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Publisher’s Note: Preparing for a Long Winter’s Nap
I remember reading Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series when I was in college and marveling at how primitive people spent their winter during the Ice Age. They had to prepare for the long, cold winter where they would be trapped inside for months and had to have enough provisions to last until Spring.
I have a much better idea of what that must have been like now. With Covid cases exploding across the country, hunkering down for winter seems like a really good plan. Although if people keep hoarding toilet paper, we’ll get an even better idea of what primitive man dealt with…
Here in Oregon, we’re under increased restrictions already, on a county-by-county basis. Lincoln County, where WMG is headquartered, is considered a high-risk county because of our recent case increases. Among other restrictions is a work-from-home recommendation, so home is where I’m writing this. Thankfully, we have that capability.
I’ve also stocked up on baking supplies to get us through the long, dark winter. And soup. I’ll be making lots of soup.
Spring will come. We just need to survive the difficult winter.
Thank goodness books have been invented since the Ice Age.
If you’re looking for something new in that department, I have two new releases to tell you about.
First is the latest volume in our Year of the Cat series edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, A Cat of Heroic Heart.
Here’s the synopsis:
Everyone knows dogs save people. Cats do too, in a different way.
Although cats feign an aloof detachment, they possess great heart. A cat rescue comes on its own terms and in its own time, and always with dignified heroism.
From a fantastic Midnight Louie story by Carole Nelson Douglas, where Louie meets Sherlock Holmes, to a familiar rescuing other familiars from a natural disaster, this volume showcases a broad spectrum of heroic cats.
Includes:
“A Baker Street Irregular” by Carole Nelson Douglas
“Cat in Love” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Nine Lives” by E. Nesbit
“Gilroy and the Kitten” by Jamie Ferguson
“Disaster Relief” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Christmas, Interrupted” by Lisa Silverthorne
“The Coffee Curse” by Stefon Mears
“Of Cats & Lost Socks” by Liz Pierce
To curl up with this fantastic volume of cat fiction, click here.
And if you’d rather (or also) like to transport yourself to a different time (perfectly understandable), there’s Time Travelers, our latest volume of Fiction River Presents, which is edited by Gwyneth Gibby..
Here’s the synopsis:
The desire to travel through time occupies many daydreams. It also drives many plot lines. After all, a good story transports the reader to a different time and place, no matter the genre.
This volume of Fiction River Presents gathers some of those incredible time travel tales together into one volume. In these stories, characters want to fix something in the past, solve mysteries, escape to an unknown future, or maybe just get a glimpse of it.
So, get ready for a trip on the Spacetime Express. Backward, forward, and sideways, these adventures through time offer a passport into the unknown and beyond.
Includes:
“Tower One” by Thomas K. Carpenter
“September at Wall & Broad” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Elevator in the Cornfield” by Scott William Carter
“Sacred Poet from the Future” by Kelly Cairo
“The Wages of the Moment” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Three Strikes” by Chuck Heintzelman
“Christmas, Interrupted” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Love in the Time of Dust and Venom” by Sharon Joss
This volume even includes a very timely (and wonderful) Christmas story. Check it out here.
So, stock up, stay in, and stay safe.
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: Ready to Start Ringing in the Holdays
The holiday season is well underway, and we’ve never needed good cheer more than this year. So, USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has partnered with the fantastic folks at StoryBundle to curate The Good Cheer Holiday Bundle to do just that!
And one of the most awesome things in this bundle is a book that contains all of the Santa Claus stories written by L. Frank Baum, collected together for the first time in one book—with all of the original art!
You might not realize that the author of the Wizard of Oz is the person who helped cement the images and features we now conjure in our minds when we think of Santa Claus.
Like I said: we’re really spreading some amazing good cheer here.
But that’s not the only awesome book in this bundle. It also includes Dean’s Through the Jukebox collection of stories set on Christmas Eve, Kristine Grayson’s Tidings of Comfort and Joy from her Santa Series, and Joyous Christmas, a cheerful anthology from the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2019.
There’s also a StoryBundle exclusive by WMG Holiday Spectacular author Lisa Silverthorne called Gina’s Remains.
Get these five holiday ebooks, along with five others, for just $15. You can learn all about this wonderful bundle and read Dean’s blog about it here.
Speaking of the WMG Holiday Spectacular, the 2020 Calendar of Stories has launched, but it’s not too late to sign up or to give one as a gift! We’ve got you covered. Sign up now, and you’ll get all the stories you missed plus start getting a story a day for the rest of the holiday season. Click here to learn more.
What better way to get through this weirdest of holiday seasons that with some fantastic holiday 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: Finding Ways to Be Thankful
Here in the US, we’re about to celebrate American Thanksgiving. No surprise to anyone, it will look very different this year.
Traditional American Thanksgiving (not during a pandemic) means gathering together with large numbers of family and/or friends and stuffing yourself with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, candied yams, pumpkin pie, and a number of other family traditional recipes. And, of course, stuffing itself. It’s a rather gluttonous day in normal years.
This year, with Covid cases spiking across the country, it will look very different. Families won’t (or shouldn’t) be traveling or gathering together. The meals might include some of the same traditional dishes, but in much smaller quantities. In fact, here in Lincoln City, turkey breasts are nowhere to be found, but full turkeys are overflowing. I’ve never cooked a full turkey before, and I’m not about to start this year when it’s just the two of us. So, we’ll be having smoked turkey legs instead.
I’m kind of excited to try the turkey legs. And we’ll be watching a movie with my sister in New Jersey over Zoom on Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen a movie with my sister in so many years that I can’t remember the last time now.
Before the pandemic hit, I was feeling like Thanksgiving (and Christmas) had become too focused on that gluttony I mentioned before. But not this year. The pandemic has forced us to look at what’s really important: finding ways to be together even if we’re far apart.
So, I’m thankful, truly thankful, for some of the lessons this pandemic is teaching us. I’m thankful for new traditions and for being reminded to focus on what’s important. I’m thankful for the joy I have in my life even during such a stressful year. Hell, after surviving a brain tumor, I’m thankful just to be alive.
And I’m thankful to have the holidays to look forward to this year. We will certainly be making the most of them.
In that spirit, thank you to the 194 backers who made our WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Kickstarter such a great success! And if you missed the Kickstarter, never fear: You can still buy the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Calendar of Stories (a story a day for 37 days!) in time for its launch on Thanksgiving Day. Just click here for more details.
The Calendar of Stories is a great way to share the holidays with your friends and/or family, especially this year. Buy one for yourself and one for them and you have a great excuse to check in with each other daily to talk about what you just read.
Now, that’s a happy 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: Diving Forward into the Future
The holiday season will look different this year, no doubt about it. Covid cases are spiking across the country, and states are already beginning to reissue lockdown orders reminiscent of the spring. Oregon begins a two-week “freeze” starting Wednesday, Nov. 18, and stretching over the Thanksgiving holiday until Dec. 2. The message, which should be abundantly clear at this point: stay home and leave the family celebrations for next year.
We had already made that decision on our own, so it doesn’t change plans for my household. But the office will be even quieter because part of the freeze requires businesses to have their employees work from home if even remotely possible. Fortunately, that’s an easy one in publishing.
So, home it is. I’d already planned on a Zoom dinner with my family on the East Coast, and cooking our favorites at home (including my grandmother’s Caldo Gallego, which is a family tradition). And we’ll be getting a jump on the Christmas decorating to eke out every second of holiday joy and magic we can this year!
Speaking of holiday joy, if you’ve been waiting to back the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Kickstarter, you’ve almost missed it. The Kickstarter ends Tuesday, Nov. 17, and features some amazing rewards and stretch goal bonuses you won’t want to miss, in addition to the fabulous Calendar of Stories. Click here to learn more.
Also on Tuesday, Christmas comes early for fans of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning Diving series. Tuesday marks the official publication day for the latest novel in that series, Squishy’s Teams.
This new novel, called a Diving Universe novel because it doesn’t feature main characters Boss or Coop, takes readers back to the early days of the series. It’s set at the exact same time as the third novel in the series, Boneyards, and offers a different perspective on the events from that novel. Here’s the synopsis:
Diving readers know that Squishy enlisted others to help her destroy stealth tech in the novel Boneyards. But exactly what happened to those teams remained a mystery—until now.
Ten people signed up to help Squishy in her fateful mission. Only five returned.
Paired up in teams of two, they set out across the Enterran Empire to infiltrate and sabotage the Empire’s bases used to back up their stealth tech research.
But what exactly happened on those bases? Who survived? Squishy’s Teams provides the answers to those burning questions and reveals twists to the ongoing saga no one sees coming.
We highly recommend reading (or rereading if it’s been a while) Boneyards before reading Squishy’s Teams. There’s a very good reason for this, as Kris said in the story of our Return of Boss Kickstarter back in June:
While I was trying to figure out the book after Thieves, I needed to know something about the Enterran Empire. So I wrote what I thought was a side story, Squishy’s Teams. That turned into a novel, because Squishy sent out several teams to destroy something the Empire calls stealth tech. After Boneyards, we thought we knew what happened to the teams. We were wrong.
As you can see, Squishy’s Teams will also play an important role in the storyline of the new novels that will be coming out starting in 2021. Those new releases start with Thieves, which releases in February.
Click here to buy Boneyards, and here to buy Squishy’s Teams (tomorrow).
Now, if only time travel were a real thing…
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 Year of Plot Twists
Well, we’ve certainly had a lot of plot twists in 2020, especially here in the US. And last week was a real doozy, as I’m sure you’re all aware. And because it’s 2020, the drama, of course, continues.
So, after a week of binge baking (and a newfound realization that homemade frosting is the only way to go), I’m focusing my attention on fiction plot twists.
In a bit of good timing, we have a new StoryBundle launching Wednesday that fits the bill perfectly: The Twist of a Knife Bundle, curated by our own Dean Wesley Smith.
The bundle offers ten mystery/crime ebooks for as low as $15, including three WMG books: Bad Beat: A Cold Poker Gang Novel by Dean, Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel by Kris Nelscott, and A Twist of a Knife: Mystery Stories from the Pages of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, edited by Dean and exclusive to this StoryBundle.
You will be able to find more information about this bundle here when it goes live. So, be sure to check back Wednesday.
But right now, you can sign up to get your fix of mystery holiday stories (and fantastic ones and romantic ones) as part of the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Kickstarter, which has just one week left to go. Click here to learn more about that.
The 2020 Calendar of Stories starts going out in just a couple of weeks (can you believe it?).
And if you need to just transport yourself somewhere (or somewhen) else altogether, fictionally at least, I have some good news there. The Big Time Bundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, has been extended until Thursday, so if you missed that one, we’ve bought you some extra time. As a reminder, this ten-book bundle contains three WMG books: Kris’ The Renegat: A Diving Universe Novel, Dean’s Warm Springs: A Thunder Mountain Novel, and the StoryBundle exclusive Fiction River Presents: Time Travelers, edited by Gwyneth Gibby.
Click here to learn more about that bundle.
So much fiction to choose from. We’ll get through this year yet!
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 Blue Moon Kind of Year
We had a full moon on Halloween this year (of course). I can tell you from my days as a newspaper journalist, that was not good news for the police, ER docs and any other emergency personnel. The idea that people are affected by the full moon is not fiction. Anyone who works in these fields can tell you, it’s a fact.
Halloween’s full moon was also a blue moon, the second full moon in a month. That only happens about every 32 months.
The last full moon on Halloween was 2001 (another banner year in the US). The last time it was blue: 1944.
Once in a blue moon. I used to use that phrase only rarely, appropriately. But this year, we keep getting hit with once-in-a-blue-moon events.
Maybe that’s appropriate. This year has certainly had me swearing a blue streak. (Another fun fact: the Pantone Color of the Year for 2020 is Classic Blue—click here to read an article about that announcement, which is fascinating with 2020 hindsight…)
Way back in the beginning of the pandemic (one of the first once-in-a-blue-moon events of 2020), we held what we thought would be a first-ever, one-time 50% off workshop sale. Itself a once-in-a-blue-moon event.
But as the pandemic stretched on, and people continued to struggle with the weight of 2020, we decided to offer it again.
Our latest sale is the Workshops Holiday Sale, which runs through Nov. 10. During this limited period, you can get half price on all WMG workshops, classes, and subscriptions.
Click here to learn more.
And because we’re talking about the holidays, don’t forget that WMG workshops and lectures make great gifts for your writer friends.
In the meantime, we’ve made it to November! Let’s all rejoice in that accomplishment.
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: Travel to a Different Space and Time
I think we can all agree that at this point in 2020, we’d like time to move a little faster. Days feel like weeks, weeks feel like months, months feel like years. Or maybe decades. It depends on the latest challenge 2020 has thrown our way.
I’m actually on year two of the time experiment. For me, time started to work differently very early in 2019, when the effects of my brain tumor (as yet undiagnosed) became really pronounced. I was just about to celebrate the end of my yearlong recovery from the brain surgery to remove said brain tumor when the world shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That year of recovery moved very slowly at times, especially in the beginning. I’d never had major surgery, so I really picked a doozy of an introduction to the concept. I had no idea until after the surgery just how long it takes to recover from something like that. But I learned. And I adapted to my new reality, knowing that life would never be the same as it was before the tumor, but that it wouldn’t always be like the in-between of tumor to recovery.
The one-year anniversary of my surgery was March 29, 2020. The state of Oregon shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic on March 23, 2020. I was just about to exit one health crisis when a new one started. But this one affected everyone. Which honestly made it worse.
But I had already experienced my own lockdown. The first six weeks after my surgery I was on concussion protocol, which meant I couldn’t do much of anything. I didn’t leave the house for anything during that time except my doctor’s appointments. And it would be months before I could handle being around larger groups of people because my brain would get so overwhelmed.
But after about seven months, I felt like I was returning to a version of my old self. Different, yes, but familiar. Time, at that point, moved faster.
Until it slowed down again for the pandemic.
Ebb and flow. I’ve stopped trying to keep track and just go with the currents of time these days. We all have. It’s the only way to stay sane during events like this.
Fiction writers have long explored the transient nature of time through their writing, and it’s particularly relevant at times like these.
So, while I can’t make time pass more quickly, I can offer up some fantastic fiction to figuratively transport you to all sorts of different places and times.
First up is our latest StoryBundle, The Big Time Bundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This money-saving bundle of ten fantastic books includes three WMG offerings (one of which is exclusive). Here’s a bit about the bundle from Kris:
Initially, when I planned this bundle, I was hoping for time travel. Maybe that was wishful thinking. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back in time and somehow prevent this virus from getting loose? Wouldn’t it be nice to go forward in time and skip the next round of Virus Life altogether? Wouldn’t it be possible to have control of time instead of being at the mercy of time?
Of course, those of us who read and love time travel know that things can go awry when we start messing with time. For all we know, we’re in an alternate timeline right now. In some alternate universe somewhere, our non-Covid selves are hugging friends as they arrive for some holiday gathering, maybe with some pie or pumpkin spice latte. We’re kissing babies and going maskless through the grocery store.
This StoryBundle has some very good fiction by some of the best writers I know. They’re taking us to the most interesting places, such as the Idaho wilderness in the early part of the 20th century. Or the year without summer in Europe—that would be 1816 to the rest of us. Or to the very far future—thousands and thousands of years from now.
The WMG books in this bundle include Kris’ The Renegat: A Diving Universe Novel, Warm Springs: A Thunder Mountain Novel by Dean Wesley Smith, and the StoryBundle exclusive Fiction River Presents: Time Travelers, edited by Gwyneth Gibby.
You can read more about the bundle here. And Kris’ full blog about the bundle is a really good read, too. You can find that here.
But that’s not all! Our latest release in our Year of the Cat project deals with the concept of time, too.
Here’s the synopsis of A Cat of Space and Time, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.
Cats often live in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Anyone who knows cats knows they bend time and defy gravity.
They walk through life seeming not to care about day-to-day events around them, and yet in the blink of an eye, they sense danger as if they see into the future.
Cat people also know their cats observe their human slaves for space aliens. We don’t mind, really. Of course, most cats, like nature, abhor a vacuum, so no technology for cats past a good can opener.
This volume focuses on cats in space and time and includes two helpful poems for those who still wonder about their cats’ occupations.
Includes:
“Ten Ways to Know if Your Cat is a Space Alien” by Geoffrey A. Landis
“The Goddess Particle” by Daemon Crowe
“All Cats are Gray” by Andre Norton
“The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith
“Nefertiti’s Tenth Life” by Mary A. Turzillo
“Chimera” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Frayed Edges of the World” by Annie Reed
“Surfing the Swale” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Cat in a Hole” by Dean Wesley Smith
“More Ways to Tell if Your Cat is a Space Alien” by Mary A. Turzillo
You can check out that book here.
So, carve out some time for some new fiction. Maybe it’ll make time pass a little faster.
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: Kicking Off the Holiday Season
Whoa, Nelly, has 2020 been an adventure. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the holiday season to start this year. I really need some of that holiday spirit right now.
And to get us all started, I’m happy to announce the publication of three holiday anthologies to get you started. These books contain stories that first appeared in our WMG Holiday Spectacular 2019 calendar and later in The Holiday Spectacular #1, which contained all 35 stories from that project in one ebook.
Now, for the first time, you can get these stories in anthology form, which includes ebook and paperback editions.
Here are the anthologies and their synopses:
Take stories detailing all the nastiest parts of human behavior, from theft to murder to mayhem, throw in some of the “lesser” darkness that humans can provide during the holidays, and assemble them into one volume—welcome to Bloody Christmas.
These stories, dark and vicious, form the perfect antidote to the holiday season’s sugary sweetness. So, consider this the savory part of the holidays for those whose reading tastes get darker in the darkest part of the year.
As Alfred Hitchcock used to say, read these stories with the lights on—and the doors locked, curtains drawn, and protective gear at hand. One never knows what lurks in the darkness.
Includes:
“Asking For It” by C.H. Hung
“Some Folks Just Need Killin’” by Lauren Christopher
“A Crafty Affair” by Bonnie Elizabeth
“A Hidden Gift” by Meyari McFarland
“The Perfect Gift” by Robert Cutchin
“Why Don’t You Make Gingerbread?” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“A Killer Party” by Annie Reed
“Wild Nights and New Roads” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Sister Silence Night” by Michael Warren Lucas
“Bobo” by Ron Collins
“Christmas Dessert” by Juliet Nordeen
Joy abounds during the Christmas season. A sense of magic threads through everything, and the spirit of make-believe becomes almost commonplace.
The authors in this anthology capture that joy with stories marked by fun, goofiness, touching sentiment, and even some sweet romance.
This light-hearted holiday book brings smiles and even a giggle or two and ushers in a very joyous holiday season.
Includes:
“The Magic Cat of the Hidden Springs Inn and Spa” by Kari Kilgore
“A New Home for Christmas” by Annie Reed
“Reindeer Christmas” by Lisa Silverthorne
“The Gift” by Brenda Carr
“The Sugimori Sisters and the Santa Experiment” by Brigid Collins
“Caribou Road” by Joe Cron
“Christmas Newsletters from the Edge” by Robert Jeschonek
“A Grave Kind of Love” by Robert J. McCarter
“Turn The Page” by Michael D. Britton
“Green Girl” by Brenda Carr
“Christmas Eve at Claredon Hall” by Dayle A. Dermatis
Winter holidays mean lights, decorations, and delicious food. They bring about a sense of joy and a giving spirit that seems more abundant than at other times of the year.
This anthology holds a Hanukkah story, two stories about the solstice and two about some lesser-known holidays. Two authors made up their own holidays, and three looked at what people who don’t celebrate do during the holiday season.
With so many creative ways to celebrate, this volume will surely lift the spirits.
Includes:
“Star Shower” by CJ Erick
“Winter Pariah” by Michèle Laframboise
“The Real Housewitches of Calafia County” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“The Year That Went into Extra Innings” by Brigid Collins & Ron Collins
“Christmas, Translated” by C.H. Hung
“A True Family Holiday” by Jason Adams
“The Miracle of the Lights” by Leah R. Cutter
“Everflame Gifts” by Ezekiel James Boston
“The Ten Days of Newtonmas” by Ron Collins
“Operation AngelCam” by Kate Pavelle
“Virginia’s Last Old Christmas Eve” by Kari Kilgore
For links to buy these books starting tomorrow, click here for Bloody Christmas, here for Joyous Christmas, and here for Winter Holidays.
To buy the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 calendar, click here.
Or, if you want to get in on the many extras we include for our Kickstarter supporters, wait a few days for the launch of our WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Kickstarter to launch. More details on that in next week’s blog.
So much holiday goodness. What are you waiting for?
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: Take Control of Your Career
Well, we were only into the first day of October before the surprises started coming. And while I’m not going to comment any further on those (in part because who knows what else will have happened in the few short days until this blog goes live), I do have a bit of good news to share with you.
It’s no surprise that StoryBundles offer great value. But the latest StoryBundle that WMG is participating in contains even more value that a typical StoryBundle.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) might still be weeks away, but with the time dilation that is 2020, there’s no better time to get a jump start on it. Curated by Kevin J. Anderson, the 2020 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle offers 17 books covering a range of writing techniques, as well as advice on business, markets, and career management. WMG has two offerings in this mammoth bundle that we felt were particularly relevant for 2020: How to Turn Setbacks into Opportunity: A Freelancer’s Guide Short Book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and an online workshop from WMG’s Pop-Up Series, “#19: How Can Your Business Survive the Downturn,” taught by Dean Wesley Smith. The workshop alone has a value of $150!
Here’s the synopsis for How to Turn Setbacks into Opportunity:
Setbacks happen to everyone. Surviving them is hard. Surviving failure is even harder. But every successful person survives at least three failures before finding that success. So how do you turn failure to success?
The answers lie in this book-length excerpt from the massive Freelancer’s Survival Guide by international bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who will show you how to turn those inevitable setbacks into opportunity.
And here’s the description for the Pop-Up workshop:
Scary times we live in at the moment for anyone in business, and all writers are in business even though they may want to ignore that fact.
This Pop-Up talks about Black Swan events and different things you need to do and be aware of to get your business healthy and to the new reality on the other side.
And as you can imagine with this topic, there is a really fun short story assignment with this one as well.
These and 15 more books could be yours for just $20. To see everything this StoryBundle has to offer, click here.
In these out-of-control times, one thing we can try to control is our writing careers.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
Keep up to date with exclusive deals on WMG products, including books and online lectures and workshops, as well as the latest news about new releases and so much more! Sign up for the Grab a Book and Chill weekly newsletter, and you’ll get two new free ebooks just for signing up: An Easy Shot: A Golf Thriller by Dean Wesley Smith and Days of Rage: A Smokey Dalton Novel by Kris Nelscott.
Publisher’s Note: It’s Been a Long Week…Month…Year
Lincoln City, where WMG is headquartered, keeps making the news lately, but not in the way you want to make the news.
The first time was earlier in this year when a group of racist tourists trapped a Black family (a mom and her kids) on the beach and threatened them and the police protecting them with violence. It took just about every member of our small-town police force to keep that from happening. The family was not physically hurt, but I can only imagine the emotional damage done.
The second time was because of the devastating wildfires.
And the third was because of sheer stupidity. We actually made the NY Post this time, because of an incident at one of our local grocery stores, Mckay’s Market: “Oregon man showing off handgun accidentally shoots himself in groin.” That’s not a good milestone.
At least this time karma was swift and just. But the poor people in McKay’s at the time. I shop there with my daughter (or I did before the pandemic). Jeez.
I need a distraction. And from what I’ve seen of 2020, you’ve probably got your own stories of hatred or tragedy or stupidity or all three that you need distraction from, too.
So, I’m giving you all a gift. It’s one of my favorite stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It involves time travel (who wouldn’t want that ability right now?) and humor and romance. It’s just fun. And of all the irony, it’s called “Present.”
Click here to download the story. I hope it makes you smile. We could all use some of that right now.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
Keep up to date with exclusive deals on WMG products, including books and online lectures and workshops, as well as the latest news about new releases and so much more! Sign up for the Grab a Book and Chill weekly newsletter, and you’ll get two new free ebooks just for signing up: An Easy Shot: A Golf Thriller by Dean Wesley Smith and Days of Rage: A Smokey Dalton Novel by Kris Nelscott.