Daw Books has just published a new story of mine. It’s an oddball fantasy piece called “Renn and the Little Men.” If you like my Kristine Grayson books, you’ll probably like this one. It was a lot of fun to write. The story is in Westward Weird, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes. I think this is one of the last if not the last anthology that Marty edited, so it’s rather special that way.

I haven’t yet had a chance to read this volume, but I have read two of the stories in it. Both J. Steven York’s story and Dean Wesley Smith’s story are really good and worth reading. And very very different from each other. If you want to see what a bunch of different writers do with a similar idea, I can’t think of a better place to start.

You can find this book in your favorite bookstore, online, or you can order it here.

And since everything is tentative at the moment, if you’re not finding a regular weekly feature like Free Fiction Monday or my blog, well, realize I’m trying. I’m hoping we’re done with the crisis, but I’m not getting any guarantees from the ISP. So…fingers crossed that the new week will really be a new week.

Kris

The reviews so far have been tremendous. Publisher’s Weekly says:

DeLake (Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s newest pseudonym) takes readers on a fast ride with this passionate futuristic tale, the first in a series. Idiosyncratic entrepreneur Rikki Bastogne and straitlaced Mikael “Misha” Yurinovich Orlinski are both assassins in a distant future where killing for cause is often legal. Responsible practitioners join the highly regulated Assassins Guild, which Misha venerates and Rikki despises. Misha hires Rikki to do a job in the hopes of recruiting the indie killer, and when they meet while Rikki is disposing of the target’s body, their chemistry is immediate and explosive. At first Rikki is unaware of Misha’s true identity, and when she learns it, she is shaken to the core: for years, Rikki has believed that Misha helped his mother kill Rikki’s father in cold blood. How he proves her wrong—and how the two eventually learn to work together to combat a threat which could destroy them both—makes for a compelling, hot, and believable tale. 

And RT Book Reviews gave it 4.5 stars, with this review: 

Set in a universe where murder can be legal, this is an exciting adventure with a hot romance between two fascinating characters. Their profession and the fact that no apologies are made for it make for an intriguing story. One hopes there will be a second story featuring the heroine’s friend.

And yes, there will be a second story featuring the heroine’s friend. My editor at Sourcebooks and I are just trying to figure out the title. 

I will be doing a signing for this book, Boneyards, and Anniversary Day at North by Northwest Books in Lincoln City, Oregon, on March 4th. So if you’re in the neighborhood, drop on by. 

And I missed announcing a few other things. You can preorder Thoroughly Kissed, which will be out in June. I’ll have a longer piece on that shortly. Thoroughly Kissed is Emma’s story. (Sleeping Beauty, for those of you who missed Utterly Charming.) If a woman really deserves a happily ever after, it’s Emma.

And I have a Christmas novella  in case you want to get in the mood for Christmas 2012 early. It’s called Up On The Rooftop. I’ll make a proper announcement about that one in the fall, maybe with a few more Christmas stories…

Rusch’s latest addition to her “Diving” series (Diving into the Wreck; City of Ruins) features a strong, capable female heroine and a vividly imagined far-future universe. VERDICT Blending fast-paced action with an exploration of the nature of friendship and the ethics of scientific discoveries, this tale should appeal to Rusch’s readers and fans of space opera.

And RT Book Reviews gave it four stars:

Filled with well-defined characters who confront a variety of ethical and moral dilemmas, Rusch’s third Diving Universe novel is classic space opera, with richly detailed worldbuilding and lots of drama. … Boss and Squishy face difficult questions about loyalty — to friends and to ideals — as the story rockets toward an unexpected conclusion.

You can get Boneyards at your favorite bookstore  (traditional or ebookstore) or order it here.  And of course, you can get the marvelous audio book from Audible.com.

And yes, a few reviewers and readers wanted to know if there’s another Diving book coming. Oh, yeah.  You can bet on it.