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July 25, 2010
Here's the lineup for the Halloween antho, and a fine lineup it is.
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Agatha by Ken Staley By the Sword by Lyn McConchie Godiva by Sandi Reed-chan Grave Mistake by Karen Reed-Dent Halloween Lights by Anna Taborska Just Another Halloween by Abigail Beal Keepers of the Daywalking Darkness by Lucas A. Turney Pumpkins by James Hartley Skull Valley Halloween by Marian Powell Something Witchy by Donna Novak Spirit in Me by Andi White |
Such A Deal by Janet E. Sever The Amazing Halloween Hazing by Jack Owen The Art of Fear by John J. Rust The Children's Room by Bruce Memblatt The Ghost on Coffin Street by Roxanne Dent The Haunted Arena by Dennis Goldberg The Magician Who Knew Bosch by J.J. Steinfeld The Morrisville High Halloween Dance by Richard Dyer The True Believer by Sherry Chancellor The Whispers by Barry Hunter Tied to the Lines by Cynthia D. Witherspoon |
Now, for something different. If you have another moment, please click HERE and let me know what you think.
Aside from that, try to keep cool, and have a good week!
-- Jean
July 18, 2010
I must make a change in our present Halloween Dances With The Dead antho. I had originally stated an August 1 story submission deadline. I'm going to move that up to July 25 -- or 22 stories, whichever comes first. As to what brought this change on, I refer to Strange Mysteries 2, the 40-story antho. Processing those 40 stories just about broke down our Production department. It was about twice as many as could be edited, copy-edited and formatted with reasonable effeciency. So we are going to have to limit our anthos to an approximately 20-story maximum. Since we already have 18 GOOD Halloween stories, when we reach 21 I am going to close the door on this one. Sorry to have to do this, but to be realistic, it is for the best. SM2 had an unpleasant number of typos, etc., which was due totally to the fact that there was more text to process than could be done effectively in the allowed time.
But on the brighter side, there's something new for you today in our Writers' Guidelines. It's a Valentine antho, planned for pre-Valentine Day release. What kind of stories would be good for Valentine's Day? Love stories, I suppose -- with our usual science fiction, fantasy and/or horror twists. Sound like fun? I think so -- hope you do too.
---- Jean
July 11, 2010
The funky cover is gone, the traditional cover is in. Here's the back cover now:
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June 20, 2010
Here it is, the lineup for Free Range Fairy Tales -- and a fine lineup it is!
--Jean
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Hansel and Gretel and the Big Bad Wolf Ken Staley |
The Witch Peter Friend |
Heavens Above Lyn McConchie |
Beautiful Princess Dennis Goldberg |
Sysyphus Revisited Larry Lefkowitz |
Kitty and the Beast Chang Williams |
Mana From Heaven David Perlmutter |
Rumplestiltskin’s Quest Sherry Chancellor |
Hansel and Gretel Jim Hartley |
Little Dead Riding Hood Stephanie Kincaid
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| Babi Yagi's Play House Arthur Sánchez |
A Rogue Princess Sue Monkress |
Tanglefoot Marian Powell |
The Return of the Troll Tim Young |
The Star Tree Richard Jay Goldstein |
MavenStiltskin Charlotte Babb |
The Rescue Elizabeth Zuckerman |
Troll Is As Troll Does Carrie Malinowski |
The Three Gruff Billys Darlene Henderson |
Sleeping Beauty Jamie Lackey |
The Lady Elf A.D. Spencer |
May 2, 2010
Free Range Fairy Tales is off to a flying start! We have several charmers already. The deadline is June 15. And here we are into May already, so don't delay if you haven't completed your story yet.
Does anyone else wish to have SM2 -- or anything else -- sent to an address outside the US? The idea here is to save you from paying Lulu's outlandish overseas postage costs -- approximately triple what the US Postal cost is, which is bad enough. Some of our out-of-US authors have already availed themselves of this plan. If you'd like me to send you SM2 or any other of our books, just let me know, okay?
Here's something on which I'd like your opinion.I'm still trying to get Bookstars out of the starting gate. Would you please take a look at the site and let me know if you think it's ready to go? Or is there something more I should add -- or subtract? BTW, if you have a book to promote you are welcome to promote it on Bookstars.info -- free during 2010! If you want your book on the site, just send me (1) a scan of the cover; (2) a brief summary of what the book is about, (3) a description of the book (paperback, etc.), where to buy it and what it costs, and (4) an approximately 1000 word excerpt from the book. I'll be glad to post it for you. (Let me know what category you want it to be in.)
-- Jean
April 22, 2010
FREE RANGE FAIRY TALES!
Looks like we're on our way with "free range fairy tales." That would be fairy tales, either traditional or created by you, with an interesting twist. Yes, many of us recall the dear old "Fractured Fairy Tales" presented on the Rocky And Bullwinkle program. This is the same idea, but we'll use a more "modern" description, like "free range," rather than "Fractured," which (1) has already been used and (2) implies something is broken or destroyed, which isn't our plan. We might bend or twist those dear old tales a bit, but break them? The phrase "free range" is now most usually applied to chickens which are allowed to run around in a field or some such place that appeals to them, rather than being in a cage or chicken yard. I like that idea, don't you? Let's see what becomes of those dear old fairy tales when they're allowed -- encouraged! -- to run around a bit.
-- Let's assume we are writing for people ages 12 and up. Younger kids who are still reading the original fairy tales probably would not get the twist or spin that tends to arrive on "Fractured" or "Free Range" fairy tales.
-- So let's keep our usual PG rating.
-- Our usual length of 2000 to 4000 words may, in some cases, be too long. If your story is shorter, that's okay.
-- Let's shoot for a deadline of...June 15. How's that? Should give me enough time to get it formatted and under way before we get involved in our Halloween book.
-- If you pick a traditional tale, how about posting it on our Forum, so more than one person won't be using that same story? Our Forum is accessible from Whortleberry's opening page -- it's the hot link right beside the one for Whortleaves.
-- If you don't wish to try a new twist on an old tale, but would rather build one up from scratch, that is fine. Just keep it in "fairy tale world," as one of our writers so aptly described it.
-- Have fun!
-- Jean
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