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Strange Beasties Unleashed! Run For Your Lives!

Strange Beasties Anthology featuring “Beast of the Month” by Wulf Moon

Strange Beasties is an anthology of short stories published by Third Flatiron Publishing, a SFWA professional rate paying market (thank you, Juli–you understand the hours that go into creating a well-crafted story). My humorous fantasy story “Beast of the Month” appears in this book, just released today on Amazon! You can get it now as an e-book, or if you prefer hard copy, the trade paperback will be available in about a week. Either way, check it out by clicking HERE!

I wrote this story some years ago at Rockaway, Oregon, a coastal writing retreat that the Eugene Professional Writers (WORDOS) go to once a year, to get away from writing stress by going to a beautiful ocean beach and then sitting in their rooms all day WRITING. Let’s face it: writers write. It’s the only way we’re truly happy. So at the end of Rockaway Retreat, we all gathered to see what came out of our heads. It’s not as gruesome as it sounds–there are many Nebula, Stoker, and Hugo winners in WORDOS. These folks are sharp shooters, and it’s where I cut my teeth.

So I read my piece. Humor is a tricky thing to write–one woman’s funny bone is another man’s appendix. The only way to know if you pulled it off is if your audience of jaded Nebula, Stoker, and Hugo winners laugh. I am happy to report writers were rolling in the aisles, and paramedics had to be called in. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! My favorite memory was when Bruce Holland Rogers (one of those Nebula, Stoker, Hugo winners) came up to me chuckling. That in itself was a good sign: Bruce is the strong silent type, with a universe glimmering behind eagle eyes. And then he made my year when he said, “I hope you find a market for that. That story deserves to be published.”

It took me awhile. I had so many near misses. I know because editors wrote back to me, saying they held onto it but couldn’t find the right placement, and were regretfully returning it (it even got semi-finalist in Writers of the Future). I’ll post some of those letters sometime, but honestly, the best of them was the one from Juliana Rew: Dear Moon, Congratulations, I’m buying your story!

Thank you, Juli, for giving that wandering beastie a home. And Bruce Holland Rogers, I can successfully report after twenty years, “Mission accomplished!”

P.S.: The editor, Juliana Rew, sent me this letter today. If you are a reviewer, details on requesting a copy are included below. And for those of you purchasing a copy, thank you! You make the writing world go round. If you’d be so kind as to post a review on Amazon or Goodreads (and I’d love comments here!) Juli would really appreciate it, it really helps! Thank you!

________________________________________

Hi, Authors–

Third Flatiron’s Fall anthology, “Strange Beasties,” is now available

on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B074YGJ7MS

It is available free to Kindle Unlimited members. The trade paperback
version is publishing on Createspace and will be available in about a
week via Amazon.

The 18 stories contained in the book are largely dark fantasy, horror,
and humor, matching the reflecting the unsettling times we’re living
through (or hope to!)

If someone you know would be willing to write a review on
Amazon or Goodreads, please let me know. I’d be happy to
provide a free review copy. Please also give the book a mention on
your blog or website.

Details are on the website at:

http://www.thirdflatiron.com/liveSite/pages/current-issue#Beast

Although it’s hard to think about Halloween already, we hope this
issue will help everyone get in the spirit. Our Winter issue will be a
“Best of 2017” selection of stories. It’s been a great year.

(Personal author details here…)

Thanks again for sharing your strange beasties, which make this issue so special.

Cheers,
Juliana Rew, Editor
flatsubmit@thirdflatiron.com

http://www.thirdflatiron.com

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds II

Are you a Star Trek fan? So am I, and here’s the cover of the anthology my story “Seventh Heaven” appears in, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds II, published by Simon and Schuster’s Pocket Books division. When first released, you could find it in any major bookstore. Now, you can find it on Amazon. It’s a Borg love story, what could be sweeter?

Actually, writing for the Star Trek universe is a challenge, and not just because Paramount owns Star Trek and has rules about their characters, the biggest being YOU CAN’T CHANGE THEM. Since you’re here, I’m betting you probably know something about writing. A basic part of what makes stories satisfying is that your protagonist starts out one way, and by the end of the story, events you have put him or her through have changed your protagonist. It’s called character growth, something we crave in people and may never see <evil grin>, something we expect to find in our fictional characters as they come out of the crucible we writers put them through and pin wings to their chest at the end (ouch!) and say, ‘Attaboy! You learned something!’ But how do you do that when, by the end of the story, you better have them looking exactly like they started out? Because if you don’t, Paramount is going to take that action figure out of your hands and put it back on their shelf and say, “Don’t you ever touch my toys again!”

Try it sometime. It’s one of the most challenging writing exercises you will ever do, and the only way you know you’ve succeeded is when they hand you a check and put you in one of their books.

They did a huge release signing for this one, at the biggest Barnes & Noble I’ve ever seen, in New York City. It was a lot of fun scribbling in fans books:

“Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated … but you’ll enjoy the ride.”

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“Beast of the Month” to be Published in Strange Beasties Anthology!

Published fantasy story in 2017.

My humorous fantasy story “Beast of the Month” to be published this month by Third Flatiron Publishing, a SFWA pro rate paying market! The anthology is titled Strange Beasties and the release date is September 20, 2017 in both e-book and trade paperback. You can preorder from Amazon now by clicking here.

They’ve also chosen my story for a podcast at a future date, and have hired me to read it! I’ll keep you posted, and as always, if you can like or post a comment on Amazon about the book, it really helps. And please, do feel free to make a post here telling me what you thought of this tale about a mail order menagerie club that goes terribly wrong!

WARNING: DO NOT drink milk or other liquids within the proximity of dining friends while reading this story.