Growing up in New Jersey, the official start of summer was Memorial Day. Even though school wasn’t out yet, by the end of May the weather had warmed enough that summer was very much on our minds. Those last couple weeks of school were tough.
But now that I live on the Oregon Coast, the official start of summer is July 4. That’s because it isn’t until July that we can be reasonably assured of decent weather. What a difference from the East Coast to the West…
And while summer might conjure up images of warm beaches and picnics and barbecues, it also makes me think of learning.
One of the reasons for that is some of my favorite college classes were summer classes. With condensed semesters and sunshiny days, I always loved taking classes in the summer. My favorites were microeconomics and a linguistics class called The Etymology of the English Language. Neither of these were directly related to my major, but I found each of them fascinating. I still reference lessons learned in those classes regularly.
These days, I teach summer classes myself. Right now, I’m teaching Introduction to Fiction Editing, where I guide aspiring editors to learn how to edit without destroying the writer’s voice. I have writers taking the class, too, so they can understand how to safeguard their own writing from overzealous editors.
And in early August, I’ll be on campus at Western Colorado University teaching at the weeklong summer residency for its Publishing Master’s Program.
So, as you can see, I really do spend most of my summer teaching.
And while I’m doing that, you can spend your summer learning!
And there’s never been a better time to learn writing and publishing from Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, because now through Friday, July 7, you can get all of the WMG Teachable classes for 50% off, plus get a free gift!
Here are the details in a nutshell:
The discount applies to any class, workshop, lifetime subscription, everything on WMG Teachable, including the brand-new Products Workshops!
To get the deal, just purchase anything on WMG Teachable you want, put in the code on the next page and hit apply, and you will be able to get the class for 50% off.
To learn all the details, including more information on these cool new classes, click here.
Happy summer learning!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
My daughter turns 13 this week. And while I can’t quite believe she’s a teenager already, she is taking this harder than I am. She told me this birthday is making her sad. She doesn’t want to be a teenager yet. She doesn’t want all the pressure and responsibility that comes with the teenage years. She said next year, she’d have to get a job already.
I don’t know where this is coming from. It’s certainly not coming from me. The job part is probably coming from the fact that we live in an economically challenged community, like pretty much every tourist town everywhere. The people with money are the ones who visit or have second homes or own the businesses where the majority of the community’s residents work for minimum wage (or these days, the minimum the market will bear). Most of her classmates come from homes that support tourism rather than profit from it. Those kids all need jobs as soon as they can get them.
That makes me very sad. School takes a back seat before these kids even start high school.
The rest of Nola’s anxiety, I can’t fully explain. But it’s something I’ll be working hard to get to the bottom of. She puts far too much pressure on herself sometimes.
It’s frustrating for me that as hard as I work NOT to put pressure on her, to let her enjoy her youth, we’re still here. But, of course, I’m not the only influence in her life. And these days, with as interconnected as our kids are to the world, that pressure is everywhere.
Which is probably why I find myself thinking of one of international bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s most haunting novellas, Coolhunting, which was a Locus Award finalist, and winner of the Science Fiction Age Reader’s Choice Award.
Here’s the synopsis:
Steffie makes her living as a coolhunter—someone who discovers an interesting look and makes it fashion, often overnight. She managed to escape her stifling upbringing, but her sister KD—genetically altered to remain a child—remains trapped.
Steffie left KD behind once. But when KD asks Steffie to help her run away from home, Steffie must decide whether to help or to abandon her sister for a second time.
In celebration of my daughter’s apparently bittersweet birthday, I offer this to you free for one week. Click here to download this powerful novella.
Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my best to make sure my daughter enjoys her birthday. A trip to the trampoline park is just the beginning…
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
First, it was recently announced as an Asimov’s Readers’ Choice Award winner! The novel first appeared in Asimov’s in two parts last year, and Asimov’s readers loved it, choosing both parts to win in the Best Novella/Novel category.
Congratulations, Kris!
The second piece of good news is that tomorrow, you can buy the novel in ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover everywhere!
Here’s the synopsis:
The Renegat Renegades finally learn their fate in New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades, the gripping new novel in her award-winning Diving series and an Asimov’s Readers’ Choice Award winner.
As the surviving crew of the Renegat face court-martial for mutiny—100 years in their future—the case makes everyone nervous. Prosecutors worry the survivors will prove too sympathetic to convict. The defense worries about the reliability of the defendants. But the survivors worry about what might happen should the truth—the whole truth—finally come to light. Set in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s expansive Diving Universe, The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades adds rich new background to this powerfully written series.
With shocking secrets, a deepening mystery, and a surprise witness, this spellbinding sf mystery mixes the best of legal fiction and space opera and proves Rusch’s place as a master of science fiction.
If you missed the buying novel in the Kickstarter we ran earlier this year or in the preorder phase, now’s the time to pick it up and see what all the buzz is about. Click here.
And don’t forget to check out the rest of the series here.
Go ahead and dive into this amazing universe!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
I’m lucky to have not lost a family member to war, at least not in the past several generations, despite my family’s legacy of service. My grandfathers both survived in the Army World War II (although my maternal grandfather received two purple hearts). My stepdad served in the Navy during peacetime. My dad served as a Marine in Vietnam (and also received a purple heart). And my husband served as a security officer in the Air Force during peace time.
But my father and grandfathers lost many friends in those wars. They didn’t speak of it much. But the loss was palpable at times of remembrance, like Memorial Day.
I’ll never forget visiting the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., with my dad and watching him scan for the names of his fallen fellow Marines. It was haunting.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch captures that feeling in her powerful Anlab Award-winning story, “The Museum of Modern Warfare,” which is free for you to download for the next two weeks.
Here’s the synopsis:
When the Ambassador to the Dylft System—a veteran of the Dylft Wars—receives orders to lead a diplomatic mission to Craznaust, she wonders at the wisdom of accepting the assignment.
Still, when she arrives at the controversial Museum of Modern Warfare, she believes herself prepared to face the past and address whatever diplomatic issue she might find there.
But nothing could prepare her for what she finds deep within the museum. Something long buried. Something that could change everything she thought she knew about the war.
I’m back in the office this week after a fantastic week in Las Vegas for the Romantic Suspense Craft Workshop. It’s always such a treat to spend some time with our writers again in-person!
It’s also cool to see how Resorts World Las Vegas continues to expand its offerings. New restaurants, new shows, new shops. I even shared an elevator with the drummer from Katy Perry’s band (which is there in residency). Nice guy.
The hotel is really responsive, as well. They have a new art installation that includes loud music into the wee hours, which was disturbing some of our guests (including me!), and the hotel moved us immediately. The city view side was perfectly quiet, and bonus, I got to see what happens to the mountains outside Vegas when the thunderstorms move through and drop so much hail on them that it looks like it snowed…except it was 96 degrees in the city at the time.
If you’ve been hesitating to sign up for the upcoming Fantasy/Thriller Craft Workshop in July, I encourage you to get off the fence and sign up. These in-person workshops are one of the rare opportunities to learn the craft face-to-face from bestselling and award-winning writer and editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch. And Kris’ in-person workshops are legendary.
To view the full list of in-person workshops on offer, click here. And if you just can’t make it in person, you can do the study along version with bestselling and award-winning writer and editor Dean Wesley Smith. Click here to see those.
Speaking of Dean, don’t forget that the entire curriculum for all of our workshops (in-person and online) is available here.
What happens in Vegas definitely doesn’t stay there. What you learn at these workshops will stick with you for your whole career.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
