By Desirae Gracyn | Written: September 8th, 2025

Back in July, Gail Lynn Brown asked me if I’d like to be a judge on a new anthology she was going to publish, Saltwater and Ash. I couldn’t believe this. My heart soared. I literally screamed. A lot. This was such a shock and honor. Had I really gone from a struggling girl last year who was trying to finish her first novel, find her way in the writing world, and didn’t know many people, to now being a published author of her own novel as well as several short stories, have many friends in the writing world, and being asked to be a judge in a popular magazine? Yes, yes, I have.

This is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I rode this high for days. And I cried. Happy tears, of course.

Well, I said yes a million times over.

This will be a very new experience for me. Something totally different. I’m excited to see what I learn. I am excited to see how I’ll grow from this. And I’m excited to read so many fun stories.

If you’re wondering about the anthology, please visit Micromance Magazine. I’d love for everyone to write a story in it. Even if you don’t write romance or fantasy, take a chance. It never hurts to try. It can help you grow as an author, and it’s a fun experience.

As you see from the graphic below, this is a paramythromantasy. How fun? This anthology is so unique. Someone told me recently that they wanted to write for this anthology because they loved how different it was. In their words, they said, “When you think paranormal, you see vampires, ghosts, and werewolves. When you think of fantasy, you don’t see humans”, not really. Well, we combined it. And I’d love to see what you do with that. But make sure there is lots of romance from the very beginning, to the middle, and follow it through to the end. Also, make sure you have magic. The worlds should collide if you write a contemporary piece. It should be a story that features the impossible.

Throughout the months, I’ve met and followed a wonderful person on Twitter, Adam Gaffen. He’s an awesome person who loves supporting indie authors. He himself is a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I haven’t had the time to read his stories yet, but their covers are beautiful and the storyline is very intriguing. He also has a cool Newsletter. I love it.

So, Adam Gaffen offered to interview me, or maybe I asked him. Lol. I don’t remember. Regardless, he interviewed me. It was a written interview, and I got to choose which questions I wanted to answer out of a load of options. I loved the questions that he had in there. They were fun. I enjoyed it so much. If you’d like to read the interview, click here.

Thank you again, Adam Gaffen. I appreciate how much you support indie authors. 

Almost two years ago, I met a woman who changed my life and writing style. Without Demi Michelle Schwartz, I wouldn’t be where I am today. She is a phenomenal, magical genie. She wears so many hats and has so many jobs she does. One of those jobs is a podcast. It’s called Literary Blend: A Publishing Podcast. It’s such a wonderful place to learn about the writing world. You should read about it, see what’s on there, and listen to some (or all) of the episodes.

Any who, Demi had asked me back in July if I’d like to be featured in her podcast. Of course, I jumped, screamed, scared my kitten, and automatically said yes. I couldn’t believe this. Since I met her, I wanted to be on the podcast.

On August 10th, Chapter 62 – The Joys and Obstacles of Being a Panster with Desirae Gracyn was published on Spotify and other places you listen to podcasts. I am a pantser and pantsed the podcast. It was so much fun, and the first time I’ve ever done something like that. I loved it. If you’d like to listen to the podcast, click here.

AUGUST WAS A SUCCESS! I got five acceptances this month. FIVE!

So, in regard to acceptances:

In August, Dragon Soul Press accepted my short story, “Debt Paid,” a horror with speculative fiction, written under Caroline Crews, into the Devil You Know anthology. This story is probably the darkest one I’ve written and the second horror I’ve done. It features a Wendigo! This is my fifteenth acceptance. If you’d like to read more about the story, I’ll be posting a summary here in October when the book is released.

I also submitted a second piece to this submission call, titled “Splash of Death”. Dragon Soul Press received so many submissions for this horror anthology that they made it into two books. My second piece was accepted into Terror Reigns by Dragon Soul Press. This is a fun thriller. It is my sixteenth acceptance. I love this story. It originally started as “Prom Threat” but had a bombing at a school. Because that can be triggering, and I didn’t want to upset my readers, I turned it into “Splash of Death” and removed the bombing aspect. I can’t be happier with this choice. It is now so much fun and very unique.

KissMet/Micromance Magazine accepted my flash fiction piece, “Mistletoe Bet,” a silver romance story for publication in their holiday anthology. This is a fun older adult story that I enjoyed writing. This makes my list of acceptances seventeen. If you’d like to read more about the flash fiction story, I’ll be posting the summary here once the book releases on Halloween.

When writing a piece for the holiday anthology, I mentioned my love for Halloween to the owner. She then allowed me to write a Halloween story as well. If it was good enough, she’d use it as the opening story, which then would lead into the holiday stories. I was so honored by this. I had to do amazing. I submitted my first piece to her, and I felt sick after I hit send. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good enough, and I was ashamed of myself for submitting something like that. I then went back to the drawing board and made this wild, immersive, full of Halloween romantic story. Man, I am proud of this story. It’s so great! I submitted this, and she loved it. So this makes number eighteen accepted, and it will, in fact, be the opening story. I also added a Christmas part to it, which will bring us into the Christmas stories. And… guess what… I created a sequel in the male main character’s POV for the winter anthology. I hope this one gets accepted. I’ll know by mid-November at the latest. If you’d like to read more about the flash fiction story, I’ll be posting the summary here once the book releases on Halloween.

Lastly, Flare Magazine accepted my short story, “Darkness Within,” an intense emotional fiction piece with speculative elements. This is my first story that I wrote for them. I learned about the owner through Micromance Magazine. The owner, Kelly Esparza, writes beautiful romance pieces. I fell in love with her piece featuring a bus stop and had to know more about her. Her magazine features stories written about chronic illness, mental health, and neurodivergence. These stories are so close to home for me. I couldn’t believe there was a place for this. I had to submit something to her magazine. And I did. This makes my list of acceptances nineteen. If you’d like to read more about the short story, I’ve posted the summary here.

In regard to publications: 

During this month, “Darkness Within,” my intense emotional fiction piece with speculative elements, was published in the fourth issue of Flare Magazine. This story made me cry while writing it. I believe and hope it will touch a lot of people. This makes my published pieces nine. If you’d like to read more about the story, click here. If you’d like to read the story for free, click here. Please be aware that there are triggers.

“Time for Change” under Caroline Crews and “Time to Fly” under Beatrice Crews are two of my pieces published in Beyond the Veil by Dragon Soul Press. I haven’t done my deboxing video for these, as the paperback isn’t out yet. Both stories are fantasy. This makes my published pieces eleven. If you’d like to read more about them, visit this link.

This month, I decided to finally go back to the gym. It was time. I’d been doing well with the diet plan, and needed to go to the gym, too. By the end of the month, I had completed five weeks on the diet without cheating, and two weeks of successfully going to the gym four days a week at forty minutes each. Slowly, the time increased. By the end of August, it’s an hour gym session.

My goal is to run three miles without stopping at an eleven-minute mile. I successfully got to two and a half miles nonstop by the end of August. I am feeling great and back to my old self. Random tidbit of information, despite being on the meal plan for five weeks and starting the workout plan on August 11th, hitting the gym four days a week, I haven’t lost any weight. I might be doing something wrong. In September, I’ll be testing this out to see.

Thank you, everyone, for reading my blog and learning more about me.

I might hopefully soon have a new job post to celebrate, and I might add the stories I’ve read for the month to the updates. We’ll see.