Gearing up for Summer Learning

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:

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.

Guest Publisher’s Note: The Write Stuff

I am a fan of New Journalism. In Cold Blood is one of my favorite books, one that I’ve reread many times. I’m a huge fan, too, of Joan Didion. Her prose is exquisite in just about everything she wrote. And I have devoured the works of later writers such as Ted Conover, who wrote Newjack, and Alec Kotlowitz, who wrote There Are No Children Here, among others who have been called New Journalists.

It was a term often attributed to Tom Wolfe about his own work, among others, from the 1960s and 1970s, but New Journalism dates back at least to the nineteenth century. And some of the great writers of nonfiction of the earlier decades of the twentieth century in particular are my heroes. People such as Ernest Hemingway, working as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War, as well as his nonfiction books Death in the Afternoon and A Movable Feast, and Joseph Mitchell, who wrote Up in the Old Hotel, and other works, often for the New Yorker. Both of those great writers, and I’m sure others, laid the groundwork for Wolfe and the later twentieth century nonfiction writers by creating works that packed the kind of rhetorical and emotional punch that readers were used to expecting in fiction, but had not looked for in war stories and stories about the eccentricities of mid-century New Yorker City dwellers.

So, I love new journalism, and I remember enjoying Wolfe’s The Right Stuff up until the moment when he completely lost me. I remember it well. That moment came when he told me what Ham, the first American astronaut who orbited the earth in a Mercury capsule in January of 1961, felt and thought about the trip. I bought the accounts Wolfe offered of Chuck Yeager, ace pilot, and the men who, unlike Yeager, were chosen as astronauts for the Mercury missions.

But I knew for a fact that Wolfe had not interviewed Ham, because Ham was a chimpanzee.

And with that one choice, to invent the thoughts and feelings of a chimp, Wolfe lost me. He went in the blink of a chimp’s eye from The Right Stuff to wrong, wrong, wrong.

It can happen to any writer, and obviously by alienating me as a reader, Wolfe did no damage to his career. But there are many ways for writers to put a foot wrong, particularly now that there are so many choices to make, not only about what they write but also about their career paths and the skills necessary to accomplish their goals.

Which is why award-winning and bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch has curated a StoryBundle for writers called The Write Stuff. And talk about packing a punch, this bundle of ten books and lectures on the stuff that writers absolutely need in 2023 delivers a heck of a wallop.

As Kris puts it:

These days, anyone can write and publish a book. The rise of electronic books has made publishing easy and quick. However, not everyone can have a writing career.

Writing careers take patience and a willingness to learn. Writers must learn the basics of craft, which they’ve always needed to know. But now, writers also need to learn how to run a small business. They must also understand that at times, they’ll have to try a few other things to keep their writing business afloat.

Through it all, they must maintain their enthusiasm and avoid pitfalls that have prevented promising writers from having actual careers.

It’s that time of year when writers need a boost. Look no further than The Write Stuff for a firm push to get you going on your first novel, some wisdom about creating characters, advice on how to be productive, and getting down to brass tacks, Dean Wesley Smith has a workshop on “How to Make More than Coffee Money” from your writing. Kris herself has a new book in the bundle on How Writers Fail: Analysis and Solutions.

There is lots for everyone at every stage of a writing career. Avoid the pitfalls (such as channeling chimp emotions), absorb the wisdom, and then get writing!

Guest Publisher’s Note: Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day!

Juneteenth is the newest federal holiday, having been declared by President Biden in 2021, and it celebrates the end of slavery in the US. It marks the day, June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, and just over two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, when the people of Texas learned that they were all free under the laws of the United States of America.

Major General Granger of the Union Army made the announcement upon his arrival in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

Here is the text of his order, now in the National Archives:

Galveston Texas June 19th 1865

General Orders

No. 3.

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

By order of Major General Granger

F.W. EmeryMajor A.A. Genl

We leave it to you to divine the meaning behind the advice to the “freedmen” to remain quietly in place and keep working as hired labor. As we all know, this wasn’t the end of the story by a long shot.

It was, however, arguably the beginning of a new chapter in American history, and one that is well deserving of celebration.

The Smithsonian has a wealth of interesting archival materials and interviews about the holiday, which is well worth visiting. And here is a link to information about celebrations across the country. Galveston, for example, will host an annual reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

WMG publishes a newsletter every week dedicated to holidays of various kinds, called Every Day’s a Holiday, in which we give away fiction and discounted workshops to subscribers. Today’s Juneteenth newsletter offers a short story, “Well-Chosen Words” by award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln scrawled the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope as he traveled to the battlefield to dedicate a cemetery. But the legend belies Lincoln’s struggle to carefully choose the right words. Words that must soothe a fractured nation, inspire change and chart the course for the nation’s future. Because his speech in Gettysburg will change history, but not necessarily in the way he hopes.

Written by a Sidewise Award winner for Best Alternate History, “Well-Chosen Words” first appeared in an anthology called Alternate Gettysburgs.

“Kristine Kathryn Rusch looks at the anxiety Lincoln had in selecting the ‘Well-Chosen Words’ he would speak at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, while his host, David Wills, fretted about the success of the event itself. The story is well written, with both characters coming to life…”

—Steven H. Silver, SF Site

We thought we’d offer the story to readers of this blog, too, in honor of Juneteenth. Just click here to download your free ebook.

And don’t forget to check out our many bestsellers and award-winners by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch at wmgbooks.com!

Publisher’s Note: The Young and the Stressed

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.

Publisher’s Note: Major Diving News!

In a fortuitous bit of timing, I have two major pieces of news about Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s latest Diving Series novel, The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades!

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.

The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades

Diving UniverseScience Fiction Available in:ebook, $5.99trade paperback, $14.99hardcover, $29.99 The Chase: A Diving Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch quantity Add to cart Get the ebook! Get the ebook in the WMG store! Get the trade paperback! Get the hardcover! The...

Wee Folk

Fantasy Coming soon:ebook, $6.99 Wee Folk Kristine Kathryn rusch Wee folk populate fiction in a variety of forms, from elves to pixies to fairies to sprites. This collection of six stories from award-winning and bestselling master of short fiction Kristine Kathryn...

Publisher’s Note: Honoring the Fallen

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.

Click here to start reading.

My thoughts are with all of you who’ve lost someone to war.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.

Publisher’s Note: What Happens in Vegas…


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.

Publisher’s Note: An Abundance of Arts


My daughter has a busy week involving two different kinds of artistic endeavors.

First up is her school district’s centennial concert celebration. Nola plays several instruments: alto sax, tenor sax, euphonium and tuba. For this performance, she’ll be complementing the low brass section on the euphonium.

She loves playing her instruments, and she takes very good care of them. She’s even brought her euphonium and tuba home for baths (these are school instruments, but no one has maintained them; don’t even ask what we found inside the tuba once we got it apart…).

I played tuba in high school, but I’d never given one a bath before. It’s an adventure.

Needless to say, she’s one of her band teacher’s favorite students.

And two nights after the concert are her final two performances as Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress. She’s in good company in that role. Carol Burnett played the role in the 2005 Disney 2005 TV remake of Once Upon a Mattress. (Fun fact, Carol Burnett played the role of Winnifred, the princess, when the show opened on Broadway in 1959. You can read more fun facts about the Broadway production here.)

Once Upon a Mattress was inspired by a book, of course: “The Princess and the Pea” fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Don’t all good things come from books?

We obviously think so here at WMG. In fact, I’m in Las Vegas this week for the Romantic Suspense Craft Workshop, which is taught in-person by the amazing Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The study along version, writers do from the comfort of their own homes (or wherever they park their computer), is taught by the also amazing Dean Wesley Smith.

And while it’s too late to sign up for this particular workshop, it’s not too late to sign up for the other study along workshop options we have this year. Just click here to see all that’s on offer.

And don’t forget all the other workshops we have available on our Teachable platform.

Who knows where that next story will take you!

The Year of the Rabbit hasn’t even started yet, but WMG is already hopping!

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.

Publisher’s Note: Let Me Be Direct


I’ve long been told I’m direct. I consider that a compliment. I’m not one to waste people’s time trying to guess what I’m thinking or what I’m feeling. I’ll tell you. Especially if we know each other well, and I know you can handle it.

Some people can’t. I get it. Our society isn’t really built that way.

Take the way we shop, for example. We’ve been trained on the superstore model of shopping. Everything in one convenient place. Not the best of anything, or anything made by that store itself (store brands notwithstanding). But a lot of things.

That can be true. And I certainly do stop by that kind of store from time to time and for specific reasons.

But shopping that way has never been my jam.

When I was a teenager, my parents would take me to department stores to buy clothes. I hated every minute of it. I found them overwhelming: messy, crowded, packed to the gills with merchandise. I had no idea where to even start looking for what I’d like, let alone find multiple things.

Then, I found specialty retail stores. These were organized and focused. I either liked the style of clothes they had or I didn’t. It was easy to see from the window. That I could handle.

Even now that I do almost all of my shopping on my phone, I still shop that way. If I need jeans, I go to the app for the specific retailer whose jeans I prefer. If I need shoes, same thing. I do not buy clothes from the big online super-retailers. Not my jam.

For a lot of readers, big online super-retailers are not their jam, either. But if that’s the only way to buy the book, well, that’s what they’ll do.

For a long time, the only economically feasible way for writers and publishers to sell books was through those big retailers. But thanks to technology that’s advancing at warp speed, that’s no longer the case.

Selling direct is not only doable now, it’s preferable.

Which is how the WMG Publishing Bookstore came about. Powered by Shopify, the site features more and more product weekly. We now have about a third of our ebook inventory available on the site, and we will be adding paper books in the future.

If you want to start taking a look around, may I suggest starting with Dean Wesley Smith’s Bryant Street stories. They’re delightfully twisted.

You can find Bryant Street (as well as all the other series we’ve uploaded so far) on the bookstore’s series page here or jump straight to it here.

And since we’re talking about being direct (both in spirit and in selling), here’s a code for 30 percent off all Bryant Street stories available in our store.

BRYANT30

Just add whatever stories you want to read to your cart and apply the code at checkout. The code is good for the rest of the month.

See, direct is the only way to go!

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.

Publisher’s Note: The Choice is Easy


Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a lot of awards. But the ones that matter most to her are the Readers’ Choice Awards. Her readers, you see, are who matter most.

And now, she’s won another. “Serving Process” was chosen as one of the top ten mystery stories of the year by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

If you missed reading it there, WMG published the story in February.

Here’s the synopsis:

Julia serves process in Corvallis, Oregon. One of the lawyers in her office warns her of the dangers her job poses, but she just needs two more years of interning to qualify for law school.

But her last subpoena of the day offers more than she bargains for—and holds more lives than just hers in the balance.

With its heart wrenching twists, “Serving Process” proves Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s mastery of crime fiction.

Find out what all the buzz is about. Click here to buy the story.

Cats like buzz, too. But more in the “ooh, let me catch that bug” kind of way. Cats prove endlessly entertaining with such antics. They’re real characters.

And they make great characters in fiction, too.

So, as a reminder, you still have time to grab the Cattitude StoryBundle, curated by Kris, of course. For $20, you’ll get ten books of cat fiction, including three exclusive to this bundle, plus a chance to donate to an important charity.

You can read more about the bundle here.

So be it a reader’s favorite or a cat’s favorite, choosing what to read next is easy.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.