Publisher's Note
Publisher’s Note: Get Ready for Colliding Worlds
January seems like eons ago, so let me remind you about a project we launched long ago in a world far away…
Colliding Worlds is a six-volume series featuring 120 science fiction stories by New York Times bestselling authors Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.
We launched the project back on Kickstarter back in January. But if you missed that, the books publish everywhere tomorrow.
Publisher’s Note: A Clowder of Cats
I have always attracted cats. I must send out some sort of homing signal to the universe that says “loving human resides here.”
I’ve rescued a fair number of cats in my day. But now that I have a daughter, who wants to adopt every cat in the neighborhood, it’s complicated.
My own three cats are all rather elderly, as I’ve written about before. I’m loathe to disrupt their lives at this point. They should be able to spend their final years in peace.
But outdoor cats keep adopting us (or trying to).
Publisher’s Note: A New Kind of In-Between
We’ve entered a new transition phase of the pandemic. Here in the US, Covid-19 vaccines are rolling out at a rapid pace now. The county I live in leads Oregon (and far exceeds the US) in its vaccination rates. As of April 9, Lincoln County has vaccinated 45.2% of its total population and 52.7% of its population aged 16 and up. I’m happy to report that my husband and I are part of that percentage.
So, more than half of our eligible residents have received at least one shot of the vaccine. That’s spectacular news and a testament to how well our county has facilitated its vaccine rollout.
But, like has happened so often during this pandemic, there’s good news and bad news.
Publisher’s Note: A Workiversary
Last Friday, I celebrated my ninth workiversary as the publisher/CEO of WMG Publishing. Wow, have we grown in that time!
The company has changed and evolved over the years, too, as companies are wont to do. But what hasn’t changed is our commitment to being the Home of Great Fiction (and great nonfiction, too)! Our inventory contains almost 800 titles in a variety of formats, including ebooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, and audiobooks.
We also now have a number of anthology projects and collections, including Fiction River, Fiction River Presents, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Smith’s Monthly, and The Year of the Cat, with more to come this year.
Publisher’s Note: A Long Two Years
Two years ago today, I had brain surgery. It’s still very weird to write that sentence. Brain surgery. Those words belong in a phrase about how something should be that complicated, as in: “It’s not brain surgery.”
It’s a truthful phrase. Because brain surgery is complicated. And brain surgeons are, thankfully, brilliant. Mine certainly was.
Those of you who have been with this blog for a while know the background here, but for those of you joining me more recently, let me explain. Or, as one of my favorite characters of all time says: “No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Publisher’s Note: Cats, Wild and Whimsical
My two oldest cats—Truman and Sydney—turn 17 tomorrow. They are litter mates I rescued when they were about four weeks old. They weighed an ounce either side of one pound when I got them. They were tiny little furballs of personality.
They are elderly in cat years now. They both have renal disease but we’re managing that as best we can. Truman broke his leg three years ago this week. He shattered his right thigh. We still don’t know exactly how he did it, but we think it involved a miscalculated jump and an awkward fall from the bannister onto the stairs.
Despite their health issues, they are still full of personality—fantastic, whimsical personalities.
Publisher’s Note: The Fey Return!
We have no shortage of fantasy books for our readers, and that includes a very popular but fraught (for the author) series of epic fantasy books by Kristine Kathryn Rusch called The Fey series.
The reason these books are fraught for Kris have nothing to do with WMG and everything to do with the publishing world that once was. It is explained very well in the story of our latest Kickstarter, The Return of The Fey, which launched last week and proves just how incredibly popular The Fey series is.
Publisher’s Note: What a Year It Has Been
This week, March 13, marks the one-year anniversary of the announcement that my daughter’s school was closing due to the novel coronavirus. That was the beginning here.
I was pondering last week just how much our world has changed in the past year. My daughter was not allowed to set foot in her school for almost a year. Her teacher had to almost completely reinvent how she taught her class. We suspended our Kiwanis meetings, eventually moving them to Zoom. I’ve been working from home while my daughter learns from home for almost a year.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the pandemic changes. We’ve seen so much shift in this past year.
As you all know by now, I face adversity by looking for the silver linings. Brain surgery didn’t change that. Neither did the pandemic.
Publisher’s Note: Back to School—Again!
My ten-year-old daughter went to school again last week for the first time in almost a year. She was a bit nervous (we’ve been very open about the science of everything) but so very excited to see her friends and classmates again—well, the half that are in her cohort for hybrid learning, anyway—even though she knew it would not be the same as pre-pandemic school. I was equal parts hopeful and terrified (that science thing again…).
Even though I’ve obviously been living through this pandemic, it’s hard to track with a world where my child goes to school in a mask, with half the students in the classroom and half on a TV screen, where she can’t get within six feet of friends she hasn’t seen in almost a year—let alone hug them as she so desperately wants to do.
But this is where we are. And it’s progress. Good progress, despite my initial reservations.
Baby steps. Or, in this case, child steps.
There’s a light waaaay at the end of the tunnel now. But we’ve still got a fair way to go.
Which is why WMG is holding another workshop sale to help our writers further their craft and their career goals from the safety of their homes.
It is, appropriately, the Back to School—Again sale!
Publisher’s Note: So Many Story Options
January was, well, January, so we pushed back a few book releases. Which means we have a plethora of books releasing right now!
First up is Smith’s Monthly. Last month, Dean Wesley Smith brought this innovative project, which features several short stories, a novel and even the occasional nonfiction book together in a monthly publication.