Luminous Creatures Press

About a year ago my friend Emily and I started a writing group of two. We meet every other week at a cafe in Fairfax, CA and talk about the writing we’ve sent each other. We also eat lunch–generally the same thing every week, so whenever we change our order someone raises an eyebrow. They’re really nice at the Barefoot Cafe, so if you ever find yourself near there, check them out. (The warm spinach salad with grilled chicken is good.)

Then one day in June when we were talking about what to do with the things we’ve written, Emily suggested that we start an e-publishing company. It sounded a little daunting and kind of crazy, but also exciting, so I said why not? It turns out that Emily had already done quite a bit of research about ebook publishers, so a lot of our early work was already done. We got our name from a writing exercise I had done for fun one week. I had an opening sentence but no story, so I drafted five possible beginnings to five different novels. There were luminous creatures in one of them. (That’s not the one I ended up working on, just in case you wondered). It’s a great name for a fantasy fiction publishing company, isn’t it? Luminous Creatures Press.

So flash forward to now, and we’re just about to launch. The website will go live tonight (once our tech guy, Dave, finishes playing with Ralphie). We’ve already got a Facebook page, and I’m thinking about signing up for a Twitter account (although just the idea of Twitter makes me want to run away). Our first book, a collection of short stories called UNGODLY HUNGERS, will be out next week–Emily has done the painstaking work of formatting it for both Amazon.com and Smashwords. She’s going to teach me so I can take on half of that work. I’ll have to get over my aversion to all things technical, but I think I can manage that.

We’ve also started work on a second collection of stories: THE PAINTED DOG AND OTHER STORIES. That should be out in early spring. Next comes the first of our Regency Magic series of books, MARY BENNET. And in the fall / winter we’ll begin releasing a gorgeous trilogy written by Emily. I’m very proud of this work, and I think people will like it!

I’ve envisioned many things for my life–some of them pretty outrageous like being a ballerina who also managed the Pittsburgh Pirates–but I never imagined I would start a company of any kind. Yet when I was traipsing down the corridor at the Marin County Hall of Justice on my way to file a Fictitious Business Name with the country clerk, I felt like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.