year.


Now we present the authors of First Love: The Art of Making Doughnuts:

The Art of Making Doughnuts - Linda Budzinski
Paper Faces - Sylvia Ney
The Real Thing - Sammi Spizziri
My Heart Approves - Melissa Maygrove
Oliver’s Girl - Michael Di Gesu
Clyde and Coalesce - Kim Elliot
My First Love(s) - Templeton Moss
How to Save a Princess - Katie Klein
The Castle of Ohno - SE White
Marmalade Sunset - Denise Covey

A special thanks to our official judges:

Author Nancy Gideon
Agent Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates
Author Susan Gourley
Author Jennifer Lane
Author Meka James
Author Loni Townsend

I'm very excited to work with these authors and publish First Love: The Art of Making Doughnuts through Dancing Lemur Press' imprint, Freedom Fox Press.




#IWSGPit is January 26. See the site for details.

Dancing Lemur Press has four authors who came from this Twitter pitch event, so contracts do happen!


Who's ready for some love doughnuts now?

40 comments:

nashvillecats2 said...

Wonderful post Diane, there are always things to learn about writing and publishing. I enjoyed rerading this very much.
Hope you are keeping well.
Yvonne.

H. R. Sinclair said...

Nashvillecats is so right, there is always something. It never ends.

Congrats to all the anthology winners.

Natalie Aguirre said...

Congrats to the anthology winners! And yes, Yvonne is so right about learning and growing as a writing. It's awesome how you help authors through your publishing company.

Michelle Wallace said...

Happy New Year!
I love that cover, Diane! Congrats and thank you for helping authors to realize their dreams.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations to the winner!
We appreciate you helping us do it right.

Erika Beebe said...

I enjoyed reading your journey :) Congrats to all the winners of the anthology and I love the title!

Nick Wilford said...

Congrats to all winners!

Like you point out, there's always an upside to what we might call regrets - now you can pass on what you learned to others.

Tonja Drecker said...

Yay to the winners!
Mistakes can be seen as regrets (and wow, I'd have a ton!), but without them, we couldn't learn. And you help so many!

Michael Di Gesu said...

Thanks Diane! It has been a PLEASURE working with you as well. I am so happy to have my FIRST published work published by Dancing Lemur Press. I hope to be working with you on more projects in the future!

Jan Morrison said...

Love Doughnuts! Yes!! I must wait a few days before I start in eating sweets again.
I like your approach my spunky friend!

Rachna Chhabria said...

I love doughnuts. Congratulations to all the winners. More power to Dancing Lemur Press in 2022.

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Congratulations to the winners!

It's hard for me to imagine you taking any missteps along the way, Diane! It definitely didn't set you back long. :)

Jemi Fraser said...

Congrats to the winners!!! Love the cover :)
I learned SO MUCH from being in the Tick Tock Anthology. It was such a great start for me :)

Gwen Gardner said...

Publishing correctly is key--I rushed in and made mistakes, but lesson learned!

Congrats to all the winners of the anthology! I'm looking forward to reading it.

Sherry Ellis said...

Congratulations to all the authors of your latest anthology. What a cute cover!

I think all of us have had a learning curve when it comes to the publishing industry. Thank you for helping so many authors, including me.

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Loni Townsend said...

Grats to the winners. And yeah, I'll say you know what you're doing now, because you rock as a publisher.

cleemckenzie said...

It's so nice to see this part of the process. I know the lead up takes so much time and energy, but this makes it all worthwhile.

Sandra Cox said...

You are an amazing publisher and I recommend you every chance I get.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Sweetness overload here. Congratulations to the authors. Looks like a wonderful compilation.

Did somebody say doughnuts?

Arlee Bird said...

All things considered I think you did pretty well. Your current success is what you learned by the way you did things I would say.

Congratulations on this new publication!

Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out

emaginette said...

It must feel great helping so many authors fulfill their dreams. :-)

Anna from elements of emaginette

Anonymous said...

Though you stumble, you never fall. And now you have a successful publishing business, in service to authors everywhere!

Congrats to all the winners of the anthology, and to you on its publication!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

As I tell other writers, I hit every pothole and did it all wrong just so they don't have to! LOL

L. Diane Wolfe said...

And you are a delight to work with!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Jemi, that's wonderful to hear. Thank you.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Hoping for more Bubba & Squirt!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Sandra, thank you.

Sarah Foster said...

Congrats to all of the anthology winners! I love the cover--makes me want a donut!

Shannon Lawrence said...

All we can do is grow and learn, and you've done it successfully! Also, congratulations to the winners!

The Warrior Muse

Olga Godim said...

We all start with mistakes. It's what we learn along the way that counts. You have learned a lot and now you're helping others, so no room for regrets, I don't think so.
Great cover for the anthology.

Liz A. said...

We were talking about mistakes in class today. And I pointed out that sometimes mistakes are a great way to learn. Painful sometimes, but powerful.

kimlajevardi.com said...

Congrats to the anthology winners!

Lynn J Simpson said...

Congrats to the authors, and I am looking forward to getting this anthology!

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Diane - congratulations on supporting many IWSG authors ... and also for keeping up with the publishing industry and letting us know about it.

Happy New Year - cheers Hilary

J.Q. Rose said...

Congrats to the anthology winners! Now I am curious about the art of making donuts! In this business, we have to keep learning as you do. I admire you for founding the publishing company to help other writers reach their dreams.

Chemist Ken said...

We all have to learn sometime. Now that you know these things, you're helping other writers in their publishing lives. Great job!

Happy 2022!

kjmckendry said...

The important thing is that you learned how to publish correctly eventually! And it's so wonderful that you're helping to guide others through the process!

Congrats to all the awesome winners!

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Congrats to all the winners. I might try the twitter pitch again this year.

Toi Thomas said...

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. So excited about the new anthology and glad to hear it will be a Dancing Lemur release. Hope it will be a huge success.

Pat Hatt said...

Sure learn many things along the way with publishing indeed.

Congrats to the winners.