Guest Post: Last Cities of Earth

One last post for the Kickstarter Last Cities of Earth. I'll say, the images of these cities is worth picking up. I am loving these images! Hope you are enjoying them as well.

If you would like to pledge and join to get the anthology, head over to the Kickstarter now. There is only a few short days left.

LAST CITIES OF EARTH by Kevin J. Anderson

My friend Jeff Sturgeon is an amazing artist with an amazing imagination. I have watched him exhibit at science fiction conventions with his gorgeous and innovative paintings on burnished metal, but over the past several years Jeff has been possessed by a very energetic and demanding muse.

He’s developed a breathtaking science fiction concept, THE LAST CITIES OF EARTH, a future after the explosion of the great Yellowstone caldera makes the surface of the world uninhabitable, but with enough forewarning, the major cities have used new technology to levitate themselves above the clouds. Now, centuries have passed, and each city has developed its own culture, its own airships, and a new trading network is evolving. The ideas abound, and Jeff has created painting after painting of city after city.

New Las Vegas

With his new project, Jeff is opening it up to other authors, so that we each write a story based on a particular city. John Pitts, Jody Lynn Nye, Ian Douglas, Brenda Cooper, Mike Resnick, David Gerrold, and others. I am going to write about glitzy and seamy New Las Vegas and a group of genetically modified avian airship navigators. Each painting inspires a story, and all stories will be collected in an anthology.

But that only happens if the Kickstarter funds. One week remains, if you’d like to contribute. Help us meet our goal at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1899900962/jeff-sturgeons-last-cities-of-earth-the-illustrate?ref=nav_search

Author Bio:

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of more than 140 books, 56 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 23 million copies in print in 30 languages. He has won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Bram Stoker Award, Shamus Award, the SFX Reader’s Choice Award, and New York Times Notable Book. Kevin has written numerous Star Wars projects, three X-Files novels, and he also collaborated with Dean Koontz on the novel Frankenstein: Prodigal Son.

As the publishers of WordFire Press, Kevin and his wife Rebecca Moesta have released two hundred eBook and print titles from Frank Herbert, Allen Drury, Alan Dean Foster, Michael A. Stackpole, Brian Herbert, David Farland, Jody Lynn Nye, Mike Resnick, Todd McCaffrey, Christie Golden, as well as their own backlist.

Guest Post: On the Grey Side

We have a great post with Raven Oak sharing about her story that will appear in the anthology Last Cities of Earth with artwork from Jeff Sturgeon. After you read this, you may want to jump over to that Kickstarter and pledge to get your copy.

On the Grey Side by Raven Oak

Post-apocalyptic media has always held a certain draw for me, even when I was young. I suspect it ties into my anxiety, which often imagines the worst-case scenario and ponders the what-next, but some of my fascination stems from old books read during childhood such as Alas, Babylon and On the Beach. All of this led to a lifetime love of the genre, zombies, and plagues, but that’s another blog post.

When I first saw Jeff Sturgeon’s floating cities, particularly his vision of how San Francisco's would rise above the clouds to avoid the after effects of the Yellowstone eruption, my brain spun a million ideas about the how and the why of such a city and its people. I love how it hovers above the Golden Gate Bridge while down below, a mer-person watches a lone airship cross rather ominous looking clouds. There are so many different directions a writer could go with such art before us. But San Francisco wasn’t the only piece to draw me in. The more I saw of Jeff’s Last Cities of Earth art series, the more I was excited to be involved. This is a project unlike any other I’ve seen and worth backing.

In the Last Cities of Earth anthology, my story takes place in Mexico City—or it’s floating city equivalent. After YE (Yellowstone Eruption), Mexico City is a ‘retched hive of scum and villainy’…I mean, it’s a city controlled by drug cartels and gangs. Being a large trading port for pirates and those less scrupulous, I wanted to tell a story about an airship captain whose down on her luck—like most captains tend to be.

I’ve always been drawn to writing gray characters—characters who are scoundrels and anti-heroes. I love characters like Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly) and Han Solo (Star Wars) because they feel a bit closer to the everyday people who make up our world. Humans know it’s wrong to steal, but if they had no other choice, who wouldn’t take a piece of bread to feed a starving child? One of the best parts of being a science fiction author is that exploration of morality and technology, something covered in the expanded universe of this world. Cities rush to survive the coming disaster, whether it be by natural or unnatural means. This changes humanity and its cities in ways that will be explored in the anthology and art book.

My own experiences with Mexico also drew me to the city. Before moving to Seattle (and writing full-time), I was a public school teacher in Texas in inner-city schools. The majority of my students were Hispanic and as many of them were born in Mexico, I spent many years surrounded by the cultures and flavors of this country. On the flip-side of that, I found myself amidst the gang culture and drug-cartels that often impacted the lives of my students in unimaginable and heartbreaking ways. Many of my students had a love-hate relationship with the place of their ancestry. They were proud of it, yet the stain of drugs and crime overshadowed what could be.

My hope is that with my pirate character, I can show how good can come from dark places in dark times, a lesson many of us could use these days.

Author Bio:

Award-winning and bestselling speculative fiction author Raven Oak is best known for Amaskan’s Blood (2016 Ozma Fantasy Award Winner and Epic Awards Finalist), Class-M Exile, and the collection Joy to the Worlds: Mysterious Speculative Fiction for the Holidays (Foreword Reviews 2016 Book of the Year Finalist). She also has several published short stories in anthologies such as Untethered: A Magic iPhone Anthology and Magic Unveiled.

Guest Post: Convention-al Inspiration

Another amazing artwork and inspiration for this new anthology, Last Cities of Earth. The Kickstarter is coming into it's final days of pledging. I hope you like what you see and join the fun! Go ahead over to the Kickstarter and pledge now.

Convention-al Inspiration by Cat Rambo

Way back at a Worldcon in Denver one year, my husband discovered the silent auction and reveled perhaps a little overly freely in its joys. Among the pieces we came home with was a lovely piece painted on brushed metal: a lonely floating planet shard, hovering among stars, mounted in a black frame that gave the piece a dignity and sense that you were peering through time and space to a moment, glimpsed out the porthole of an intergalactic cruiser or in a sky lit by apocalyptic clouds. The artist was Jeff Sturgeon.

Seattle

Since that time, I’ve been happy to find Jeff’s work at many local conventions, particularly Norwescon and Orycon, and I’ve picked up more. They have a serenity and beauty that remind me of moments in space experienced in science fiction, particularly the fabulous space adventures of Andre Norton.

At conventions, I always hit the art shows. While I’m not fond of some of the more from-frou stuff, I often find pieces that spark wonder for me, that I end up bringing home because those landscapes, those images bring me joy, and remind me how wild speculative fiction can be.

And we love those landscapes, whether they’re the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Heinlein or C.L. Moore, or further out, starscapes, wild vistas that set fire to the imagination. Those vast scopes are part of why we love the genre, whether we encounter them in print or in visual form, or (best of all) a marriage of the two. Prose and paint can work together to create a world worth lingering in, a world in which we can lose ourselves in dreams.

When Jeff approached me about being part of the project, I was aboard in a heartbeat, particularly when I found out that my home turf, Seattle, was available for writing in. My story features the technodruids of Microsoft and a sentient cloud, and unlikely friendships in the shadow of the floating city. In it I’ve tried to capture the wild wonder of his landscape.

There’s a special feeling to being part of a collaborative project of this nature, which grows as more and more collaborators join and spin their stories, bouncing bits and angles off each other. I am breathless with anticipation to see the final result.

http://tiny.cc/LastCities

Author Bio:
Cat Rambo is primarily a writer of fantasy and science fiction. She is currently the President of SFWA (The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and has previously served as its Vice President. She has over 200 original fiction publications under her belt so far, with stories appearing in places such as Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and Tor.com, and another hundred or so reprints in a variety of languages. She has published three solo collections: Near + Far, Eyes Like Sky, and Coal and Moonlight, as well as a joint collection with Jeff VanderMeer: The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories. In 2016 her first novel, Beasts of Tabat was published by Wordfire and was shortlisted for the Compton Crook Award.

Cat Rambo
Writer. Editor. Teacher.
Website http://www.kittywumpus.net
Classes http://catrambo.teachable.com
Newsletter http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/newsletter/
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/catrambo

Guest Post: A Dream Built on Trust

Today I have a guest post from an author that will be part of a new anthology when it gets funded through Kickstarter.

The worlds you find in this anthology seem unique and individual. This is one author sharing about his inspiration for the story and image the authors are writing from.

If you are curious about more on this Kickstarter, please visit the page and join the many helping make this happen.

A Dream Built on Trust – by Peter J. Wacks

Creation can be painful. It is the greatest myth of modern creativity…. The idea that the creative has to sit on the mountaintop waiting for the muse to strike, to inspire. The truth is that the millions of people working in the creative industries and aspiring to work in them don't tuck away their name badge when they get home. They work nonstop, they think nonstop, they create nonstop.

The tortured creator is not tortured because they don't have ideas, they are tortured because generally they have too many.

So if there are too many ideas how do you choose the right one to work on?

I can't speak for everybody but I can tell you that the most inspired creators I've met are kept awake by their visions.

They are driven to create them because no matter what else they are doing — eating, sleeping, talking with other people — that creation is constantly in their brain evolving and growing.

Three years ago when Jeff Sturgeon sat down with me at a small convention in Washington called RadCon he started talking to me about the vision that was eating at him...

He had this beautiful, awe inspiring visual of cities floating in the sky, desperately trying to escape a toxic earth. Almost immediately my brain started putting together stories in this post-Yellowstone eruption future.

For me that is the mark of an incredible idea – it's a setting that I start seeing stories in.

Whether or not I'll ever be able to write in these settings myself all of my favorite creations are ones that reach me at the creator level. So when Jeff started talking and 120 seconds later my brain started putting together stories I was blown away. There was only one question.

"Why haven't you started painting these?" I asked.

Three years later we are now at the tail end of a kickstarter. It is been a difficult road with Jeff painting nonstop and dozens of other creators putting their time in to try to help build this joint world.

It didn't just stop at other painters. Writers, illustrators, editors, sculptures, even costume fabricators all started to have visions about this world of Jeff's.

Trying to organize that many creative talents into a single effort is like herding cats. Jeff put a lifetime of dreams into this world and each person wants to pull it in a slightly different direction. That is part of why I say creation is pain.

Each of the 60 of us that attached ourselves to this project has a vision, has a hope, has a story….

Yet for Jeff it is even harder because he has a lifetime dream is that this project is built on the back of.

I have been asked many times what inspired me about Jeff's world. I would like to say that the stunning visuals in his paintings or the raw power of the idea of Yellowstone erupting is what inspired me, but it wouldn't be the truth.

The truth is that Jeff risked his dream to share it with other people, to allow other creators a part in his vision.

To me there is nothing so inspiring as that trust and openness. And while there is still a long way to go to fund this kickstarter I cannot help but be thankful that Jeff included me.

So to everyone out there reading… Please take a moment and swing by the kickstarter page. You will be amazed by what you see there. And remember that for me and the other creators involved this is a kickstarter of passion and creativity, but for one person it is the kickstarter of a lifetime.


About the Author:
Peter J Wacks was purportedly born in California sometime during 1976. He has always been amazed and fascinated by both writing and the absurdity of the world in general. Throughout the course of his life, he has hitchhiked across the States and backpacked across Europe on the Eurail. Peter writes a lot, and will continue to do so till the day he dies. Possibly beyond.

He is a bestselling cross-genre writer who has worked in various capacities across the creative fields in gaming, television, film, comics, and most recently, when not busy editing, he spends his time writing novels. He began in the creative fields as a child actor & model, Most notable as an extra on ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ and ‘Thunder Alley.’ At age 6 he began writing short stories, and was first published in high school (1992), a time in which he was also a top ten honorable mention for the NCTE award (1993).

In gaming he was the lead designer and storyline writer of Cyberpunk CCG, a consultant for Allegiance, and both a writer and editor for multiple books in the Interface Zero line. After the Cyberpunk CCG project he spent a month in L.A. as a consultant for the T.V. show Alias, helping the studio determine the viability of converting the show into a CCG. In the mid 2000’s he decided to focus on his original passion, writing stories, once more. His first novel, ‘Second Paradigm’, was published in 2008.

Peter’s first comic, ‘Behind These Eyes’, garnered a finalist spot for the Bram Stoker in 2012. Currently, he has published 5 novels, 4 novellas, and appeared in 16 anthologies.

Author Guest Post: Say Hello to my Little (Human) Friend

Today we have Ed Greenwood sharing about his story that will appear in The Awakened anthology that is funded through Kickstarter. If you are liking what you are reading here, go get in on the extras in the Kickstarter!

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE (HUMAN) FRIEND

by Ed Greenwood

There’s something intriguing about animal companions. We look at pet cats and dogs and swear they can read our minds or understand every word when we’re talking to someone else and they’re eavesdropping. And they can do things we can’t do: fly, or hear or smell keenly, or creep about unobserved due to their stealth or size or just being dismissed by other humans as “a dumb animal.” What if we could harness that? Work as a team?

What would it be like, soaring like an eagle? Or seeing through the eyes of one? Or telepathically talking to one?

What if a “beast” was your trusted conspirator in crime? Fellow secret agent? Sword-brother-er, sister, er . . . wing-bushytail? Wise-cracking, perhaps gruff and snarly—and forever different, non-human, with world-views and parts of their brain and depths of senses and instincts you can never see and never share.

Do they trust you? Can they trust you?

Dare you trust them?

And what about love? As in, are they capable of it? Or gratitude? If something goes wrong, will they have your back? Or will their animal natures cause them to do something unhelpful, from scampering away in blind fear to skunks spraying to chewing off their own limbs to going berserk? (My mind leaps to a possible AWAKENED human-lemming partnership, and a story called “Always Leaping Off The Nearest Cliff.” A very short story.)

Boy, I’ve been asking a lot of questions. Fitting; this human-beast-mind-linkage thing provokes a lot of questions.

Yes, if AWAKENED tales are new to you, I did mention a mind-link. When the wolf pounces and bites down to kill, you’re along for the ride . . .

Or to put it a tad more formally, AWAKENED stories explore what it feels like to be in a bond, a mental partnership, a linkage of human and “creature.” Beings who may be smarter than humans. And who, when caught up in events humans might deem “adventures” or even “deadly peril,” may have an endless capacity to surprise other humans.

That’s why AWAKENED tales are such fun for me to pen. Hal Greenberg is a genius to have come up with this ongoing series, and plugged away at keeping various creative folks at work on new human-beast stories. The idea isn’t new, but putting together anthologies of very different takes on this theme between one set of covers for a reader to readily enjoy is . . . filling a gap in entertaining literature that’s obvious the moment you open an AWAKENED book.

This is a fascinating sub-genre, and you have been missing it. The question is (cue not-comfortably-distant-enough wolf howl) will the critters go on missing you?

AWAKENED stories thrive in the fantastical world Hal first envisaged them taking place in, and this book proves they thrive in our modern times. Where and when next? Fantastical creatures? Oh, but I mustn’t start with the questions again, because the stories in AWAKENED: MODERN raise a bunch of their own. And, delightfully, answer quite a few, too!

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of running with the beasts. Grab this book, immerse yourself in its tales, and see if you feel the same way!

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Ed Greenwood is a New York Times-bestselling Canadian writer, game designer, and librarian best known for creating The Forgotten Realms® fantasy world fifty years ago. His 350-plus books have sold millions of copies worldwide in more than three dozen languages. Ed was elected to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Art & Design Hall of Fame in 2003, and has won multiple ENNIE and Origins and other awards. Through The Ed Greenwood Group, he now helms many shared storytelling worlds he’s created; they can be found at OnderLibrum.com

Awakened Modern is currently funding on Kickstarter, http://tiny.cc/AwakenedModern.

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Author Guest Post: At the Intersection of Fantasy and Reality

Our first author sharing about their story in The Awakened anthology based on magnificent images is Torah Cottrill. There is still time left to get this anthology and many great extras!

At the Intersection of Fantasy and Reality

Torah Cottrill

When Hal Greenberg asked us to bring The Awakened phenomenon into the 21st century, I imagined the possibilities of using the sudden appearance of Awakened individuals throughout the world to explore how the powerless might use unexpected gifts. In The Awakened universe, a second moon awakens latent abilities (the ability to communicate with an animal companion, or one specific ability such as the ability to heal or to control an element) in a very small fraction of people on their 19 birthdays. In the fantasy world of Grimaton, people are aware of the possibility that they may be Awakened, and different societies have different ways of incorporating Awakened individuals. But what would happen to people in our world who discover powers that seem to be magical or supernatural? What will they do with those powers, and how will they be treated?

I had seen a documentary about sex workers in India, many of whom had been sold into the red-light districts and were kept as literal captives, and I wondered how these women, powerless and voiceless in the modern world, would react to becoming Awakened. Would they use their abilities to free others or to enact revenge? How would the world around them react to the most marginalized becoming powerful?

Genre fiction—fantasy, science fiction, horror, urban fantasy, and other blends of the fantastic and the mundane—is a perfect vehicle for exploring the ripples that promulgate from a shift in reality. You can change one thing, and see where the consequences lead. Many of the most engaging works of genre fiction explore the impact of a single decision or event on the larger world, like Simak’s City, Hopkinsons’s Brown Girl in the Ring, Gaiman’s American Gods, the Strugatskys’ Roadside Picnic, or Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog. In my own far more modest story “Return of the Devis,” I wanted to explore the places at which physical power intersected social powerlessness, to see where having an Awakened power made a difference to a character’s life and the world around her, and the places where it couldn’t.

One of the joys of writing in a shared universe is being part of the creation of a far larger work. Writing for the Awakened series has given me a chance to see the many different ways genre fiction can explore new ideas. One set of circumstances—the process of becoming Awakened—leads to stories as different as the authors. We can use comedy, swashbuckling, problem-solving, crime-fighting, and psychological drama, among many other tools of the genre writer, to explore the ways a fictional universe can reflect the essentials of human existence.

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Torah Cottrill is a professional editor and amateur video gamer whose short stories have appeared in Stupefying Stories, Luna Station Quarterly, Ares Magazine, and Tokyo Yazuka, among other publications. She wastes her free time researching hand-to-hand combat techniques for her novel and failing to complete the seasonal set dungeons in Diablo III.

The Awakened Modern is currently funding on Kickstarter http://tiny.cc/AwakenedModern

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Author Guest Post: The Awakened: An Origin Story

How did The Awakened come to be? We have Hall Greenberg, the creator, here today sharing his development of the world.

The Awakened: An Origin Story

Hal Greenberg

For years, I had this idea of a young man who was bonded to a lion and his friend who had control over plants, and I would think of scenarios for them, and the world slowly built around these two characters. From that point the world just expanded and when I realized I had something I started building a land, I first hired a cartographer to draw the map of Grimaton. I decided that there was no equator it went from south is cold to north is hot to cover all types of environments. Then I broke the land up and made different sovereigns, that was when I added other authors to start to fill up this world with stories of who was Awakened and those around them, I determined that you could have a bond with one creature not of your choosing but that creature became sentient and another character in the story and could mindspeak with you (stole that from The Horseclan series). If you were Awakened and not bonded with an animal you would have control over one specific sphere of magic, it could be elemental or psionic, it did not matter if it was a specific type of magic and if you used it too much you would have drained your mental constitution and may need to rest or may even go into a coma.

The world was created, the rules were set and as the world grew from the two anthologies I was struck early on, what if this event happened on earth, right now, how would the people, the government and those who were Awakened act? Heroes, villains, selfish, charitable what would happen? How would you react if your friend became Awakened but you did not? These thoughts passed through my mind and Awakened: Modern was born.

eSpec Books liked the idea and we worked on the project together and it is currently on Kickstarter, great stories by gifted authors will let you see what happens when a second moon suddenly stops near Earth and certain people become Awakened.

http://tiny.cc/AwakenedModern

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Hal Greenberg is an ENNIE winning art director, author, game designer, lead on anthologies, and world builder. Some of his works include the world of The Awakened®, Sisterhood of the Blade®, Bluffside: City on the Edge, Approaching Dawn: Witching Hour. Hal has worked with such industry veterans as Monte Cook, Todd Lockwood, Jeff Easley, Jim Butler and many more. He has been a guest at GenCon, Necronomicon, and Salty Bay Con.

Hal is a divorced father of two, with one dog, who resides in Florida. His hobbies include collecting: books, games, movie and TV props, art (sci-fi/fantasy and animation), watches, knives, and swords. He has also recently taken up the art of Bonsai with his daughter. Hal enjoys playing RPG's (online and in person), board and card games, and binge watching Netflix® in his spare time. You can find him on Facebook at realhalgreenberg.

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Guest Post: The First Rule in Speculative Fiction is to Speculate

Today we have a guest that will share about a new Kickstarter campaign that sounds very interesting. Through the week I'll share posts from authors who will be writing in the anthology as well. It's funded and will happen, but you can still get included in the extras!

The First Rule in Speculative Fiction is to Speculate

By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

As a publisher I am often faced with hard choices. It isn’t enough for an idea to be cool. It needs weight behind it. Authors that increase visibility, an idea our audience is clamoring for, participants willing to promote. But more than that, it needs legs beyond the draw brought by the participants in the project.

Why? Because there isn’t much money in publishing. Or at least not for most of us. The return on sales is quite small once you’ve taken out discounts, production costs, and royalties to the authors. We don’t publish books to get rich, we do it because we love the written word and the wonderful things authors do with them.

This means we have to carefully consider if we can sell a book before we contract it. Because of this I have had to turn down quite a few proposals for one reason or another. Several of those proposals were by Hal Greenberg, author, game designer, and creator of The Awakened universe. I respect Hal. He’s a great idea man, but it wasn’t until his third proposal that I felt he had a project that was right for eSpec Books. This doesn’t mean his other ideas weren’t good…just that they weren’t a good fit.

The project I took a chance on is The Awakened Modern, a modern-day, urban fantasy collection that draws on the precepts of Hal’s second-world fantasy universe. In The Awakened the stories all take place on the planet Grimaton, which has two moons. The influence of the second moon potentially triggers latent abilities in the people of this world when they turn nineteen. The ability might be a special power, or it might be a bond with an animal.

In Awakened Modern, Grimaton’s second moon breaks away from its orbit and ends up circling planet Earth. Now humanity has to deal with sudden, completely unexpected powers. The only difference is, the changes take place in people of all ages…at least at first, with the new introduction of the second moon.

Hal has brought together an amazing group of authors to populate this new and changing world, Ed Greenwood, James Chambers, Torah Cottrill, Ty Johnston, Drew Bittner, Erik Scott de Bie, Ken Shannon, Walt Ciechanowski, Jennifer Brozek, and…if we hit the right stretch goals, Richard Lee Byers, James M. Ward, and Darren W. Pearce. They are all playing in the same sandbox, bringing their unique perspectives, but with a unity that makes the background universe a character in itself, consistent and aware from story to story.

Am I taking a gamble? A bit, but Hal has already proven The Awakened franchise has feet, and the concept is quite cool, so I speculate, but speculate wisely.

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Award-winning author and editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing www.especbooks.com).
industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books (

Her published works include six novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, and Transcendence, the non-fiction writers’ guide, The Literary Handyman, and is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Dragon’s Lure, and In an Iron Cage. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections.

She is a member of Broad Universe, a writer’s organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady, at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.

Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail) and Twitter (DMcPhail, BadAssFaeries, eSpecBooks, and TheHornieLady).

To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com, www.especbooks.com or www.badassfaeries.com.

The Awakened Modern is currently funding on Kickstarter http://tiny.cc/AwakenedModern

The Ghost Rebellion is coming!

Many of you know I'm a huge fan of steampunk and Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine. I've enjoyed their four books in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series along with so many podcasted stories in their playground by other authors.

If you've read and enjoyed this series as well, I have news for you!

Tee and Pip have created a kickstarter for The Ghost Rebellion, the 5th book in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series. The kickstarter is still in the process, but at this point it WILL go through. The book is FULLY! funded.

Go ahead and jump over to back the kickstarter too.



What is new being worked toward in the kickstarter is funding for book 6, Operation: Endgame! We are ever soooo close to having this added to our list of books to purchase. Book 6 will be coming, but we could have it added to this list to purchase if the goal is hit now. Then after that is funded and if people keep backing the project to the next level, we could get the scandalous and sexy novella, Countless Hues of Crimson, mentioned in Dawn's Early Light.

So I'm rambling. I know. But I'm so excited to see this kickstarter in full funding and going for beyond the gold. :) (Countless Hues of Crimson would be so cool to see! lol)

If you'd like to back the project, please head over and pick your level.

In Their Own Worlds

In Their Own Worlds is a project that is in the process of coming to life and something I find fascinating by an artist I enjoy browsing her pictures and reading her writing. I'm excited to share with you what the talented J.R. Blackwell has in the works.

J.R. Blackwell has a vision that is stunning. She wants to photograph authors in their book worlds. Yep. So cool, right!

In Their Own Worlds is currently running as a kickstarter. You can get in on the project and get prints of the photographs for yourself. The more people that join, the more authors that will be photographed.

So who all are going to be on the list? Well there are many amazing talented bards that will be photographed in their written worlds as the donations rise.

Please welcome J.R. Blackwell as she describes the project and lists the authors that have agreed to join as the funding rises:

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Magnificent, strange and terrifying worlds are created in an authors mind. Photographer J.R. Blackwell plans to build those worlds for her project, In Their Own Worlds. She will transport authors to their own storyworlds using professional costumes, makeup and magical settings in the real world. When complete, this project will produce a series of portraits of authors as the characters they might be if they lived in their own fictional worlds. The whole enterprise will culminate in a gallery show celebration of fiction and photography.

The Kickstarter to fund that project has already raised thousands of dollars with over a hundred supporters. Backers will receive rewards such as behind the scenes blog-posts, prints, tickets to the gallery show, and the opportunity to model in one of the In Their Own Worlds photoshoots.

Jared Axelrod, Chuck Wendig, PJ Schyder, Mur Lafferty, Ellen Kushner, Nika Harper, Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine are all signed on to be a part of the project. If you've ever wanted to see what the world inside a book looks like, check out In Their Own Worlds.

In Their Own Worlds: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/458185346/in-their-own-worlds
J.R. Blackwell: www.jrblackwell.com

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This is one example of In Their Own Worlds. I love this image of Jared Axelrod with Comrade Cockroach

Are you curious of J.R. Blackwell's work? You can check out a gallery for In Their Own Worlds or you can browse her photographs on her site (click the drop box for Project Galleries to get options of different items).

Then, go ahead over and fund In Their Own Worlds before the time range runs out.

YOU can help make book 3 possible!

Yep. You get to help make book 3, The Nothing, by Kerry Schafer possible.

Lets start at the beginning...

Kerry started a trilogy The books of the Between. The first book, Between, was released January 2013. The second book, Wakeworld, was released January 2014. Kerry describes them as a blend between Urban and High Fantasy. (sounds like winners to me!)

Between
Description:
"Vivian Maylor can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because she just broke up with her boyfriend and moved to a new town, or it could be the stress of her new job at the hospital. But perhaps it’s because her dreams have started to bleed through into her waking hours.

All of her life Vivian has rejected her mother’s insane ramblings about Dreamworlds for concrete science and fact, until an emergency room patient ranting about dragons spontaneously combusts before her eyes—forcing Viv to consider the idea that her visions of mythical beasts might be real.

And when a chance encounter leads her to a man she knows only from her dreams, Vivian finds herself falling into a world that seems strange and familiar all at once—a world where the line between dream and reality is hard to determine, and hard to control…"

Wakeworld
Description:
Vivian Maylor is trying to hold it together. But her attempts to build a life with the man she loves seem doomed by the dragon inside her yearning to break free. Vivian is a dreamshifter, the last line of defense between reality and the dreamworld, and the only one of her kind.

Weston Jennings also believes he is the only one of his kind. He fears his powers as a dreamshifter, and resists learning to control them. After suffering a tragic loss, Weston heads deep into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to embrace a safe life of solitude. But when a terrible mistake leads to an innocent’™s death, his guilt drives him to his former home, where he encounters what he never thought he would find: another shifter.

Now Vivian and Weston must work together to defeat a new threat to the dreamworld.




I know there are tons of people out there that enjoyed these books. But, unfortunately, it wasn't tons enough. The publisher has decided to not continue with the series. Now those people are waiting for book three and the conclusion to the trilogy. AND those of us who have the first two books to read on our shelves NEED to know there is a book three we can conclude with.

This is where you can help.

Kerry has a kickstarter going on right now to sponsor the book, and receive a copy at if you please, and get that book out in the world.

Briefly about the third book, The Nothing:
Dream worlds are dying and taking dreamers with them. Vivian hates sorcery, but her only hope of saving both worlds and dreamers lies with the Sorcieri. She will have to risk everything she has ever loved to claim her own neglected power and stop Aidan, the evil Dragon Queen, from her plan of total annihilation.


Are you up to helping? You can head over to Kerry's Kickstarter and find the level of Pledge that you feel comfortable with.

Thank you!



NOTE:
If you are curious and want to learn more about the books...
Kerry shared about her dragons here:  Let there be Dragons
Kerry shared about her Bigfoot here:  Beware the Bigfoot

And you can visit Kerry's site with all her information and about her books:  http://www.kerryschafer.com/

Update on Billibub Baddings and Free eBook!

Tee Morris has updated the Kickstarter for Billibub Baddings.

For a limited time Tee has offered the first Billibub Baddings book, The Case of the Singing Sword, for FREE from Smashwords.

There is a code available on the Kickstarter site, right here.

Go get it. Try the book. And come back to sponsor the third book! I do hope you enjoy it.

REMEMBER!! You only have 6 days from March 9th.

Please, Billi is a great detective dwarf in the 1920's and YOU can help him get more cases to solve.

Billibub Baddings...

...a 1920's Fantasy. Yes. That's right. And this is something different. Something entertaining. Something you can read.

I will admit. I'm a Tee Morris fan. And Tee is the author of this entertaining dwarf in 1920's. So I want to share this with you, who could be a Tee Morris fan as well.

I read and enjoyed the first story introducing Billibub Baddings, The Case of the Singing Sword:

I enjoyed this book as it was a new blend for me. Our setting here is the late 1920's in Chicago during the mobster era of the big names; Al "Scarface" Capone and George "Bugs" Moran. With a mystery detective take on the story. But the best part was the blend of the fantasy world Billibub comes from. Not only does Tee create a great feel for the late 1920's with the accents and particular words popular then, but he creates a whole fantasy realm through Billibub's metaphors and similes to his home world from his memories.

Currently, for only a few more days, you can pick up the wondrous books of Billibub in eformat for 99c.




Also, I want to share with you that there could be more Billi in the future. With YOUR help.

Tee Morris currently has a Kickstarter going for creating the next Billibub Baddings book, The Curse of Dillinger's Diamond. There is only 9 days (at this moment) left to pledge for this book.

You could pledge a small amount or large. $5 for a digital copy of The Curse of Dillinger's Diamond (That's the usual cost of ebooks when released)  $10 and get digital copies of all three books! 

You can help give Billi another case to solve. Thank you.

Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Hop, Winner!

Thank you all for hoping through and learning more about the Ministry Kickstarter.

If you haven't sponsored the kickstarter yet, you still can.  Time is narrowing in on the end of days.  We have 16 left as of May 30th.  There are many options you can select to sponsor and many valuable prizes for each step you choose.

This Kickstarter is for TWO items, An Anthology read or/and a Role-playing game.
  -- Only want the Anthology?  You can do that!  $5.00 backer will get you the eformat
  -- Only want the Ministry Initiative Role-playing game?  You can do that too!  $10.00 backer will get you PDF format
  -- Want BOTH! Anthology AND Role-playing game?  Yep, $15.00 backer is for you! (I did this one)
  -- Want more works?  All sorts of stories and prizes are added with each increased step of backing.

Do you want it now?  Okay, easy to do.  Kickstarter uses Amazon's paying system when ONLY WHEN the kickstarter is done and reached their goal.  If they don't reach the goal by the end, no money will be taken from your account.


Okay, to Kickstarter you can go... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1034531507/the-ministry-initiative-steampunk-role-playing-and


Okay, now that I feel better with explaining it a bit, I can get to the winner!

The winner of one Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences book...

Becky Tetrault

Congrats, and I do hope you turn your airship to visit again!



**Becky has been emailed and has 72 hours from May 30, 2013 from 10:00am EST to respond before another winner will be picked.

The Ministry Kickstarter Blog Hop...and Giveaway!

I've joined the Ministry Initiative Kickstarter Blog Hop.  If you've been around for a while you know how much I love Philippa Ballantine's and Tee Morris's works.   And the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is no different.  I love the creation of the agents.  The diverse differences yet the way they compliment each other so beautifully.  And of course the steampunk action world they work in.

This hop is to share with you a few things coming out way in this world Tee and Pip have created.

First...
   The Ministry Initiative Role-playing game!  Yes!  You can be an agent for the Ministry as well.

Second...
   The Ministry Protocal Anthology, featuring lots of great steampunk authors.

Learn more:

Galileo Games and Imagine That! Studios have teamed up to bring you an ambitious steampunk project! The Ministry Initiative is a two-part creative endeavor that will not only premiere new fiction from the steampunk world of the Ministry but also present a brand new role playing game from the makers of Bulldogs! and the ENnie Award winning game Shelter in Place. Thrill to the tales in Ministry Protocol anthology, or join in as an Agent in The Ministry Initiative RPG.
Find out more about this endeavor and support the Kickstarter here: http://bit.ly/ministry-initiative

To celebrate all this amazing news and introduce those who haven't visited this world yet I'm going to offer a giveaway.

This will run: May 22nd - midnight EST of 29th.

I want to share the world of The Ministry and Eliza and Wellington with you.  There are two books out and one coming.  I want to open this giveaway to any and all.

If you've NOT started the series, I'll order you a copy of Phoenix Rising.

You've read Phoenix Rising?  Okay, I'll order you The Janus Affair.

You've got The Janus Affair (well read it mate!), okay, I'll preorder you a copy of Dawns Early Light.

(These books will be paperback or ebook)

If Amazon or Book Depository delivers to you, you can enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Please take the time to stop by all the sites on the list that are participating.

Walk the Fire Kickstarter

There is a new Kickstarter that has caught my eye.  It's featuring authors I've come to enjoy over the last year or so.  I asked John Mierau on twitter some questions about it and I'm thrilled to share a bit with you about the first anthology and the new one he is Kickstarting right now.

The new Kickstarter is for WALK THE FIRE.

"A shared world SF anthology series where other cities, planets, galaxies are only steps away...for those who dare Walk The Fire."

The Anthology will feature stories by:
   two-time Campbell nominee Mur Lafferty
   Hugo nominee Paul Levinson
   Philippa Ballantine  (Learn more of Pip in this interview of 10 Q's by John Mierau)
   Harry Connolly (Learn more about Harry Connolly in this interview on 10 Q's by John Mierau)
   JRD Skinner
   Steve Umstead
   Matt Iden
   WJ Davies
   and more!
   The introduction will be by Scott Sigler, art by Scott Pond, and original song and music by songwriter John Anealio.


I'm a huge fan of Philippa Ballantine.  I've also read an short read from Mur Lafferty in another anthology, and enjoyed it.  Mur is on my list to get more works by.



Want to try a snippet first?  John has made that possible!  Here are tweets from John with links to download the two stories:

Download 2 FREE WALK THE FIRE stories (open ePub): traffic.libsyn.com/johnmierau/Wal…. If you dig it help Kickstart more! kickstarter.com/projects/13258…
— John Mierau (@johnmierau) April 24, 2013

Download 2 FREE WALK THE FIRE stories (for kindle): traffic.libsyn.com/johnmierau/Wal…. If you dig it help Kickstart more! kickstarter.com/projects/13258…
— John Mierau (@johnmierau) April 24, 2013

I asked John Mierau some questions on Twitter of the new Kickstarter book and the first WALK THE FIRE anthology.  Here is how the tweets went. (I think I copied the tweets. Might have missed one, but you get the idea from these here.)

1. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   . @johnmierau This Walk the Fire is the 2nd edition? Is the first in print or is it the podcast on your site?

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   John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

   Why thanks for asking @MelLHay! The first WALK THE FIRE exists in ebook (2 stories free now) & free audio podcast at http://servingworlds.com .

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      John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

      .@MelLHay WALK THE FIRE is out in FREE audio as well as universal EPUB format here: https://gumroad.com/johnmierau#QpGk  & KINDLE: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=John+mierau …

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3. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   .@johnmierau I think you mention this in the Kickstarter, why keep the same name? WALK THE FIRE. Same feel to the stories?

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4. John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

   @MelLHay Walk The Fire is going to be the revised name for the anthology series. When stories are in I'll pick a fitting book-specific name.

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5. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   .@johnmierau What kind of stories can we expect in WALK THE FIRE antho? Aliens? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Outer Space? All and more?

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John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

. @MelLHay my authors tell me the new Walk The Fire stories will start in the Middle Ages & range to the far future! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1325849873/walk-the-fire-a-shared-world-sf-anthology-series …

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Walk The Fire: a shared-world SF anthology series.

A shared world SF anthology series where other cities, planets, galaxies are only steps away...for those who dare Walk The Fire.

Kickstarter @kickstarter · Follow

• 1RETWEET
• 

10:11 AM - 30 Apr 13 · Details

Tweet text

Reply to @johnmierau 

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1. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   Jackpot!Amazing blend for all loves @johnmierau WALK THE FIRE stories will start in Middle Ages &range to far future! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1325849873/walk-the-fire-a-shared-world-sf-anthology-series …

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2. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   .@johnmierau I see u have some amazing authors in WALK THE FIRE. Im a huge fan of @PhilippaJane Ballantine. I read a short by @mightymur >>

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3. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   .@johnmierau >>and plan on reading more by Mur. Wonderful cast!

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4. John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

   @MelLHay thanks I always ask the people I really want... sometimes when you ask, wonderful things happen!

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5. John Mierau ‏@johnmierau30 Apr

   . @MelLHay I'm thrilled with the cast. There are names people haven't heard of that are just as talented & I hope their audiences grow.

Reply to @johnmierau 

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1. Melissa ‏@MelLHay30 Apr

   .@johnmierau I do love an antho w/blend of new & familiar names. I get what I love AND learn of new amazing authors to keep an eye out for.

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**Sorry, copying from Twitter the coloring and formats off.



Now, are you curious about the first one?  I know I became curious after learning about the second one.  There are links in the tweets about it but more directly:
   The 1st Walk The Fire is available:
     Free Listening in Episodes
     Amazon for Reading
     Epub format for Reading


The 2nd Walk The Fire anthology has not been release yet.  That's where you come we come in.  Walk The Fire is right now running a Kickstarter.  It looks like there are 21 days remaining to join (as of May 1st).  Bringing the kickstarter to a close May 21, 2013.

I know I'd love to see this go all the way.  If you are interested, even $5 will help.  (which will get you listed as a supporter and an ecopy of the 1st Walk The Fire anthology.)

Go ahead.  Check out the Kickstarter and maybe join the troops walking the fire...