I’m feeling a bit spacey this week. For a couple of reasons. First, The Runabout is now available in ebook and paperback everywhere. (For more information on that release, click here.)

Second, I’ve got a brand-new Storybundle to tell you about, and this one is a bit different because I co-curated it with Dean Wesley Smith.

Storybundles are always fun to curate. Brainstorming them together makes it even more so. Especially when that other brain is Dean’s. He and I think very differently, which is a good thing. When we start collaborating—be that co-teaching or co-curating—our different approaches help us take each other’s ideas and build on them in such a way that, when we’re done, we have something greater than either of us might have conceived of on our own. I bring order to his chaos. He helps me tap into my creative brain and think outside the box. Our disparate ways of thinking are alien to each other and yet we have found a way not only to appreciate those differences but also allow them to expand our own perspectives.

No wonder we came up with the Aliens Among Us bundle.

Not surprisingly, Dean and I think about the topic of this bundle in different ways. For me, I focused on the “us.” How would we humans choose to react to aliens? Would we use our better natures or be driven by fear? Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning The End of the World perfectly illustrates this conundrum. And it’s why I chose that particular book for this bundle.

Dean looks at things from a more alien perspective. Here’s his take on the bundle:

“Science fiction readers all know that the main theme of all science fiction is the alien among us. Early on, when science fiction was a genre only read by science geeks and kids who built their own telescopes, readers felt that they were the aliens in the larger real world.

School was an alien place, other humans felt alien. Science fiction felt safe.

And science fiction stories and novels helped explain so much of what they were feeling.

I was no exception. I always felt different, a little odd, never really fitting in. In other words: alien.

And I loved science fiction and grew up reading it and then eventually writing it.

Now, science fiction has grown into this wonderful place of sharing ideas and stories worldwide, no longer just reserved for the science geek. But aliens and being alien is still the major theme of most of the books and stories.

So, when I got the chance to help curate this wonderful bundle with Allyson Longueira, I jumped at the chance because Aliens Among Us described so many great books from my past and many, many great stories and novels being publishing today.

As you can see, the term “alien” has a rich and varied meaning. And the Aliens Among Us bundle has a rich and varied group of books from some of the top science fiction writers working in modern fiction.

To read more about the stellar books in this bundle, or for buying information, click here. But hurry because this bundle will only be available for another couple of weeks. (And while you’re there, there’s only one more week to pick up the Light in the Dark YA bundle.)

Happy reading.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.