Although we at WMG are off today for the observed Christmas Day holiday in the US, the excitement of Christmas is now over. The presents are unwrapped, the advent calendars are done, and we’re officially in that in-between space between the festivities of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
This week has its own special feeling. It’s still technically the holidays, the tree and the lights are still up, but the stress of the holidays is gone. It’s also the perfect time to reflect on the year that’s about to end and plan for the new year.
For me, like 2021, 2022 was a hard year emotionally. By mid-April, I had lost my remaining two cats (less than two months apart). I had some health issues (minor and not brain-related, thank goodness), but it did require a battery of tests to figure out. And my daughter started seventh grade, which is a whole roller coaster of emotions for her and for me.
But there were some high points, too. Despite not being at all ready for new relationships with any kind of furry friend, we found ourselves rescuing two feral kittens. They are now six months old and quickly forgetting they were ever feral. It is wonderful to hear kittens thundering around the house again. I’ve still got guards on my heart, but those walls will crumble in time.
And Nola is thriving in school. Despite the bumpy dramatic start, she’s settled in well and is involved in sports and band and theater and still getting straight As, even in advanced math. And most importantly, she’s proving to be a kind, caring friend. I’m so proud of her.
And WMG, of course, had a great year! As promised, we didn’t top the insanity of last year’s publishing schedule, but the staff here at WMG (all three of us) still released 127 new titles in 2022!
So, you know, we’re still nuts, but more manageably so <grin>.
I’ll include a month-by-month breakdown of all the titles we released in 2022 below this blog. But that’s not all we did this year!
We also:
Released all of Dean Wesley Smith’s galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe novels in hardcover for the first time.
Offered 18 books in StoryBundles.
Offered 3 book in the first ever D2D Humble bundle.
Ran 6 successful Kickstarters.
And launched the weekly Every Day’s a Holiday at WMG newsletter, in which we offer free books and discounts on WMG online workshops related to that week’s holiday.
Whew! So, take a look at the master list of every new title we released in 2022. And if you see a title (or several) that you missed (who could blame you?), click on the title to go to the WMG store page and add it to your cart.
But we don’t rest on our laurels here at WMG. We already have some exciting things planned for 2023. More on that next week.
In the meantime, thank you so much for your support throughout the year. We wish you a very happy and healthy new year!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
At long last, Christmas is almost here! My daughter is so excited. She’s on break for the next two weeks and I’m taking some time off, so we’ll be spending time together finishing up the shopping, making Christmas cookies, going out to lunch, and all sorts of other things we don’t have time for when she’s in school and I’m working.
So, if you’re like us, and you’re still celebrating everything holiday, our latest new release is just in time for some last-minute holiday reading.
For Pulphouse Fiction Magazine: Issue #21, editor Dean Wesley Smith gathered some of the best Pulphouse writers and their strangest holiday season stories.
Of course, Pulphouse stories are not “normal” in the usual sense of the word. But they are fun. And unexpected. And entertaining. After all, attitude, feel, and high-quality fiction equals Pulphouse.
Just take a look at this table of contents, and you’ll see what I mean:
“Santa’s Shrinkage” by David H. Hendrickson “A Crafty Christmas” by Annie Reed “The Ghost of Christmas Beta” by J. Steven York “Emergency Elf” by Stefon Mears “A Grave Kind of Love” by Robert J. McCarter “The Asshole of Christmas Present” by Ezekiel James Boston “Christmas at Lake Mead” by Lisa Silverthorne “The Ghost of Christmas Present” by David Stier “Christmas Weather” by O’Neil De Noux “Max, Marilyn, Murder, and Me” by Ray Vukcevich “Scurvy and Forgiveness” by Rob Vagle “The Friendly Beasts” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman “Christmas at Glosser’s” by Robert Jeschonek “A Corner of the Mind” by Ron Collins “Other People’s Stupidity” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Happy reading, and from all of us here at WMG, we wish you a very merry and happy week full of fun and festivities, no matter what you happen to celebrate!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
Isn’t it strange when fiction bleeds into real life? Sometimes, it’s a sense of déjà vu, where you could swear you’ve read or seen something before. Sometimes, it’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also called the Baader-Meinhof effect or frequency illusion) where you learn something new and suddenly start noticing it everywhere. (It’s an interesting phenomenon…you can read more about it here.)
And sometimes, it’s just a strange coincidence.
That happened to me last week when I was rereading one of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s holiday stories so that we could publish it as a standalone. The story, called “Frank’s Corner Bar,” takes place, unsurprisingly given the title, in a bar. That’s not the weird part. The weird thing was just as I was reading about a bottle of Grand Marnier in the story, I got a text from a friend asking me if I had any Grand Marnier. She needed it for a recipe, and since she doesn’t drink or normally use alcohol while cooking, she didn’t even know where the liquor store was.
Adding to the strange coincidence, I had actually been meaning to pick up a bottle of Grand Marnier (not something I normally have on hand) for my own recipe needs and I was about to head out the door to run an errand for my daughter, which would take me right by the liquor store.
So, within 30 minutes, she had a cup of Grand Marnier and we both were marveling at the strange happenstance of it all.
Now, Kris has written several stories set in bars. But she has never mentioned Grand Marnier in the hundreds of titles I’ve published for her (I double-checked).
Until “Frank’s Corner Bar.”
And since the story is available for free this week as Kris’ weekly free fiction offering, you should read it, too, and see if you suddenly find yourself making a run for Grand Marnier.
But even if you don’t, it’s a great read and perfect if you like a little holiday in your crime stories.
You can see for yourself here.
Cheers!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
I don’t travel for the holidays anymore. At least, not if I can help it. Between the brain surgery and the pandemic, I have a really hard time with crowds now.
And traveling at the holidays is a guaranteed way to find crowds.
So, I’ve found ways to travel without traveling. We have family Zooms with my parents and sister back East. We take walks together while we’re on the phone. We Facetime on Christmas morning.
There are so many ways to travel. You just have to get creative.
Like fiction. That’s the original form of creative traveling.
And right now, Dean Wesley Smith offers the perfect solution to travel without traveling with the latest StoryBundle he has curated: the Time Travel Fun Bundle. Here’s what Dean had to say about it:
Time travel fits in any genre and almost every type of story. Everyone seems to have their favorite kind of time travel. I know I sure do, and all the writers in this great bundle do as well.
As a genre distinction, time travel is considered science fiction, but actually it fits in fantasy much better. Diana Gabaldon characters rub a rock and magically travel into the past. Stephen King has his characters go into a closet. All fantasy.
Also, romance writers use time travel as a romantic element in their story, often to bring two characters together. So even though time travel, as a plot device, is considered science fiction, I thought it would be great fun in this Time Travel StoryBundle to show how really diverse time travel stories can actually be.
Okay. It’s official. The Christmas season has begun!
Our tree is up, our lights are strung, our house is decorated, and the holiday music and movies are streaming!
I love the Christmas holidays, as you might have gathered.
My daughter is very excited, too. And we haven’t even started the advent calendars yet. This year we have three: our annual Jacquie Lawson electronic advent calendar, an Escape Advent Calendar (which I supported via Kickstarter), and one I do myself (little drawers that I fill with different things year after year).
As you can see, we love advent calendars here at WMG. That’s why we came up with the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar of Stories. Because there was nothing like an advent calendar for fiction on the market.
Of course, our stories cover all sorts of holidays and span the genres. And you get to open them every day from American Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
That’s why we call it a Calendar of Stories. Advent calendars inspired the idea, but ours is so much more.
And it’s not too late to get in on the fun. You have until Sunday, Dec. 18, to give it as a Christmas or Hanukkah gift and have the recipient get sent all the stories they’ve missed, plus start getting new ones every day, on Monday, Dec. 19. You have until Sunday, Dec. 25, to make it in time for Kwanzaa.
You can still sign up for the calendar after that, too, if you realize you missed someone on your list or just didn’t have time to read until after the holidays.
Just click here to go to the Calendar of Stories page on our website and find out all the details.
Happy Holidays to one and all!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
