Bethany Grenier

Hello friends,

It is with great sadness that I make the following announcement:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Dreaming Trilogy will be moving forward without the illustration talents of Devin DuMond. We wish her the best in all her future endeavors.

However the good news is that this decision steps up the time table for publication of both books 1 & 2!  The Dreaming: Sings With Stars and The Dreaming: Kingdom of Doubt will be published this year by Charmed Life Publishing!

Going forward all three books will be published in classic traditional format (sans illustrations). I believe the reader’s imaginations  are strong enough to dream of the world of Alcina,  all its residents and contraptions without the benefit (and limitations) of illustrations. Though the concept of the future predicting tarot cards has always been a part of my original vision for the books, the material and story are strong enough to stand on their own.

Thank you for your continued patience and readership!

-b

Hello Friends and Clients,

This is a topic that I never love to address, however, I thinks it’s time for a reminder…

I understand that accidents and emergencies happen in life, and are obviously unplanned. Recently though, there has been a string of last minute cancellations and even a no show.

My policy with regard to such occurrences is consistent with the industry standard: 24 hours notice for rescheduling an apt. I allow one “free pass”, but going forward, repeated last minute rescheduling/missed apt.will result in a fee, up to the full amount of the missed apt being charged upon the next visit.

I try my best to be here, ready and anxious to help you realize your vision for your hair. I truly value the relationship that I have built over the years with each an every one of you! However, this is my livelihood, and so such occurrences affect me and my bottom line.

Reminder calls and texts are strictly a courtesy and are not meant to relieve you of the responsibility of remembering that you’ve made an apt. to see me…

I sincerely hope this doesn’t come off as harsh or serves to alienate you, but as they say, Business is Business…

Thanks for your understanding!

-b

…And now for some long over due news on the re-publishing of Sings With Stars…

As many of you doubtless know, my first self published book, Sings With Stars is being re-published by Charmed Life Publishing. Along with this decision to pursue traditional publishing options, I was also faced with many decisions about how to to make the book more appealing to a broader market as well as what books two and three would look like.

The first change was to commission all new drawings that will become the tarot cards at the beginning of each chapter. Where they had once been very anime-inspired, the new illustrations are more accessible to all readers. The process of re-illustration has been very long, but twenty five drawings take time. And they are well worth the wait!

The harder decisions for me were in regard to content and the re-framing of the first book. While the very talented creative partner and illustrator Devin DuMond was busy re-imagining the tarot cards I was busy writing book two, Kingdom of Doubt. After completing the first draft of “Kingdom” I realized that the story had ended. It had reached it natural conclusion. Imagine my surprise…

While it was awesome to see the characters through their destinies, I had one problem. I have always believed that the series would be a trilogy. So I did the only thing I could do , I waited for the answer to come to me.

Finally the answer came. I need to reformat the series as a whole, to look at the entirety of the material I had written with a critical eye and split it into three books. It was a most unexpected solution, but one that felt right.

So after a lot of editing on the part of my publisher and much thought on my part, Sings With Stars ends a bit differently than it’s previous editions had. This new ending is a bit more dramatic (one might even say a bit of a cliffhanger)!

It’ll be a few months yet before the last few drawings and formatting are completed, but I promise it will be re-published very soon, with book two, The Dreaming: Kingdom of Doubt soon to follow!

I am so looking forward to bringing the first book back into the print world as well as an e-book soon to follow. Until then I’ll leave you with some sneak peeks at some “in progress” illustrations (cell phone pics, so the quality is much better in person)!

Thanks for reading!

-b

Cheers! to you and the Holiday Season!! This year I find that I have so much Holiday Spirit, I’ve decided to run my first ever promotion!

This will be the “Try Something New” promotion, and is open to new and existing clients. The deal is: Through the entire month of December, you will receive 30% off for any service that you don’t currently come in for!

For example if I cut you hair, but you’d like to try having your hair colored, you will receive 30% off the the price of the hair color.  Or if you’ve been thinking about making an apt to see me for the first time ever, you’ll receive 30% off your entire service!

Services include: Hair cuts, Color, HighLights, Waxing,  and Thermal Straightening.

Spaces are limited, so please call or text 616-340-8699.

As many of you know, earlier this year I decided to re-publish my self-published book, Sings With Stars with the publishing company Charmed Life Publishing. Along with a re-framing of the books and a new edit, I decided to take on a partner, Devin DuMond to do new illustrations. The new edit is well underway as are the illustrations. And now comes the part when I tell you new stuff…

The purpose behind re-publishing the book is to broaden the book’s appeal to a wider market and to that end, there will be some significant changes and re-imaginings of Sings With Stars! The basic story will remain the same, however, there is a bit of new material that I’ve added!  In addition, some of the longer chapters have been broken up into smaller chapters for improved readability, which allows each chapter to pull it’s focus in more tightly. Beacuse of this new edit, several of the chapters are getting new tarot cards!

This decision unfortunately puts the publishing date back just a little bit, as several new cards need to be drawn, but I promise you it will be worth the wait!

As it stands now, book one has gone from 22 chapters to 24 with eight new cards from the Minor Arcana and the Royal cards as well.

For those of you that own original and 2nd Edition copies, these books are now completely off the market, save the few copies in my possession of both editions. I look forward to sharing this re-imagining of my book with you! It’s been quite a long process with many difficult decisions, but this process has polished the book beyond even my own hopes or expectations.

And now, for a final surprise, I’ve got another sneak peek of a new card for you! This is the card inset for The Hierophant tarot card…

I’ll post again soon with more peeks at tarot cards soon!

Until then, thanks for reading!

-b

Hello Friends!

As always I apologize for the lengthiness of time between my posts…

But the good news is that I have updates for you! The re-edit of my first book, Sings With Stars is coming along beautifully! I am so lucky to have found an amazing new editor to join my team of awesome editors! The new edition, The Dreaming: Sings With Stars promises to be an even better read than before and the the new art is equally as awesome as the new edit!!

The Magician, The Chariot, and The Sun are the images above, and as always the are just cell phone pics and don’t really do any justice to the original, but I just had to share.

We’ve come to a decision of the new web address URL for the newly published books, after the publication of The Dreaming: Sings With Stars, the URL will change from singswithstars.com to thedreamingtrilogy. We made the decision to change the URL in preparation for the upcoming release of book 2! I promise it is well on it’s way!! The process of republishing SWS has been a lengthy one, but well worth the effort…

I’m hoping to publish The Dreaming:Kingdom of Doubt around the new year, fingers crossed.

So, for now I’ll leave you with one final sneak peek (this piece is not quite finished) that I’m really excited about…

The Death Card.

(All images (C) copyright-Devin DuMond & Bethany Grenier)

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Panel Discussion with Jim C. Hines, Bethany Grenier, Emmy Jackson and Gary W. Olson
Start: May 7 2012 7:00 pm

Four authors, four unique spins on science fiction and
fantasy.

Experience the multimedia fantasy of Bethany Grenier, the re-imagined fairy tales of Jim C. Hines, the post-apocalyptic America of Emmy Jackson and the Detroit-based dark fantasy of Gary W. Olson in a single evening as each of these genre-blending local authors reads (and signs) their book at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor on May 7, 2012.

The readings start at 7pm, and there will be a Q&A and book signing immediately following.

Author, artist, hair dresser, sculptor and fashionista, Bethany
Grenier has been making art in one way or another for nearly
twenty-five years and has been accepted into both group and solo
showings of her art. Bethany brings her unique vision and passion for
style to all she does, co-producing the major arcana tarot deck for
her first book, Sings With Stars, released in March of 2010. Bethany
is currently writing the sequel to her first book and hopes to have it
finished and published by spring of next year. She also continues to
produce art for the continuation of the tarot deck started in the
first book, to be used in this book.

Jim C. Hines’ next book is Libriomancer, a modern-day fantasy about a
magic-wielding Yooper librarian, a hamadryad, a secret society founded
by Johannes Gutenberg, a flaming spider, and an enchanted convertible.
He’s also the author of the Princess series of fairy tale retellings
as well as the humorous Goblin Quest trilogy. His short fiction has
appeared in more than 40 magazines and anthologies. Online, he can be
found at http://www.jimchines.com/

Emmy Jackson is the author of the post-apocalyptic urban fantasy novel
Empty Cradle: The Untimely Death of Corey Sanderson. He lived as a
nomad in an RV for three years, wandering the continental United
States at will. He was born and raised in Detroit and always returns
no matter how many times he moves away. In Empty Cradle, he takes
readers on a road trip approximately a hundred and fifty years after a
plague of infertility leads to society’s violent collapse. For more
writing and information, check out http://www.emmyjackson.com.

Gary W. Olson’s first novel, Brutal Light, was published by Damnation
Books on December 1, 2011. Brutal Light is a supernatural dark fantasy
novel set in modern day Detroit, and debuted on December 1, 2011 from
Damnation Books. Olson grew up in Michigan and, despite the weather,
stuck around. In 1991 he graduated from Central Michigan University
and went to work as a software engineer. He loves to read and write
stories that transgress the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy,
and horror, while examining ideas of identity and its loss in the many
forms it can have. His website is
at http://www.garywolson.com

Hello Friends!

Let me apologize for the length of time that has passed since my last update, I’ve been very busy finishing the second book in The Dreaming series, called:

The Dreaming: Kingdom of Doubt

Of course it was only the first draft that I finished, but I’m super happy with it, and can’t wait to share it with you. In other news, Sings With Stars is no longer available in the Self-Published version, in anticipation of the Charmed Life Publishing re-release of the book as The Dreaming: Sings With Stars! If you really want a copy of the previous version, contact me, as I have a few left in my private stash.

And finally I’m excited to share the news that the Steampunk inspired play “Isle of Marvel” that will premier next week at Aquinas College here in Grand Rapids, MI will be featuring some of my personal steampunk goggles, monocles, and necklaces. These are pieces I’ve made and kept for myself. I’ll post pics as soon as I can!!

As a bonus, I got to design an ad for the book for the playbill!

thanks for reading!

-b

It’s time for some more sneak peeks at the illustrations by Devin DuMond “in progress”. These will ultimately become the major arcana of the companion tarot deck of my book Sings With Stars, soon to be re-published with Charmed Life Publishing as

The Dreaming:

Sings With Stars.

So obviously this is a titch late to be consider a 2011 years end wrap up, but in truth I needed a minute to reflect upon 2011 before I could comment on it. It was a busy year…

The highlights include: Going to Harry Potter world in FL, Seeing Voltaire and Rasputina in the middle of a Michigan blizzard, putting out the 2nd edition of Sings With Stars and taking it to the World Steam Expo after raising funds to do so through a very successful kickstarter.com campaign!

I moved to an awesome new salon, Imagination Creations! Did some awesome photo shoots (featuring my re-purposed clothing designs and styling) with my good friend Bethalynne Bajema that were used in Insects & Angels, including on with noted Steampunk photographer Lex Machina!

I was featured as the character in the Fool tarot card in Bethalynne Bajema’s tarot deck and in her graphic novel for the Black Ibis. This summer I performed in my first Butoh performance on the steps of the Grand Rapids Art Museum with my good friend Rachel Finan, wrote the sequel to my first book, and took a lot of random pictures with my Instagram iPhone app, all the while defending my title, “Queen of the Nerds”…

and of course the biggest development that started last years and will be a huge focus of this year is the re-publishing of Sings With Stars  by Charmed Life Publishing, to happen this spring! Featuring beautiful new illustrations by Devin DuMond! Keep checking in to see previews of illustrations as they develop…

Thanks to the following for additional photos:Jody Grenier, Bethalynne Bajema,

Lex Machina, Bruce Madden, and Jason Ash DuMond