<![CDATA[DARKTAG PUBLISHING - Josy B.]]>Sun, 05 Jan 2025 08:23:11 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[New year, new book?]]>Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:47:12 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/new-year-new-bookPromises, promises. 
We did it. 2024 was a great year for us. We are now published authors and, not going to lie, it feels amazing. But now what?
With all the excitement of the book launch for This is What We Are and Other Stories, writing new material for a follow-up book has been easier said than done. 
Marketing a new book takes time and energy. With a full-time job and familial responsibilities, it is sadly one or the other in order to not burn the candle at both ends. 
So, if the second anthology doesn't pop up in 2025, know that it's not because we are sitting on our laurels. However, I promise myself and any readers that are interested, that I will have at least one story ready to go by the end of the year. So stay tuned and sign up to the newsletter for a FREE story in the months to come. 
Happy New Year!

Some images from the book launch.

]]><![CDATA[Book launch Party]]>Sun, 03 Nov 2024 03:48:45 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/book-launch-partyI didn't know when I was building relationships with the staff at a local bookstore that many years later, it would come in handy when looking for a place to have a book launch party. 

Stopping at Type Books is always a fun experience and they even have added a French book section for children recently.  Independent bookstores are an amazing part of the community.  They are a place to get books you wouldn't necessarily get anywhere else and nurture the artistic communities in their neighbourhood. I believe it's fitting that Nora and I are launching our self-published book at Type Books. ​

Join us at our launch party on Thursday, November 21st, 2024 at 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. We'll have refreshments and read some excerpts of the book. If you want us to sign your copy of the book, it will be our great pleasure to do so. 

See the invitation below and let us know if you will come and say hello by clicking on the RSVP button. 

​See you there! 
RSVP
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RSVP
]]><![CDATA[Ebook is on Amazon!]]>Fri, 11 Oct 2024 04:15:58 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/ebook-is-on-amazonThis is What We Are and Other Stories is finally available for purchase on Amazon! If you want the print book, you'll have to wait a little more, but the ebook is ready just in time for the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada. 

​https://a.co/d/iGPSfoga.co/d/iGPSfog

If you give it a read and you like it, don't forget to leave a review! 
]]><![CDATA[Book on Amazon in a couple of days]]>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 03:45:35 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/book-on-amazon-in-a-couple-of-daysIt's done. I clicked the publish button. Our ebook will be available on Amazon in about 72 hours. So exciting! 

The print version is still in the works since we're having some trouble with the cover, but we will hopefully have copies in our hands for sale by November. When we do get our hands on those copies, we'll be sure to make them available at our book launch. 

Stay tuned for the book launch date and details!
]]><![CDATA[working towards the deadline]]>Mon, 05 Aug 2024 23:57:46 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/working-towards-the-deadlineWe're really racing towards the Fall deadline that we've given ourselves for the launch of our anthology. There is so much to do, so much to think about. 

I'm currently formatting the book using Atticus. It's pretty easy to use and I'm happy with it so far. The next step is to get it finalized and up on the distribution platforms that allow us to get our book to readers. 

Amazon is the first that comes to mind. 

    Please let me know where you get your books.

]]><![CDATA[the book cover is ready!]]>Sun, 28 Jul 2024 23:57:40 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/the-book-cover-is-readyPicture
We finally have our book cover! This is super exciting. Now comes the hard part: Putting it all together and marketing it the book. If you're interested in updates on when it comes out, sign up for our Newsletter. 
​
Newsletter Sign Up
]]><![CDATA[the twilight zone]]>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 03:15:13 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/the-twilight-zoneI was recently told by several people that my writing was reminiscent of the Twilight Zone stories. Nothing could have made me happier. Growing up, I couldn't get enough of watching the old episodes and then the more recent ones as well. Although they often gave me nightmares, I continued watching them with interest. Not because I enjoyed being scared (although maybe there was an element of that, I'm sure), but because the stories were strange in a way that made me think and wonder about life through the lens of the absurd and fantastical. 

I still remember the one classic episode from 1960, Eye of the Beholder (spoiler alert), where the audience doesn't see anyone's face and we just know that a woman is about to have a life changing surgery on her face. The suspense and the reveal at the end of the episode in which everyone but the woman looked like pigs left me in shock and wanting more of the same. 

In a similar fashion, I try to take the people on a journey with my writing in which there are twists and turns and an ending that might not have been what the reader anticipated. I enjoy creating fantasy worlds with struggles or themes similar to our own that make us think and reflect on our lives and situations. 

So when someone tells me that my story makes them think of the Twilight Zone, I take that to be the best compliment someone could give me. 

I'm super excited to share my stories with everyone in the new anthology, This is What We Are and Other Stories. We're working on getting the book out this Fall. Sign up for the newsletter to get updates on launch dates. ]]><![CDATA[Welcome]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 01:08:34 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/welcomeIf you're here, it's because you're interested in knowing more about me, my writing and reading science fiction, horror, and fantasy. 

I'll do my best not to disappoint. 

That being said, here is an excerpt from the story "Tagged" from the new anthology, This is What We Are and Other Stories. 
Mary sifted through the pile of severed hands. There were limbs of every shape, size, and colour amassed haphazardly on the stainless steel counter of the morgue. Some were hacked off cursorily, while other cuts resembled something the surgeons she worked with would carefully execute. What they did all have in common, however, was that they were all missing their tags.
If you want to read more about Mary in "Tagged", stay tuned for the launch of the book and subscribe to our newsletter updates. 
]]><![CDATA[sneak peak into a new story]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:39:27 GMThttp://darktagpublishing.com/josy-b/sneak-peak-into-a-new-storyI'm constantly working on what seems like a million stories at once. Here is an excerpt of one I'm working on right now about a woman who has the power to help others heal themselves through pulling at their auras. Be mindful that this is a rough draft and that it's not been edited or formatted. Your comments and feedback are most welcome!

I See You (Working Title)

Rosa saw the good in everyone. Literally. Ever since she could remember, the glow coming from people, in degrees of intensity and varying colors, clued her in to the benevolence of that said person. 

Standing over the hospital bed of a sleeping Thadeus McFerrin, she discerned a swirling energy composed of dark blues and grays with a soft pale yellow peeking through. 

"You poor man." She whispered as she caressed his wispy white hair. 

Something had happened to this man that caused his light to be taken over, but she was determined to extract it from him. Rosa rubbed her work-worn hands together vigorously until she could no longer tolerate the heat that formed in her palms. Slowly, she hovered them over Thadeus' frail body, starting from his crown, moving down to his heaving torso, and ending at the tips of his yellowed nail bed. She repeated the process over and over, willing the yellow thread she spotted to come to the surface. After thirty minutes, she felt her hands overheating and her energy depleting. All she saw around the old man were the dark swirls, as if her efforts had emboldened them to overtake the yellow thread.

"Don't worry, Thadeus, I'll be back in the morning." She patted his wrinkled arm and left to talk to his family in the hospital waiting room. 

"How is he?" His daughter Miranda inquired as soon as she saw Rosa emerge from the room. Rosa could see swirls of greens and golds around the petite blonde. 

"No change. I'm hoping I can see him again tomorrow."

Thadeus's son Clive cast a disdainful look at Rosa, the same pattern of swirls as his father floating around him, except the threads of yellow were woven throughout. When his sister had hired her, he had tried to stop Rosa from coming to their father's bedside, calling her a charlatan and a crook. He opened his mouth to say something, probably to berate her, but Miranda cut in even before anything came out of his mouth.

"Thank you Rosa. We'll be waiting."

Thadeus wasn't the first person she had failed with her gift. She still had another chance to help him heal, but she recognized the signs. He was too tired and his aura too corrupted to respond. Her father had been the same in the end. 

Rosa trudged up her third-floor walk up thinking about what she could have done differently to save her father. But he had always been stubborn and refused to listen. She would have thought that having the gift himself would make it easier to grasp the necessity of keeping his aura in balance. But just like Thadeus, her father's aura had lost all its shine, all its life. And so had he in the end. Bitter and sad, the cancer had eaten at his insides until the darkness took over him.

That's it for now. What do you think? 
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