Upon the Wings of Greater Things

The creative endeavours of Starla Huchton

Cover Reveal! The Ghost Rebellion by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine

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You guys, this is something pretty awesome. It’s not often that I do cover reveals for other people on this blog, but today I get to share something I’m really excited about!

Last year, I was approached by Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine asking if I’d be up to the challenge of creating a cover for the next book in The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series. The first four books were all traditionally published, but book 5 was going to be funded by a Kickstarter. It took me all of two seconds to answer with a resounding YES, but I knew going in the bar was set very high. Could I create a cover on par with Big 5 resources? Just little ole me sitting here in my house by myself? Was it a thing I could actually do, and do successfully?

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Wherein I Mess With History

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So, here we are in 2016 already. Last year was a bit of a blur for me, with days flying by as fast as pages being rifled in a book. It went by so quickly, I didn’t get much of a chance to take a breath and plan my release schedule for this year until very recently.

Rather than prattle on about that, however, today I’m writing to let you know that I’ve sneaky-ninja-dropped a brand new book on Amazon! No big fuss this time. I simply finished, edited, and shoved it out the door. Marketing? What’s that? Pfft. :P

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Guest post – Swimming Upstream: Telling the Story that Doesn’t Sell

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I have a guest post for you! I’ve known Tee Morris (and his amazing wife, Philippa Ballantine) for many years, and have been blessed to have their support and wisdom at my fingertips whenever I needed it. So today, I’d like to share the thoughts of the Yodas I’ve had access to since the earliest days of my writing career. I recently posed a question that I think a lot of authors have asked themselves (or been asked by others): What makes you keep writing certain books when you’re made to question whether or not they’ll succeed?

Tee brings up some excellent points to consider here, so if you’re debating whether or not to write the thing you want to write, do keep reading.  -SH

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Jumping Genres: Reflections

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At Balticon this past weekend I was part of one of the very last panels of the con. The audience was tiny, which was to be expected for a panel taking place the last day of the con, but I thought you might like to hear my thoughts on the subject.

The title of the panel was “How Hard Can It Be? Jumping Out of Genre,” and was actually one of my suggested ideas this year. Over the last few years, my writing has been all over the place, and I wondered if other authors had experienced some of the strangeness I feel when I talk about writing in multiple genres, or how scary that can be, especially if you don’t know if your audience will follow you.

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The State of Starla: Release Schedule and a Hypothesis

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So, back in January, I decided that 2014 would be my Year of No Queries. Admittedly, it’s been a hard habit to break, but, so far I’ve only slipped twice, that being responding to a reply to a query I’d sent out last year (which I reluctantly backed away from), and a what-the-hell Twitter pitch I threw out that I immediately regretted doing. Anyway, I embarked on this year with a little hypothesis I wanted to test.

The idea was that rapidly releasing books would make a large impact on my career as an author.

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Release Update: MASTER OF MYTH

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So, last week Thursday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. Around about eleven p.m., I was sitting around wondering why more people didn’t release pirate-themed books on that day.

And that’s when it hit me. Uh, I have a pirate book. I could potentially do that.

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Cover Reveal – The Ministry Protocol!

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You may or may not remember my little story From Paris, With Regret, written for the Tales From the Archives podcast anthology, but it marked one of the most cherished accomplishments of my writing life to date. I am fortunate to count Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris amongst my friends, and to have them ask me to write a piece to accompany one of my favorite books of the last few years was unbelievable for me. The idea they greenlighted for me spoke volumes about their faith in my abilities as a writer, and, for that, I am ever grateful. I can’t think of many authors that would allow a complete unknown to create a backstory for one of two main characters for their signature series. Honestly, I still get a little teary with gratitude and amazement over this.

And so today, I am delighted and humbled to present to you the cover for their newest endeavor. Awhile back, Tee and Pip successfully funded a Kickstarter for a board game and companion anthology for their Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series.

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