My character & Alistair with a scarecrow in Dragon Age: Origins
I want to give you TEN (10) copies of Scarecrow.
Yep. You read that right.
I’m going to give one person ten copies of Scarecrow. That lucky winner can keep one and give the other nine away however they want to–to their book club, friends, relatives, libraries or random people on the internet–whatever they want. Why? Well, mostly because giving away books is fun and I want to spread the joy around 🙂
How do you enter?
Take photos of or with scarecrows and share them on social media (Twitter, Facebook) using the hashtag #ScarecrowSelfies (If you don’t do social media I will post and share on your behalf — email your pictures to me at fae [at] worldweaverpress.com)
I will compile and share/link to the photos on my blog, because c’mon, of course I will!
Every photo taken will count as an entry into the draw and you will get an extra entry if your photo contains a copy of either CORVIDAE or FAE
And as I said, the winner will receive a box of copies of SCARECROW to share however you want. Actually, I’ll give you a bonus entry if you post on social media using the #ScarecrowSelfies and tell us how you would give away the books if you won.
That’s three ways to enter the draw. C’mon, it’ll be fun!
I will hold the draw on the morning of August 13th so make sure your entries are in by the 12th.
Official-Type Stuff & FAQs
You cannot sell the nine extra copies, you must give them away for free.
The books are shipping from inside the US so if you live outside the US you are still welcome to enter but if you win you will be responsible for any customs, duty or other costs associated with importing the books.
Why not give eight people one copy of SCARECROW instead of giving one person eight copies?
Why not? I want to try something different and we’ll still be running a Goodreads giveaway for SCARECROW the same as we have for FAE and CORVIDAE so this isn’t the only chance people will have to win a copy but it is the only chance they’ll have to win nine of them 🙂
Does the picture have to be with a real scarecrow?
Nope. I’m open to all sorts of creative interpretations on this one. A picture of you with a picture of a scarecrow? Cool. A screenshot from a video game with a scarecrow? Okay. A friend dressed up as a scarecrow posing with you? Awesome. Please feel free to think outside the box on this one.
Have a question? Hit me up, I’m happy to answer 🙂
Some of the entries:
From me. Not an entry, just playing along 🙂
Another entry from Scott 🙂
Entry from Debbie H
Entry from Katherine M.
Katherine M. freaking out the Hobby Lobby employees 🙂
“A creepy, crazy kaleidoscope of corvids, Corvidae is what happens when you bring together ingenious writers and sagacious subjects. It’s nothing short of a thrill ride when this anthology takes flight.”
—Susan G. Friedman, Ph. D., Utah State University; behaviorworks.org
It’s here! It’s here! Release day for Corvidae is here!
I am so freaking stoked.
Over the next days and weeks you’ll hear plenty from myself and contributors about this anthology, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time today with a big long post, I’m just going to say, it’s here.
You should pick up a copy.
Fer realz.
Then once you’ve read it you should take a peek at Magnus E. Magpie’s cawmentaries, consider leaving a review at the usual suspects (Amazon, Goodreads, etc.), and get ready to read Scarecrow because it’s coming soon too.
Thank you so much for your continued support of Rhonda Parrish’s Magical Menageries. I love creating these anthologies and I wouldn’t be able to do it without readers like you!
I’m a book behind! I’m currently reading Rebecca Roland’s Shards of History but in the meantime the sequel has come out and is making quite a splash on my social media and within my circle of friends. Fractured Days (not to be confused with Fractured Fridays) came out last week and every time I hop on Twitter someone is raving about it 🙂
Malia returns home the hero of a war she can’t remember. The valley burning under the Maddion’s invasion, the fate of her late husband, the way she resolved the long-time distrust between the Taakwa people and the wolfish, winged Jegudun creatures–all of it has been erased from her memory. Malia hopes to resume training as her village’s next clan mother, but when the symbiotic magic that she and the Jeguduns used to repair the valley’s protective barrier starts to consume more and more of her mind, she’s faced with the threat of losing herself completely.
A powerful being known as “the changer” might hold the solution to her vanishing memories. But the Maddion’s new leader, Muvumo, also seeks the changer, hoping the being will cure them of the mysterious illness killing off his people. Meanwhile, Muvumo’s bride hopes the changer can bring about a new era, one in which she and the other Maddion women no longer need to hold onto their greatest secret.
But wait! There’s more! I also have an excerpt to share 🙂
Excerpt from Rebecca Roland’s Fractured Days:
Malia crested a rolling hill and stopped just before reaching the summit. Near the Big River, which flowed to her left, the bones of a dead dragon curved through the spring grass. On the other side of the rushing, wide river lay more bones. Their riders had been gathered into massive pyres and burned, but the dragons had been too large. They’d been burned where they had fallen when the magic barrier rose around the valley.
She had done this. She’d pulled the magic through her hands, and the Jeguduns’ hands, and repaired the shattered barrier. She’d killed thousands of Maddion men and their dragons.
And she couldn’t remember it at all.
She rubbed at her forehead as if that could shake loose the thick fog that hung around those particular memories. Anything that had happened to her in the seasons leading up to the Dragon War was gone. Vanished, as if she’d never lived that time. When she looked at her brother, Vedran, standing a half-pace behind her, it was as if he’d grown into a man overnight. He’d gone from a pesky, scrawny boy who left frogs in her sleeping pallet, into a braided man, carrying a hunting dagger at his hip, a bow and quiver against his back, and a dragon’s tooth on a leather strap around his neck.
Then there was the man who walked on her other side, also slightly behind. Enuwal, the healer. He’d prodded her on after she came out of the long sleep. All winter he’d given her work, both physical and mental, pushing her until she felt a semblance of normality. And now, proclaimed healthy, she was on her way home. She could return to her training to become her village’s next clan mother. She’d have to start over, or nearly so, but then again, almost everybody had to begin anew after the war, all because of the Maddion tearing down the magic barrier protecting their home.
Home. She recalled Selu, her village, but would it look the same? The people wouldn’t, or at least, not all of them, just as Vedran looked to her as if he’d aged overnight. Her stomach was a mess of knots. With sweaty palms, she gripped the leather strap of her travel sac, slung across her torso. Selu lay just over this rise. A few tendrils of cooking smoke rose in the distance. If she took a few more steps, she’d see the village. Then, she only had to get through the evening meal with her mother, perhaps with the clan father, and she could rest. It wasn’t only the day’s fatigue, or even the trail’s fatigue, that exhausted her; it was the weight of all that had happened to her, and the daily battle to try to reclaim any lost memories she could. Maybe, once she was home, she could push this fog aside and remember. Enuwal and the Jeguduns claimed it wasn’t possible, but nobody had ever before worked magic like she had.
Rebecca Roland is the author of the Shards of History series, The Necromancer’s Inheritance series, and The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Nature, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Stupefying Stories, Plasma Frequency, and Every Day Fiction, and she is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. You can find out more about her and her work at rebeccaroland.net, her blog Spice of Life, or follow her on Twitter @rebecca_roland.
The launch date for B is for Broken draws ever nearer and to celebrate I’ve reduced the price of the first book in the anthology, A is for Apocalypse!
For a limited time, you can pick up a copy for half price!
“In A is for Apocalypse, the world ends in both fire and ice–and by asteroid, flood, virus, symphony, immortality, the hands of our vampire overlords, and crowdfunding. A stellar group of authors explores over two dozen of the bangs and whispers that might someday take us all out. Often bleak, sometimes hopeful, always thoughtful, if A is for Apocalypse is as prescient as it is entertaining, we’re in for quite a ride.”
-Amanda C. Davis, Author of The Lair of the Twelve Princesses
It’s almost time for Corvidae to hit the shelves (July 7th!) and you know what that means, right? It means I get to giveaway an ARC to one lucky person. You could be one of the very first people to get your hot little hands on a copy!
Associated with life and death, disease and luck, corvids have long captured mankind’s attention, showing up in mythology as the companions or manifestations of deities, and starring in stories from Aesop to Poe and beyond.
In Corvidae birds are born of blood and pain, trickster ravens live up to their names, magpies take human form, blue jays battle evil forces, and choughs become prisoners of war. These stories will take you to the Great War, research facilities, frozen mountaintops, steam-powered worlds, remote forest homes, and deep into fairy tales. One thing is for certain, after reading this anthology, you’ll never look the same way at the corvid outside your window.
Featuring works by Jane Yolen, Mike Allen, C.S.E. Cooney, M.L.D. Curelas, Tim Deal, Megan Engelhardt, Megan Fennell, Adria Laycraft, Kat Otis, Michael S. Pack, Sara Puls, Michael M. Rader, Mark Rapacz, Angela Slatter, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Leslie Van Zwol.
It’s super easy to enter to win, too. The Rafflecopter widget below gives you lots of options (some of which you can do every day to maximize your chances to win:
I’ll be straight with you, Fae could really use some more reviews on Amazon. It’s received great reviews, don’t get me wrong, but they mostly seem to be centered on Goodreads* and whether you love it or hate it, Amazon is the 500lb gorilla in this industry and reviews there have more, well, weight, than reviews on Goodreads.
So, if Fae reaches ten (10) reviews on Amazon** by the time this giveaway ends on June 2nd I will have the Rafflecopter choose a second winner and that winner will receive an ARC of Scarecrow.
If we surpass 10 reviews before June 2nd I will edit this blog post to add some ‘stretch goals’, each of which will look an awful lot like an ARC 😉
*I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the reviews on Goodreads, because I really, truly AM grateful for them. It’s just that now I need to focus on getting some on Amazon as well.
**I only want honest reviews, so if you haven’t read Fae yet, well, now is as good a time as any LOL Or you can just cross your fingers and hope the people who have read it will review it on Amazon 🙂
I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions, because I’m crap at keeping them, but I do enjoy setting goals for the coming year each January. I find them super helpful staying focused and find the accountability which comes from sharing them publicly really helps as well. This year I’m a wee bit late on getting this blog post done, so it may be slightly less chatty than in years past, but without further ado, here are some of my work-related goals for the coming year (and health counts because you can’t work if you’re not at least a certain degree of healthy).
Health
Weigh less at the end of the year than I do at the start
Run 5k
No working on weekends and minimal working on evenings.
Editing / Publishing
Publish the final three issues of Niteblade and then close down that aspect of the magazine
Complete Corvidae and market it to the best of my ability
Complete Scarecrow and market it to the best of my ability
Publish B is for Broken and market it to the best of my ability
Write and submit at least one new short story a month*
The ‘submit’ part of this is important. I can’t just write a first draft and leave it to moulder indefinitely. The story needs to be ready for submission and, in fact, submitted, within the month to count.
Begin querying agents about Hollow
Self-publish at least one collection of reprints
Complete work on collaborative project with Marge
Successfully participate in April Poem-A-Day
This means actually writing a poem a day or at least having thirty poems written by the end of the month
Participate in NaNoWriMo*
Either complete the first draft of a new novel, or revise one of the novel first drafts I’ve already written (this can be completed in conjunction with NaNoWriMo or separate from it)
Reading
Read at least 50 books
Slush doesn’t count, nor do books by friends I read to critique.
When someone visits this blog and leaves a comment — reciprocate.
Kobo
As of New Year’s Eve of 2014 I’d sold a total of one book via Kobo**. One. For a whopping $0.45 in royalties. One of my goals in 2015 is to improve that. I don’t have a super firm goal in mind but it shouldn’t be too difficult to top one sale and less than fifty cents in royalties, right?
I’ll probably tweak this list as the year goes on, but for now I think it’s a very good jumping-off point 🙂
*under this name or as a pen name project. Either counts.
**this doesn’t count books I didn’t self-publish like Fae, Metastasis etc.
So this is it. The time of year where I look back at the goals I set for 2014 and find out how well I did at reaching them. What’s usually most interesting about this time for me is seeing how my priorities have shifted over the course of the year, the number of things which were really important to me at the beginning of 2014 which I was happy to back burner (which is totally a verb) but the end.
Also, I have a rule. I may explain failures, but not excuse them. Who wants to read a whole blog post of self-justifications and excuses? Not me LoL
So. 2014 goals. How’d I do?
bold = success
tl;dr — Overall, it was a pretty freaking awesome year 🙂
~*~
Health
No drinking pop. Period.
Lose 20 lbs
Lower blood pressure (bonus points if I get to reduce my medication)
Run 5k
Didn’t do so awesomely here. Or well at all, really. I’m still drinking a lot of pop (diet pop, for better or for worse) and my weight has remained steady. Much, much too high, but steady. I *was* making (very slow) progress on that 5k run thing before plantar fasciitis reared its ugly head but once it did I was less than enthusiastic about actively stretching to relieve it or exercising in a way which didn’t aggravate it so… pretty sure that counts as an excuse, not an explanation. The only thing I did manage here was to lower my blood pressure. Alas, I did not get to reduce my medication in the process so no bonus points for me. *pout*
~*~
School
This degree is taking a ridonkulously long time. I need to finish another course toward completing it this year. Bonus points if I manage two, but it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that this is honestly more of a hobby than anything and it must not negatively effect my work.
I didn’t find the time to finish even one course toward this degree. In fact as of last month I became inactive in my program, which is kinda crappy but I felt like my writing and editing took off to such an extent that it would be a bad choice for me to prioritize school over them at this point in time. So what I’m saying is, I’m okay with having failed to meet this goal. I think it was the right decision.
I am really, really, really enjoying editing anthologies right now and I’d like to have at least one more under contract with a publisher by the end of 2014.
I need to come up with a way to set actual concrete goals for promotion. Not only for Fae and Metastasis, but everything I edit and/or publish. Oh hey!
Figure out a way to set concrete goals for promotion. Set concrete goals for promotion.
Solicit writers for B is for (haha not telling yet!) and begin that process
Continue to edit and publish Niteblade, keeping it something I can be very proud of.
Complete the edits on Grammy’s book
Wow. What a year it’s been under Editing / Publishing. Going to tackle all these one at a time…
Audience at Fae Launch at WWC
First, I did finish FAE and I promoted it to the best of my ability. That included getting over my anxiety about holding a physical launch party, and making sure I always had copies of the book on hand at every convention I went to (and I went to three) to sell. Some of these efforts were successful (the party at When Words Collide, for example) and some, like the postcards with discount codes I printed up for World Fantasy were abject failures. Live and learn, right?
I was also successful in pursuing other anthology ideas. My goal had been to have at least one more under contract with a publisher by the end of the year, but I smashed that to bits. I have two anthologies with signed contracts which I’m even now finalizing the tables of contents for and which will be published this year. They are SCARECROW and CORVIDAE. I also have a verbal agreement to begin reading submissions for a fourth anthology for World Weaver Press (tentatively entitled SIRENS: Sea and Sky) this year and publishing it next year.
I did not find any awesome ways to increase promotion efforts for METASTASIS, but even so it earned out all its production costs and began sending small (but emotionally meaningful) donations to support cancer research.
C.S. MacCath reading her A is for Apocalypse story at WFC 2014
I also didn’t come up with a way to set concrete goals for promotion, but I did get far better at tracking the results of promotions, so I’m going to call that a step in the right direction.
We held another successful fundraiser for Niteblade in 2014, raising $510 and (even better for my ego) collecting a whole lot of really nice things Niteblade authors had to say about it.
I didn’t produce a NaNoLJers anthology last year, but that is because there wasn’t much in the way of interest.
A IS FOR APOCALYPSE is awesome. I did, in fact, publish it and promoted it as well as I could. I think in some ways it suffered for being launched so close to FAE but despite that sales exceeded my expectations and it has been very well-received including having stories from it on people’s top five lists,end of the year reading recommendations and getting a handful of nice reviews here, there and everywhere.
Not only did I solicit writers for B IS FOR BROKEN I’m nearly finished editing those stories and I’ve settled on the themes for the next two alphabet anthologies and let the authors know about them so they can decide to sign up, or not, in a leisurely fashion.
Niteblade had a fantastic year with me at the helm and though I’m partly saddened that 2015 will be its last year, mostly it feels like the right thing to do. End on a high note and go out in style 🙂
I completed the edits on Grammy’s book. Added the whole new section she wanted appended to the back, got it formatted, published and shipped to her in time for her to give out copies at Christmas. So, basically, I rocked it 🙂
~*~
Writing
2014 is the year of the novel. It is because I say it is, damn it!
Complete the novel currently known as ‘Hollow’
By ‘complete’ I mean have that sucker ready to start querying agents about
Complete the first draft of at least two other novels
One of these may be one of my pen name projects
Self-publish the zombie poetry book and complete my other plans for it
Write 350 words a day, five days a week. So 1,750 words a week.
Yes. A week. It’s not huge, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff on this list, damn it! :-p
Bundle up and self-publish more of my reprints
Complete sekkrit collaborative project
Participate in NovPAD and/or April PAD
Anything with the word ‘NaNo’ in the title is optional
…except NaNoLJers. Set up prompts for odd-numbered Mondays
Well, despite my intentions 2014 turned into the year of the anthology, not the novel. Hollow is done. Mostly. I had to do a whole extra draft I hadn’t counted on, but now it only needs a final spit polish and it will be ready to start querying. It’s finding the time to do that polish that is turning into a tricky thing.
I also sold my Aphanasian novel, SHADOWS, to World Weaver Press. That required a lot of re-writing and I anticipate at least one, possibly two more passes before it’s ready for release. It’s scheduled to be released some time this year though, so we’ll have to wait and see when that comes to pass 🙂
I did self-publish my zombie poetry book, and a collection of funny zombie reprints. I didn’t find time to ‘complete my other plans’ for the zombie poetry book, but who knows, perhaps a miracle will happen and I’ll find a way to do that this year LOL Could happen…
Still not finished my sekkrit collaborative project with Marge Simon, but working on it. Still working on it. Kind of like the tortoise in that story…
I participated in NovPAD and April PAD. I was not super successful at either but… I got a few poems out of them. I also participated in NaNoWriMo, however in recognition of how busy I was I re-named it MicroWriMo and aimed for 10k words. I wrote just under 8k. Meh.
Also, I had prompts set up and scheduled for odd-number Mondays for NaNoLJers and then I did something very stupid and deleted them all. So, that was a big fail right there.
~*~
Reading
Read at least 50 books.
Have 25% be non-fiction
According to Goodreads I read 63 books (I really ought to keep track of how many stories I read in slush LOL) 11 of which were non-fiction. So, I surpassed the main goal but fell short on the mini one. Of those books my favourites, in no particular order, were:
So… the good news about all the things I missed on this list is that they are all still on my radar, and aside from A Month of Letters I can do them anytime. I’m surprised I missed A Month of Letters this year, so surprised I had to go and check my blog archives to make sure I really had. Weird. I do write snail mail sporadically over the course of the year anyway but historically I’ve really gotten a lot out of A Month of Letters so I’ll have to work pretty hard at re-adding that next year.
Also, I went to three conventions. When Words Collide is my new all-time favourite convention ever. Plus I also attended my second World Fantasy and went to Pure Spec here in Edmonton. The highlight of Pure Spec, for me, was the Character Death Matches (I participated and got my butt kicked. Fun!)
~*~
And there you have it. My year in review or, more specifically, a look at the goals I set last year with an eye to seeing how successful I was.
On paper I wasn’t super successful, but as I mentioned at the start of this (very long) entry, it’s always interesting to see how my priorities shift and change over the year. While my health-based priorities remain the same and I really need to devote more time, energy and effort to them I’m perfectly good with the progress I made on my other goals. Writing a lot of novels got pushed back a bit in favour of editing a lot of anthologies, for example. I’m good with that, and very proud of the results.
I know a great number of my friends struggled through 2014 in ways that meant getting dressed each morning was a victory, but overall, 2014 was a very good year for me. How did it treat you? Did you accomplish most of the things you set out to do? Are you happy with what you managed?
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what 2015 has to offer. I’ll be making a new set of goals for myself and sharing them here in the near future. If you do the same please let me know, I like seeing the goals other people set for themselves, sometimes they help inspire mine 🙂
Normally I don’t post two blog posts on the same day, and I usually wouldn’t make a single post that included details about FAE being on sale and also the latest issue of Niteblade. But today isn’t just another day, so I’m doing exactly that.
First of all, if you didn’t see it, my other post for today is about Giftmas cards. Basically I’d like to send you one, so if you’d like to receive one you ought to sign up using this form right here.
Now, about Fae and Niteblade…
Fae is on sale, and it’s a good one. From now until the end of the year you can get a paperback copy of both Fae and of Far Orbit for only $19.95. That’s two great anthologies from World Weaver Press for less than twenty bucks. If you’ve already bought one or the other of them, well, what can I say? Books make fantastic gifts, right? LOL Unfortunately these books can only be shipped within the United States, but I happen to know a lot of my friends and readers live there — it’s a pretty big place 😉
Annnnd, last but most assuredly not least — the latest issue of Niteblade came out today.
Issue #30 (holy freaking hell, 30 issues!) is called Vampyrics and features a fang-tastically festive cover by Marge Simon. Our table of contents looks like this:
Abominable Snowman by Ada Hoffmann
Cold by Thomas Wood
Nameday by Anne Carly Abad
A Million Miles Away by Christian Riley
Vampyrics by John Philip Johnson
Bindings by Jamie Killen
The Art by Sandi Leibowitz
Three Little Words by Sealey Andrews
Ghost Engine Updates an Ad for Angry Spirits by Anne Carly Abad
Date of Death by Stone Showers
We’ve got monsters (traditional and otherwise), subtle horror, kinky fae-like critters, living nightmares and modernized hauntings. This is truly one of our strongest issues yet and with more ways to enjoy it than ever before.
You can check it out at the Niteblade Website. From there you’ll be able to read previews of every single piece we’re offering you, as we try to tempt you into purchasing a downloadable copy (.pdf, .ePub or .mobi) or sending us a donation. As soon as we reach $50 in sales and donations combined we will release the full issue on the website for everyone to read for free (but our downloadable copies are still the best way to experience Niteblade. No lie.)
Or
You can also check out this issue over at Smashwords. There, they will give you the first 20% of the issue for free, to make sure you like what you see before you take the $2.99 plunge and buy a copy –> Vampyrics at Smashwords. From Smashwords you can pick up copies of this issue in every freaking format conceivable. And yes. Your purchases still count toward eventually releasing the web version for free.
But wait! There’s more!
This issue of Niteblade is also available from Amazon and Kobo.
When I looked at the list of things I wanted to signal boost this week I actually felt a little dizzy. “How the hell am I going to fit Twitter, Facebook and blog posts for all those things in without sounding like a social media spam-bot?” I wondered.
Then I got smart and decided to just put all the things into one big blog post. Yay!
Firstly, check out this character portrait:
This is Bayne.
He’s a half-incubus swordsman who figures prominently in many of the stories I’ve written set in Aphanasia (Sister Margaret, Lost and Found and the forthcoming Shadows — which is subject to re-naming LoL).
Bayne is also the character I will be playing with at the Character Death Matches at Pure Spec next month and he’s also the only character from those stories who hasn’t been on a book cover… so didn’t have a portrait.
My daughter, Danica, felt bad for me as she watched me struggle to find a stock image I could crop, Photoshop or otherwise fake to fit my character and she drew this portrait for me 🙂 He looks a little younger in this than he is in the stories I’ve written about him thus far… but I’m taking this as a sign that perhaps I ought to write some stories about a younger Bayne… someday.
Anyway, I’m super lucky to have such a talented kid who is willing to draw character portraits for me. Thank you, Danica! He’s awesome and I love it 🙂
As I mentioned, Bayne features strongly in Aphanasian Stories. If you haven’t read Aphanasian Stories and you like straight-up fantasy, have I got good news for you.
This week I’m participating in #CreepyFreebies. As part of that I am giving away copies of the most recent issue of Niteblade and I’m running a raffle to win a copy of Aphanasian Stories.
However… there’s this t-shirt I wanted (Roots of Remedy) but my Paypal account was a bit short, so I spontaneously decided to put Aphanasian Stories on a super big sale — 70% off (Coupon code: VG96R at Smashwords — click here) to try to top it up a bit*.
That made me feel bad for having Aphanasian Stories as the raffled off item, so I’ll also be throwing in a copy of White Noise for whoever wins. And if you win and you already own a copy of Aphanasian Stories, I’ll give you something else instead. Because.
I’m not just doing CreepyFreebies though. I’m also taking part in #CoffinHop2014 🙂 This is a super fun little system where rather than interviewing one zombie author a day, Julianne instead asks several of us one question each day. The posts are pretty short too, which in today’s world full of constant distractions, seems like a good thing. So far the posts have included:
I was interviewed by Virginia from StarkLight Press recently to celebrate the launch of White Noise. It’s not a very long interview, only about six questions worth, but I really think it gives a lot of insight into what’s going on in my skull. If you’re even a little intrigued, it’s a quick read that ought to satisfy some of your curiosity. You can check it out here:
Annnnnnd there’s only a few days left to get your submissions in for Scarecrow and Corvidae. Our deadline is Halloween, which is my 10 year anniversary so you can bet I won’t be sitting at my computer watching midnight come around so I can officially cut off submissions, BUT if your work isn’t in my inbox by the time I get up on Saturday I won’t be able to consider it.
Related to anthologies, at the World Weaver Press hosted #SFFLunch last week we announced the subject matter for my next WWP anthology:
Sirens
When submissions open (in 2015) I’ll be looking for siren stories to fill its pages 🙂
Lastly, I think. I will be attending World Fantasy Convention next month, as will several of the authors from Fae and A is for Apocalypse. I’ll post another reminder nearly the time, but just as a head’s up, C.S. MacCath will be having a reading where she’ll be reading from her A is for Apocalypse story, N is for… on Thursday afternoon (plus I’ll be reading part of it with her, so be sure to come by to watch me shake in my boots) AND Adria Laycraft will have a reading Saturday evening which will feature her story from Fae, Water Sense.
Whoot!
Unrelated to this post at all, but I have noticed that my website is running slowly these days. I’m in the process of moving domains over to a new host as they come up for renewal so please bear with me until that process is done at which time things should speed up significantly.
*Great plan except that the Smashwords quarter comes at the end of December LOL Oops. #brainfart
Look at this table of contents and you’ll get an idea of why that might be LoL:
“Myths and Delusions: An Introduction” by Mike Allen
“This Talk of Poems” by Amal El-Mohtar
“The Wives of Paris” by Marie Brennan
“Cuneiform Toast” by Sonya Taaffe
“Hexagon” by Alexandra Seidel
“Unmasking” by Sandi Leibowitz
“Ahalya: Deliverance” by Karthika Naïr
“Katabasis” by Liz Bourke
“The Art of Flying” by Georgina Bruce
“Dreams of Bone” by Christina Sng
“India Pale Angel” by Robert Davies
“a recipe” by Lynette MejÃa
“Anna They Have Killed” by Jennifer Crow
“The Two Annies of Windale Road” by Patty Templeton
“Zora Neale Hurston Meets Felicia Felix-Mentor on the Road” by J.C. Runolfson
“Princess: A Life” by Jane Yolen
“Present” by Nicole Kornher-Stace
“Old Bone” by Sandi Leibowitz
“Backbone of the Home” by Lisa M. Bradley
“Flap” by David Sklar
“Rhythm of Hoof and Cry” by S. Brackett Robertson
“The Silver Comb” by Mari Ness
“Milkweed” by Cedar Sanderson
“Never Told” by Jane Yolen
“Foxfeast” by Yoon Ha Lee
“Seeds” by Beth Cato
“Seedpaper” by Rhonda Parrish
“The Onion Prince” by David Sklar
“The Girl Who Learned to Live with Bees in Her Hair” by Brigitte N. McCray
“The Giant’s Tree” by Yukimi Ogawa
“Two Ways of Lifting” by Virginia M. Mohlere
“Levels of Observation” by Kenneth Schneyer
“Cat’s Canticle” by David Sklar
“Nisei” by Beth Cato
“Echoes in the Dark” by Ken Liu
“Voyage to a Distant Star” by C.S.E. Cooney
“WereMoonMother” by Brittany Warman
Holy crap, amirite?
I get a free copy of this book because I’m a contributor, but I’m totally considering buying several more just to give out at Christmas LoL If you, too, are considering picking up a copy it’s currently available at a lot of places:
…and if you’re coming to World Fantasy this year, bring it along. I think a lot of contributors (including the editors and myself) will be there and happy to sign it 🙂
Just in time for zOctober (because, ya know, I didn’t have enough apocalyptic awesomeness to celebrate with A is for Apocalypse and Waste Not) I’ve released my zombie poetry collection:
I’ve been meaning to put this collection together for honest-to-gawd years but things never seemed to work out, until now. That’s why, though I’d normally wait, set a launch date and try to build up some excitement and publicity before officially launching a title, I’m not doing that with this one. It’s ready to go, and so I’m going to set it loose upon the world before something else goes wrong to delay its release LOL
White Noise contains 20 of my zombie apocalypse poems, some of them are reprints (including the one which was included in Imaginarium: Best Canadian Speculative Writing [2012] and the one which was nominated for a Dwarf Star award) and some are being published for the very first time.
Excerpt:
Obscured
Ghosts of the city
peer out of the gloom
around him
As a child he’d loved it
when the ‘clouds fell down’
and cloaked his world
in mysteries
Now, though,
it was just one more thing
to hide the shamblers.
One more obstacle to
his survival.
One more enemy.
White Noise is $5.99 for physical copies and $0.99 for electronic ones.
Exceptions to this are if you buy a paperback copy (a great way to fill your cart when you need $5.99 more for free shipping, amirite?) you’ll get the Kindle version free and also, if you were subscribed to my newsletter yesterday you received an electronic copy for free.
“A collection of vivid scenes laid out in sharp and articulate verse, that when assembled, construct a grim narrative filled with tension, stark imagery, and unusual beauty. WHITE NOISE reaches in and evokes a visceral response— not always the one you’d expect.”
—Tim Deal, Shroud Quarterly
“In this collection of poems, Rhonda Parrish manages to capture all the emotions of life during an apocalypse: From fear and desperation to pain and sorrow. She even shows us love and hope. Some serious but most tinged with humor. This is a great collection of poems about the zombie apocalypse.”
—Carol Hightshoe – author of the Chaos Reigns Saga and Editor of Zombiefied I, II and III
“As soon as I read the first poem I was hooked! It was macabre but it wasn’t too far. Poetry puts our insides on our outsides and when it comes to zombies, well, that could get pretty gross in a hurry.
These poems were really good! They were passionate and made me think about zombies from new angles than I had thought about them in the past. There was a dash of the metaphysical put in and a lot of real living, non-zombie feelings as well. I’m going to go back for a second read, because they deserve it.”
Rebecca Roland is the author of the Shards of History series, The Necromancer’s Inheritance series, and The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Nature, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Stupefying Stories, Plasma Frequency, and Every Day Fiction, and she is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. You can find out more about her and her work at 
