Notes from Deanna’s Desk #3 | When It Rains, It Pours

For anyone who follows me on Substack, you’ll see that I’ve been making an effort to be more diligent about posting there. I’m leaning into it being my professional journal where sometimes I vent, sometimes I talk about pertinent industry issues, and oftentimes I talk about work-related matters including struggles with work-life balance which I never seem to accomplish.

What Deanna Read #117: May 2026

Look at me being proactive!! I'm using the time during our team writing sprints to write this, so I'm starting early. So far this month, the reading has been okay. Work has been busy but more importantly, I am gearing up for Hubby's second knee replacement surgery and there's a lot to get done before that. We shall see how the reading for fun lands because of that.

The Publishing Lifecycle Partnership Model | Sourcing Vendors vs Building Careers for Author-Preneurs

I get asked a lot about my business model and what I actually do behind the scenes for my clients. People wonder how one person can manage so many moving parts without dropping the ball, and they always ask how I managed to learn it all. This white paper is my attempt to explain my entire operational philosophy to you through the lens of corporate problem-solving and long-term business strategy—skills I spent several decades honing as a consultant and project manager, and the exact foundation my publishing partner model is built on.

Publish for Free, Not for Broke | With Tips from Author P. S. Davis on Free Publishing & Finding Agents

In the last month or so, perhaps longer ago—who even knows anymore, life seems to be going at turbo speed for me right now—I connected with Paul aka P.S. Davis who admins one of the biggest and best (this label is highly subjective since we are somewhat biased) ARC (Advance Reader Copy) groups on Facebook. Since then, it’s been a boatload of fun and games, and y’all! You would not believe some of the shenanigans that go on!! But I digress…

1997 Project Romance #1: Deconstructing the Anatomy of a Trope | A Publishing Partner Unzips Her Own Origin Story

I am embarking on a new project that feels a bit like becoming my own client. Over the years, I’ve told many people that their lives are a manuscript, and now, thanks to a literal ghost in my machine, I’m forced to take my own advice. This essay is the first in "1997 Project Romance," a series where we'll deconstruct a real-life romance by reverse-engineering the emails that started it all. It is the unvarnished "source code" of my own history, showing you how the power of storytelling can be built from the mundane moments of our daily lives.

The Perfect Storm of Dumbassery | How an IT Director Who Built a Bank Short-Circuited Over an Editing Queue

I recently wrote a long note on my Substack and spent some time debating if it should remain there as a journal entry or if it belonged here on the website. My Substack is a place for raw, professional journal-style updates, while I consider this website my permanent library for all my considerable and varied thought pieces on all things books, reading, writing, and publishing-related.

What Deanna Read #116: April 2026

I'm going to be honest and say that I do not know where I will land at the time I'm prepping this post since I'm being slightly organized and putting this together early. That said, it's been a slow month as I'm juggling work AND playing full time nurse to Hubby who is recovering from knee surgery. And he's much improved and doing very well, thank you for asking. But he better not get too used to me waiting on him hand and foot.

UPDATE: I am happy to report that prepping this early has meant that I am going to likely be the earliest I have ever posted a monthly What Deanna Read. Go me! I did read a few extra books by the time the end of April rocked around, so I'm pretty happy with where I landed overall.

Here's what I read in the last month.