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Publisher’s Note: What a Fantastic Way to Kick Off the New Year!
I’ll never forget my first adult fantasy novel. Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon. I was more of a Little Women and Jane Eyre reader up to that point, and The Eyes of the Dragon was a totally different kind of fiction for me (and for King, at the time, but that’s another story you should look up).
I was a freshman in high school when the book came out in mass market paperback. I didn’t connect at the time (or for years afterward) that it was by Stephen King. It’s a good thing, too, because if I’d known it was written by that Stephen King, I wouldn’t have read it. His horror was (and still is) too much for me.
But that first foray into fantasy fiction paved the way for my enjoyment of so many other fantasy works.
Including the many incredible short stories of Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.
And now we’re collecting their fantasy stories together into special volumes for this year’s Make 100 Kickstarter, just like we did with Crimes Collide last year for the mystery stories and Colliding Worlds the year before for their science fiction.
Kris and Dean have been writing professional fantasy short stories for four decades that have won awards and sold millions of copies, plus they have been acclaimed and enjoyed by fans over the entire world.
Now, for the first time, Kris and Dean are collecting 100 of their fantasy short stories together into a five-volume set called Fantasies Collide. Fifty stories from each author in the series; ten stories from each author in every volume.
In addition to such fantastic rewards as the five Fantasies Collide volumes in ebook, trade paperback and signed/limited hardcover, we have some amazing rewards for writers, and a special workshop series for writers is included in the stretch goals.
Check out the Kickstarter here, and be sure to watch Kris and Dean’s fun video about the project.
What a fantastic way to kick off the new 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: Looking Ahead to the New Year!
Well, it’s officially 2023! Back in 2020, we weren’t sure we’d get here, but here we are. It seems like we’ve found our new normal. It’s weird, but, well, I’m trying to look, as Monty Python says, “on the bright side of life.”
As such, I’m looking ahead to the coming year with lots of exciting changes afoot.
But first, a little insider background on the publishing industry.
For those of you who don’t follow all the ins and outs of publishing, our industry is, to simply things, divided into two factions: traditional publishers and indie publishers. Trad features the Big Five (who almost became the Big Four last year until the DOJ stepped in). The Big Five have long acted as gatekeepers: the theory being that only the best books get published.
We all know that’s crap, but bear with me.
The whole book industry is built around that assumption. Bookstores, online retailers, libraries, the list goes on. More gatekeeping.
But the indie revolution changed the landscape. As indie authors and publishers gained ground, new voices emerged that proved the gatekeeping was really, as gatekeeping is wont to be, oppressive.
Indie publishers are constantly fighting to find ways to allow more voices to be heard. WMG has long been on the front lines of that fight.
But the gatekeeping infrastructure is pervasive. It’s not enough to publish independent voices; we must also be able to allow those to be heard by getting the books to readers. Selling through retailers means going through gatekeepers. As we’ve already established, gatekeepers hinder. Those gatekeepers keep changing the rules.
So, how do you circumvent the gatekeepers? You cut out the middleman. What this leaves us with is direct sales.
WMG has already been investing in various direct sales delivery methods. Our Kickstarters are direct sales. So are our subscriptions (such as the weekly Every Day’s a Holiday at WMG newsletter). And we’ve long offered ebooks for sale directly on the WMG website.
But this year, that last is getting a big upgrade. We’re moving to a Shopify store to enhance and streamline our direct sales to make it more convenient and easier to navigate for our readers. (That store officially launches tomorrow but you can click here to get notified as soon as it’s live!)
We hope you’ll consider this new store as your go-to place to buy our ebooks. Because when you buy the books from WMG directly, you’re directly supporting the authors who write and edit them—that would be the two writers who own this company: Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.
Those are the same two writers who give back so much to other writers through all the workshops they teach.
Speaking of workshops, another new thing we’ve done for this year is enhance the wmgworkshops.com website to make navigating our enormous catalog much easier. Want to know what workshops allow you to study directly with the master (aka Dean)? We’ve got a tab for that. Looking to enhance your craft or change your attitudes about writing? We’ve got tabs for that too. And every workshop listing now has a link directly to that workshop on Teachable.
Check it out here.
And we’re just getting started. So many exciting things ahead.
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 2022 Year in Review
Although we at WMG are off today for the observed Christmas Day holiday in the US, the excitement of Christmas is now over. The presents are unwrapped, the advent calendars are done, and we’re officially in that in-between space between the festivities of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
This week has its own special feeling. It’s still technically the holidays, the tree and the lights are still up, but the stress of the holidays is gone. It’s also the perfect time to reflect on the year that’s about to end and plan for the new year.
For me, like 2021, 2022 was a hard year emotionally. By mid-April, I had lost my remaining two cats (less than two months apart). I had some health issues (minor and not brain-related, thank goodness), but it did require a battery of tests to figure out. And my daughter started seventh grade, which is a whole roller coaster of emotions for her and for me.
But there were some high points, too. Despite not being at all ready for new relationships with any kind of furry friend, we found ourselves rescuing two feral kittens. They are now six months old and quickly forgetting they were ever feral. It is wonderful to hear kittens thundering around the house again. I’ve still got guards on my heart, but those walls will crumble in time.
And Nola is thriving in school. Despite the bumpy dramatic start, she’s settled in well and is involved in sports and band and theater and still getting straight As, even in advanced math. And most importantly, she’s proving to be a kind, caring friend. I’m so proud of her.
And WMG, of course, had a great year! As promised, we didn’t top the insanity of last year’s publishing schedule, but the staff here at WMG (all three of us) still released 127 new titles in 2022!
So, you know, we’re still nuts, but more manageably so <grin>.
I’ll include a month-by-month breakdown of all the titles we released in 2022 below this blog. But that’s not all we did this year!
We also:
- Released all of Dean Wesley Smith’s galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe novels in hardcover for the first time.
- Offered 18 books in StoryBundles.
- Offered 3 book in the first ever D2D Humble bundle.
- Ran 6 successful Kickstarters.
- And launched the weekly Every Day’s a Holiday at WMG newsletter, in which we offer free books and discounts on WMG online workshops related to that week’s holiday.
Whew! So, take a look at the master list of every new title we released in 2022. And if you see a title (or several) that you missed (who could blame you?), click on the title to go to the WMG store page and add it to your cart.
But we don’t rest on our laurels here at WMG. We already have some exciting things planned for 2023. More on that next week.
In the meantime, thank you so much for your support throughout the year. We wish you a very happy and healthy new year!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
The List
JANUARY
Smith’s Monthly #57
FEBRUARY
“Rainbow Peak: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“Old Memories: A Marble Grant Story”
“A Song for the Old Memory: A Bryant Street Story”
“Dead Woman Walking: A Sky Tate Story”
The Reflection on Mount Vitaki
“The Blitz Experience: A Faerie Justice Story”
Green Valley: A Thunder Mountain Novel
Smith’s Monthly #58
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #16
MARCH
Fiction River: Broken Dreams
“Blue Finds a Home: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“The Birth of a Superhero: A Poker Boy Story”
“Kill for a Statistic: A Bryant Street Story”
“Debbie Does the Desert: A Sky Tate Story”
“Alien Ball”
Big Eyes: A Pakhet Jones Short Novel
Smith’s Monthly #59
APRIL
“Trail Guns Meet: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“The Curious Reason for Death: A Mary Jo Assassin Story”
“A Home for the Books: A Bryant Street Story”
“The Beauty in a Puzzling Case: A Sky Tate Story”
“Death and Life in a Long Hot Day: A Marble Grant Story”
Crimes Collide, Vol. 1
Crimes Collide, Vol. 2
Crimes Collide, Vol. 3
Crimes Collide, Vol. 4
Crimes Collide, Vol. 5
Rescue Two: A Seeders Universe Short Novel
Smith’s Monthly #60
MAY
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #17
“Enough Time: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“Ashes to Weddings: A Marble Grant Story”
“Subdivision Survival: A Game: A Bryant Street Story”
“Deadly Invisible Sky: A Pahket Jones Story”
“The Dark Man”
Smith’s Monthly #61
JUNE
“Without a Ripple: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“Cowboy Nathan: An Earth Protection League Story”
“For the Show of It: A Bryant Street Story”
“Start with Butter: A Sky Tate Story”
“Reunion”
Smith’s Monthly #62
Lessons from the Writing of The Fey
Jingle My Bells (Pulphouse Book)
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #18
JULY
“Lost Canyon: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“A Gift from the Centuries: A Seeders Universe Story”
“It’s My Party: A Bryant Street Story”
“The Woman in the Wall: A Mary Jo Assassin Story”
The Holiday Spectacular #3
Smith’s Monthly #63
AUGUST
“Human Business: A Faerie Justice Story” (Part of the Unexpected Histories Uncollected Anthology)
“Ghost of Poker Games Past: A Poker Boy Story” (Part of the Unexpected Histories Uncollected Anthology)
“Lost Canyon Cave: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“A Marble from Sherry: A Skip Keepers Story”
“A Cold Case Future: A Sky Tate Story”
“Will You Still Love Me In Five Minutes?: A Marble Grant Story”
Smith’s Monthly #64
SEPTEMBER
“Passing in Time: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“Enjoying the Company: A Bryant Street Story”
“Can’t Go Home: A Sky Tate Story”
“No Firing Squad Yet: A Marble Grant Story”
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #19
“Hunches: A Diving Universe Short Story”
Smith’s Monthly #65
OCTOBER
A Weird Holiday Season
Cold-Blooded Christmas
Mistletoe Moments
“Yesterday’s Cold Grave: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“A Lack of Tomorrow: A Bryant Street Story”
“Age Might Be a Number: A Poker Boy Story”
“A Big Twisted Plot: A Marble Grant Story”
“DNF”
Smith’s Monthly #66
NOVEMBER
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #20
“Fifty: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“The Back Seat: A Bryant Street Story”
“Mystery Cat: Another Perspective: A Pahket Jones Story”
‘Just Imagine Murder: A Marble Grant Story”
“Vigil”
Smith’s Monthly #67
DECEMBER
“The Cabin Between the Pines: A Thunder Mountain Story”
“The Park, the Yard, and Other Cold Places: A Bryant Street Story”
“She Was Dancing: A Marble Grant Story”
“Frank’s Corner Bar”
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #21
“Other People’s Stupidity”
Publisher’s Note: Wishing you a Very Merry Pulphouse!
At long last, Christmas is almost here! My daughter is so excited. She’s on break for the next two weeks and I’m taking some time off, so we’ll be spending time together finishing up the shopping, making Christmas cookies, going out to lunch, and all sorts of other things we don’t have time for when she’s in school and I’m working.
So, if you’re like us, and you’re still celebrating everything holiday, our latest new release is just in time for some last-minute holiday reading.
For Pulphouse Fiction Magazine: Issue #21, editor Dean Wesley Smith gathered some of the best Pulphouse writers and their strangest holiday season stories.
Of course, Pulphouse stories are not “normal” in the usual sense of the word. But they are fun. And unexpected. And entertaining. After all, attitude, feel, and high-quality fiction equals Pulphouse.
Just take a look at this table of contents, and you’ll see what I mean:
“Santa’s Shrinkage” by David H. Hendrickson
“A Crafty Christmas” by Annie Reed
“The Ghost of Christmas Beta” by J. Steven York
“Emergency Elf” by Stefon Mears
“A Grave Kind of Love” by Robert J. McCarter
“The Asshole of Christmas Present” by Ezekiel James Boston
“Christmas at Lake Mead” by Lisa Silverthorne
“The Ghost of Christmas Present” by David Stier
“Christmas Weather” by O’Neil De Noux
“Max, Marilyn, Murder, and Me” by Ray Vukcevich
“Scurvy and Forgiveness” by Rob Vagle
“The Friendly Beasts” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
“Christmas at Glosser’s” by Robert Jeschonek
“A Corner of the Mind” by Ron Collins
“Other People’s Stupidity” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Click here to buy this issue of Pulphouse.
Happy reading, and from all of us here at WMG, we wish you a very merry and happy week full of fun and festivities, no matter what you happen to celebrate!
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: Holiday Happenstance
Isn’t it strange when fiction bleeds into real life? Sometimes, it’s a sense of déjà vu, where you could swear you’ve read or seen something before. Sometimes, it’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also called the Baader-Meinhof effect or frequency illusion) where you learn something new and suddenly start noticing it everywhere. (It’s an interesting phenomenon…you can read more about it here.)
And sometimes, it’s just a strange coincidence.
That happened to me last week when I was rereading one of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s holiday stories so that we could publish it as a standalone. The story, called “Frank’s Corner Bar,” takes place, unsurprisingly given the title, in a bar. That’s not the weird part. The weird thing was just as I was reading about a bottle of Grand Marnier in the story, I got a text from a friend asking me if I had any Grand Marnier. She needed it for a recipe, and since she doesn’t drink or normally use alcohol while cooking, she didn’t even know where the liquor store was.
Adding to the strange coincidence, I had actually been meaning to pick up a bottle of Grand Marnier (not something I normally have on hand) for my own recipe needs and I was about to head out the door to run an errand for my daughter, which would take me right by the liquor store.
So, within 30 minutes, she had a cup of Grand Marnier and we both were marveling at the strange happenstance of it all.
Now, Kris has written several stories set in bars. But she has never mentioned Grand Marnier in the hundreds of titles I’ve published for her (I double-checked).
Until “Frank’s Corner Bar.”
And since the story is available for free this week as Kris’ weekly free fiction offering, you should read it, too, and see if you suddenly find yourself making a run for Grand Marnier.
But even if you don’t, it’s a great read and perfect if you like a little holiday in your crime stories.
You can see for yourself here.
Cheers!
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 without Traveling this Holiday Season
I don’t travel for the holidays anymore. At least, not if I can help it. Between the brain surgery and the pandemic, I have a really hard time with crowds now.
And traveling at the holidays is a guaranteed way to find crowds.
So, I’ve found ways to travel without traveling. We have family Zooms with my parents and sister back East. We take walks together while we’re on the phone. We Facetime on Christmas morning.
There are so many ways to travel. You just have to get creative.
Like fiction. That’s the original form of creative traveling.
And right now, Dean Wesley Smith offers the perfect solution to travel without traveling with the latest StoryBundle he has curated: the Time Travel Fun Bundle. Here’s what Dean had to say about it:
Time travel fits in any genre and almost every type of story. Everyone seems to have their favorite kind of time travel. I know I sure do, and all the writers in this great bundle do as well.
As a genre distinction, time travel is considered science fiction, but actually it fits in fantasy much better. Diana Gabaldon characters rub a rock and magically travel into the past. Stephen King has his characters go into a closet. All fantasy.
Also, romance writers use time travel as a romantic element in their story, often to bring two characters together. So even though time travel, as a plot device, is considered science fiction, I thought it would be great fun in this Time Travel StoryBundle to show how really diverse time travel stories can actually be.
And it’s everywhere.
Read more about the 10 books in the bundle, which includes The Chase: A Diving Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Tombstone Canyon: A Thunder Mountain Novel by Dean, and Colliding Worlds, Vol. 3 (featuring 20 stories by Kris and Dean) here. But hurry. Like any trip, this bundle will be over before you know it.
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: I can finally say it: Happy Holidays!
Okay. It’s official. The Christmas season has begun!
Our tree is up, our lights are strung, our house is decorated, and the holiday music and movies are streaming!
I love the Christmas holidays, as you might have gathered.
My daughter is very excited, too. And we haven’t even started the advent calendars yet. This year we have three: our annual Jacquie Lawson electronic advent calendar, an Escape Advent Calendar (which I supported via Kickstarter), and one I do myself (little drawers that I fill with different things year after year).
As you can see, we love advent calendars here at WMG. That’s why we came up with the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar of Stories. Because there was nothing like an advent calendar for fiction on the market.
Of course, our stories cover all sorts of holidays and span the genres. And you get to open them every day from American Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
That’s why we call it a Calendar of Stories. Advent calendars inspired the idea, but ours is so much more.
And it’s not too late to get in on the fun. You have until Sunday, Dec. 18, to give it as a Christmas or Hanukkah gift and have the recipient get sent all the stories they’ve missed, plus start getting new ones every day, on Monday, Dec. 19. You have until Sunday, Dec. 25, to make it in time for Kwanzaa.
You can still sign up for the calendar after that, too, if you realize you missed someone on your list or just didn’t have time to read until after the holidays.
Just click here to go to the Calendar of Stories page on our website and find out all the details.
Happy Holidays to one and all!
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: With Gratitude
I was talking with a friend recently about vision issues, and I was trying to articulate what it’s like to have lived for as long as I can practically remember with extreme nearsightedness. I’ve needed a correction of more than -10 diopters for my entire adult life, and I was at greater than -3 by middle school. For those of you who are mercifully not nearsighted, -3 diopters of nearsightedness puts you at about 20/400 vision (unable to see even the big E on the top of the chart).
I’m currently at a correction of -15 diopters, which puts my vision at about 20/2,000. But that’s not really accurate, either, because who can see 2,000 feet away?
What’s really relevant here is that I haven’t truly seen the world since I was 8. I mostly see it. But not what it really looks like.
Here’s the best way I can describe it: Think about being inside your house and looking at your yard through the window. Maybe you see trees, grass, flowers, birds. You can see the green of the grass, the individual blades. But then, you open the window and look again. Same trees, grass, flowers, birds, but everything is brighter and sharper. You see the variation in the green, the definition of the blades of grass.
My whole life has been looking at things through glass. Either glasses or contact lenses. Without aid, I can only see between .5 and 1.5 inches in front of my face. And what I do see is magnified. So, I have a vague sense of what I’m missing, but not a clear one (yes, I realize the pun I used there).
On the plus side, I’m a master splinter remover. That comes in handy more than you might think.
But it’s strange to never see the world as it truly is. It’s sometimes disorienting and exhausting. However, I’m grateful for the sight I do have. And I’m grateful for the technology that corrects my vision as much as it does and will someday allow me to see clearly again (my ophthalmologist says cataract surgery will be life-changing for me, so I will be grateful to one day get cataracts, too).
I have a friend who is hearing impaired (since birth) and is now also going blind. Yet, she’s one of the sweetest, kindest, most positive people I know. She could absolutely feel angry and frustrated all the time at the cards life has dealt her. And sometimes she does, but she doesn’t let those feelings consume her. She acknowledges them and then thinks about her loving husband, great kids, supportive friends. She’s the living embodiment of why it’s so important to focus not on what you don’t have but instead on what you do.
With American Thanksgiving approaching, now is the perfect time to focus on what we’re grateful for.
One of those things, for me, is always working in a field that I love. Fiction is a great way to escape what troubles us in the real world, and during challenging times, I’m very grateful for that.
And I’m grateful for the readers, like you, who support our fiction.
So, with my gratitude, I’m giving you a free short story this week to celebrate this time of Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorites.
Click here to download “Pudgygate” for free.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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 Free Trip to the Old West
I promised last month that I’d tell you about another of our free first-in-series ebooks in November, and that time is now!
Dean Wesley Smith’s Thunder Mountain series deftly blends together science fiction and time travel with the old west, and even throws in a little romance, to boot.
Here’s the synopsis for the first book in the series, the eponymous novel Thunder Mountain:
USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith weaves a science fiction tale of love and survival of two modern professors dealing with the past.
Offered a free trip into a remote Idaho wilderness that she loves and studies, Professor Dawn Edwards agrees. On the trip she meets Professor Madison Rogers, and they fall for each other before they even reach their destination.
But living in the Old West proves to be a brutal task.
A science fiction novel of new times in the old west by one of the best and most prolific writers working in fiction today.
Click here to get the ebook for free now.
And while we’re talking about free books, don’t forget that we’ve put the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar of Stories on a Buy One Get One Free sale for all of your holiday gifting.
Just click here to go to the Calendar of Stories page on our website and add two calendars for the price of one. Or get four for the price of two. Or…well, you get the idea. There’s no limit to how many BOGO deals you can get, so add as many calendars as you want.
Happy reading to one and all!
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: BOGO for the Holidays!
It might still be a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving, but I’m already feeling gratitude. Our WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Kickstarter was a great success, with more backers than ever before. Thank you so much to all of our supporters.
If you missed the Kickstarter but just realized that the Calendar of Stories makes great gifts, I understand. Maybe you were in a candy-induced sugar coma. Or maybe you just can’t bear the thought of starting your holiday shopping until after Halloween. Or maybe you were just waiting for a different kind of deal.
Regardless of the reason, we’ve got you covered. Because starting today and running up to Thanksgiving, we’ve put the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar of Stories on a Buy One Get One sale for all of your holiday gifting.
Just click here to go to the Calendar of Stories page on our website and add two calendars for the price of one. Or get four for the price of two.
And so on. I’ll let you do the math from there. There’s no limit to how many BOGO deals you can get, so add as many calendars as you want.
You can read all about the calendar on that page, too, including instructions on how to tell us who to send the gifts to.
One gift to rule them all. 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.