by Allyson Longueira | Oct 14, 2013 | Announcements, blog
What? Christmas? It’s not even Halloween yet.
I know, it’s early to be talking Christmas. You’re not ready. Heck, I’m not ready. And I have a three-year-old to think about.
Back in college, I worked retail. By Christmas, I was so sick of the holiday season I wanted to poke someone in the eye with a candy cane. (That the store I worked at was in the center of the mall where a two-story polar bear sang Christmas carols with a voice that sounded like a drunk Muppet probably didn’t help…)
But those days, I was prepared. I had my Christmas list ready in September and my shopping done by Thanksgiving. I was set. (Sadly, I’m not nearly that organized these days.)
So, if you think about it, it’s not really that early to start thinking about holiday shopping. These days, people start shopping (for holiday books anyway), round about late September/early October. So, really, we’re right on time.
And do we have some Christmas magic to weave for you.
First up is volume four of our Fiction River line, Christmas Ghosts. And let me tell you, this volume is a gift to the reading world.
Paranormal romance writer Kristine Grayson invited a stellar group of cross-genre authors to tell heartwarming stories of love set in the holiday season. From Regency England to modern day Portland, Oregon, ghosts facilitate—or try to stop—true love in the dark at the end of the year. Featuring stories by bestselling authors Mary Jo Putney and Carole Nelson Douglas to fan favorites M.L. Buchman and Anthea Lawson, Christmas Ghosts provides the perfect beginning to the mid-winter festivities.
But don’t take my word for it. Publishers Weekly calls it “A sugary Christmas treat for those who love romance.” And RT Book Reviews says: “The beloved Victorian Christmas ghost storytelling tradition continues to thrive in modern day, and this multi-genre anthology of short stories is proof. Cuddle up next to a crackling fire with some holiday music playing softly in the background, and lose yourself in eight amazing Christmas stories by a gang of super-talented, cross-genre authors. Not only are they heartwarming, but they incorporate mystery, science fiction, romance and ghosts! A few tend to be more animated than others, but each one is special, and guaranteed to jingle someone’s bells.” And Library Journal says, “This title offers eight original love stories that will give romance readers several satisfying happy endings.”
The book is available in ebook and trade paperback, and will be available in audiobook form in a couple of weeks.
But that’s not all Ms. Grayson has been doing lately. She also has a sweet new Christmas novella out called Visions of Sugar Plums.
Nissa Kealoha helps control Santa’s image—his brand. An Image Specialist with Claus & Company, she helps promote his positive image and deflect anything negative. This year, Nissa finds herself counting the days until she can return to the Greater World to goose holiday donations and remind people about the good Santa represents. Until a man on a mission threatens her holiday plans.
Professor Ryan Palmer possesses the perfect voice in the perfect body. And he uses that perfection to launch an anti-obesity campaign against, of all people, Santa. Or as he sees it, Santa’s image. Ryan thinks the mythology of Santa eating cookies and drinking eggnog contribute to the obesity epidemic—one he hopes to help reverse.
Nissa must stop Ryan from tarnishing Santa’s image, but when they meet, sparks fly—the magical, person-of-your-dreams kind of sparks. Can Nissa keep her objectivity? Can Ryan let himself believe in the impossible? Can they find their own kind of Christmas magic together?
So, get that warm, hot chocolatety holiday feeling started with these fantastic titles. I might even be inspired to start that overdue Christmas gift list. (And that would truly be a Christmas miracle!)
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.
by Allyson Longueira | Sep 27, 2013 | Announcements, Deals
Kobo UK Weekend Promotion!
September 27-30
Through our partnership with the good folks at Kobo, customers in the UK can save 30% on the following WMG titles this weekend.
Promo code:
september30
Hurry! This offer is good for one book, and ends Monday. Click here for more information on Fiction River: Time Streams or The Diving Bundle.
by Allyson Longueira | Sep 25, 2013 | Announcements, Pick of the Week
We’re pleased to announce that “Loop” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is now available as an audiobook, read by our own Jane Kennedy.
On the first Christmas since her husband Tyler died, Amelia goes to the lab to revisit their research. After all, what could it hurt? One little leap into the past, just to touch an old memory. To see him one last time. Only time travel isn’t easy. Nor is it straightforward. And it holds more surprises than Amelia ever imagined.
Available from Audible or in electronic form from $2.99.
Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords and others.
More stories of being stuck in a bad place.
by Allyson Longueira | Sep 16, 2013 | Announcements, blog
It’s another exciting week here at WMG! (We have a lot of those. Can you tell we love publishing books around here? <g>) The latest novel in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s beloved Diving series will be released tomorrow. For those who already read the Strangers at the Room of Lost Souls novella, Skirmishes gives you not only that encounter from Captain Jonathon “Coop” Cooper’s perspective, but also a whole lot more. 
Here’s the premise (for those of you who haven’t already preordered this on Kobo or Audible <grin>):
The answers Captain Jonathon “Coop” Cooper and the crew of the Ivoire seek lie in the Boneyards. But they must wait for Boss and her team to dive it, explore the wrecks, and piece together what happened in that faraway place.
Boss loves the challenge. Thousands of ships, centuries of history, all play to her strengths. In her absence, she trusts Coop to defend the Nine Planets Alliance against the Enterran Empire.
But an encounter from Coop’s recent past shows up to haunt him, an encounter he never told Boss about, an encounter that could threaten her future, his life, and the fragile peace between the Alliance and the Empire.
And while we’re talking about the Diving series, The Diving Universe Bundle that I mentioned a few weeks ago will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, as well as Kobo, later this week. So, what are you waiting for? Dive in, already! Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.
by Allyson Longueira | Aug 26, 2013 | Announcements, blog
Diving fans and the Diving uninitiated have a lot to revel in this week.
Skirmishes, the fourth novel in the Diving Universe, is now available for preorder on Kobo and Audible. The official release date is Sept. 17.
The Diving Bundle, including the six novellas leading up to the latest novel—Diving into the Wreck, The Room of Lost Souls, Becalmed, Becoming One with the Ghosts, Stealth, and Strangers at the Room of Lost Souls—is now available on Kobo.
And the first three novels in the series—Diving into the Wreck, City of Ruins, and Boneyards—are now available for sale in ebook outside the US and Canada and will be in print shortly in those regions, as well.
So, if you haven’t yet met Boss and her crew, now’s the time to catch up. And if you have, you’ll want to get a copy of Skirmishes in your hands the second it becomes available. Here’s what you’ve got to look forward to:
The answers Captain Jonathon “Coop” Cooper and the crew of the Ivoire seek lie in the Boneyards. But they must wait for Boss and her team to dive it, explore the wrecks, and piece together what happened in that faraway place.
Boss loves the challenge. Thousands of ships, centuries of history, all play to her strengths. In her absence, she trusts Coop to defend the Nine Planets Alliance against the Enterran Empire.
But an encounter from Coop’s recent past shows up to haunt him, an encounter he never told Boss about, an encounter that could threaten her future, his life, and the fragile peace between the Alliance and the Empire.
RT Book Reviews sums up Rusch’s latest Diving novel nicely in its four-star review: “A combination of first-person and third-person narrative and flashback segments makes this a complex and compelling story. It’s like having three tales in one, with an added peek into the bad guys’ activities, all of them intriguing, classic science fiction. It leaves the reader eager to explore this universe again and see what will happen next with these characters.”
I couldn’t agree more. I loved this one, and I can’t wait for the next one. And believe me, I’ll be bugging the author for it. 🙂
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.
by Dean Wesley Smith | Aug 19, 2013 | Announcements, blog
Allyson Longueira, the wonderful publisher of WMG Publishing, asked me to do a guest blog about Fiction River: Time Streams. The volume appears this next week and is full of great stories that I had the pleasure to select. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of the volume. But that makes me a normal editor, proud of his work like a parent is proud of a child.
So instead of going on about that, and the great stories, as you might expect me to do, I’m going to leave the discovery of the wonderful stories in Fiction River: Time Streams up to you. What I’d like to yammer on about here is time in general.
None of us ever have enough time. That’s just assumed as a way of life. And it seems to work double around publishing houses where everything takes twice as long as planned and time deadlines don’t allow that extra time to happen. How’s that for a Catch 22? Trust me, it’s standard in publishing (and many other industries I’m sure).
I love time travel stories because it allows me to escape a lot of aspects about time that I don’t much like. A great time travel story allows me to leave the ticking clock of aging for a short trip to my youth. A great story can allow me to go back and change something that happened in my past that I wish I could change. And a great story can take me out of this time and deposit me safely in another world, another place, and yes, another time.
Time in real life seems like a constant to all of us, even though it often feels like a variable. But in great time travel stories, time is the real flexible element, the part that you can play with as a writer in ways that are not possible in real life. I love that about all time travel stories.
I suppose that’s why I write so many of them.
Almost a year ago we started the idea of Fiction River, a series of varied anthologies that people could buy or subscribe to. The publishing date of Fiction River: Time Streams seemed a long ways away. None of the stories were even written yet, and many, many things had to happen at different times during the last year to get us to this point.
But now, as time sweeps us all forward, Fiction River: Time Streams is now appearing. It will be available for years to come for new readers to find and enjoy the great stories in it.
But I would suggest you grab it now, as it goes past in the flow of time. Trust me, the time spent to read the stories will be very much worth it.
And, of course, that’s another entire subject: The value of time. Hmmm, maybe that should be a subject for another Fiction River anthology. I wonder what would happen if we let a group of professional writers loose on that topic.
A future idea. Maybe.
Time is that way, full of possible events.
But one thing is very certain. There are some great stories in Fiction River: Time Streams of possible futures and different pasts.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
PS: If you would like to sample a free audio selection out of Fiction River: Time Streams for a few short days, Scott William Carter’s great story, The Elevator in the Cornfield, is now up here. But time is very fleeting on it. Go listen now.
Fiction River: Time Streams is available in ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and Smashwords and trade paperback from your favorite booksellers. The audiobook will be available in September.
Dean Wesley Smith is series co-editor of the Fiction River series and the volume editor of Fiction River: Time Streams.
