FREE!Something different in the zombie apocalypse genre

Free for the next five days.

Bloodsport: Z Sisters #1

I had a blast writing this novella. It's set in L.A. and all of the locations--the sisters' apartments, the house that Rose bought with her ex, their father's house--are real places. I'm currently writing the sequel (Bloodtrail) and getting back into the world has been like visiting old frends after being on lockdown for weeks. (In my case, it's been almost two months. Washington state's governor acted early and decisively after corona virus cases killed some nursing home residents in King County, where Seattle is located.

Writing a zombie story in the time of Covid-19 has been kind of surreal, because some of the things I'd outlined months ago-field hospitals being built in Central Park and sports stadiums--have come to pass.But so too have other things I imagined--like the resilience of the human spirit, the bravery of the frontline health care workers and those who have kept a semblance of normality going--postal workers and delivery workers, ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things. There's a William Faulkner quote that always resonated with me:  I believe that man will not merely endure, he will prevail. I believe that.

Stay home if you can.
Wear a mask if you can't.
Wash your hands.
Don't drink Lysol.
Listen to the doctors.
When you can't be with the ones you love, phone or text or Zoom or Skype or Facetime. They miss you too.

Freebie anthology of dark romance

Poison Love, a freebie anthology of stories of toxic love is just about to disappear. It was always a limited edition and time has run out. I have a story in the set--"Midnight's Daughter," based on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story "Rappaccini's Daughter." It's actually a terrific story so if you were scarred by having to read House of Seven Gables (my sympathies), you might check it out.

You can find the book at your favorite digital bookstore.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

The Folger Library wants you to celebrat with them--virtually of course. The party is here.

Get writing!

Editing Death in the Drowned Lands reawakened my love for writing short stories. Even though I'm trying to concentrate on my longer work, I keep getting distracted by ideas that aren't novel or even novella length. So I'm thrilled to see how many places are looking for short stories.

For example, Dragon Soul Press has a whole slew of anthologies that are open for submission from now into 2021.

Abra Staffen-Wiebe has just updated her monthly market list of PAYING markets. I appreciate her list because it's heavily fantasy/science fiction, horror, speculative--genres I love writing.

Angie's Desk always has an updated list of anthology markets. She only posts once a month, so ost of the markets listed right now are closed.

Duotrope costs $5 a month for its listings, and it can be a tremendous resource for information on magazines and publishers.

If you've been looking for something to do in lockdown besides back cookies and watch Tiger King, why not do some writing?

It's Earth Day. Stay at home and read.

About a year ago, writer Kaye George posted a map on her Facebook timeline that showed which parts of the country would be underwater as the sea level rises due to climate change. One of those places was Washington, D.C., where I was born. And for some reason, that visual--which wasn't new information--hit me hard. In the past year, my household has made a conscious effort to live without one-time use plastic and paper products (we use bamboo paper towels, we purchased a bidet attachment for our toilets), we stopped eating meat and dairy. (That's still hard for me; I used to eat my bodyweight in cheese a year.)

I've given money to climate change/environmental groups but I have been driven--particularly since the election of 2016--t do more. And "more' for me involves writing. The minute I saw that image, a phrase came to me--DEATH IN THE DROWNED LANDS. The idea was that I wanted stories of death (not necessarily murder) in a place that was inundated by water. Fourteen writers answered the call and the result is now available, just in time for Earth Day. Here's the universal link. Here's the Apple link. (They don't play well with the universal link.) Here's the Nook link. (Ditto.)

Cover Reveal! Soul's Day!

This is a boxed set collection that's been in the works for months and we're finally getting a sneak peek!

Here' are the details:

TITLE: Soul’s Day: A Halloween themed box set.
GENRE: Horror/Paranormal
ISBN: 9781947649699
ASIN: B086ZVTKSS
RELEASE DAY: 20th October 2020
PRE-ORDER DATE: 17th April 2020
PUBLISHER: Fire Quill Publishers

Here's the blurb:

Old Hallows Eve, when things go bump in the night,
Children come to play, and the witches provide the fright.
For 19 authors, USA Today and international bestselling,
The Halloween tales become more than this foretelling.
In the Soul’s Day Boxset, a mansion feeds on souls,
A gargoyle captures them, and a demon dungeon master makes the calls,
Campers gets picked off one by one,
The Karnaval’s corn dogs are less than fun,
Ghosts lurking around every bend,
‘I do’ at the wedding is the very end.
A boxset of chills and thrills to keep you up at night,
One-click pre-order to snap your copy filled with fright.
On old Hallow’s eve when creatures come to play,
With this spine chilling pages, it’s where you’ll want to stay.

Tsundoku no more Day #7

I’m an omnivorous reader, but romantic suspense and urban fantasy are two of my favorite genres. I snapped this book up, intending to read it right away but something (probably actual work) intervened.

13 (Tallent & Lowery Book 1) by Amy Lignor

Downloaded February 18, 2014

“Tallent” is Leah Tallent, a starchy research librarian (an homage to the author’s librarian mother) who really hates dealing with library tours, especially ones like the rowdy group currently touring the Heaven & Hell exhibit (“a literary celebration of both sides of humanity”). Gareth Lowery is a handsome,. bronze-headed, green-eyed teacher who is not at all what he seems to be. And though he’s quite taken with redheaded Leah, his motives for being in the library are mysterious and intriguing.

We KNOW from the subtitle that these two are going to get together (probably in more than one way, if you know what I mean) but from the first page, the third person/dual POV book is engaging. It delivers and fans of books like Katherine Neville’s Eight and Discovery of Witches will be entertained. (Some reviewers have compared her books to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. I’m not one to scoff at that. Like everyone else on the planet, I read Da Vinci Code when it first came out and enjoyed it thoroughly.) I’ll definitely be reading more of the books (particularly the next one which has a Shakespeare connection).