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Publisher’s Note: Not-Your-Typical Holiday Stories
As the holiday festivities continue to ramp up, we’ve gone all-in here at WMG. We’ve even got our first-ever holiday issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine hitting the proverbial shelves later this week!
About half of the stories in Pulphouse Issue #15 have a holiday connection.
Now granted, this is Pulphouse, so the holiday stories here are not normal holiday stories. They are everything you’d expect from a Pulphouse story, but with a holiday twist.
Here’s the lineup:
“An Ideal Husband” by Jerry and Kathy Oltion
“Severed Ties” by R.W. Wallace
“Virtching Merry” by Kent Patterson
“Dead Drop” by Louisa Swann
“Cover Nuns” by Barbara G. Tarn
“Last Job” by Rebecca M. Senese
“Blood of Heroes” by Ezekiel James Boston
“The Magnolia Murders” by O’Neil De Noux
“The Not-So-Scientific Research of Dragons” by Katharina Gerlach
“Granny Law” by Jason A. Adams
“Lucy and the Underworld” by Rob Vagle
“The Ballad of Bob Dumpty” by Annie Reed
“No Pity Party” by David H. Hendrickson
“Emily Loves Christmas, Emily Loves Murder” by Robert J. McCarter
“A Blood-Soaked Christmas Wish” by David Stier
“Naughty Children” by Mary McKenna
“Father Christmas” by J. Steven York
“Spells for the Holidays” by Ray Vukcevich
“Nutball Season” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Click here to read more about this latest issue or here to subscribe.
And if that’s not enough holiday celebrating for you, there’s still time to subscribe to the WMG Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories and/or the Holiday Collections StoryBundle.
Click here to sign up for the Calendar of Stories. And if you want to preview one of these fabulous stories, for free, click here.
Click here to read more about the StoryBundle.
So many holiday short stories to be had—it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
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: Home for the Holidays
It has begun. Christmas at the Longueira/Hurley house is in full swing. My husband has created a wonderland of Christmas lights outside (you do NOT want to know our lighting budget…). Inside, the tree is up, the regular dishes and some of our usual decorative items have been swapped out for Christmas ones, the stockings are hung, and the train is set up.
But most importantly, the advent calendars have begun and my daughter’s Elves on the Shelf have returned.
And my daughter can’t stop saying how much she loves Christmas.
She’s at an age that I wasn’t sure if the magic would hold up. But it is. It’s evolving, though. I can see that realism is starting to filter in. Part of her knows that the elves probably don’t have magic and the North Pole Communicator probably isn’t actually connecting her with Santa. She told a friend that her mom is probably the one who puts the gifts under the tree because Santa would be too busy to hit all those houses. I mean, Mom already does a ton of community service, so helping Santa isn’t a stretch.
She’s highly intelligent, my kid, so logic will out. But I’ve worked very hard to infuse a sense of magical spirit in everything we do this time of year. I hope it lasts for her. It certainly has for me.
Frankly, I find a world where Christmas magic exists a better world to live in.
Especially during times like these.
We all need as much holiday spirit as we can get.
To that end, Dean Wesley Smith curated a new holiday StoryBundle that just sparkles with holiday spirit.
It’s called the Holiday Collections Bundle, and here’s what Dean has to say about it:
Wow, is this bundle going to be fun. Fantastic writers and 72 different holiday short stories.
That’s right. 72. And you can get all of them for one low price that works out to about 20 cents per story. Wow!
And all are holiday stories. What a great way to help enjoy this wonderful season.
Every book in this bundle is a collection of holiday stories of different types and focus, as would be expected from such different and talented writers. And I tried to get a lot of different kinds, something for everyone.
You can read more about the 11 books in the bundle, which includes three WMG titles—Holiday Insanity by Dean, Silent Night by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Mysterious Christmas: A Holiday Anthology—here.
This one lasts till the end of the month, and as usual, you can get all 11 books (72 stories) for just $15. You can also add in a little holiday giving by donating to portion of the bundle proceeds to AbleGamers.
A fun way to give AND receive this holiday season? All from the comfort of your own home and no fear of shipping delays or supply chain issues? That’s some real holiday magic.
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: Sale-ing Away!
As soon as Americans finish their Thanksgiving feasts, the holiday shopping season launches into full swing with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.
Now, here at WMG, we’ve been gearing up for the holidays for weeks, as readers of this blog are well aware.
But since today is Cyber Monday, I thought we’d join in on the fun by offering deals for our writers AND our readers.
For our writers, we’re running a special Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale on our Teachable platform.
From Dean Wesley Smith’s blog about the sale:
The code is HolidaySale to get 50% off any workshop or challenge or lecture or Pop-Up.
We are calling it the HolidaySale (code is all one word) because it is starting on Thanksgiving, going over Black Friday, then through Small Business Saturday, and through Cyber Monday to end on Thursday, December 2nd. Just one week with a major US holiday and three major shopping days in that week.
And yes, you can give workshops as gifts. Just write me directly and I will make sure it happens.
And you can get credit for future workshops as well.
All of the December and January regular workshops are up and available, and we have up at least 54 Pop-Up classes.
The challenges of doing a short story per week, a novel every two months, or publishing a major project every month are available in this as well.
Also the best deals are the lifetime workshops. Six new Study Along workshops coming this next year.
So just find whatever class you would like, hit purchase, and then put in the code HolidaySale on the top of the next page to get 50% off the price.
Click here to read more about it or here to go straight to WMG’s Teachable page!
And for our readers, we’re offering 50% off of some of our favorite holiday titles. For the next week, all of the books created from the 2019 and 2020 WMG Holiday Spectaculars are 50% off with this special code:
Holiday2021
Click here to see the full list.
And if you’re just now getting to your holiday shopping and still want to get in on the 2021 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories, it’s not too late. Just click here to learn more.
Wishing you a very happy season’s reading (and learning)!
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: Giving Thanks to One and All
Thanksgiving has taken on new meaning for me since my brain surgery. Near-death experiences tend to change your perspective.
My experience of American Thanksgiving before the pandemic revolved, like many celebrations do, around food.
I only had one “normal” Thanksgiving after my surgery, which was spent with my husband’s family and a huge buffet of Thanksgiving dishes. In the beforetimes, I enjoyed spending Thanksgiving elsewhere. Growing up, we always traveled for Thanksgiving, so I was never involved in the meal preparation aspect of the holiday. My experience was seeing family I rarely saw otherwise and eating food prepared by others. There’s pretty standard fare at American Thanksgiving: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie…
When we visited my dad’s family (of Spanish heritage), there was also lasagna (which I grew up thinking was a Spanish dish) and Caldo Gallego (which actually is a Spanish dish). When we visited my mom’s family (of Irish heritage), there were lots of interesting vegetable sides (and lots of adult beverages).
So, as an adult, my idea of the perfect Thanksgiving was going somewhere else to eat food made by other people.
But when the pandemic hit (with no signs of ending by the holidays last year), we knew we’d be home. Alone. Just my husband and me (our daughter was with her biological father). So, we reevaluated Thanksgiving dinner. As it turns out, we both craved simplicity. I decided to focus on making a couple of key things from scratch: my mom’s pumpkin pie recipe and my grandmother’s Caldo Gallego. We’re not huge fans of turkey, so we got smoked turkey legs instead that just needed reheating. Stuffing and gravy are musts, but those were easily made from a box and a jar. Mashed potatoes were optional and available on-demand thanks to a package. Per my husband’s request, I also made a simple candied yams recipe (because that’s his memory food).
We enjoyed each other’s company, watched movies, and relaxed. We reflected on the many blessings in our lives. We learned to value the little things—the simple joys.
And thus, a new tradition was born.
That is my preferred celebration of Thanksgiving now—the literal giving of thanks. It’s about gratitude for those simple joys and the many blessings in our lives.
One of the things I’m grateful for is having a job that I love. And I’m grateful for all of our readers who support the books we create.
So, whether you celebrate American Thanksgiving or some other holiday this time of year, thank you for your support. I am truly grateful.
And as an expression of that thanks, click here to read one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories—“Snow Day” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch—for free this week.
And because the day after American Thanksgiving is when some of us in the States turn our thoughts immediately to Christmas, let me take a moment to remind you that the WMG Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories makes a great gift (and actually starts on Thanksgiving Day!)
Click here to go to the Calendar of Stories sign-up page and read more about it.
I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe holiday season full of joy and love.
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: A River of Releases
We had crazy, wild weather here at WMG headquarters last week.
Days of heavy rainfall led to dangerous flooding and even landslides. The Coast Guard was called in to evacuate campers from campgrounds and deployed at least one rescue swimmer—inland!
Fortunately, WMG’s offices are on high ground. As are all of our employees’ homes, although I did have a new water feature in my back yard for a while…
And while I was watching this literal flooding, I was instead thinking of a deluge of a much happier kind. A flood of new releases over the past year by our own Dean Wesley Smith.
Only this massive event was no freak occurrence. It was the result of a lot of planning and hard work by Dean (with a little help from his friends…at WMG).
In 2020, as Dean was approaching his 70th birthday, he set a challenge for himself: To publish 70 major books between his 70th and 71st birthdays. For this challenge, a major book is a novel, a novella, a collection, or any major editing project with Dean’s name on the cover.
And he did it! Here is the jaw-dropping result of the 70@70 Challenge (a total of 1.3 million words).
You can find the entire list of 70@70 releases here.
And you can click here to follow along on Dean’s blog as he spends some time over the next few weeks talking about the segments of the challenge and his thinking on them.
And if you thought that producing 70 new books in one year was impressive, here’s a list of what else Dean was up to over the past year:
• Published 37 short stories standalone worldwide, and another four in other venues.
• Wrote, launched, and ran 6 major Kickstarters.
• Put together and ran 4 StoryBundles.
• Wrote 365 blogs of different types, one per day.
• Taught 84 six-week workshops.
• Recorded and taught 14 nine-week collections workshops.
• Created and recorded 21 Pop-Up writer’s classes.
• Moved two condos full of offices and books into a third.
• Ran a marathon and finished and also participated in 10 5K charity races.
Pretty awesome feat, huh? I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired just thinking about Dean’s day!
We have something special in mind to celebrate Dean’s achievement, but I’m not ready to announce it yet. So, stay tuned!
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: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!
I registered my daughter for her Covid shots last week, literally the moment the signups opened. She’s 11, so we’ve been waiting desperately for the emergency use authorization as the school year continued on and more of her fellow students dealt with exposure quarantine (or worse, Covid itself) and missed two weeks of school.
This is one of the many reasons Nola is so eager to be vaccinated. Once she has finished her series, she won’t have to quarantine if she’s exposed (unless she becomes symptomatic, and then, well, duh, we would keep her home anyway). And she won’t have to worry so much about bringing Covid home from school to her family or inadvertently giving it to her classmates with diabetes.
For Nola, the vaccine represents freedom from the worst of the pandemic and a protective shield for herself and those she loves. For me, it’s pure relief.
What a long, strange trip it has been.
Even as immersed as I am in the science fiction field, I’ve found the events of the past couple of years surreal.
And I’m not alone. Dean Wesley Smith talks about something similar in his introduction to the latest StoryBundle he has curated: the 2021 Visions of the Future Bundle. Here’s what Dean had to say:
Back almost two years ago, in February 2020, just before the pandemic started, I did a StoryBundle with the title Visions of the Future. Thankfully, nothing about the last two years was in that bundle of great novels and stories. I don’t think many people, including the best science fiction writers, saw any of this coming in the way it did.
So now I get a chance to find writers to look into the future again, only on the downward side of the pandemic. And there is all kinds of science fiction in these books, from galaxy-spanning space opera to generation ships to near future science fiction. And yes, this time even one that looks at a world after pandemics. In my opinion, we need them all. These visions are science fiction in nature, looking out into the possibilities of the future.
Read more about the 10 books in the bundle, which includes Thieves: A Diving Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Grapevine Springs: A Thunder Mountain Novel by Dean, and The Year of the Cat: A Cat of Space and Time (edited by Kris and Dean) here. But hurry. The bundle will only be available for another two weeks or so.
In other news, a shout out to the 185 backers who supported the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2021 Kickstarter to the tune of more than $17,000! Thank you all so much for this fantastic success!
You can buy the Calendar of Stories (38 holiday-themed stories to your gift recipients’ inboxes for just $25 each) any time before it launches on Thanksgiving Day and even once the Calendar of Stories is underway—up through New Year’s Day. (Once the calendar is underway, all new signups get one email with all the links to the stories they missed, plus all the new stories as they are released each day.)
Click here to go to the Calendar of Stories sign-up page.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holidays than sharing this unique calendar with your friends and family, no matter where they are.
And speaking of celebrations, I’ll have a big announcement in next week’s blog to celebrate one hell of a milestone by Dean.
So, be sure to check back in next week!
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: One Gift to Rule Them All!
Now that Halloween is behind us, I’ve really ramped up my holiday shopping.
As crazy things have been for the past almost two years, and the supply chain issues the pandemic has caused, I’m checking off my list ASAP.
And I’m getting creative with my gift choices. The less I have to worry about product fulfillment and shipping times, the better.
If you’re looking to do the same, and you have readers on your holiday shopping list, the WMG Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories makes the perfect gift.
As I mentioned last week, the Calendar of Stories brings 38 holiday-themed stories to your gift recipients’ inboxes for just $25 each. And they’ll also get the full compilation ebook in time for Christmas in July next year.
You can still buy the calendar through our Kickstarter, which ends on Thursday, Nov. 4. Plus, if you buy it through the Kickstarter, you get all the stretch goal rewards (we’ve hit three so far, so that’s three bonus ebooks and two bonus writing pop-up workshops).
Click here to view the Kickstarter.
But if you miss the Kickstarter, never fear. You can buy the calendar any time before it launches on Thanksgiving Day and even once the Calendar of Stories is underway—up through New Year’s Day, in fact.
Once the calendar is underway, all new signups get one email with all the links to the stories they missed, plus all the new stories as they are released each day. Easy peasy.
Click here to go to the Calendar of Stories sign-up page.
So, if you need last minute holiday gifts or even belated holiday gifts, never fear. We’ve got you covered.
Holiday shopping managed!
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: Tempting Treats for the Holiday Season
Last week, I talked about the Month of Short Fiction. And I talked about how gifted Kristine Kathryn Rusch is as a short fiction writer.
This week, I need to tell you that Kris doesn’t just love writing short fiction. She loves reading it, too. And she loves the holidays.
So, holiday projects that offer great short fiction—sign her up!
But she couldn’t sign up. Because what she wanted was a way to sign up to receive a holiday short story every day throughout the holiday season. Like an advent calendar, but for readers.
So, WMG created one. And Kris edits it. It’s called the WMG Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories, and we’ve just launched our third year—and our third Kickstarter—for the project.
With the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2021 Calendar of Stories, you’ve got 38 days of something to look forward to. And that’s just for starters.
Backers of this project at the $25 level will get an original holiday story delivered to their inbox every day from November 25, 2021, through January 1, 2022, plus an ebook compilation of all the stories and introductions, in order, when it’s released in July 2022.
These stories, which range from sweet romance to dark crime, will also be released in anthology form in the fall of 2022 in three books: Mistletoe Moments, Cold-Blooded Christmas, and A Weird Holiday Season, all edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Plus, all backers at the $25 level and higher will receive all of the stretch goals we unlock to get extra ebook and pop-up workshops for writers.
Speaking of writers, we’ve added two new Kickstarter-exclusive workshops to the rewards this year: Write a Story for the 2022 Spectacular and Writing Off-Beat Holiday Stories.
We also have rewards that help you catch up on your holiday reading if you’ve missed the past years’ projects.
To read all about the Kickstarter, watch the fun video Kris narrated about this year’s project, and see all of the available rewards and stretch goals, click here.
And if you can’t wait for the winter holidays, you can start reading a spookier edition of the Calendar of Stories today with the Halloween Spectacular 2021 Calendar of Short Stories.
Starting today and running through Nov. 2, you can get a daily dose of spooky fun in your inbox.
To learn more about this project or to sign up, click here.
Whatever your poison, I wish you a happy Season’s Reading!
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 Month of Short Fiction
I have to admit that before I started working for WMG, I wasn’t a big reader of short fiction. That all changed when I started publishing Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s short stories. She has been putting up one of her short stories for free on her website each week since before I started here almost 10 years ago, and WMG publishes them simultaneously if they haven’t already been published.
Kris is a renowned and gifted short story writer. Who better to introduce me to the art of short fiction?
Good thing, too. Because we’re publishing a butt load (did you know that’s a legitimate unit of measure?) of short fiction this month. Forget the week of short fiction. This is the month of short fiction.
And that multitude of short fiction releases continues this week with the publication of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #14, one of our biggest issues ever, on Thursday. And of course, Kris has a story in here, too.
Here is the synopsis:
A three-time Hugo Award nominated magazine, this issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine offers up twenty fantastic stories by some of the best writers working in modern short fiction.
No genre limitations, no topic limitations, just great stories. Attitude, feel, and high-quality fiction equals Pulphouse.
Includes:
“The Soul Mate Junkie and the Beating Heart” by David H. Hendrickson
“Ecstatically Ever After” by Jerry and Kathy Oltion
“The Bridge” by Robin Brande
“Lower than Black” by O’Neil De Noux
“One Sun, No Waiting” by Annie Reed
“Lifetime Value” by B.A. Paul
“Roadkill” by Brenda Carre
“Living Free” by Dory Crowe
“Ice in D Minor” by Anthea Sharp
“Harry the Ghost Pirate” by Robert J. McCarter
“The Cactus, the Coyote, and the Lost Planet Joyride” by J. Steven York
“Lucky Charm” by Alexandria Blaelock
“Romeo Peterbilt and Isuzu Juliet” by Kent Patterson
“Mounting the Monkeys” by Rick Wilber
“Amelia Pillar’s Etiquette for the Space Traveler” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Predict THIS” by Michael D. Britton
“Family History” by R.W. Wallace
“Time in Death” by C.A. Rowland
“Where Everything Goes” by Rob Vagle
“The Men without Heads Join a Health Club” by Robert Jeschonek
You can find out where to buy Issue #14 when it releases on Thursday here and click here to learn how to subscribe!
And if that isn’t enough short fiction for you, you can always head on over to Kris’ website and check out her free fiction. It’s a new one this week. Kris’ crime stories are exceptional, even if this one left me a bit queasy in the beginning. Click here to see why.
Short fiction is perfect for this busy holiday season.
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 Week of Short Fiction
Avid readers of this blog might remember me talking about how many books we have on our calendar this year. This week will certainly drive that point home.
And fans of short fiction will have many reasons to rejoice. Nine of them, to be exact!
That’s because we’re releasing nine new titles this week, and they are all short fiction based: three holiday anthologies, one short story collection, and five Pulphouse books!
The three holiday anthologies, which publish on Tuesday, are from the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020. Here are the titles and synopses for each:
Murder, mayhem, and all manner of crimes set during the holiday season give this anthology a bite that serves as a delightful change from the sweetness that often dominates this time of the year.
This volume contains an abundance of thieves, a few murderers, a wannabe murderer, and one or two stories in which the crime lurks on the periphery. With a host of unreliable narrators, a few psychopaths, and one acrobat, who could resist?
From a search for the perfect Christmas tree that turns deadly to a reformed thief who wrestles with the better angels of his nature when temptation arises during the holidays, these marvelous mysteries prove the perfect distraction for even the stormiest winter evening.
Includes:
“Christmas Chase” by Tonya D. Price
“For The Win” by Stephannie Tallent
“Into the Good Night” by Rob Vagle
“A Different, Better Red” by Michael Warren Lucas
“The Art of Waiting” by Kelly Washington
“Christmas in the Ruins” by Mary Jo Rabe
“The Magi of St. Michael’s” by Annie Reed
“Pungent Justice” by Kari Kilgore
“Targets of Opportunity” by Stefon Mears
“All The Bells and Whistles” by B.A. Paul
“Not A Cozy” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
Venture forth into the delightful adventures of ghosts and elves and imps and more found in the magical worlds of Fantastic Christmas.
Enjoy sweets for the sweet romantics, charming ghosts and imps to capture the imagination, and stories both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
From Nordic sprites who long for the porridge and butter and sugar from the hands of their human neighbors to a man desperate to be with his dying wife on their own special holiday, the stories in this volume add a bit of warmth to your holiday season.
Includes:
“The Last Hour of Hogswatch” by Michael Warren Lucas
“The Best Christmas” by Dory Crowe
“Spirit of the Season” by Anthea Lawson
“The Magic of Sharing” by R.W. Wallace
“The Way the Cookie Crumbles” by Angela Penrose
“An Embarrassment of Id’imps” by Ezekiel James Boston
“The Case of the Disappearing Decorations” by Annie Reed
“The Inn, the Black Cat, and Two Halves of the Same Heart” by Kari Kilgore
“Motorcoach Miracles” by Juliet Nordeen
“Magic For a New Year” by Lisa Silverthorne
The best holiday stories delight with heartfelt satisfaction from beginning to end.
Romance forms the core of most of the stories in this volume, and they feature holiday settings from Thanksgiving to New Years, with even some made up holidays in between.
From a young woman trying to wheedle some good-luck collard greens out of the new minister on New Year’s Eve to the two young university students adrift in a foreign country for the holidays, each story touches the heart and warms the soul.
A perfect distraction from the hustle and bustle of the holidays!
Includes:
“Good Luck Greens” by Irette Y. Patterson
“Finding Sanctuary” by Kari Kilgore
“The Journey Home” by Erik Kort
“Pagan Sunrise” by Stefon Mears
“Toast The Stars” by Stephannie Tallent
“Speakeasy to Her Heart” by Stephanie Writt
“Winter’s Perfect Night” by Kelly Shire
“The Slowpokes’ Parade” by Patricia Duffy Novak
“An Unexpected Winter” by Tao Wong
“New Year’s Fortune” by Anthea Lawson
“Andrew and Shichi-Go-San” by Jason A. Adams
“Coming Home” by Chrissy Wissler
To find out more information about these three new holiday anthologies (and the three from last year), click here. And don’t forget to sign up for the 2021 WMG Holiday Spectacular 2021 here.
We also have a fantastic new short story collection by Kristine Kathryn Rusch publishing on Tuesday, which features her five stories from the 2019 and 2020 WMG Holiday Spectaculars. It’s called Stories for the Cold of Winter. Here’s the synopsis:
Light-hearted holiday stories abound, but when the days turn cold and bracing, darker tales tempt the senses. This collection of five stories from award-winning and bestselling master of short fiction Kristine Kathryn Rusch fits that bill.
All centered on the winter holidays, Stories for the Cold of Winter features four crime stories: “The Thanksgiving After,” a suspense story set on Black Friday (more or less); “Frank’s Corner Bar,” a Christmas day story set in a neighborhood bar during an ice storm; “Resolution,” which follows an assassin trying to change her life with the new year; and “Other People’s Stupidity,” which focuses on the legal profession at year’s end.
The fifth offering, “Vigil,” offers a tale of quiet dedication to lives lost.
So, stoke the fire and let these tales entertain on a cold winter’s night.
For more information, click here.
And on Thursday, we’ll release five new Pulphouse books. Here are their titles and synopses:
Don’t Touch My Magic!
Magic stories, by their very nature, create fictional worlds. Take a story with magic and twist it in a way that makes it a Pulphouse story, and you get fiction that sometimes shocks, sometimes challenges, and sometimes breaks your heart.
From flying underwear trying to save the world to Mouse Riders trying to save their own world. From a made-up fantasy world to a magical cartoon character exploring his cartoon world. From a romance bound by two guns to a lawyer who represents the magical world in real court.
These ten stories crafted by extremely talented writers take readers to magical worlds.
Includes:
“In the Empire of Underpants” by Robert Jeschonek
“Coyote and the Amazing Herbal Formula” by Sabrina Chase
“Hand Fast” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Reign to Come” by Kevin J. Anderson
“A Magical Negro” by Ezekiel James Boston
“This Magic Moment” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Unnatural Law” by J. Steven York
“PMS and a Hand Grenade” by Brenda Carre
“Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (sort of)” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“Queen of the Mouse Riders” by Annie Reed
Ghosts Among Us
Everyone loves a good ghost story. Somehow the creepiest, scariest ghost stories always feature sadness at their core.
From a story about a woman who must face her ghosts on Christmas Eve night, to a ghost detective stuck in his own cemetery helping other ghosts move on by solving their own murders, to a ghost who writes letters to the living—these ghosts seem more alive than dead. Their sagas just continue into another realm.
So, steel your courage and delve into these ten stories from the other side of the veil.
Includes:
“Death by Vodka” by Robert J. McCarter
“Dead Girlfriend” by Ray Vukcevich
“The Writing on the Wall” by Kevin J. Anderson
“The Dead on Somerset Hill” by Chuck Heintzelman
“Dreams of Memories Never Lived” by Rob Vagle
“Flowers for Mother” by J. Steven York
“Ghosts of Christmas Present” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Developmental Adventures of Phil” by Jason A. Adams
“Salt” by Thorn Coyle
“Just Desserts” by R.W. Wallace
Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers…
Take your wildest imagination, and you might just come up with a Pulphouser: a rare creature only found on the pages of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine.
Add in some more strange creatures and critters, and you might just find yourself running—straight to your favorite chair to dive into the ten stories in this wacky volume!
So, welcome to the Pulphouse Zone, with an abundance of creatures and critters that only exist in Pulphouse.
Includes:
“Blackbeard’s Aliens” by Robert Jeschonek
“Vamp until Doomsday” by Stefon Mears
“The Injustice Collector” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Dog Steps” by Rob Vagle
“For the Love of Killer” by Mary Jo Rabe
“Dog People” by Robert J. McCarter
“The Poodles of Panama” by Kent Patterson
“The True Story of Stanley and Stella” by Johanna Rothman
“Starlings” by Jerry Oltion
“Brick Houses” by Annie Reed
There’ll Be Blue Popcorn Without You!
Blue Popcorn means sadness and loss and love. In the pages of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, it also means very weird and entertaining sadness and loss and love.
The ten stories in this volume range from a dweeby guy trying to win the affection of a beautiful woman, to a tale of a solo man in a future world looking for companionship, to a story about art and the crime it reveals.
Running the gamut from science fiction to fantasy to psychological drama, these tales evoke strong emotion.
Includes:
“A Better Man Than You” by Jerry Oltion and Kent Patterson
“Rose in Dreamland” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Under the Blood-Red Maple” by Joslyn Chase
“A Cherub by Any Other Name” by Annie Reed
“Small Discrete Intervals from a Sample Size of One” by J. Steven York
“A Night Under the Stars” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Bravo and Jazz” by Ron Collins
“The Man Who Married His Wife’s Thigh” by Bonnie Elizabeth
“Virtual Oracle” by Leigh Saunders
“The Pearce Shootout” by Robert J. McCarter
Twisted Robots, Oh, My!
Robots often walk the pages of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine.
Pulphouse prides itself on crossing genre lines, blurring genre lines, and just flat mixing up genres until the genre classification means nothing.
Terms like different, off-center, twisted, and sometimes just head-scratching form the hallmarks of a Pulphouse story.
So, like everything else in Pulphouse, the robots in these ten stories might or might not fit the standard classification of robots. But they definitely scream Pulphouse!
Includes:
“The Clockwork Man’s Canteen” by J. Steven York
“nanoturds” by Ray Vukcevich
“A Little Song, A Little Dance, A Little Apocalypse Down Your Pants” by Robert Jeschonek
“Battery-Operated Boyfriend” by Barbara G. Tarn
“One-Night Stands for Love and Glory” by David H. Hendrickson
“Daisy’s Heart” by Robert J. McCarter
“Taking Care of Business” by Mary Jo Rabe
“Unfamiliar, Foreign, Outré” by Jerry Oltion
“Exchange Policy” by Scott William Carter
“Tinker Henry and the Clockwork Whore” by Jim Gotaas
To find out more information about these five new Pulphouse books (and the nine others that were previously published), click here.
So many awesome short stories. What a great excuse to stay inside with a good book!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.