A series of strange events happened last week. For the first time in my daughter’s life, she had an actual snow day. And honest to goodness snow day where you go out and play in the snow for hours. It was an amazing thing to behold.
We live on the Oregon Coast, so we don’t get snow much. When we do, it’s flurries, or, if it sticks, it’s like an inch, tops.
But this was a legit snowstorm. Almost six inches of snow. Enough to sled on. And miraculously, our neighbors had some sleds (from a vacation to snow country).
And it was enough to build a full-size snowman instead of the lego-size version.
So, while it was unexpected, sometimes the unexpected leads to wonderful new things.
Take Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Fey series. The original books were epic fantasy. But the new books are an unexpected but wonderful blend of fantasy and steampunk.
And thanks to release of The Kirilli Matter, the first new Fey novel in more than 20 years, you can experience just what I mean.
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.
Click here to buy the ebook directly from our Shopify store or here for more options.
The whole Fey series has been republished with gorgeous new covers, so there’s never been a better time to get the whole series in paper!
In other news, The New Diving Novel Kickstarter has hit four stretch goals and is still climbing. And since we hit that fourth stretch goal, all backers at the $5 reward level and up will get a very special notebook filled with chapters pulled from the final version of The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades. I’ve read it, and it’s a fantastic look behind the scenes to the events that play out in the book.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, click here now. It ends this week!
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
In case you don’t keep up with the news, we reached a tipping point with artificial intelligence recently. AI technology is spreading and accelerating at a pace I’ve not seen with technology since the advent of the internet. AI art creation, AI chat bots, AI-enhanced search engines… Heck, even my language learning app Duolingo just added an AI-enhanced tutorial model.
It feels a bit like we’ve just found ourselves 100 years in the future overnight. Or like we’re in a science fiction novel. Or both.
Which is ironic, because that’s exactly what happened to the crew of the Renegat in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s latest novel, The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades, which is the feature of our latest Kickstarter.
Every supporter of The New Diving Novel Kickstarter at the $5 level and up will get an early copy of The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades in ebook format.
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.
In addition to early access to this fantastic new novel, the Kickstarter also features Kickstarter exclusive rewards for readers and writers alike.
For readers, we have a reward for signed/limited hardcovers for the new novel as well as stretch goal rewards featuring three special notebooks full of cut chapters from this new novels and false starts and supplemental material from past books in the series.
For writers, we have three rewards featuring two special new workshops: Creating Science Fiction Technologies and How to Create Ships as Characters. And we’re launching a brand-new series of writing workshops in the stretch goals featuring Space-Cowboy Pete and Rocket-Fuel Rachel.
And we might even have a surprise or two up our sleeves we have yet to reveal.
We live in weird times. Technology is evolving so fast that it sometimes feels like magic.
I recently had a conversation with an author who wanted my take on the evolution of AI, particularly as it comes to the creation of prose (such as ChatGPT).
That’s a complicated topic. I’m not just a book publisher; I’m also a professor. I think AI text generation has its uses. I think it could be sure useful for helping people write cover letters, reference letters, business correspondence, that kind of thing. Especially for people who struggle with those.
But I recently took a test the New York Times originally posed to education experts (and the venerable Judy Blume) to see if they could tell the difference between a student’s writing and ChatGPT. And here’s the thing: I spotted the AI every single time. It wasn’t always easy, but humans are, well, human, and their strengths and weaknesses in writing are fairly easy to spot if you know what to look for. It’s still hard for AI to fully mimic those. Especially kids.
But the extent that AI gets close? Well, that makes machines seem rather like they’re using magic.
Which brings me to steampunk. And our latest StoryBundle. Here’s what curator Kristine Kathryn Rusch has to say about The Fantasy Steampunk Bundle:
The best steampunk gives us fantasy with an attitude and weird mechanical somethings or other. When we expect magic, we get machines. When we expect machines, we get magic. Sometimes we get both at the same time. We called this StoryBundle Fantasy Steampunk because most of the stories here are either steampunk, fantasy with steampunk elements, or fantasy that feels like steampunk.
The bundle includes three books exclusive to the bundle, all of them brand-new. The Victorians make a big appearance here, although we also have a story set in the Old West during the Victorian Era. A touch of H.G. Wells (the original steampunk writer) and some Orcs working in the Motor City, which, even though it’s set during Prohibition, feels steampunk to me.
Add in the seven other fantastic titles, and the ability get all of them for just $20 and contribute to charity all the while, and what could be better?
You can learn more about the bundle here.
Machines or magic. Or both. You decide.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
Last week, as I sat through the longest two and a half hours I’ve ever spent in a theater, I was reminded why it’s so important for us to expose our kids to the arts.
My daughter was in her first high school play (her school is a 7-12, so they let the middle-school kids participate, too). It’s the first play they’ve done in years because of the pandemic. In fact, I’m not sure they did dramatic plays before the pandemic, either.
So, this was new territory for them. And the first play the well-intentioned but poorly reasoned directors chose for these 12- to 18-year-olds to perform? The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Now, if you’re unfamiliar with that play, click here and read about it. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…
So, yeah. Heavy stuff for kids. Hard material for any actor.
Add to that the fact that they had basically a month to rehearse.
You guessed it. It didn’t go well. Only Nola, who had a smaller part, and one of the other main actors had their lines memorized. The rest had to have lines fed to them from the wings by the director. It was a small theater, so we all heard those in stereo. And one of the actors was so poorly prepared that he had to carry around a book the whole time with his lines in them. He didn’t look up once, not even when he was trying to strangle Dorian Gray.
It. Was. Torture.
And I had to sit through it because I love my kid. When I wasn’t trying not to gouge my own eyes out, I was jealously looking over at my husband, who can nap anywhere…
I don’t blame the kids. This is a poor community, and they probably haven’t been exposed to real theater. Plus, they didn’t have the time to prepare, and they were set up to fail by the material. I also don’t blame the directors (much) because they’re young and at least they’re trying to offer these kids some access to the arts.
But I did have plenty of time to think about how we can get these kids more exposure to quality art. I will be working on that.
A huge part of teaching is understanding your subject. Those directors did not. But when the teacher does: wow, is that powerful!
And if you’re a writer looking to hone your craft, have I got some powerful teachers for you! Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are masters of their craft and will gladly share that mastery with you through online workshops and the occasional in-person one.
And if you prefer online workshops, Dean and Kris have hundreds of options for you through Teachable. Click here for the full list.
And this February, Dean has even resurrected two classic workshops to full workshop status, with homework and everything, in addition to the other regular workshops where you can Study with Dean. Click here to see those.
It’s so important to keep learning. Especially from excellent instructors.
As for me, I’ve learned never to go to a high school play again without my AirPods…
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.
I remember seventh grade vividly. And not just because that was the year of the Challenger space shuttle disaster (because it was carrying a teacher for the first time, we all watched in school). Or because it was also the year for a more local school disaster when the third-floor ceiling collapsed in our science room, trapping our teacher under rubble and seriously injuring her (thankfully, classes were changing at the time, so all of the students managed to get out, albeit barely).
Those were the obvious traumas. But there were so many other traumas that, while not life-or-death, sure felt like it at the time: bullying, frenemies, puberty.
Seventh grade is hard. I knew it would be hard on my daughter. But I didn’t expect it to be so hard on me, too.
My daughter talks to me about most things. (It used to be everything, but naturally that has diminished some as she gets older.) And I will never discourage her from sharing things with me, even though my introverted nature really needs a break from the drama sometimes.
And whoa boy, the drama. I hated it in seventh grade. I hate it now.
But she’s figuring out who she is, and how to deal with it all. So, I’m doing my best to support her while not unduly influencing her—other than to make sure she’s not an asshole. That’s Parenting 101 in my book: Don’t let your kid grow up to be an asshole.
She’s not an asshole, thank goodness. She’s a great kid. And it’s bittersweet to watch her turning into a great mini-adult.
One good thing about the drama of these school-age years, however, is it’s wonderful fodder for fiction.
So much so that WMG has included a three-book bundle in the current offering on StoryBundle for the Magic School Bundle.
When Zeus tried to use his teenage daughters Tiffany, Crystal, and Brittany to destroy true love, they rebelled. So, he stripped them of their magic. Now they live with their mothers in “the real world.”
But magic cuts both ways; it can provide enormous power to any mage who knows how and when to use it, and it can backfire when used without the guidance of wisdom. This trio of Olympian offspring decide to take the on “real world” and reclaim their magic, one way or another.
Pay at least $20, and you can get this three-book bundle as well as nine other fantastic book offerings around the Magic School theme. Plus, you can choose for a portion of your purchase to go to Girls Write Now and Mighty Writers, charities aimed at helping kids develop their writing skills, and even perhaps nurturing future writers!
