It's finally here, whether or not you knew you were waiting for it: my book Invisible Violets, which is chock-full of music references, has playlists! There are two versions. Both are built upon the references and allusions in the book and follow the text in order.

My book, INVISIBLE VIOLETS: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays is Available for Pre-Order from all the places! I'm so proud of this collection and each personal lyric essay within. There is darkness in these essay-songs, but writing was always a joy. Even when it made me cry, which was almost always, because I'm a sap like that. I can't wait for you to read this collection on MARCH 13th, 2026!

One of my biggest projects as the Digital Manager at Ooligan Press was to make a plan to remediate our backlist. A new EU law, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has direct language about accessibility requirements for frontlist and backlist ebooks, with due dates for each. Thankfully, our frontlist is already compliant; every book from our fall 2024 release of The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide and onward is good to go. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II is not as direct and specific about ebooks but does address materials used in educational settings, and some of our Ooligan titles are taught in classes.

One of my last acts as manager of the Digital department at Ooligan Press, along with training my successor since I'll be graduating soon, was making the ebook for Echoes of the Lost. Of course, for the full ebook experience, you can always purchase Echoes of the Lost on bookshop.org or any other bookselling website and choose the ebook version. Echoes of the Lost launches on May 12. Since this fully accessible ebook is reflowable, its appearance will adjust to any changes in typeface, font size, or any other parameter that someone makes in their e-reader, so this is just one view.

(how Freddie Mercury became a Hungarian hero)

This forthcoming book from Ooligan Press, a collection of essays on editing written originally by and for the Editorial Freelancers Association won't be out until February 2027, and right now it just went through the light copyediting phase of book production. Here's a small sampling of my light copyedit for this book: Pages from EFA_Light-Medium CE - BuckleyDownload Once the cover is finalized, I'll come back and add it in for some visual appeal.

Here is a sample of a full-length developmental editing letter for a literary fiction novel, as part of the Developmental Editing class for the Editing track of my grad program in Book Publishing. I've anonymized the author's name and the book title and a few other things for the sake of privacy for the author. DE Letter Literary FictionDownload

After designing the galley for Cekpa: A Memoir in Beaded Essays by Leah Altman, I was selected to design the final interior. I was excited to do my first full interior for Ooligan Press, and I knew it would be a lot more involved than the galley. There were a lot of things the final interior needed that the galley didn't, like widow/orphan control. There were also several elements to the text of this book that would take some extra design finesse: poetry, bulleted lists, numbered lists, numbered lists with paragraphs within some of the items, text messages, quoted source material, vignettes, and the text reproduction of a funeral program.

Much of what I've posted in this portfolio relates to my work at Ooligan Press or for classes in the Book Publishing master's program at Portland State University, and this post is a bit different. Once my own book, Invisible Violets, was acquired by Wandering Aengus Press and I did the interior design for my own book (more about that here…

If you're perusing this portfolio and know me as an author, you might recognize the book title in this portfolio entry as the title of my book. Yes, I designed my own cover. Sort of kind of on accident. This post will be both portfolio samples and story. My publisher, Jill McCabe Johnson of Wandering Aengus Press, offered me the option to design my own interior when the press acquired my manuscript. Jill knew I'd done some interior work for Ooligan Press, and also looked at the samples that were currently on this digital portfolio.

It isn't typical for authors to design their own books when they're traditionally published, but with small presses, it sometimes happens. Invisible Violets is my debut book, and my publisher, Jill McCabe Johnson of Wandering Aengus Press, gave me the option to do the interior design and layout. Jill knew I'd done design work for Ooligan Press and for classes, and had checked out this Portfolio page before offering that option.

Echoes of the Lost (publishing May 12, 2026) is one of the Ooligan Press books I've gotten to work on the most. In other parts of this portfolio, I did a Readers Report on Echoes, and then a Developmental Edit focused on character development for Echoes. It's a testament to the story and the writing that I still can't wait to read it in its final printed form when the book is released! Then it was time for the copyedit, and I got my hands on both the heavy/medium round and then later the medium/light round, so I'm including samples of both.

Another upcoming Ooligan Press book that I can't wait for everyone to read is Promise the Sky by Katrina Spillman, which we're publishing in partnership with Multnomah County Library Writers Project. It's a YA sci-fi space opera, and it's awesome. Promise the Sky will release in spring 2027. I've been a little more hands-on with this book than some others because we're also going to be recording the audiobook, which falls under my department.

In my work at Ooligan Press, I get to work on so many books I'm so excited about, and this sample is from one of them. The Neighborhood Dames by Portland author and publisher Laura Stanfill (Forest Avenue Press) is a historical literary fiction novel that takes place in the Prohibition era. There are so many layers to this book—illicit cider, Tin Pan Alley, a friendship shaped by the times, neurodivergence, and literal dismantling of the patriarchy—and it's written so well.

Resuming my weekly tour through favorite books of 2025 after a bit of a hiatus. I'd love to say the break was just because I was so busy with grad school and book stuff and that was definitely part of it, but I was also in a doomscrolling pit for weeks, because of course I was given all that's going on. Today we arrive at my favorite journalistic nonfiction. This category was a tie between two very different books that are both examples of excellent reporting: Blazing Eye Sees All…

One of the foundational parts of my Literary Agents and Acquisitions class as part of the Book Publishing master's program at Portland State University was learning to write Reader Reports. A Reader Report is when someone reads a manuscript that's been submitted to an agent or publisher and writes up an analysis. This report looks at the strengths and weakness of the story as well as how it fits in the market, then makes a recommendation for the publisher or agent to either accept or pass on the submission.

If you know (and everyone you know knows) you talk about music too much . . . If you ever had the urge to cover a driveway or sidewalk with chalk drawings of band logos, song names, and lyrics . . . If you credit music for getting you through your toughest times and hardest heartbreaks . . . If you frequently have the urge to blast music while driving (or while riding in a car if you're like me and can't drive) and sing along at the top of your lungs .

This is a meta description. This will often show up in search results.

After Ooligan Press acquired Echoes of the Lost by Cindy Brown (originally titled What the River Knew), the first step was developmental editing. Instead of doing an intensive developmental editing process like the one in this portfolio piece, we were asked to focus on specific aspects of the manuscript, and write a letter in any form as long as it was under two pages. (Full length DE letters tend to be quite a bit longer.) My assigned focus was character development. Here is my DE letter: Buckley_WTRK_DEDownload In addition to the letter, we were asked to mark up the full manuscript.

In the winter of '25, Ooligan Press added Reader Reports to its acquisitions process. A Reader Report is when someone reads a manuscript that's been submitted to an agent or publisher and writes up an analysis. This report looks at the strengths and weakness of the story as well as how it fits in the market, then makes a recommendation for the publisher or agent to either accept or pass on the submission. This report was on a manuscript originally called What the River Knew by Cindy Brown, the author of the…

First there was the COVER REVEAL. It's been a minute since then (!) and now it's time to reveal the back cover of INVISIBLE VIOLETS: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays! You can find book info, including how to pre-order signed and personalized copies here. With no further ado, here is the back cover:

Continuing my weekly tour through favorite books of 2025, today we arrive at my favorite genre-bender and overall funnest book: Who Killed One the Gun? by Gigi LittleForest Avenue Press I don't know how to talk about this book other than to say, just read it. It's so good. Several people I know are getting this book as a birthday present in 2026. So what can I say that doesn't give too much away? A (self-described) third-rate private eye gets stuck in a time loop after being killed. He has to solve the case he was working on before he died and his own murder.

All the ways you can get signed and personalized books of Chrys Buckley's forthcoming memoir in essays, Invisible Violets: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays

When I think about INVISIBLE VIOLETS, my book that's releasing on March 13 (9 weeks from today!), it mostly fills me with joy and pride. I still tear up with feelings of, I can't believe this is really happening, OMGGGGG! Mixed in with all that joy and pride and omfg, though, is sorrow. It feels important to talk about that too. Some of the sorrows are too big to go into on here. One of them I may write about eventually but am not ready for yet because it's something I learned about very recently.

The most prominent theme running through INVISIBLE VIOLETS is disability. So, if you are a disabled reader (or any other particular phrasing that feels right to you), this book is for you.

As promised in this Year in Books 2025 overview post, I'll be going into a bit more detail on each of my favorite reads of 2025 on Sundays. For the first installment, I give you my favorite lit fic novel that I read in 2025. And the winner is... The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai This book was recommended to me by my instructor for my final book design course. Throughout the term, I'd gotten to know that our tastes were pretty similar in that we both loved Tana French and Liz Moore's…

This hasn't been a banner year for me in number of books read. Grad school will do that. So will managing two departments of a press. So will having your own book in the works—I'm pretty sure I reread my book 9 times this summer for editing purposes. So will the state of the world. I didn't read as many books as I typically would. But, in all the chaos (internal and external) and busyness, I did read some excellent books. It was a banner year for quality, so I thought I would highlight some favorites.

Goodbye, 2025. Hello there, 2026. New year, new me. All that jazz. It's a wildly intense time in my life, and on Monday I go back to grad school for winter term. I'm gearing up for a doozy of a course load. And oh yeah, I also have a book coming out ten weeks from today. So there's that, too. Yesterday, I did a lot of my calendaring for the term, made a weekly template of when I'll do work for which class, when I'll fit in book promotion work, when I'll work on ebooks and audiobooks for my manager roles at Ooligan Press, when I'll shower, when I'll check my email, when I'll pee.

My book, INVISIBLE VIOLETS: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays is Available for Pre-Order from all the places! I'm so proud of this collection and each personal lyric essay within. There is darkness in these essay-songs, but writing was always a joy. Even when it made me cry, which was almost always, because I'm a sap like that. I can't wait for you to read this collection on MARCH 13th, 2026!

After many (too many?) rounds of editing, Invisible Violets: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays is locked and loaded for its March 13th launch date. Here is the cover!!!

Since the term ended, I’ve gone through some swings in energy. And I’m remembering and realizing that it’s almost always this same pattern. The terms and the workloads may change, but this after-pattern is pretty constant.

A lot has changed since the last time I was posting regularly in the fall of 2020, so I thought it was high time to catch you all up, bring some continuity to this site, and fill in the plot holes. And anyone who knows me, or has read this site before will be unsurprised I'm doing it through songs.

I was home sick from work. A bug had been rampaging through my grad program, and it was my turn. So I'd gone to bed early the night before. This was a good thing, because when I woke up, I had an email from Jill McCabe Johnson, the publisher at Wandering Aengus Press, sent the night before, asking if we could find a time for a call so she could ask me something.

About a month and a half ago, I did a thing. Today, I get to tell you that my book manuscript won the Wandering Aengus Press prize for nonfiction, which means MY BOOK IS GETTING PUBLISHED!

To make things easier for submitting authors, the editors at Wandering Aengus Press and its imprint, Trail to Table Press, have decided to combine submissions. We will publish up to two winners for...

Yesterday, on the new moon and the lunar new year, I submitted a full-length book manuscript to the Wandering Aengus Press Book Awards. The manuscript I submitted is a collection of fourteen personal essays. The topics I explore within the pages are pretty reflective of this site in general but with less Breaking Bad. Not none, mind you, but less. There are essays discussing blindness and albinism and disability, essays about medical school, essays featuring the internet of the early 2000s, essays touching on pop culture in so many forms, essays rooted in land and place.