I am so very excited to share this news. I’ve been sitting on it for a while but now the contract for the first book is signed and so it’s safe for my superstitious self to shout the news from the rooftops… or, ya know, my blog.

I’m going to be working with Tyche Books to publish a brand new anthology series!

I got to work with Tyche when I had a story included in their Masked Mosaic anthology and ever since I’ve been looking for a chance to repeat the experience. You can imagine, then, how happy I was when they accepted my proposal to do an anthology series with an elemental theme.

I am super stoked–not least of all because the tentative titles and subtitles are full of alliteration (and I am a sucker for alliteration). These are all subject to change but tentatively speaking we are looking at:

Fire: Demons, Dragons and Djinns

Earth: Gargoyles, Grotesques and Golems

Water: Selkies, Sirens and Sea Monsters

Air: Sylphs, Spirits and Seraphim

After Tyche Books accepted the series there came the tricky issue of choosing which one of those anthologies to start it off with.

As awesome as Sirens is I thought it might be nice to take a break from air and water before diving (heh!) back into them so I narrowed the decision down to earth or fire. And then I got stuck, I was sincerely considering just flipping a coin, and that didn’t seem like the best way to choose which anthology to start with, so I let my newsletter subscribers decide for me.

We took a vote and the winner was:

Whoot whoot!

I plan to fill this anthology with every kind of fiery creature you can imagine–not just the ones listed in the subtitle. I definitely want at least one phoenix story, and an ifrit–a salamander would be awesome! Also, some sort of lava monster? Can we get a lava monster? That would be fantastic 😉

There will be an open call for submissions to fill this anthology, but not for a few months. We’re looking at a 2018 publication date, which means there isn’t a huge rush. I don’t know exactly what the timeline looks like just now (I need to sort out the details around the next Magical Menageries title before I can pin this one down) but I will announce it as soon as I know it. I just couldn’t sit on this news anymore and had to share it, even if some of the details are a bit hazy. On the plus side, that gives those of you who write lots of time to sharpen your pencils and brainstorm some ideas.

In the meantime, I’m just gonna leave you with this:

#FireAntho