Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! We at WMG are home celebrating this joyful day with our families.
And so, instead of the usual blog, here is a gift from us to you. A delightful free story about Christmas and families by Kristine Kathryn Rusch called “Christopher’s Crummy Christmas.”
First, the2023 Good Cheer StoryBundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and featuring 10 story collections perfect for the holiday season.
Here’s a quick overview about the bundle:
Make time for great fiction during the holidays: Read a holiday short story or two. Or three. Or a hundred. The Good Cheer StoryBundle gives you dozens and dozens of holiday stories, all to suit your mood. From mystery to science fiction, from Solstice stories to the traditional Christmas fare, the Good Cheer bundle has something for everyone—even people who only have a few minutes to read.
This bundle features three WMG titles (Jingle My Bells, Winter Holidays, and Stories for the Cold of Winter) as well as three StoryBundle exclusives (Uncommon Holidays, Unexpected Santas, and Holiday Hope).
Speaking of great holiday short stories, for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #24, editor Dean Wesley Smith gathered some of the best Pulphouse writers and their best fun and unexpected holiday season stories.
This issue also includes a special original holiday story by Annie Reed.
Here’s a look at the table of contents:
“First Chair” by Annie Reed
“Scrooge and Marley” by David H. Hendrickson
“Krampus and His Theoretical Heart” by Rob Vagle
“Santa Sata-ni-fied” by Stephannie Tallent
“Desperate Housewitches” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“The Pain” by O’Neil De Noux
“What Fits” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
“Harsh Expectations” by R.W. Wallace
“It’s a Wonderful Death” by Robert Jeschonek
“Up On the Rooftop” by Kristine Grayson
“Minions at Work” by J. Steven York
Click here to buy this issue of Pulphouse. And click here to check out the holiday Pulphouse merchandise.
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.
Happy Cyber Monday! I know that’s not a real holiday. It’s a made-up retail holiday. Just like Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. But still. Deals!
We celebrate all of those here at WMG because we are a small business with a series of online stores. And we’re celebrating all that this year with a huge sale and some brand-new holiday merchandise!
Now through midnight PST on Tuesday, Nov. 28, you can save 30% on books, 25% (plus free shipping) on merchandise (US only), and 50% on everything we offer on WMG’s Teachable site.
That 30% off on books goes for every ebook we have for sale (and we have many, from short stories to magazines to collections to novels) at the WMG Holiday Spectacular Store, the Diving Store, the Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Store and The Mothership (wmgbooks.com).
Plus, festive merchandise like blankets, mugs, puzzles, and the newly created holiday stockings and ornaments on all three specialty stores (Holiday, Diving, and Pulphouse) all at a 25% discount and free shipping (US only)!
And gift cards! You can buy gift cards on the Holiday the Diving stores and give them as gifts to be delivered at the date you choose!
And last but not least is an item that is NOT part of the sale but is a hell of a deal that we’re offering for the FIRST TIME EVER!
With the new WMG Books BUY EVERYTHING Lifetime Subscription, you can get access to every eBook on the WMG shelves. EVERY eBook. Now and published in the future. That’s already more than a thousand titles.
I got my annual flu shot and Covid booster last week, which reminded me of how much has changed since the pandemic but also how much has settled back into its new normal.
I’ve been getting Covid vaccines since I was first eligible, and the annual booster the past couple of years. But the Covid booster experience was different this year. Gone are those vaccination cards we guarded with plastic sleeves and took with us everywhere a couple of years ago. Now, it’s just another shot in the arm.
The world is different now, but vestiges of the old world sometimes come back to life.
Like the WMG Anthology Workshop for writers, which fell victim to the pandemic (it’s an in-person workshop, so…). We brought back our smaller in-person workshops last year, but this one is much larger: 40 people. So, it took us longer to be comfortable bringing that one back.
But that time has come.
Here are the details:
Back by Popular Demand! The WMG Anthology Workshop!
The annual WMG Anthology Workshop had long been a must-attend event for writers. But it was one of the many casualties of the pandemic. Now, after years of requests to bring it back, WMG has found a way!
So, in July 2024, the WMG Anthology Workshop will return to Las Vegas—now at Resorts World! Write and submit stories to four professional editors for consideration at 6 cents/word and see them live edit the anthologies! There is no other workshop like this out there, which is why WMG worked so hard to bring it back!
For contracting reasons, we can’t finalize the exact week until February, but the workshop will NOT be held over the 4th of July holiday.
The workshop will last four days, beginning early on Monday and ending at noon on Thursday. There will also be a hospitality room for evening gatherings from Sunday to Wednesday.
Writers will write and submit their stories during late April and May.
For logistical reasons, workshop attendance will be capped at 40 people. The fee for the class is $900. Due to the high demand, you must be fully paid to hold your spot. (Workshop fees are fully refundable up to two months ahead. After that, they are transferrable.)
Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind workshop! Reserve your spot today by emailing Dean here [dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com]. (If you have attended an in-person workshop before, simply send the $900 fee to PayPal using this address: dean@wmgpublishingstore.com, then email Dean that you have done so here [dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com]. He will let you know that the payment was received and that you are on the list.
I can’t emphasize enough how game-changing this workshop is for writers. If as a writer, you want to understand what goes through an editor’s mind when evaluating a story and deciding whether to buy it, there’s no other experience like this out there. It’s such a revelatory experience!
One of the editors you’ll see in action is Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She’s a master editor and a master writer herself. And her latest Diving Universe novel hits shelves on Tuesday, Nov. 14!
If you missed the Ivory Trees Kickstarter, now’s your chance to pick up this fantastic book in ebook, trade paperback or hardcover.
Here’s the synopsis:
Ancient tech draws dangerous unwanted attention in international bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Ivory Trees, the thrilling new standalone novel in her award-winning Diving series.
When the discovery of a bunker reveals a treasure trove of ancient artifacts, interested parties throughout the Empire—from collectors to academics to researchers—want a piece of the action. But the finds draw attention from outside the Empire as well. Attention from someone willing to do whatever it takes to outmaneuver the Empire and secure the collection.
Set in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s expansive Diving Universe, Ivory Trees introduces exciting new characters and events to this powerfully written series, while also offering some tantalizing Easter eggs from previous Diving novels.
As suspense builds to a fevered intensity, this tantalizing new novel mixes the best of heist fiction and space opera and proves Rusch’s place as a master of science fiction.
It felt only appropriate to write my blog this week from a local restaurant called the Coven Café, where I enjoyed a Black Magick mocha and a pumpkin pastie. (Well, I enjoyed those before I wrote this blog because there is no magic spell that can get pastry crumbs out of a Mac laptop keyboard.)
And unlike in the world of Harry Potter, there is no magic spell to knit bones back together. Dean Wesley Smith could have used one of those spells last weekend after he shattered his shoulder in a fall during a race (read more on his blog here), but his orthopedic surgeon worked his own form of magic to fix Dean right up. He’s now on the mend, thank heavens.
This time of year, it feels like magic is all around us. From the darker magic of Halloween to the lighter magic of Christmas.
And this week is your last chance to grab a bounty of fabulous fiction appropriate for each of those holidays.
For Halloween fans, the 2023 Halloween StoryBundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, ends this week. It features ten ebooks (including three offerings from WMG—Halloween Harvest, FantasyLife and Other Stories, and Three Sheets to the Wind—plus four StoryBundle exclusives). You can learn more about it here.
For Christmas and other winter holiday fans, the 2023 WMG Holiday Spectacular Kickstarter is in its final days, too. We’ve hit five stretch goals so far, which means in addition to the amazing Calendar of Stories featuring a story a day for 40 days from American Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, all backers also get the following:
Stories:
BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE
STILLE NACHT
AND A CUP OF GOOD CHEER
THREE WISHES BEFORE A FIRE
LOSING DOLLY
Writing classes:
1… How to Write Cross-Genre Holiday Stories About Baking, Desserts, and Cookies
2… How to Write Cross-Genre Holiday Stories about Holiday Meals
3… How to Write Cross-Genre Holiday Stories About Holiday Decorations
4… How to Write Cross-Genre Holiday Stories About Family and Traditions
That’s a $600 combined value just for the workshops, and 45 total stories to read: 5 shortly after the Kickstarter ends and 40 throughout the holidays!
Plus, there’s beautiful holiday merchandise, Kickstarter-exclusive writing workshops that will be on every writer’s wish list, and so much more.
