Kelly R. Michaels's Blog

Hello everyone! I know it has been some time since I have made any sort of new author communication, but I am glad to announce that I will be at an event next year in April. So if you are in the neighborhood, you should definitely come see me Roanoke Author Invasion!

The event on April 4th is completely FREE and lasts from 10 am – 2 pm at the Holiday Inn Tanglewood. I am excited to get back in the swing of making author appearances. Hopefully I will have more to report soon!

I will be selling both Archer of the Lake and Prince of the Vale in their shiny new covers, courtesy of Sprinkles On Top Studios. I’ll also have copies of their older covers for sale at a discounted price. I am also *hoping* to have something new to sell by the time, but I’ll let you know once I have that information ready! Stay tuned for more updates in the future!

Come visit me in April and I will be happy to answer question or sign copies for you!

With the end of the year upon us, now would be a great time for me to outline my plans for the upcoming year. However, before I get started on that, I feel obligated to at least explain my online silence from this year. While my online presence has been, admittedly, rather inactive on the surface, I can assure you that there has been at least some work behind the scenes. On a personal level, I got married this year! Here's one of my favorite photos from my photographer. As such, a lot of my year was spent planning this wedding, even though it was a relatively smaller event. Aside from the wedding, I also got a new job where I am teaching closer to home. It is a position I've been wanting for a while now, ever since I began my teaching path. It's also been very eye-opening. In addition to adjusting to a new job and environment, I am subjected to more expectations on a professional level, which isn't a BAD thing, but it does require some adjustment. On a side note, my name is now legally Kelly Bahney. I will still be publishing my fantasy novels under my previous pen name "Kelly R. Michaels" and have reserved "Kelly Bahney" to use for my children's literature (as you can see with The ABCs of Shakespeare.)So what else have I been doing this year?I wrote a children's book (The ABC's of Shakespeare)I got it illustrated I published it!Admittedly, the announcement for publishing the children's book has been not as widely pronounced as I would like. This stems from my own shortcomings as well, my disinclination to market my own products. Plus, I am not as familiar with the world of children's literature. I definitely need to make more of a concerted effort to get my name our there, especially since my Shakespeare book relates to me more on a professional level.There are other things I have done:Slowly, SLOWLY worked on The Midwinter FairytaleAm getting it illustrated by a talented artistEVEN MORE SLOWLY been working on Queen of the PyreGot brand new/professional covers for all my books!Working on a second children's book and its illustrationsResearched a little into webcomics/graphic novels and how to make them.Tried (and failed) to narrate some audiobooksSubscribed to Book of the MonthI've listed my painful failures here too. The audiobook thing didn't pan out because no one far as wanted me to narrate their book after submitting several auditions. I don't have a please voice, but I wanted to try to flex my creative muscle. Perhaps I will try some time in the future.The covers I have mentioned before so I won't get into too much details with those. Although, I am excited for when Midwinter is finally released to you guys. It's a story I've been developing for several years and I wanted something special to accompany the words, hence the illustrations. The artist is MAGNIFICENT. Here is a special teaser of what to expect. To follow my Shakespeare children's book, I have another ELA nonfiction book being illustrated, which is focused around King Arthur. We are about halfway finished with those illustrations so hopefully it will be ready for next year!AS far as researching into web comics/graphic novels, it was essentially a small idea I entertained. I would love to be able to produce stories in that format as well, but I am not artistically talented enough to do. I tried exercising my drawing skills a bit as well, but those are no where near ready for public viewing, which would leave hiring an artist to illustrated my novels/comics for me. With everything else I am working on, this is not a viable venture for the immediate future; however, I do hope to one day dabble into this field. That's part of my problem though, wanting to create and produce but I need to focus on at least project to finish. It's been much harder to do so since I published Prince of the Vale, but I promise that I am working on it.So for the upcoming year, my wishlist:1. Finish/publish Midwinter.2. Finish/publish Queen3. Finish other children's book4. Work on other projectsI hope that this list proves more manageable next year than what is has been in 2018. I have no doubt that there will be more for you to enjoy in 2019, no matter what!-krm

I have some exciting news! The ABC's of Shakespeare is being prepared for purchase (for both ebook and paperback!) at this moment! I recently had the last illustration delivered to me for approval and I am EXCITED for you to enjoy this gem! Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a vocabulary term, character, historical figure, or a place relating to William Shakespeare, his plays and poems! My illustration, Aprilia, has does an immensely FANTASTIC job on the vivid and creative illustrations! Each illustration is accompanied by three lines of text: identification, a definition, and a more detailed explanation. I've shared the prototypes of this book (in its incomplete form) with several of my ninth grade students who all seem to have some level of interest with it. So, it is my firm belief that these books can be appropriate for an array of ages, starting with the younger students who are being introduced to letters. As a student grows older, they can familiarize themselves with the definition and later explanation, with the illustration helping them visualize what can often be a difficult or abstract concept. And of course, the ninth grade students officially starting their academic journey into the world of Shakespeare can find this book a handy reference for their studies! My idea is for children to start early with these big-idea ELA concepts so that they are not so lost once starting a more rigorous path.This would NOT have been possible without the assistance of several people who believed in this project enough to help fund my crowdsourcing project. And here it is. I'm including the cover in case you have not been able to marvel at is awesomeness enough ;)If my donors would be so king to privately contact me so that I may have their mailing address, I will be able to ship them their reserved copy of the book. As a note, the Kindle ebook will be ready for the release first, while the paperback may take up to a week to account for a proof and adjustments. Thank you all for being patient.-krm

As a teacher in a high school, it would be difficult to ignore the push for more STEM-related classes/prep for jobs. This movement started gathering its bearings even when I was graduating high school (circa 2011). As an English Language Arts teacher, it is easy to find myself in positions where I feel inclined to defend the necessity of English/humanities classes, be it to students or on social media. I went into this field; I should justify it, right?I have very many interesting students who enjoy asking me interesting questions. They usually seem rather fascinated by me because I am so young and possibly not that far from their age group (and I've recently just learned that they think it's weird/cool/unique that I'm a female video gamer, since they've never had a teacher like that). One student in particular asked me a generic question that has surprisingly stuck with me even weeks later. This particular student is one who enjoys the writings of Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and frequently researches the latest on NASA, Space-X, Kepler systems and the like, occasionally sharing some of his trivia findings with me.The question in question (pun intended): "What did you want to be when you grow?"Innocent in nature. Usually when my students ask me questions, I attempt to give it some thought so that they have a sort of nugget of information they can take and analyze for themselves. My answer on this one was simple--Despite making the occasional declarations of being a veterinarian or marine biologist (usually something to do with animals), I had always wanted to be a writer and, throughout various stages of my life, a teacher. I didn't know I would be an English teacher though, with some retrospect I was an idiot as I recall discussing this matter in 12th grade AP English; I had explicitly stated I wanted to be a high school English teacher or college professor then. Strange with how life works.But then I surprised myself with an addendum I never had admitted or realized before. "Although, if I could do it all over again now, I would like to be a scientist or engineer of some sort."The student, as in the general fashion of most students, nodded and wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with the information. Unsurprisingly, he mentioned some vague interest in becoming an astrophysicist but he also had a hobby of writing rap songs (not necessarily PERFORMING them, just rapping).I've thought about the statement for several time. I think perhaps my inclination to admit as such stems from the push for STEM programs (again, pun intended). Just last semester, our faculty meeting featured a guest speaker that was a chief engineer for the local Nissan plant. His presentation reinforced the necessitated of STEM, citing that within 10 years, Smart cars will be permanent installation on our roads as well as various other advances in the households, evolving beyond the mere assistants like Google Home and Alexa.I do have a knack for technology. This is cemented to me even further when I work on the technical aspects of my websites/publishing biz, when I worked in the Electronics department during college and helped troubleshoot a number of customer-related problems, and even when I assist my own colleagues when we are newly introduced to programs and equipment that require our understanding and fluency. The speaker affirmed again and again how STEM is the future. I don't necessarily disagree. It's an important evolution of adapting culture and society. That's what happens when it's a race of sorts for Apple and Samsung to push their latest cellphone every year.So if I could do it all over again, maybe I would try my hand in that field. I don't have buyer's remorse with my college degree per se, but I think I would enjoy tapping into a subject where I'm not as familiar as I am with English, to become more well-rounded. I would still, more than likely, write my books, but maybe I would have a stronger basis for any of my sci fi ideas.Not to dog my own field, of course. ELA is vastly important too. The necessity of communication and connecting with humans via art and literature simply cannot be overstated. We are humans, and the ability to problem solve only works when you have the social skills necessary to detect the problems. Because reading is so, so important, and I could never stress that enough to my students.

This last week we had our spring break for the school year. It wasn't as relaxing as would be ideal, but I used the opportunity to schedule a surgery I needed for the SVT I was diagnosed with back in January.For those of you who don't already know, a few days after my twenty-fifth birthday, I experienced heart palpitations--basically a very fast heart rate. I was shuffled around in ambulance, sent from an urgent care clinic, to an emergency room, and then I was sent off to Nashville for closer observation by trained cardiologists. I was discharged the next day when it was quickly assessed I had SVT, a type of heart arrhythmia/irregularity in my heart's electrical impulses due to certain tissue/cells around the heart. I was recommended for a catheter ablation--a non-invasive cardiac surgery where the doctor inserts a catheter in my legs and threads it through my veins to heat treat/use electrocardiography to destroy (or ablate) the offending tissue/cells.As this was my first surgery, I was VERY nervous. I stressed over it for days. I was told I would be sedated, but at first a nurse told me I would be conscious sedated. Then the day of the doctor and nurses told me I would be out. Then the anesthesiologist told me I would technically be awake but not aware of it. I remember being wheeled in the operating room and having several monitors attached to me. My elevated heart rate was very audible in the room by a solid beeping. The nurse in charge of sedation felt my hands, commented on their clamminess and asked if I was nervous. I quickly affirmed. Then I suddenly felt relaxed by whatever medicine they gave me. The doctor wasn't in the room yet, but another nurse called him up real quick and asked if he wanted to start me on a light sedation. He said yes, the sedation lady disappeared, and then the next thing I remember is waking up three hours later, grumpy, groggy, and my throat hurting from the breathing tube. The wonders of modern medicine continues to astound me.I endured my three days of recovery, not lifting more than 5 pounds. And I returned to work as normal Monday. All is well and I've got several things in the works to hopefully update with you soon.

So I thought I was being rather clever by using Wix as a website host, giving me a multitude of design options. Apparently I was not clever enough to not delete my previous blog attempt. Oops. So if you still have that blog link floating around on Facebook, you'll probably get an error message. It sucks because I spent a lot of time getting all those pretty links together for your convenience, and I don't back up my blog posts (Double oops). And now I'm too lazy to retype the whole post from memory. Basically, the drafting projects (Queen of the Pyre and The Midwinter Fairytale) are still works in progress. Prince of the Vale is now available in hardback. My GoFundMe campaign is still active for those of you wanting to support The ABCs of Shakespeare (and many thanks to those that already have!). And I'm trying to get the ball rolling on two more illustrations projects that I won't jinx by giving TOO many details.Today, I did attend a Girl Scouts troop for their career/professionals meeting. I attended as both a teacher and a writer, but most of the girls were interested in the writing part, asking me how it was like, how hard it was and all that. I gave a girl named Makayla a book! I hope she enjoys it. And I was duly rewarded for the whole experience with Girl Scout cookies!To end my apology for deleting my previous blog post, I'm going to "leak" a teaser for one of my children's book projects. Enjoy. ;)

I am excited to announce that Archer of the Lake  is now available to purchase as a hardback book!  It is available for purchase at both Amazon and Lulu.  Prince of the Vale  is also currently available in hardback on Lulu only, but should be listed on Amazon in the coming weeks.  When I first ventured down this self publishing path, I didn't think I would be able to sell (much less design/create) a hardback book at all.  Thanks to Lulu (no thanks to Lulu on how expensive it is to order SO MANY proofs) for making this service so readily available.

It should be noted that the hardback books are of a linen blue finish and gold foil lettering on the spine.  They come with dust jackets that I've designed, and the flaps have special content/teasers and images that  have not been previously seen before.

Speaking of which, both Archer of the Lake and Prince of the Vale have brand new covers!  Archer's looks very similar to its original, just over a cleaner image, and Prince has a new take on the split face image.  I have tweaked the text placement on both to be more uniform.  (I'm going to do a similar edit for Queen​) Here are they for your viewing pleasure!
My last order of business is that I am trying to get The ABCs of Shakespeare into a format readily available for consumer purchase.  I am  going to have it formatted for a paperback book, and my last hurdle in this obstacle is securing illustrations for it.  I have found a WONDERFUL artist who does beautiful illustrations and has agreed to illustrate my book for a super reasonable price.  But, I could use your help! As much as it pains me to ask for money, I have decided to create a Gofundme page to raise money to hire this illustrator.  She has already been gracious enough to give me a sample (which you can see on the page).

For your contribution, I am offering to give away free, autographed copies of The ABCs of Shakespeare (includes shipping, if necessary) for donations of at least $20.  Make sure you include your email address when you pay for your donation so I can get in contact with you once the books are ready.  For anonymous donations, please message or email your proof of purchase so I can make arrangements to send your copy!Thank you guys!

This is the first in a series of exciting new updates for you!

I have endeavored in a new project quite unlike one I've attempted before.  As the title suggests, I've branched out my  self-publishing ventures, broadened my horizons, to include new genres, of a sort:
I've written a baby book!
Well, whatever does this mean?  Let me start from the beginning.

My dear friend Halley, who has been mentioned here on occasion (and is in the dedication for Archer has a child, born this past September, a lovely child by the name of Seelie.  As the mother of such a child, Halley has dutifully collected baby books of all sorts to supply with which to supply her daughter.  We also play D&D with Halley on the occasion (her husband is an excellent-fine DM, anyway).  While visiting for a session, Halley shared some of her baby books with us, noting their interesting subject.

They were books by Chris Ferrie, an Australian physicist who has a penchant for writing STEM-based books for children.  (Example, ABCs of Math, ABCs of Science, ABCs of Physics).  The whole idea was starting big-concept ideas for younger ages.  It should be noted that these books weren't necessarily billed as STEM, but it's a pretty good description of them.  Halley made the offhand comment, "If there were ELA ones, I would have gotten them too."   

The tone of her comment was apologetic, as if somewhat guilt-ridden she did not have any sort of representation for my subject (as I am an English teacher, after all).  But it did inspire me otherwise.  I'm an ELA person, an English teacher.  AND I'm a writer.  The answer was obvious.  I would have to supply Seelie with her big ELA concepts early on.  I would fill this imaginary market of mine.

The actually process hasn't been quite so easy to discern.

The Chris Ferrie books were board books.  Naturally, I wanted to self-publish board books, as they are ideal for infants and other young readers.  Apparently, there isn't exactly a print on demand service for board books.  There are a few companies that will print your board book, but you must buy in bulk.  One company has a 1,000 book minimum.  Another has a 500 minimum.  These were not ideal paths, mostly because I do not have the capital to pursue the bulk-buying endeavor.  Nevertheless, I was undeterred.

I wrote the book, deciding to use Shakespeare as my first subject (my classes were studying Romeo and Juliet at the time).  I did the ABC concept, assigning every letter with a term, name, or place associated with Shakespeare.  I came up with a few other subject ideas, but stuck with Shakespeare.  So the writing part of the book was completed.  That came the next difficult part, illustrations which are a MUST HAVE for children's books.  I am not an illustrator, so I encountered yet another obstacle in this path.

I've considered several different avenues in order to solve these problems.  Hiring an outside illustrator, researching how to make board books from scratch.  I puzzled over many of these.  I had to determine what exactly I wanted and what I wanted to achieve.  For my first taste of this project, I  started something simple.

I discovered a website called Pint-Sized Productions where you can make your own custom board books.  It's similar to a print on demand service, except you are limited by page number, book size, and it's not as cost effective as a POD.  For example, one 5.56 x 5.56 in book with 24 pages is over $30 before taxes and shipping.  Still, I used their services along with unlicensed stock photography and was able to put together an actual book.  You will see it listed for sale on my website, if you go to Books > Little Owlet, listed at just under $57.  This price gives me a very tiny profit margin and includes me personally shipping the board book to you.  Because of the nature of this posting, shipping will take some time with it (for me to print it from Pint Sized, then ship it to a buyer).

I realize that this is SUPER expensive to spend on a book, a baby book even.  But, I wanted to make the option available to any possibly interested parties.  I still plan on making a more serious, concerted effort with illustrations, probably hiring a collaborator to assist me.  And I'm interested in developing a cheaper, paperback option, which allows me much more freedom with each individual page.

You will also notice, perhaps, that my pen name is slightly different with the baby book.  It's listed me as "Kelly Bahney" which will be my future married name.  I wanted a different name to offset my other publishing name.

I will update as the paperback becomes available, but I did want to share this exciting new endeavor!
-krm

Because my end of the year promotion with Smashwords was so successful, I am offering Prince of the Vale  FREE for ebook from now until February 15th!

Use the promo code: ZD47S 

**This promotion only works for Smashwords and iBooks.

Being a teacher allows one all of the advantages of national holidays, snow days.  A three day weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. turns into a four day weekend when the Friday before is cancelled due to inclement weather (and a five day weekend when the returning Tuesday is also cancelled).

But I am here to tell you about my Saturday.  My weekend has been an interesting ride to say the least.

Saturday afternoon, I took a shower and then afterward, I was gathering laundry.  Immediately after bending over to pick up a laundry basket, I experienced a phenomena called heart palpitations. Basically, my heart had been pounding, felt like it was racing. No chest pain or tightness. No difficult breathing. Just an elevated heart rate. I'm sure my anxiety exacerbated some of it when I started becoming nervous.  I laid down for about ten minutes when the feeling subsided.  I went back to collecting laundry and drove ten minutes to my grandmother's house to start on laundry.  When I sat down again, I began experiencing heart palpitations once again.  I tried laying down.  They didn't go away.  I took an aspirin.  Nothing helped.


I drove home (probably a stupid decision in hindsight), but again, I didn't have any chest pain, difficulty breathing or performing tasks.  Jamie was home from work and I gave him a teary/freak out mode/explanation of what was going on with me.  He calmed me down, and I made a decision.  Given my family history, I decided to go the local Urgent Care Clinic. They did some tests and a 12 lead and decided to send me to the hospital in an ambulance! Cue more freaking out and tears!


While in the ambulance, I know that my heart rate peaked at around 223 bpm. Paramedics gave me adenosine, which basically stopped and restarted my heart so it wouldn't beat so fast.


I was transported to our local hospital (which does NOT have a good reputation), where they ran some tests, EKGs, administered various beta blockers to normalize my heart rate (it was still fluctuating over 100) and blood thinners to check for clots. This helped bring it down to the 80s. My bloodwork showed I had elevated levels of a cardiac enzyme that appears when the heart undergoes damage or stress, so while I was currently fine, they were worried about that and had no idea at what caused this (no previous symptoms, this literally started when I bent over to pick up a laundry basket). I did NOT have a heart attack, which is clear since I could walk, talk, and function. If there had been issue with my arteries or blood vessels, I could have had a heart attack. The doctor in the ER was also concerned about damage being done to a muscle above my heart during my fast heart rate. He made the decision to send me to Saint Thomas in Nashville (a good hour and a half away and not our usual first choice in hospitals) so I could be monitored by a cardiologist, mostly because Huntsville and Crestwood didn't have any beds available on account of having so many flu patients.


So about 11:00 pm last night I was loaded into another ambulance. Paramedics are really friendly people, but the hour and a half ride was absolute TORTURE. DO NOT RECOMMEND. They wanted me in an ambulance to monitor me, but I don't see how they could because the machine gave off erratic readings for every bump we hit (and there were a LOT of bumps). Also gurneys are not friendly to sharp tailbones or wide hips FYI.


Arrived in Nashville after midnight, and bid farewell to my lovely paramedics. More blood was drawn, more EKGs, spoke to a nightshift cardiologist, who was concerned that there did not seem to be a trigger or prior symptoms. Literally, as a twenty-five year old female, this was the first time I'd ever been hospitalized.  My thyroid was good, no sign of diabetes or pregnancy. No clots or infections. He mentioned that my potassium levels were a bit high. Then I slept a few hours. More blood was drawn once I woke up.


Saw another cardiologist. His assessment was that I have SVT, an arrhythmia caused by an extra muscle around my heart. He said it usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. I have a 50% chance of experiencing another episode this year and a 100% of experiencing one within the next 5 years.


He recommended a procedure called am ablation to heat treat and remove that extra muscle tissue around my heart. Medicine wouldn't be ideal for my situation because of how infrequent this would happen. He has done said procedure since 1991 and says that there is an overall 95% success rate with no complications.


So, I'm supposed to be contacted by someone in the future to schedule this procedure, which he described the process as looking for blockages in the heart, outpatient with 3 days of rest and recovery. Meanwhile, I was administered a beta blocker and then discharged from the hospital yesterday with a prescription for more beta blockers.

I am fine now and am grateful that we have been off from school so I can take this opportunity to recover.  I'm taking my meds as instructed as well as monitoring my blood pressure and heart rate.  After talking with other people, this condition seems to be a lot more common than I had been initially aware, and most people can manage with surgery.

I've had Jamie with me the entire time, and he has been an absolute godsend. 
​

Conclusion: no more laundry for me.