My daughter has a busy week involving two different kinds of artistic endeavors.
First up is her school district’s centennial concert celebration. Nola plays several instruments: alto sax, tenor sax, euphonium and tuba. For this performance, she’ll be complementing the low brass section on the euphonium.
She loves playing her instruments, and she takes very good care of them. She’s even brought her euphonium and tuba home for baths (these are school instruments, but no one has maintained them; don’t even ask what we found inside the tuba once we got it apart…).
I played tuba in high school, but I’d never given one a bath before. It’s an adventure.
Needless to say, she’s one of her band teacher’s favorite students.
And two nights after the concert are her final two performances as Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress. She’s in good company in that role. Carol Burnett played the role in the 2005 Disney 2005 TV remake of Once Upon a Mattress. (Fun fact, Carol Burnett played the role of Winnifred, the princess, when the show opened on Broadway in 1959. You can read more fun facts about the Broadway production here.)
Once Upon a Mattress was inspired by a book, of course: “The Princess and the Pea” fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Don’t all good things come from books?
We obviously think so here at WMG. In fact, I’m in Las Vegas this week for the Romantic Suspense Craft Workshop, which is taught in-person by the amazing Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The study along version, writers do from the comfort of their own homes (or wherever they park their computer), is taught by the also amazing Dean Wesley Smith.
And while it’s too late to sign up for this particular workshop, it’s not too late to sign up for the other study along workshop options we have this year. Just click here to see all that’s on offer.
And don’t forget all the other workshops we have available on our Teachable platform.
Who knows where that next story will take you!
The Year of the Rabbit hasn’t even started yet, but WMG is already hopping!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a lot of awards. But the ones that matter most to her are the Readers’ Choice Awards. Her readers, you see, are who matter most.
And now, she’s won another. “Serving Process” was chosen as one of the top ten mystery stories of the year by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
If you missed reading it there, WMG published the story in February.
Here’s the synopsis:
Julia serves process in Corvallis, Oregon. One of the lawyers in her office warns her of the dangers her job poses, but she just needs two more years of interning to qualify for law school.
But her last subpoena of the day offers more than she bargains for—and holds more lives than just hers in the balance.
With its heart wrenching twists, “Serving Process” proves Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s mastery of crime fiction.
Find out what all the buzz is about. Click here to buy the story.
Cats like buzz, too. But more in the “ooh, let me catch that bug” kind of way. Cats prove endlessly entertaining with such antics. They’re real characters.
And they make great characters in fiction, too.
So, as a reminder, you still have time to grab the Cattitude StoryBundle, curated by Kris, of course. For $20, you’ll get ten books of cat fiction, including three exclusive to this bundle, plus a chance to donate to an important charity.
As longtime readers of this blog know, I lost my three beloved cats within nine months of each other the past two years. They were all elderly, but it was still heartbreaking and brutal. I was NOT ready to love a cat again. Not yet.
But, as many cat-lovers know, you don’t choose the cat(s). They choose you. Or, in my case, they choose my husband.
In the middle of my year of goodbyes, a feral kitten (maybe three or four months old) showed up under our porch. We had no idea whether she was male or female until she became pregnant shortly after finding us. I had no capacity for kittens at that time, so even the one time we could have intervened, I couldn’t do it. I was broken.
But lo and behold, the kittens found us anyway. And my husband spent the summer socializing them. Our house literally had an open-door policy when it came to cats.
And now, the two kittens we were able to socialize are our new beloved cats.
I wasn’t ready. But they needed us. And I must admit…every home needs a cat. At least, every home I want to live in.
Cats just make everything better.
That goes for fiction, too. Just ask Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She’s the curator for the latest Cattitude StoryBundle. Here’s what she has to say about the subject:
Cozy mysteries, serious witches, not-so-serious witches, musicians, dead musicians, pirates, pirates in space, space opera, fantasy, and romance. What do these things have in common? Cats, of course. Delightful cats. Dozens of cats. More cats than most clowders usually have.
This Storybundle has all of these cats and these stories, plus maybe a dozen more. From short stories to novels, novellas to anthologies, you’ll find it all in this bundle, so long as the fiction contains a cat. For $20, you’ll get all the books, including three exclusive to this bundle, and a chance to donate to an important charity.
You know who else likes to feature cats in his fiction? That’s right: Dean Wesley Smith. A group of kittens even play a prominent role in one of his Cold Poker Gang mysteries: Ring Game.
Did you know that Kristine Kathryn Rusch had not one but two stories from 2022 chosen as Asimov’s Readers Choice Award finalists? (Well, actually, it was technically three, but more on that in a minute.)
“Rocket Girls,” which was published in the May/June 2022 issue of Asimov’s, is a finalist for the Best Novelette category. And we can totally see why. It’s one of our favorites, as well. (And, truth be told, one of Kris’ favorites—shhh, don’t tell her other stories.)
WMG published “Rocket Girls” as a standalone ebook in December 2022. Here’s the synopsis:
Angie achieved fame as a spacer. But when some fresh-faced interviewer asks Angie to tell the origin story of the Space Bimbos, the interviewer gets more than she bargained for.
Instead, Angie tells the tale of a group of ambitious and talented girls who, inspired by an old pulp magazine called Rocket Girls, cobbled together a rocket and tried to blast off into space—and then, made history.
With “Rocket Girls,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch puts her own genius female-empowered twist on the build-a-spaceship-in-your-backyard trope from the pulps.
You can read the story for free right now on the Asimov’s site or buy it here.
The second (and third) stories nominated are in the category of Best Novella. It’s for The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades, which was originally published in two parts as novellas: the first in the September/October 2022 issue and the second in the November/December issue. Both novellas are finalists.
You can read the separate novellas for free right now on the Asimov’s site.
WMG will be releasing the full novel, which marries the novellas together into one complete story, in June.
Here’s the synopsis:
The Renegat Renegades finally learn their fate in New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades, the gripping new novel in her award-winning Diving series and an Asimov’s Readers’ Choice Award finalist.
As the surviving crew of the Renegat face court-martial for mutiny—100 years in their future—the case makes everyone nervous. Prosecutors worry the survivors will prove too sympathetic to convict. The defense worries about the reliability of the defendants. But the survivors worry about what might happen should the truth—the whole truth—finally come to light. Set in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s expansive Diving Universe, The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades adds rich new background to this powerfully written series.
With shocking secrets, a deepening mystery, and a surprise witness, this spellbinding sf mystery mixes the best of legal fiction and space opera and proves Rusch’s place as a master of science fiction.
So, read them for free now or buy them for later (or both). And read some of the other finalists, as well. Five of those feature authors WMG has published stories from in the past—Jane Yolen in Fiction River, Rick Wilbur inPulphouse Fiction Magazine, and Geoffrey A. Landis in The Year of the Cat, so maybe we’re a bit biased.
What can I say? We love our authors!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
March is Women’s History Month, something that gets more important to me as I (and my daughter) get older.
We’ve made progress as women, of course. Just check out all the amazing women’s history resources that can be found here.
But there’s still much work to be done. And it’s up to all of us to do it.
We start with our kids, of course. We’ve been careful to demonstrate to Nola since she was a baby that she can be and do whatever she wants.
When she was little, I didn’t surround her with all pink and girly things. I incorporated primary colors whenever I could. She had pink princess stuff, of course, but she also had red, blue, and green blocks and toy cars. She watched Sofia the First and Handy Manny.
As she got older, I let her choose where her interests would take her. She did T-ball one year and cheerleading the next. Now, she’s a green/brown belt in karate and a member of a girls volleyball tournament team. She’s also the lead villain in the high school musical and plays the tuba.
She’s a remarkably versatile kid, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
But it’s not just real-world people she can draw inspiration from. Fictional characters can open whole new worlds to young women who don’t have the same exposure and opportunities that my daughter does.
And it’s not just young women that fiction can inspire. I find myself gravitating more and more to strong female characters.
It’s why I love Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Diving Series so very much.
Her main female character, Boss, is seriously badass. (Kris, by the way, is pretty badass herself.) If you haven’t been introduced to Boss yet, start with Diving into the Wreck.
Here’s the synopsis:
Boss dives derelict space vessels, for money, yes, but more for their historical value. So, when she uncovers the find of a lifetime, she enlists the best divers she knows to help her pursue it—off the grid and under the Empire’s radar.
Boss’s discovery leads her and her team to the Room of Lost Souls. Boss remembers the Room. It haunts her. Her mother died there. Now, a client wants her to go back to help uncover the Room’s mysteries. But the truths they discover might destroy everything Boss holds sacred.
Because the more they discover, the less they realize they know—and the more it will cost them all.
An Asimov’s Readers’ Choice winner and RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice pick.
And if you’re already familiar with the series, but missed our recent Kickstarter, you can now preorder The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades. Boss isn’t in this one, but there are other badass women.
Here’s the synopsis:
The Renegat Renegades finally learn their fate in New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades, the gripping new novel in her award-winning Diving series.
As the surviving crew of the Renegat face court-martial for mutiny—100 years in their future—the case makes everyone nervous. Prosecutors worry the survivors will prove too sympathetic to convict. The defense worries about the reliability of the defendants. But the survivors worry about what might happen should the truth—the whole truth—finally come to light. Set in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s expansive Diving Universe, The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades adds rich new background to this powerfully written series.
With shocking secrets, a deepening mystery, and a surprise witness, this spellbinding sf mystery mixes the best of legal fiction and space opera and proves Rusch’s place as a master of science fiction.
