Category Archives: Published

Books, Published, Writing

Mythic Delirium Anthology

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If you follow me on social media you have definitely seen me bragging about this LoL

This is the cover for the very first, Mythic Delirium print anthology:

Mythic_Delirium_paperback_cover-1024x760

How freaking gorgeous is that?

And did you look at the back cover? Halfway down the second column of names? THAT’S ME!

*squee*

I am freaking blown away that I’m sharing a table of contents with all those amazing people. Oh. My. Gawd.

Also? I’ll say a special oh my gawd just for Jane Yolen because, c’mon! It’s Jane-freaking-Yolen. Oh my gawd!

*deep breaths*

Okay… so… yes. My short story, Seedpaper, is included in this amazing anthology. And for the record? It’s not just me who thinks it’s amazing, this anthology received a starred review by Publishers Weekly.

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 Mejía
“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:

AMAZON: trade paperback €¢ Kindle
AMAZON UK: trade paperback €¢ Kindle
BARNES & NOBLE: trade paperback €¢ Nook
iTUNES: ebook
KOBO: ebook

…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 🙂

 

Books, NovPad, Published, White Noise

White Noise

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White Noise -- Art and cover design by Jonathan Parrish

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:

White Noise

Poems of the Zombie Apocalypse

Yay!

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.

Available At:

Amazon (paperback)
Amazon (kindle)
Smashwords

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.

White Noise on Goodreads

Praise for White Noise

“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.”

—Virginia Carraway Stark, Starklight Press

Published

Translated: Feeders

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Nova Fantasia

I woke up today to the wonderful news that my story, Feeders, has been reprinted at Nova Fantasia. Nova Fantasia publishes in Galician so I can’t actually read it, but that’s okay. Galician makes the third language my zombie stories have been published in (English being the first, and Estonian the second) and that makes me ridiculously happy. On the off-chance you can read Galician, you can check out my story here:

Feeders

On a fun related note, when I went to look at my story (even though I can’t read it), I saw this:

FunPic

When else is my picture going to be on the same page as Benedict Cumberbatch, Sam Raimi and Rose Leslie’s? LOL Like, never. So I screenshoted it 🙂

Editing, Niteblade, Published

Niteblade #29: Porcelain Doll

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Cover_Sept2014_noissnIssue #29 of Niteblade is out!

I can’t hardly believe it, to be honest. When I started Niteblade I don’t think I ever would have imagined how it has grown. I’m so incredibly proud of it, and what it’s become.

This issue is entitled Porcelain Doll and the artwork, as always, is by Marge Simon 🙂

Table of Contents:

St. Winifred Medical Center, Abandoned by Joshua Gage
Shelba’s Brood by M.E. Garber
The Gate of Horn by Megan Arkenberg
Dancing with the Departed by Anna Zumbro
Porcelain Doll by J.A. Grier
There She Stands by Nathaniel W. Phillips
Awakened by Sandi Leibowitz
Lena’s Confession by Kristi Brooks
Valediction for the Dungeon Master by Mark Jones
The Crew by Doug Blakeslee

Over on her blog, poetry editor Alexandra Seidel took a look at each poem individually, offering some insight, excerpts or just talking about what drew her to them. She compared it to guided reading, and I’m pretty sure she hit the nail on the head there.

You can preview all the stories and poems at our website — Niteblade #29: Porcelain Doll and if that intrigues you, pick up a downloadable copy at the Niteblade Store (which means we don’t have to pay anyone commissions) or, if you prefer, at the following third party websites:

Porcelain Doll at Smashwords
Porcelain Doll at Amazon
Porcelain Doll at Kobo

Protip — you can read the beginning of each piece on our website -and- if you go to the Smashwords site you can read the first 10% of the entire issue (the first poem and most of the first story) for free as well.

A is for Apocalypse, Published, Stream of Consciousness

Yellowstone Super Volcano

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A plume of ash rises from a volcano erupting under the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Hvolsvollur, Iceland, Wednesday, May 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)
(AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)

I don’t know how long I’ll have internet, or power, or…

Before things go dark, in case anyone out there is still reading the internet for more than information about the nearest shelter, I just wanted to say it’s been awesome.

And really, as Jo always said, go big or go home, right?

We’re “safe” in a shelter. Though I think safe is a relative term. When a super volcano starts erupting, from what I’ve read, you’re not really safe anywhere on the continent. Though Yellowstone park is a long way away they say the ash will reach us within the hour, and who knows what will happen then.

We should have known, really. I mean, when your roads start melting and ‘turning the asphalt to soup‘ that’s probably a pretty good hint that it’s a good time to get out of dodge, but we didn’t listen. Because of course we didn’t. We just closed those roads and figured we’d deal with repairing them once things cooled down a bit.

Heh. Cooled down. Do you see what I did there?

Oh yeah, this is what it’s come to. Me making stupid jokes while I huddle in a school gymnasium wondering how long we’ll have power, or food, or water, or order… or sunlight.

*sigh*

Blogging helps. Even though I know there isn’t really anyone out there reading this, it still helps. It helps me to pretend that things haven’t changed. That the world isn’t ending… or at least, that it’s not being buried in a cloud of volcanic ash.

It really drives me a bit bonkers that we knew. We knew that Yellowstone was a super volcano that was overdue for an eruption. We knew, and all we did was making movies about super eruptions and talk about how *if* it happened it would threaten the whole world. If. Powerful word that.

And now, here we are.

They’ve got these websites about what to do to give ourselves the best chance of surviving, but c’mon. Really, I think that’s just about prolonging the process, putting off the inevitable. I prefer to think I’m going out like the dinosaurs — an extinction level event.

Because c’mon. If you gotta go…

Ahh… the lights are starting to dim, and I don’t know how long the battery on my laptop is going to last, so I’m going to press the ‘Publish’ button, send this out into the ether and cuddle up with Jo and Dani in our little corner of the shelter. At least we have each other… and for as long as the light lasts, I have a really good book to read too:

A is for Apocalypse edited by Rhonda Parrish, cover design by Jonathan Parrish

A is for Apocalypse

Available now at:

Amazon (Kindle)
Amazon (Paperback)
Smashwords (Coupon PJ67Q will give you 10% off in August)
CreateSpace Paperback (Coupon TY6D2CWD will give you 10% off in August)
Goodreads

 

In case it’s not obvious, the volcano in Yellowstone isn’t actually erupting, I’m not actually in a shelter waiting for the world to end… but I do have a really good book to read in A is for Apocalypse — that part is true enough!

 

Q: How imminent is an eruption of the Yellowstone Volcano?

A: There is no evidence that a catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is imminent. Current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Though another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years.

The most likely activity would be lava flows such as those that occurred after the last major eruption. Such a lava flow would ooze slowly over months and years, allowing plenty of time for park managers to evaluate the situation and protect people. No scientific evidence indicates such a lava flow will occur soon.

-From Volcano Questions and Answers http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/volcanoqa.htm

 

Poetry, Published

Published: Beneath

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ds14I love this cover art! Even more, I love that it’s a publication I get to add to my Ego Shelf because it contains one of my poems 🙂

Beneath, originally published by Every Day Poets, is included in the 2014 Dwarf Stars anthology 🙂

My contributor copy was waiting for me when I arrived back home from When Words Collide and I absolutely can’t wait to sit down and devour it. I already snuck (sneaked?) a peek at the page my piece is on and saw Megan Arkenberg’s poem, This Bus Stop Was a Coral Reef, Once which I enjoyed so much I read it out loud to Jo (who also liked it).

Poetry, Published

Published: Vampiric Fluff

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These Vampires Don't SparkleMy poem, Vampiric Fluff, has been reprinted in this anthology edited by Carol Hightshoe, These Vampires Don’t Sparkle.

I’ve previously described the poem as my ‘flufftastic iambic tetrameter vampire poem’ and really, I think I picked that description because I love saying iambic tetrameter because it makes me sound all clever and pretentious. This poem? Pretty much the least pretentious poem evar. Possibly as indicated by the title 😉

appearances, Fae, Published

Published: Fae

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Fae Cover

“The Fae prove treacherous allies and noble foes in this wide-ranging anthology from Rhonda Parrish that stretches boundaries of folk tale and legend. These fairy stories are fully enmeshed in the struggles of today, with dangerous beings from under the hills taking stances against the exploitation of children and the oppression of women, yet offering bargains in exchange for their aid that those in desperate need had best think twice about accepting. There’s no Disney-esque flutter and glitter to be found here — but there are chills and thrills aplenty.”

-Mike Allen, author of Unseaming and editor of Clockwork Phoenix

It’s out! Fae is out in the world, and so far, the world seems to like it as much as I do.

I’d meant to make this blog post last week, but honestly I think all the blogging I did leading up to Fae’s release burned me out, and also I’m in this weird space where my husband and daughter are on summer vacation but I’m not. Which means I’m working, but only sorta. So… the blog post is a bit late, but it’s all good, dudes. The post is all good, and so far the reviews are too 🙂

I’m obsessively checking our reviews on Goodreads and also our rank on the Books about Faery Listopia list (#51 as of this posting LoL). I pop by our listing on Amazon at least once a day to see if there are any reviews up there yet… It’s probably not super healthy behavior, but it’s fun LOL

Our FAEcebook launch party was loads of fun. If you couldn’t make it but you’re curious to see what we chatted about you can always check out the posts, and jump in to tell us about your FAEvourite fairy creature, book suggestions, fairy music and so much more. Better late than never right? (Like this blog post LOL)

Also, a couple of the posts from our Facebook party were detailed and awesome enough that they became blog posts of their own on the World Weaver Press blog. Learn about The Fairy Queen and How Fairies Got Their Wings.

Speaking of fairies and wings, on Fae’s release day I wrote a blog over at WWP about pulling the wings off fairies.

Wow. That’s a lot of links, isn’t it? Uh… sorry about that. I usually try not to overload my posts with too many links, but this is what comes of posting a blog a week late >_< I was going to end this with a collection of links for you to pick up your copy of Fae if you haven’t already, but instead I’m just going to share this one:

Fae on World Weaver Press

Not only can you pick up a copy of the book directly from WWP via that link, but they also have links to all the other usual suspects in case you prefer to buy your books from them. Or, ask your local library to order it in. Whatever works for you. And however you manage to read it, I’d really love to hear what you think. Here, Goodreads, Amazon, Twitter… where ever 🙂

Poetry, Published, Sale

Published: Confessions

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Confessions

First of all, can I just say I love this cover? Because I love this cover! I suppose you might have guessed that by the fact I’m posting it here full-size, but dude! I think it’s brilliant 🙂

This is Confessions: A Nightmare in Five Acts. It’s one long poem that is made up of a series of connected cinquains written by twenty-two poets, including myself. Confessions is the brain child of Joshua Gage who had the idea to create a collaborative poem using cinquains, organised everyone and went through all the effort of finding us a publisher, but find us one he did.

Confessions features the work of: William C. Burns Jr., Gary Blankenship, Michael L. Evans, Joshua Gage, Toni J. Gardner, Sandra Kasturi, Deborah P. Kolodji, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra Lindow, Terra Martin, Robin Mayhall, Karen L. Newman, Rhonda Parrish, Pamela Pignataro, Terrie Leigh Relf, Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, Shanna, J. E. Stanley, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Gene van Troyer, Scott Virtes and Stephen M. Wilson. And best of all? It’s available now from Elektrik Milk Bath Press!

Confessions at Elektrik Milk Bath Press

 

(All proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the Science Fiction Poetry Association)

Poetry, Published

Published: The Grotesque

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Bete Noire #15My poem, The Grotesque, is in the most recent issue of Bete Noire. I freaking love this cover. I’ve been in a few issues of Bete Noire but this is my favourite cover of them all. It might be my favourite poem too, but that’s a close call. I’m proud of all the works of mine Bete Noire has seen fit to publish.

There’s another cool thing about this issue. I get to share a table of contents with a lot of talented folks, including Marge Simon. Marge and I work together regularly for Niteblade, but we don’t often get to share a table of contents, so that’s just a nice bonus 🙂