Tag Archives: Suzanne van Rooyen

C is for Chimera, Interview

Chimeric Contributor: Suzanne van Rooyen

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It’s kind of become a tradition that I interview the contributors to my anthologies and share those interviews on my blog. It’s also kind of become a tradition that it takes me a very long time to get them all posted. I plan to continue the first tradition but I’m hoping to avoid the second. Just to be different.

Today’s interviewee is Suzanne van Rooyen. I met Suzanne through Niteblade and was exceptionally happy when she agreed to contribute to this series. Her C is for Chimera story was described by one reviewer as being “full of gorgeous sentences“, which I think is something that can actually be said for most of Suzanne’s work.

C is for Chimera-Interview

What letter were you assigned?

W

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

Not really. There are tons of great words that start with W – I actually had a harder time narrowing down what I wanted to use in the story rather than struggling to come up with ideas.

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

Gosh, so many. I had quite a few ‘war’ related ideas that I might still use sometime or try to incorporate into a novel perhaps.

What kind of chimera is your story about?

I’m not really sure I can talk about that without giving away spoiler, but suffice it to say my chimera is more man than beast 😉

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

My daily life in Stockholm and the gypsies who routinely busk on the commuter trains.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

Um – I have no idea. Maybe a goat considering I like to climb.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

Ooh, this is hard. Maybe a panther for the body and head, condor for the massive wings and let’s go with dragon for a lethal tail and talons.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

Adamantium, whatever Mystique is made of that allows her to shapeshift, and Tesseract energy.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

I really really want to do a roadtrip across the States in a VW Type II. But if that fails – which it probably will considering the reliability of VW Type IIs, then my next more realistic dream is to travel to the Galapagos islands.

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

Tucked safe in the corner at the back of the carriage, I count the seconds between stations.

At Slussen, the doors open and she wafts into the train, skirts rustling and long plaits swinging. She sees me and inclines her head, her smile shy but spilling into her fathomless eyes. Others shift uncomfortably in her presence, wary of the jangling coins in her paper cup. The train leaves the station and she starts to sing.

Her voice weaves a tapestry of color, sound eddies rippling in neon to splash against the windows. Her music spatters me with red and yellow, a hundred shades of blue I cannot name, dousing my clothes if only it could douse my skin and extinguish the searing presence of everything left unsaid. She paints her memories through melody, her hopes and dreams for those willing to see.

 

Suzanne is a tattooed storyteller from South Africa, and the author of the novels The Other Me, I Heart Robot, and Scardust. She currently lives in Sweden and is busy making friends with the ghosts of her Viking ancestors. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When she grows up, she wants to be an elf – until then, she spends her time (when not writing) wall climbing, buying far too many books, and entertaining her shiba inu, Lego.

Cover art and design by Jonathan C. Parrish

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2015 Giftmas Blog Tour, Guest Blogger

Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie

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All month long I’m going to be hosting the posts of other people as part of my 2015 Giftmas Blog Tour. All the guest bloggers are welcome to write about anything they’d like so long as their post touched on a December holiday in some way, no matter how tangentially. The blog tour extends beyond my blog as well, and I will do my best to link to each external post from the here and share them on social media using the hashtag #GiftmasTour.

But wait! There’s more!

We’re also giving away a whole whack of prizes (check out the list here) which you can enter to win using the Rafflecoper code below. Whatever December holiday you celebrate (or don’t) winning a stack of books will make it better!

Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie

by Suzanne van Rooyen

Want to know one of the most confusing things about my childhood? Christmas.

I grew up in South Africa which meant that December was one of the hottest months of the year. Despite this fact, all the Christmassy stuff in shops – which inevitably made its way into our home – involved snow and reindeer (I thought they were misshapen wildebeest for a long time) and a fat man trussed up in far too much clothing for the summer heat. We were bombarded with European imagery of Christmas to the point where I remember making snowflakes in school – you know, by cutting out shapes in folded paper – and not even really understanding what it was. In my child-mind, snow in the movies looked a lot like balls of polystyrene. I just didn’t get it. I also didn’t understand why my mom would struggle in the sweltering kitchen to deliver a roasted ham and turkey dinner no one wanted to eat because everyone wanted to be in the pool.

While my childhood Christmases did end up being variations on the traditional European theme, there was one exception when it came to dessert. We eschewed fruit cake – only my dad liked it, my siblings and I just ate the icing – and opted instead for my mom’s signature and singularly delicious lemon meringue pie. My mom still makes this for every family occasion and we all still fight over the last slice! I have very generously shared the recipe for this below as I remember it from making it with my mom.

For the crust

  • A packet of Tennis biscuits (no other biscuits will do)
  • A generous helping of butter

Crush the biscuits until you have crumbs, mix into melted butter, press into pie dish, then lick the remnants from bowl and spoon with relish.

For the filling

  • A tin of sweetened condensed milk
  • 2-3 egg yolks
  • lemon juice

Beat the ingredients together taste-testing regularly to make sure the mix is tart enough. It shouldn’t be too sweet, then lick the tin of condensed milk clean without cutting your tongue on the sharp edges. Pour this mix over the biscuit base.

For the meringue

  • 2-3 egg whites, room temperature
  • a lot of caster sugar
  • Slowly whisk the egg whites gradually adding the sugar until stiff peaks form. Lick remaining meringue from whisk before your sister does! Spread the meringue over the top of the pie and pattern as you wish giving the pie a few fluffy peaks.

Place pie in the oven at medium-high heat and watch impatiently for the meringue to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven, wait impatiently for it to cool a little before cutting it into slices. Serve with vanilla ice cream or just eat it as it is. This pie is delightful warm or cold, not that it ever lasts long enough to turn cold.

Now that I live in Sweden, Christmas makes a lot more sense what with the snow and cold and darkness and reindeer and all. While I have adapted to the new traditions of living here, one thing no holiday of mine will ever be complete without is my mom’s lemon meringue pie! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Author Bio:

SuzanneThe author of THE OTHER ME, I HEART ROBOT and the forthcoming SCARDUST, Suzanne is a tattooed storyteller from South Africa. She currently lives in Sweden and is busy making friends with the ghosts of her Viking ancestors. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When she grows up, she wants to be an elf – until then, she spends her time (when not writing) wall climbing, buying far too many books, and entertaining her shiba inu, Lego.

Author Links:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suzanne-van-Rooyen/304965232847874
Twitter – https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Writer
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/SuzanneAuthor/
Website – http://suzannevanrooyen.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5306442.Suzanne_van_Rooyen

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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday — Interview With Suzanne van Rooyen

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory HokeFor the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

For this, the second installment of Fractured Fridays I decided to go to the other end of the alphabet from where we started and interview an author from the other side of the planet as well. We began with C.S. MacCath who lives in Canada and had the letter C but now we’ll jump to Suzanne van Rooyen who lives in Sweden and had the letter U 🙂

Interview with Suzanne van Rooyen

What letter were you assigned? U

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

Satisfied she was alone, Victoria laid the leg beside the shrouded body on her exam table. Gently, she peeled away the sheet, revealing his exquisite face. She never got tired of looking at him. She brushed soft black hair from the android’s face before placing a tender kiss on each sleeping eyelid. His long lashes tickled her lips and turned the desire aching in her bones into a hungry, fanged creature chewing on her insides. The lashes swept indigo shadows beneath the eyes, shadows she trailed with an index finger to his full lips, rosebud pink, replete with delicate grooves carved into cupid bows.

He was almost done.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? Promises, hearts, rules… I could philosophical here but honestly, the thing I most recently regret breaking is my French press. It meant I couldn’t make myself coffee until it had been replaced. That was not a good one to start the morning!

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? Every time I broke the school rules in high school 😉 I felt like such a rebel for wearing a pentagram on a chain around my neck, which was strictly forbidden at my Catholic school. I also managed to get away with having pictures of Marilyn Manson plastered all over my books, and pictures of Brandon Lee as Eric Draven taped to the inside of my pencil case.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Um. I honestly have no idea. Maybe something fun like breaking into the climbing gym at midnight so we could have the place to ourselves for a few hours.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Holy Batman that’s a really personal question that’s making me examine my morality and integrity. While I definitely live by a moral code that I’d like to think makes me a fairly decent human being, I also understand that certain circumstances might require extreme actions that go against my personal ethos.

Never ever? Well…

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Sure. If one of my loved ones was in danger, I’d do whatever was necessary to protect them.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? As soon as I got U I started listing all the cool words I could think of and the word I eventually settled on was maybe number three on the list. I knew I wanted to write about androids so once I had my word, the ideas started flowing.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? My first word choice was ‘ubiquitous’ and I’m a little sad I couldn’t figure out a story to match.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? My renewed love affair with Gothic horror thanks to the TV show Penny Dreadful, and my constant fascination with androids.

SuzanneSuzanne is a tattooed storyteller from South Africa. She currently lives in Sweden and is busy making friends with the ghosts of her Viking ancestors. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When she grows up, she wants to be an elf – until then, she spends her time (when not writing) wall climbing, buying far too many books, and entertaining her shiba inu, Lego.

~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pintrest ~

B is for Broken is available now at:
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Kobo
Amazon
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And add it to your shelves at Goodreads

B is for Broken, Published

B is for Broken

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory Hoke

Broken people, broken promises, broken dreams and broken objects are just some of the ways these 26 fantastic stories interpret the theme of ‘Broken’. From science fiction to fantasy, horror to superheroes the stories within these pages cover a vast swath of the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Featuring original fiction by:

~ Brittany Warman ~ Milo James Fowler ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Sara Cleto ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Gary B. Phillips ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Simon Kewin ~ Beth Cato ~ Cory Cone ~ Cindy James ~ Alexis A. Hunter ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Steve Bornstein ~ BD Wilson ~ Michael Kellar ~ Damien Angelica Walters ~ Marge Simon ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Pete Aldin ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Lilah Wild ~ KV Taylor ~

Available now at:
Smashwords
Kobo
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

And add it to your shelves at Goodreads

After months of hard work I’m incredibly excited to announce that B is for Broken is live and available for purchase! This anthology is the second in the Alphabet Anthologies series and because the theme was broader than the first (A is for Apocalypse) the stories are even more diverse in regard to genre, style, voice and theme than before. We’ve got retold fairy tales, robots and spaceships, superheros, minotaurs, second world fantasy and so, so, SO much more. The story length ranges from flash fiction to an incredible fantasy novelette from C.S. MacCath (trust me, you don’t want to miss this one).

Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing contributor interviews, excerpts and even (once it’s complete) a ‘Broken Story‘ to try and tempt you into picking up a copy but if you enjoy speculative fiction I don’t think you can go wrong with this anthology. I’m biased but it really is packed full of awesome.

“This collection is a massive and magnificent assortment of truly enjoyable stories. There is simply no way to read this book  and not find a story you can connect with or love. This is the book to have in your travel bag. In it you are sure to find a tale to fit any mood. Each time you open it, a new adventure begins.”

— Anita Allen, Assistant Publisher/Editor, Mythic Delirium Books

Also? We’re holding a Facebook party to celebrate the release and you’re invited 🙂

C is for Chimera

C is for Chimera

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It is with an extreme amount of pride and pleasure that I’m announcing the theme and contributors to the third in the alphabet anthology series. I hope you’ll be as excited as I am about… dun dun DUN:

C is for Chimera

In case you’re thinking, “Uh, a whole anthology of lion/goat/serpent creatures?” that is not the only definition of the word 🙂 I’ve got my fingers crossed for at least one lion/goat/serpent creature in the anthology, but check out this definition and then tell me you can’t see the potential for a hugely diverse collection of stories:

Definition of CHIMERA (From Merriam-Webster)

1: a capitalized:  a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail
b:  an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts
2: an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially :  an unrealizable dream
3: an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution

Synonyms
fantasy, conceit, daydream, delusion, dream, fancy, figment, hallucination, illusion, nonentity, phantasm (also fantasm), pipe dream, unreality, vision

Near Antonyms
actuality, fact, reality

Other Genetics Terms
hermaphrodite, plasticity

Our contributing authors are also diverse and write in a wide variety of styles and genres within the broader categories of science fiction, fantasy and horror. You’ll notice some familiar names from the first two books in this series (A is for Apocalypse and B is for Broken) as well as a few new additions. Anthology contributors (in no particular order) are:

~ BD Wilson ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Pete Aldin ~ Beth Cato ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Marge Simon ~ Simon Kewin ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ KV Taylor ~ Sara Cleto ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Milo James Fowler ~ Gary B. Phillips ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Michael B. Tager ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Steve Bornstein ~ Lilah Wild ~ Amanda C. Davis ~ Megan Engelhardt ~ Michael Kellar ~ Brittany Warman ~

Guest Blogger, Personal

Christmas in South Africa

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This month on my blog I’m sharing holiday traditions, mine and other people’s as well. This is the second of those posts, you can find the first, entitled Giftmas Cards (and subsequent ones) by visiting the main page, here. Happy Ho Ho!

~*~

Christmas in South Africa

by Suzanne van Rooyen

Sitting in dark and snowy Helsinki about to move to equally dark though slightly less snowy Stockholm, it’s hard to believe that as a kid I spent my Christmases trying to avoid sunburn, playing garden cricket and swimming in the pool!

To be honest, as a kid, Christmas was a strange and somewhat disappointing time of the year. All the Christmas songs we sang at school were about reindeer and sleighs, chestnuts roasting on open fires, and this mysterious white stuff called snow. Despite asking Father Christmas (never Santa Claus) for snow several years in a row and waiting anxiously for it to arrive, it never did. It wasn’t until I was 18 and spent December in Switzerland that I experienced a white Christmas and saw proper snow for the first time. Now I’m not quite sick of snow at Christmas time, but the novelty has certainly started to wear off.

In South Africa, the Christmas season kicked off for my family on December 16th – a public holiday in South Africa and the day the Christmas tree goes up. We had a real tree once or twice, but they inevitably died in the sweltering December heat so we stuck with a plastic tree after that, replete with balls of cotton wool in imitation of the ever elusive snow. After a while even that seemed silly so my brother, father, and I built a tree out of wire and wrapped it in tinsel. This happened about ten years ago and that same tree is still in use today back in my parents’ home in South Africa. Despite now living in the land of pine trees, the wire Christmas tree tradition has persisted so that my husband and I have a touch of ‘Africa’ up here in the north with our wire and tinsel construction.

Some of my fondest childhood Christmas memories involve my large, extended family hanging out in the garden and playing Marco Polo in the pool while Christmas dinner cooked on the braai (the South African version of a grill or barbecue). The best gifts were pool noodles and inflatable lilos. Christmas for me was never a stuffed turkey and vegetable casserole, but rather boerewors and salad. My mom attempted a traditional Christmas roast a few times but eventually gave up when the mercury climbed into the thirties (that’s well into the eighties, Fahrenheit) and no one wanted to eat a hot meal anyway.

In South Africa, Christmas Eve usually involved a light supper and laying out the presents. For a while, I left milk and cookies for Father Christmas but that eventually became beer and biltong – that was a year or two before I realised my dad was the one sneaking into the lounge to leave the last of the gifts. Our family, like most in SA, opened presents on Christmas morning before the big day of family and feasting commenced, which actually didn’t stop until after December 26th. It has taken me a while to get used to the more typical Finnish tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve. Eating too much this time of year seems to be an international phenomenon though.

While I do sometimes miss the sun and warmth of a summery festive season, I’ve got to say that there is something extremely special about a snowy, cold, dark December. And at least all the Christmas songs now make sense!

 

SuzanneAbout the Author:

Suzanne is a tattooed story-teller and peanut-butter addict from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland and finds the cold, dark forests nothing if not inspiring. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When not writing you can find her teaching dance and music to middle-schoolers or playing in the snow with her shiba inu. She is rep’d by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.

 

Author Links: Website – http://suzannevanrooyen.com

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Writer

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suzanne-van-Rooyen/304965232847874

Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/SuzanneAuthor/

 

A is for Apocalypse, Niteblade, Recognition

This Year’s Pushcart Nominations

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2015CoverHomeEvery year I talk about how difficult it is to choose which works to nominate for the Pushcart Prize and that’s because each year it gets harder. This year I was saved from truly heartbreaking decisions by two things:

  1. Eileen Wiedbrauk is nominating from Fae which meant I only had to pick from within Niteblade & A is for Apocalypse
  2. Alexandra Seidel, the poetry editor at Niteblade helped me make the poetry-based decisions.

In the end I nominated three works from A is for Apocalypse and three works from Niteblade.

From Niteblade Magazine we nominated:

  • The Bitter Gourd’s Fate by Anne Carly Abad (June 2014)
  • Godfather by Megan Arkenberg (March 2014)
  • Bird Girl by Beth Cato (March 2014)

From A is for Apocalypse I nominated:

  • F is for Finale by Suzanne van Rooyen
  • N is for Nanomachine by C.S. MacCath
  • U is for Umbrella by Damien Angelica Walters

Congratulations, ladies. And good luck!

A is for Apocalypse

A is for Apocalypse One Question Interview #1

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A is for Apocalypse edited by Rhonda Parrish, cover design by Jonathan ParrishIt’s zombie month here on my blog (to celebrate the launch of Waste Not (And Other Funny Zombie Stories). One thing about zombies is that they are often paired with the apocalypse in fiction and movies and it just so happens I’ve edited a book full of apocalypses recently. You may have heard about it. It’s called A is for Apocalypse. There aren’t a whole lot of zombies in A is for Apocalypse, but there are some, so while this link is a bit tenuous, it is exist 🙂

During the process of our cover reveal for A is for Apocalypse some of the contributors participated in what I called “One question interviews”. We didn’t get a chance to share all of the answers to those interviews during the reveal, so instead today and Monday I’m going to share them here on my blog. Along with a short excerpt from the book.

The excerpts I’ve chosen are one from U is for… by Damien Angelica Walters and X is for by Jonathan Parrish. I picked those two in particular because they are nearly completely opposite one another when it comes to theme, voice and writing-style. I figured that was a good way to show the immense degree of diversity in the stories in this book. Unfortunately for the spirit of the month, neither of them have zombies. Sorry. >_<

Excerpt from U is for… by Damien Angelica Walters:

My father and I used to stargaze when I was only a few years older than Millie. He taught me the constellations, patiently pointing at each one until I could recognize the shapes without his help.

They were a link to something bigger, something more, but no longer. Now Orion’s Belt mocks me with its precision; Cassiopeia with her beauty, a beauty that will remain even when no one’s left to see.

Once a comfort, all of them, now my enemy.

One Question Interview #1:

In choosing a theme for this, the first of a series of anthologies, I considered and rejected a great many “A” words. Tell us about your favourite word that begins with the letter A.

Alexis A. Hunter– As an author — ‘acceptance’ has a beautiful ring to it. As a sci-fi writer — ‘apex’ is particularly engaging. In general — ‘angel’ is one of my favorite words, because they’re one of my favorite ‘creature types’ to play with in stories. Plus I have a thing for wings and feathers.

Michael Kellar – My “A” word would be arachnid. I’m a spider person. (You could consider this when you get to “S is for…”)

Damien Angelica Walters – My favourite word that begins with the letter A is anathema. It rolls off the tongue like a whisper, hiding its dark meaning in pretty syllables.

Marge Simon – Alliteration because it’s a beautiful word. Sorry if it doesn’t connote anything bad, like assassin. 😉

Simon Kewin – My favourite A word is (possibly) Archaeopteryx. I love the shape of the word. It’s exotic and fantastical and ungainly all at the same time – a little like the creature itself. It derives from the Greek archaeo (ancient) and pterux (wing). So, “Ancient Wing”. Archaeopteryx is a lovely illustration of the forces of evolution in progress; it’s a snapshot of a species in the process of changing from dinosaur ancestor to modern avian descendent. Here was a creature with a bony tail and teeth and feathers. And claws on its wings. I’d love to have seen one…

Sara Cleto – My favorite A word is amethyst, a purple-violet quartz often used in jewelry (particularly at Renaissance Faires!) As a little girl, I was obsessed with the color purple, and my mom’s amethyst jewelry was the subject of much fascination- I was sure the stones had some sort of magical property, and I seem to recall trying to do spells with them… And now, in my old age, I’m deeply amused by their purported ability to prevent excessive intoxication.

Beth Cato – Tricky question since my absolute favorite word begins with B. For A words, I have to say I like “anaphylactic.” It’s morbid, I know, since the meaning is a severe allergic reaction, but I like the word because it has a cool poetic rhythm.

Suzanne van Rooyen – This is really tough to answer! There are so many great words starting with A like analogy, allegory and awesome! But I think my favourite is actually a name. Atreyu. Atreyu – the character from The Never Ending Story – was my first major crush as a kid and that film was such a huge part of my childhood. If I ever have a son one day, his name is going to be Atreyu.

Brittany Warman – The first of my favorite words that begin with A that I thought of was “aurora” – not only is it frequently the name of the princess (or her daughter) from “Sleeping Beauty,” a favorite fairy tale of mine, but it was also my very first online screen name! I just love the concept and the way the word flows off the tongue too. It seems to convey mystery, beauty, and strength to me.

C.S. MacCath – My favourite ‘A’ word is ‘atonement’, because unlike ‘forgiveness’, it places the onus for righting a wrong where it belongs; upon the head of the person who committed it. If we were socialized to atone as much as we are already socialized to forgive, we might learn to be more careful with one another.

 

You can add A is for Apocalypse to your Goodreads shelves by clicking here or sign up below to get notified when it is available 🙂

 



 

B is for Broken

B is for Broken

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It is my pleasure to announce the next title in the series of anthologies which begins with A is for Apocalypse.

B is for Broken

Featuring original fiction by:

~ Beth Cato ~ Cory Cone ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ Marge Simon and Michael Fosburg ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Michael Kellar ~ Alexis A. Hunter ~ Sara Cleto ~ Pete Aldin ~ Milo James Fowler ~ Gary Phillips ~ Lilah Wild ~ Jonathan Parrish ~ BD Wilson ~ KV Taylor ~ Simon Kewin ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Steve Bornstein ~ Brittany Warman ~ Cindy James ~ Brenda Stokes Barron ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Damien Angelica Walters ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Megan Arkenberg ~

While I got to pick the theme I have no control over how the contributors handle it, so as you can imagine I’m as excited as you to see the results! Nothing is set in stone just yet, but I’m aiming for a Spring 2015 release 🙂

 

A is for Apocalypse

A is for Apocalypse

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What do you get when you take 26 amazing writers, assign them a letter of the alphabet and give them complete artistic freedom within a theme? In 2014 we’ll find out with the release of the first of a series of anthologies:

A is for Apocalypse

A is for Apocalypse is going to be filled with 26 apocalyptic stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) by incredibly talented writers whose diverse styles and preferred themes leave no doubt that this collection will have something for everyone. The writers who are contributing to this collection are:

~ Brenda Stokes Barron ~ Marge Simon / Michael Fosburg ~ Milo James Fowler ~ Beth Cato ~ Simon Kewin ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Sara Cleto ~ Kenneth Schneyer ~ KV Taylor ~ Gary B. Phillips ~ BD Wilson ~ Ennis Drake ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Michael Kellar ~ Cindy James ~ Brittany Warman ~ K.L. Young ~ Pete Aldin ~ Cory Cone ~ Damien Angelica Walters ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Lilah Wild ~ Jonathan Parrish ~ Alexis A. Hunter ~ Steve Bornstein ~

A to Z Challenge, Niteblade

W: Where Dreams are Grown

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Where Dreams are GrownThat dude there? That’s Old Man Somni. He’s the main character of Suzanne van Rooyen’s story, Where Dreams are Grown. It was my pleasure to publish Where Dreams are Grown in the September 2012 issue of Niteblade. I fell in love with this story on first read. The descriptions were beautiful, poetic and evocative, and the story moving. Suzanne’s imagination and skill with words are both very evident in this piece.

Suzanne is offering to critique a short story or first chapter as part of the Niteblade fundraiser. Because I’m pre-scheduling this post I don’t know if that perk is still available, but it might be, so if you’re looking for a talented writer to cast an eye on your work and offer feedback, you ought to check it out, but read her story first. Trust me on this 🙂

~*~

A2Z-2013-BADGE-001Small_zps669396f9This post has been written as a part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is ‘Niteblade‘, which is the magazine I publish. I chose this theme to help draw attention to the magazine during this, it’s 2nd annual fundraiser.

My first post in this series was about choosing stories and poems to nominate for awards and I’ve gone through a similar process in deciding what to write about for these posts. Not only did I have to choose stories and poems I loved, but they also had to fit with the A-Z theme. Tricky!