The WMG Newsletter
Get advanced notice of new releases, bonus content, and so much more.
About WMG Publishing
The Latest News
Publisher’s Note: Bring on the Holidays!
Last week felt like Christmas in my house.
We’ve been redecorating our house (after spending so much more time in it during the pandemic), and after painting, the second-biggest change we made was to order two large pieces of furniture: an entryway organization unit and a media center.
I ordered them in February, and because of the massive supply chain disruptions, they just arrived last week. But they’re here!
It’s amazing what a difference the right furniture makes. We have one long windowless wall on our main floor that stretches from the front door to the back deck, and I’ve long struggled with the best way to use that space while also providing separation for the living and dining areas.
The space finally feels finished. It only took me 16 years <grin>. What a wonderful gift.
It felt like Christmas at the office, too, but for a totally different reason. The three anthologies from the 2021 WMG Holiday Spectacular published last week and we’re so getting in the holiday mood!
Here are the three volumes you can read right now:
Forget run-of-the-mill holiday stories. In this cleverly creative WMG Holiday Spectacular anthology, award-winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch offers a carefully curated collection of unexpected holiday stories to add a delightful twist to the season.
From completely fictional holidays to holidays celebrated in the strangest of places to off-the-wall twists on familiar traditions (pooping Nativity figures, anyone?), this volume will put a smile on your face as it transports you in the weirdest and most delightful ways.
Join eleven of the best writers in the business as they present their take on A Weird Holiday Season.
Includes:
“The Case of The Disappearing Gingerbread City” by R.W. Wallace
“Project Management Miracle” by Johanna Rothman
“The Light Man” by Ron Collins
“The Pooping Knight’s Playbook” by Robert Jeschonek
“Thunder Angel” by Kate Pavelle
“Dong Zhi and the Last Huli Jing” by Julia Vee
“A Hollow Earth Thanksgiving” by Robert J. McCarter
“Sometimes Strange Magic Casts the Best Spell” by Kari Kilgore
“Beast Feast” by Meyari McFarland
“Five Days of Chickenmas” by Brenda Carre
“Gone Gnomin’” by Jessi Hammond
Scrooges unite! In this crime-filled WMG Holiday Spectacular anthology, award-winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch offers a darker and more disturbing take on holiday stories to add a bit of mischief and mayhem to the season.
From characters fighting corruption to facing moral dilemmas to conducting criminal investigations, this volume offers a refreshing change to the usual holiday fare for those with a bit of darkness in their hearts.
Join David H. Hendrickson, Annie Reed and nine other spectacular writers as they offer a more mysterious side of the holidays with Cold-Blooded Christmas.
Includes:
“Goodness and Mercy Shall Follow” by Tonya D. Price
“A Black Winter’s Night” by Chrissy Wissler
“On A Cold Winter’s Night” by Cate Martin
“On The Feast of St. Stephen” by Patricia Duffy Novak
“The Perfect Christmas” by Lauren Lang
“Evergreen & Crimson” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Maccabees” by Carolyn Ivy Stein
“Negative Spaces” by Annie Reed
“Santa’s Shrinkage” by David H. Hendrickson
“The Lost Gravy Boat” by Meyari McFarland
“Consigned in Peppermint” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Presents for Kitten” by Jessi Hammond
Romance and holidays go hand-in-hand. In this year’s sweetest WMG Holiday Spectacular anthology, award-winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch offers a lovely collection of romantic holiday stories to add a bit more heart to the season.
From traditional Regency and romantic suspense stories to a diverse set of characters who find love and romance in the usual—and some unusual—places, this volume offers eleven heart-warming tales filled with love and joy.
Join Anthea Lawson, Dayle A. Dermatis and nine other wonderful writers as they present a host of holiday happy endings in Mistletoe Moments.
Includes:
“How It Started” by Irette Y. Patterson
“A Different Christmas Experience” by Chrissy Wissler
“Stolen Kisses” by Carolyn Ivy Stein
“French Armoire” by Brenda Carre
“Chicken Chuck & the Congo Connection” by Patricia Duffy Novak
“The Christmas Haters’ Ball” by Robert Jeschonek
“The Plunge” by Daphne Crowe
“A Pinewood Valley Homecoming” by Kelly Washington
“In The Deep Dark Forest on Solstice Night” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“Mr. Bear” by Jessi Hammond
“Holly and The Viscount” by Anthea Lawson
To find out more information about these three new holiday anthologies (and the rest of the holiday anthology collection from previous years), click here. You can also sign up for the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar of Stories here.
But you might want to hold off on that last for a bit. We’ll be launching the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Kickstarter very soon, so stay tuned for more information on that.
It’s the perfect time to start getting a jump on the winter 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: What a Mystery!
Did you know that we have several first-in-series ebooks available for free? One of those is Kill Game, the first novel in USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith’s Cold Poker Gang series.
If you love puzzle mystery novels, complicated cold cases, and detectives tackling the most twisted crimes, you’ll want to take this opportunity to introduce yourself to USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith’s Cold Poker Gang. Smith takes you into the world of his acclaimed novel Dead Money with a series focused around a group of retired Las Vegas detectives playing poker and solving cold cases.
Here’s the synopsis:
Retired Detective Bayard Lott hosts the weekly poker games at his home. The group calls themselves the Cold Poker Gang. And they succeed at closing old cases.
Lott’s very first homicide case as a brand-new detective had gone cold more than twenty years earlier. But retired Reno detective Julia Rogers, new to the Cold Poker Gang, suggests they look at that case again for personal reasons.
From that simple suggestion spins one of the strangest and most complicated murder mystery puzzles the gang has ever seen.
Click here to get the ebook now.
And watch this blog for more news on free first-in-series ebooks. I’ll highlight another one next month.
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: Heading into Fall
Fall arrives this week, and our busiest season is already in full swing!
Our Kickstarter for Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s new Fey novel ended last week, and we’re so grateful to all of the backers. What a fantastic showing of support for the first new Fey novel in 22 years!
If you missed the Kickstarter, but still want to get the book, never fear. The book publishes wide in February, and the ebook is already available for preorder here.
Speaking of Kickstarters, this week you can read a story set in another of Kris’ popular series—the Diving series—that WMG previously has only offered as a stretch goal reward during the 2021 Diving Kickstarter. And the story is free, this week only!
“Hunches” offers the backstory on Balázs Jicha, whom we first met in the Diving novel Thieves. Here’s the synopsis:
The Fleet designed the new SC-Class ships with an impenetrable bridge. The most protected spot on the ship. Right in the center.
So, when Lieutenant Balázs Jicha realizes the bridge of the Izlovchi now opens to space, he fights to remember what happened. And what to do next.
Jicha always follows his hunches. Now, he must rely on those hunches to help him save his ship.
A pulse-pounding addition to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning Diving Series, “Hunches” offers key insights into one of the series’ newer characters.
You can read the story here for free this week on Kris’ website, as part of her weekly Free Fiction. Or you can order the book here.
Finally, it’s time for the monthly WMG Teachable sale. You can read all about this month’s sale, including our new offerings, on Dean Wesley Smith’s blog by clicking here.
What a great time to fall back into reading, writing 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: A Royal Influence
I cried last week when Queen Elizabeth II died. And my heart goes out to those of you for whom she played a much larger role. She was a very strong woman. We will not likely see her equal again.
Despite the United States declaring its independence from the English monarchy 246 years ago, we remain captivated by the royal family and its workings. I know more about the royal family that I do about the families of some US presidents.
The British royal history also sometimes inspires US writers in their fiction. As it does with Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Fey series and the people of Blue Isle.
If you’ve read the series, this probably won’t surprise you. But if you haven’t, there’s never been a better time to start.
The Brand New Fey Novel Kickstarter, featuring the first new Fey novel in 22 years, has been hugely successful, and you still have a few days left to join in on the fun.
The Kickstarter funded in record time and blew through three stretch goals in one day!
We’ve hit more since then, of course, and the additional rewards keep piling up so fast, I can’t list them here or risk this blog being obsolete before the day is out!
With each new stretch goal comes another free story and more free writing videos.
Plus, there’s that new novel, The Kirilli Matter, the first book in the new Qavnerian Protectorate saga, that comes with every single reward.
You really need to check it out if you haven’t already. And keep watching if you have to see just how many books and writing classes our backers will get.
Click here to go to the Kickstarter.
But hurry. This one ends on Thursday, Sept. 15!
I suspect you’ll have time to read the entire series before the world is done mourning such a powerful presence as the late Queen Elizabeth II.
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 First Fey Novel in 22 Years!
Happy Labor Day! The WMG staff is off today, but tomorrow is such an exciting day, I couldn’t wait to tell you about it!
Our Brand New Fey Novel Kickstarter launches at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The first new Fey novel in 22 years! Are we excited? Yes. We. Are!
That new novel, The Kirilli Matter, is the first book in the new Qavnerian Protectorate saga.
Here’s the synopsis:
Gripping, imaginative, and a tour-de-force of thrilling storytelling, New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Kirilli Matter launches her acclaimed Fey series into exciting new territory.
When the investigation of a brutal murder scene points to terrifying suspects, Augusta Kirilli must find a way to protect her family’s secrets—secrets so long buried, she must discover their meaning or risk her own destruction. Set in the world of The Fey and masterfully blending fantasy and steampunk elements, Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Qavnerian Protectorate saga adds rich new dimension to this powerfully written series.
From its shocking opening to the deepening mystery at its conclusion, this groundbreaking novel takes epic fantasy in a whole new direction and proves Rusch’s place as the greatest storyteller of our time.
The ebook of The Kirilli Matter is part of every single reward we offer. And we have so many great rewards. Here are some highlights:
- We’ll be rereleasing all of the Fey novels [the five Original Books of The Fey, the two Black Throne, and the two (so far) Qavnerian Protectorate] with new covers, available only through the Kickstarter at the moment.
- All of the Fey novels will be available in hardcover, also available only through the Kickstarter at the moment, with the beautiful new covers illustrated by Echo Chernik, many for the first time!
- We’re offering two special Kickstarter-exclusive workshops for writers: How to Write Magic Systems and Combining Steampunk with Fantasy.
So, be sure to check out the Kickstarter to read the story and watch Kris’ video and check out all of the rewards.
Just click here.
But hurry. This Kickstarter ends on Thursday, Sept. 15!
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: Book Covers as Art
Of all the many hats I wear as publisher, my favorite one is cover designer. That’s an unusual hat for a publisher to wear, in fact, but I’ve never been called “usual.”
A cover designer is different than a cover artist. I don’t create cover art. I find it. I might modify it or enhance it. But as a cover designer, I curate together the best piece of art I can find to represent the book and its genre and pair it with the fonts that pair best to the genre, and voila! Pretty cover.
But sometimes, I have a really important book that I just can’t find the right art for. Or I’m looking for something specific. This usually happens for a series of books. That makes it harder. Because series branding is very important, and it starts with the cover.
That’s when I turn to the artists. Digital illustrators these days.
For some of our major sf series (the Diving Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and the Seeders Universe for Dean Wesley Smith), we work with the amazingly talented Philcold. He customizes all of our spaceships and space scenes for those books. He’s a delight to work with.
But those books are easy to cover compared to Kris’ Fey series, the latest books in need of new covers. The Fey books have a troubled history thanks to neglect from traditional publishers. You can read all about it in Lessons from the Writing of The Fey or watch Kris talk about it in a series of videos on the WMG Teachable site.
So, these covers had to be spectacular to make up for all of that. To make it up to Kris, who loved this series and was heartbroken by its treatment.
I worked closely with her on the project and created covers that we liked. But they weren’t good enough. I knew they needed to be more. But because I’m not a cover artist, I didn’t know how to achieve it.
Until I met Echo Chernik at the Licensing Expo in May.
Echo is the coordinating judge for the annual Illustrators of the Future contest and one of the premiere Art Nouveau artists of her generation.
I showed Echo what I’d come up with and she loved the concept. She could already visualize how to take what I’d created and enhance it to what I wanted it to be.
And oh wow, has she.
We have three covers done so far, and they are simply stunning. We’ll be using them prodigiously in the coming weeks as we promote our next Kickstarter—for the first new Fey novel in 22 years, so be sure to watch for news on that next week!
To give you a taste of what I’m talking about, here are side-by-side comparisons for the new covers for The Sacrifice and The Changeling. The ones on the left are what I did with the art I had to work with. The ones on the right are Echo’s incredible creations.
Sometimes, you’re just in the right place at the right time. And you find a partner who just makes everything better.
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: Back to School for All
I’ve been having a wonderful time in Savannah, and my daughter, Nola, has been learning all sorts of new things. Like how to drive a golf cart. And swing a golf club. And how to catch fish by using cat food as bait (the cat would approve if she got to eat the fish afterward).
It’s a great way to close out the summer before she starts seventh grade.
Junior high. Where did the time go?
No more having the same teachers for most subjects. No more community sports.
Now, she’ll have seven different teachers during the day. In seven different classrooms. And she’s playing volleyball this fall on the middle school team. They practice every day after school.
This is a big change for all of us.
But change can be good. It can mean we’re learning and growing.
And why would we ever stop learning and growing?
That’s why we started running our WMG Teachable sales every month. So, you know exactly when they’re coming and can take advantage of them when it works for you.
You can read all about this month’s sale on Dean Wesley Smith’s blog by clicking here.
You might want to add a class or two to your back-to-school shopping budget <grin>.
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: Crimes and also Space Adventures
Well, I was home for a week and now I’m traveling again. I’m making up for the lost travel time due to brain surgery, then the pandemic and the lost pet year.
This time, I’m in Savannah, Georgia, visiting my father and stepmother with my daughter, Nola. We haven’t seen my dad since he flew out for my aforementioned brain surgery in March of 2019.
I’m lucky. I can work from anywhere. Have laptop, will travel, so to speak. The freedom to do that would have seemed like science fiction when I was growing up. Heck, even when I was in grad school.
It’s weird because it has felt the past few years like we’ve been living in an alternate reality. But it also feels in some ways like we’re reliving history, too.
I grew up in the Cold War, where the threat of nuclear holocaust felt very real. The regular air raid drills I experienced in grade school guaranteed that. As did Chernobyl.
And here we are again, with my daughter asking about Russia and their nuclear arsenal and the threats to the nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
My parents couldn’t keep reality from me then and there’s no way for me to keep it from Nola in today’s interconnected world—one which would seem like sci-fi to my past self.
And there’s the paradox. Same old problems, modern high-tech world.
Of course we need an escape!
And I’ve got two options for you there: one to the past and one to the future. I’ve talked about both of them recently (there’s that history repeating itself again) but they end soon, so here’s a reminder.
The Past Crimes Bundle, curated by Dean Wesley Smith, features three WMG books: Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, edited by Kris; Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Smokey Dalton Novel by Kris Nelscott; and Heads Up: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery by Dean.
You can read Dean’s full blog about the bundle and all the other pertinent details here. And if you want to just go straight to the bundle page itself, click here.
But hurry. This bundle ends this Thursday, Aug. 18.
If you prefer to travel to the future instead, there’s the Stars of Sci-Fi Summer book bundle, and WMG has three titles in this jam-packed offering: The Diving Series Box Set: Books 1-3 by Hugo-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch; The High Edge: A Seeders Universe Novel by USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith; and Fiction River: Moonscapes, edited by Dean.
It also features titles by Brandon Sanderson and Alan Dean Foster, as well as writers who have graced the pages of WMG projects, including Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert, Robert Jeschonek, Tao Wong, and Leah Cutter.
There are 35 total titles in this bundle ($308 total value), and you can get them all for $18.
Click here to learn more!
Both bundles donate a portion of the proceeds to charity, as well, so you can rest assured you’re helping make the world a better place, right now.
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 Humble New Bundle
I’m back in the office after two weeks of adventuring. To briefly recap: I flew to Gunnison, Colorado, for a week of teaching at Western Colorado University with Kevin J. Anderson and Mark Leslie Lefebvre, and then my family drove out to Gunnison to meet up with me.
From Gunnison, we drove to New Mexico, where we spent two days exploring Santa Fe. Then, we traveled west, stopping for a night in Sedona, Arizona, on our way to San Luis Obispo, California. From SLO, we took Route 1 up the California coast to Monterey and then headed inland to Sonoma. We took Highway 101 home from there, through the redwood forests of northern California and up the coast all the way home to Lincoln City, Oregon.
It was a lovely trip full of many adventures. We went from rocky coast to the Rocky Mountains to the high desert to the desert Southwest to the Mojave Desert to the fertile valleys of California to the coast again.
We won’t do it again, though. It was quite an ambitious road trip. In the future, we’ll make California its own trip and instead spend more time in Santa Fe and Sedona, two of my favorite places on the planet.
But after everything we’ve been through the past few years—in our case: brain surgery and devastating pet losses in addition to the pandemic that has touched us all—it was wonderful to plan and experience an ambitious adventure.
But ambitious adventures are not for vacations alone. I have a brand-new reading adventure to tell you about, and it’s a big one.
Draft2Digital has partnered with Humble for the Stars of Sci-Fi Summer book bundle, and WMG has three titles in this jam-packed offering: The Diving Series Box Set: Books 1-3 by Hugo-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch; The High Edge: A Seeders Universe Novel by USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith; and Fiction River: Moonscapes, edited by Dean.
You can also discover tales by Hugo-winning authors Brandon Sanderson (Shadows Beneath) and Frank Herbert (High-Opp). Explore the futures imagined by Alan Dean Foster (Three Books, Countless Worlds), Kevin J. Anderson (Resurrection, Inc.), and more stars of sci-fi, and help support First Book with your purchase!
There are 35 total titles in this bundle ($308 total value), and you pay what you want.
Pay less to get fewer items, get them all for $18, or pay extra to give more to publishers, Humble, and charity.
Click here to learn more!
So, finish off your summer by traveling on your own ambitious adventures through strange worlds and to new horizons in this incredible collection of science fiction novels and stories!
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: It Would be a Crime to Miss This
I’m on vacation with my family this week as we road trip back from my week of teaching in Colorado. We’re having all sorts of adventures.
One of the games my daughter likes to play in the car (during those times when I make her put down her electronics and actually look out the window) is twenty questions.
She likes mysteries, you see. Figuring out puzzles. Detective work.
Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch like mysteries, too. Especially writing about them.
And Dean likes mysteries so much that he’s curated a StoryBundle filled with books from some of his favorite crime authors.
It’s called The Past Crimes Bundle, and it features three WMG books: Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, edited by Kris; Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Smokey Dalton Novel by Kris Nelscott; and Heads Up: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery by Dean.
Here’s what Dean has to say about it:
The past often brings out the best in crime.
In fact, for a vast majority of crime fiction (mystery), the crime has already happened in the past and solving what happened, or who did it, or why the crime happened is the fun of it all.
I personally love past crimes of another category: cold cases. When the question of who done it or why in the normal crime stories doesn’t get answered in any satisfying way, the crime becomes a cold case.
And the passing of time makes it harder and harder to solve that dormant case.
You can read Dean’s full blog about the bundle and all the other pertinent details here. And if you want to just go straight to the bundle page itself, click here.
All these fantastic books are perfect for entertaining you during this busy summer of travel.
And they’re waaay more interesting than twenty questions. Trust me on that one <grin>.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.