Tag: Writing

Posted in updates

Life Changes, and Catching Up

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Whew! It’s been an eventful time since the last post, and I have a lot of news to share.

First and foremost, I am no longer a teacher. I decided to quit for the sake of my mental health. The stress of it all led to an unhealthy condition. With help, I have managed said condition. I’m in a better place now, and I feel more like myself than I ever did working in the public school setting. It was the right choice for me.

It was a big decision, but my family has been supportive and understanding. It feels strange not being in the classroom in front of students. Though I missed teaching the future generation, I know I had to step back.

As many of you know, or don’t know, I also went back for my master’s. Another reason for quitting my job was to finish my MFA. This program required me to write an 80-k word thesis, aka a novel, and without the extra time, I wouldn’t have completed it. My thesis took up the majority of my time, but I got it done!

I got it done!

It took me about four drafts to complete. After the second draft, I completely changed the point of view, so I had to rewrite it. Then, I had to work on the developmental edits and then the line editing. I’ve never been so exhausted yet proud all at the same time.

Currently, I am waiting on an editorial letter from my professor post-term. My plan is to do one more round of edits, then seek out beta readers. I’m not too sure about publishing times, but I’ve started building an agent list so I can query them later.

My MFA program helped me create my pitch, query letter, and synopsis. I am quite confident in my querying package. However, I do plan on giving it a once-over before I use anything.

This brings me to another piece of good news! I’m a recent MFA graduate! All that hard work paid off. My commencement is this weekend (I chose the virtual option), and I can’t be more excited. It’s been my dream to have a master’s degree. It’s definitely for self-fulfilment, but also gets me closer to one of my dreams: to teach at the collegiate level. One of the requirements is to have a master’s. While teaching was tough and stressful, I did fall in love with it. I also love writing, so I wanted to make a career out of the two.

I did it!

Another piece of good news is that I did it! The path to publishing has gotten closer. At the end of the year (2025), I began submitting to literary magazines. One of the reasons is that my MFA required a short story submission as a graduation requirement.

Another reason is that as a college professor, I need a publication record, and I need more opportunities for my work to be seen. The publishing path for novels is long, and I didn’t want to wait. So every month, I’ve submitted to at least one literary magazine with the hopes of being accepted.

Guess what? My work got accepted! You can read the announcement here. My work is going to officially going to be printed in an anthology. This is the first step to my dreams. While publication is forthcoming, it still feels amazing. I can say I’m a published author now.

Going forward, I’m planning on continuing my submission schedule (one lit magazine a month) while also building my author platform. I recently joined Threads and Instagram and will be setting up a newsletter soon. I want to make writing a larger part of my life, so I’m getting a head start.

Wish me luck!

-Kassandra

Posted in updates

2025 Update

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Life has been very unexpected since the last time I posted.

I’ve lost a dear friend, stared grad school, endured two very stressful school years, welcomed a new family member, and even moved to a new location. Every day has been filled with challenges.

My publishing journey still continues as that has been my main focus. Starting graduate school has been very exciting and kept me busy. I’ve learned a lot about my writing and myself. It has also helped me realize that it’s time to change careers but it won’t be too drastic. Instead of teaching primary, I want to teach higher education.

My goals for publication has somewhat changed. I tried publishing a certain manuscript awhile back and due to the many rejections, I decided to put it away and work on the next projects.

I’m still posting on Wattpad, however, I’m not very proud of that current work. I realized that it wasn’t ready to be published but I’ll finish posting it because it is a story I want to tell. It taught me a few things that I need to work on. I’ve been planning the next work I want to post on Wattpad as well.

Speaking of Wattpad, I have decided to move forward to self-publishing my original trilogy I had posted. While that had been my plan, I was very hesitant since I hadn’t made my changes in the original. I didn’t want it to be a direct copy and paste. Now, I’ve had plenty of time to think about how I can keep the original essence of the novel but make it new for newer and returning readers.

I’ve also been working on an original dark fantasy work. While it’s the first draft, I’m really enjoying how it’s turning out.

While there are many projects I’m tackling this summer, as well as my thesis, I’m looking forward to what the future may bring.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, self-publishing, updates, Writing

Camp NaNoWriMo & Everything Else

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been a week or so since I started Camp Nation Novel Writing Month. I’ve written 20k words so far. The goal is 60k words for this month. I’m trying to rewrite a 30k word novella into (at least) an 80k word YA dark fantasy novel.

A huge reason I’m doing this is to start my indie author journey. By that, I mean that I want to self-publish this novel. I haven’t gotten all the details straightened out just yet but it’s something I want to try out.

This past weekend I spent it researching different ways to go about doing this and I think I can start with a Kickstarter as a way to cover the expenses needed for self-publishing. I’ve seen other authors on the website as well. Now, there is a lot to do in general and despite the fact that I’m not done writing yet, I want to start thinking about it. I want to work towards that goal so whenever I feel like I can’t do this, I can remember my goal and gain new inspiration.

The more I thought about it, I might be better off publishing the story as an eBook first (when writing/editing, etc. is finished) and then try to have physical copies of the book. Maybe if I do it this way, there won’t be many risks of the Kickstarter failing because the book is out there.

Overall, I haven’t decided on a way to go about self-publishing just yet. I want to concentrate on writing first. However, I’m glad to have a goal in mind and I really want to make it happen.

Posted in Writing

Rolling with the Punches

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Two weeks ago, I received news that shook my life. Since then, I’ve had to reapply for my job but I’ve ultimately decided to go someone else. That still meant having interviews and needless to say, it’s been stressful. I’ve gotten an offer but I’m waiting on two others to make a final decision.

There have been a few good things happening. I’ve started crocheting again and made ten new keychains. I think all the stress made me want to be a bit more crafty than before. I’ve received news back on my queries but I still don’t have an agent. There are a handful of agents I’m waiting for to open their queries again.

I’ve been focusing on rewriting a dark fantasy novella into a novel. A huge part of it is changing first person to third person and of course adding more world building than I had before. This might also be the novel I’ll be working on during Camp NaNoWriMo this July.

A part of me wants to stream my prep work for Camp NaNoWriMo on YouTube/ Twitch and invite others to plan with me. Even streaming my writing during the event is something that I’ve considered doing. It would definitely be a challenge, but it would also help me reach the daily word count. Plus, it could also help others to sit down and write.

Overall, there are tons of decisions that I need to make this upcoming week. One of those is where I’ll be working in August. Not to mention Camp NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and I need to double down and decide how I will implement everything I want to do.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates

Summer Plans

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

A lot has happened during the first days of June. Huge news have shaken up my life in regards to work and that future is uncertain. However, I plan to focus on the good stuff like visiting family and my nephew (only a few months old), and enjoying my summer break.

Queries

First things first, unfortunately, my novel hasn’t been picked up by any agents. There are still that haven’t replied yet but that is not always a good thing. I have continued to research and find more agents that are a potential match to my novel and sent out queries. There are still a couple of them that are closed so it’s another waiting game.

Crochet

This is a little different but it was part of my new year goals to crochet more. I have to say that over the last two days, I’ve done exactly that. Now, I need to give my fingers and joints a rest. Maybe I’ll start selling my little critters in the future. I don’t particularly have space for all the knot critters I’m creating. But overall, it’s good to relax, and be able to finish a project in one sitting.

Camp NaNoWriMo

July is less than a month away and that means it’s time for Camp NaNoWriMo. While I still have to decide what project I’ll work on during that month, I do want to participate. I’m going to try something different this year.

I want to stream the prep work for the project AND the actual writing portion. Mostly it’ll be streams of me talking about how I plan or maybe the lack of planning. I think it’ll be fun to do.