Hello, New Friends and Loyal Readers!

Welcome to Pink Dandelions, my monthly author newsletter.

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About PINK DANDELIONS

In each edition of Pink Dandelions, I talk about purpose, creativity, the pleasures of reading and writing and cultivating a beautiful and meaningful life. I also share news & updates about my writing life and book launches.

About My Books & Writing

If you don’t already know me, I’m Shelley Burbank, a writer from Maine and San Diego (and currently GUAM!) where I live with my husband, Craig.

I’m the author of two soft-boiled mystery novels and a novella about a complex, female private investigator named Olivia Lively who runs her P.I. firm, Lively Investigations, in the arty, seaside city of Portland, Maine. I am working on books 3 and 4 to complete the series. I then plan to move away from mystery genre fiction in order to write the kind of fiction books I most like to read—cozy novels featuring close-knit Maine communities, creative & gutsy heroines, second chances, and triumph over adversity.

Before publishing my first full-length fiction novel, I was the co-writer/ghostwriter of The Last Ten Days: Academia, Dementia, and the Choice to Die by Martha Brosio, a nonfiction memoir about end of life choices published by Myers Education Press. I’ve had several short stories published in national and regional magazines and a San Diego crime fiction anthology. For links to my personal writing journal, to the Type M for Murder blog where I post twice a month, and to links for my books on Amazon, visit my website ShelleyBurbank.com.

More About My Writing Journey

For 40 years, I’ve studied and practiced the craft of writing. I took college and non-credit classes, worked on a slew of manuscripts, and read more books, articles, and blogs on the craft than I can count. For journalism practice, I once created a blog about sustainability and localism and kept that up for six years. I then wrote for my small-town community’s weekly newspaper for over a decade, focusing on human interest stories. 

(I’ve since gone back to my old blog shelleyburbank.wordpress.com as my public writing journal. So if you want more than this once a month letter, click that link and check out the blog. The old sustainability content is still there, as well, but I’ll be editing that in the coming months.)

I also wrote on Wattpad for a time in order to benefit from the feedback of readers and to encourage others on their writing journey. While there, I started a short-lived magazine called Pink Dandelion Quarterly where I published works by a diverse group of women writers from all over the world. This newsletter is an outgrowth of that initial idea. 

As for a writing/publishing philosophy, I believe in quality over quantity and that artisanship should be celebrated and embraced by everyone involved in the publishing industry. 

Readers deserve our best efforts. I’ll die on that hill. 

In addition to pursuing a writing career, I worked at a bunch of random jobs over the years—bookstore clerk, substitute teacher, legal assistant, supermarket cashier, international airline flights food kitchen—yep, that’s a story—and dreamed of cultivating “a good life” full of books, good food and drink, arts and culture, cozy cottage rooms, serene gardens, and a close circle of friends and family. I pictured my ideal life as a fabulous mash-up of a Victoria Magazine spread and Carrie Bradshaw typing away in her NYC brownstone on Sex and the City with a little Martha Stewart Magazine and Murder She Wrote in the mix.

I wrote the first Olivia Lively mystery on Wattpad where it ended up being chosen for the Paid Authors Program. After that, I submitted it to Encircle Publications, a small traditional press out of Farmington, Maine, and they offered me a contract to publish the book! They also published the second book a year later.

As I’m working on books 3 and 4 in the series, I decided to write and indie publish a shorter Liv Lively story, and I worked on the novella Strawberry Moon Mystery for over a year while also moving halfway around the world to Guam for my husband’s job.

Though I enjoyed the challenge of self-publishing using KDP/Amazon, I’m not sure in what direction I’ll go next as I complete the mystery series and move into women’s fiction. I’ve never even tried to get an agent, so that’s out there . . . Stay tuned!

No matter what happens, every day, I’m getting closer to living the life I’ve imagined. I love creativity, art, knitting, and reading fiction, history, sociology, philosophy, and culture. I like to think these topics seep into my stories even as they enrich my life.

I want to encourage YOU to follow your interests, dreams, and passions, too. Let’s do it together!

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life that he has imagined, he will be met with a success unexpected in common hours.

–Henry David Thoreau

What’s the deal with Pink Dandelions?

According to one seed company’s description, pink dandelions are “Not your average backyard dandelion!” 

With sunny yellow centers surrounded by a delicate, rosy fringe, pink dandelions attract and support pollinators. They help purify the air. They are even nutritious to eat, providing several vitamins and minerals.

As a symbol, dandelions represent so many qualities we need to thrive. Hope. Strength. Resilience. Healing.Transformation. Simple beauty.

We are pink dandelions. We root ourselves in our communities and reach for the sun. We send our creativity into the world like seed puffs. We believe that one day those seeds will blossom, but even if we don’t see the kind of success we dream of, we will, at the very least, have transformed ourselves in the process. 

On the third week of every month, look for the latest newsletter in your inbox. You can unsubscribe any time. No questions asked. No feelings hurt. I only wish you the best in your endeavors. 

I’m so happy to have you here.

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