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“War Dog” to be published in the anthology TERRA! TARA! TERROR!

 

Woof! Now that the contract is signed, I am happy to officially announce a sale to a great publisher, Third Flatiron, that pays SFWA’s pro rate! “War Dog” will appear in both e-book and trade paperback in TERRA! TARA! TERROR! in October of this year! This is my third sale to Third Flatiron since I started submitting to them exactly one year ago. I hope you get a chance to read my historical fantasy about the famous armored war dogs of the conquistadors!

Below was the call. I wrote this one to specification–specifically, that call for alternate histories. I love the Spanish Main, and have written many fantasy stories set in that world. This is my first that didn’t just win an award–this one is to be published! Alternate history, famous conquistadors, magical blood, and DOGS! What’s not to like?

“Terra! Tara! Terror!” – SF, Fantasy, Horror. Whether the setting is a cabin in the woods (Terra), Fae (Tara), or spaceship Nostromo (Terror), take us there and spin your adventure. For a bit of mood whiplash, we’d like a mixture of dark and bright stories. Examples: Obsession with odd artifacts (like Roadside Picnic’s golden sphere?), alternate histories, paranormal romance (no erotica, please, we’re PG-13).

Get yours in October from Amazon and let me know what you think! I’ll keep barking about this one. WOOF!

 

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Reject Rejectomancy!

Ken Liu cropped
Andy Dudak (left) interviews silkpunk author Ken Liu (right) at the 2018 Norwescon Conference in Seattle, Washington.

If you’re writing to be published, chances are you’ve suffered from some form of this mental condition. We’ve all gone through it, we’ve all caught it–some just show more virulent symptoms than others. We send out a story. It comes back with a rejection. It can be the dreaded form rejection, or it can be the encouraging personal rejection–also dreaded, because these can be even more confusing.

Then we drive ourselves nuts trying to guess why the story got rejected. This was to be the pinnacle of our writing career! The editor must have macular degeneration and have been three sheets to the wind! What other explanation is there? Oh. Maybe, just maybe, they left us an explanation, hidden secretly in their brief words. Ken Liu talked about this at Norwescon this year. He called the condition Rejectomancy. Let me get my notes. Hm. A place for everything and everything misplaced. Ah. Here it is under a tube filled with nautical maps of the San Juan Islands. Obviously! Okay, here we go! Continue reading “Reject Rejectomancy!”