Diving News! News for Writers! News For Short Story Lovers!

Yes! News! (And more exclamation points than I probably needed, but still.)

For some reason, all of my deadlines piled up in 2017. I spent the first four months in a weird, but efficient frenzy. The only thing that went by the wayside was keeping you all informed of new publications.

This, of course, means that the news has piled up as well, and I’m not going to get to it all in one blog post. (It would be one epic blog post.) I’m going to try to have more news for you next week. Of course, next week, there will be other publications (new ones!) and some other things to share, including the Recommended Reading List. Which means this website will be busy, busy, busy.

First, the most exciting news, at least to me personally: This week, The Runabout appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, making the novel the first novel published in its entirety in Asimov’s in the magazine’s 40-year history. I’m grateful for all the faith that Sheila Williams has in my work. As a former digest magazine editor, I know how much an editor has to believe in a writer to use up that much real estate on one piece of fiction.

The Runabout is part of my Diving series, but the story stands alone. However, Diving fans should note that this story does feature Boss. (Unlike The Falls which appeared in October last year.) If you want to sample the story before picking up the issue, click here for the excerpt.

The actual standalone book will appear in October in ebook, paper, and audio editions. So if you can wait for that, go ahead. (I’ll let you know when you can preorder it.) But you can find out what happens next right here, right now, by getting Asimov’s, and you’ll also get even more great fiction from some of my favorite short fiction writers (including but not limited to Karen Joy Fowler and Dale Bailey).

If you think about it, magazines and anthologies are the original bundles. You can pick up a novel and some short stories for one low price. Asimov’s is available as both print and ebook editions. You can get the magazine on Amazon, but you can also order from the Asimov’s website itself.

Speaking of bundles, I curated a new Storybundle. This one’s for writers and anyone interested in writing. I have three favorite parts to this bundle. The first is that the information here will help writers of all levels. The second is that the materials in the bundle have a value of over $100, and you can get it all for $15. And the third is our charity, AbleGamers. You can learn how to entertain while giving the gift of entertainment by clicking on the donate-to-charity bundle.

AbleGamers, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, gives custom gaming setups to disabled gamers (and potential gamers) so they can socialize with their friends, entertain themselves, and just have more joy in their lives. I love this charity a lot and hope you will give a few bucks to it, while you’re getting writing books and lectures and discounts for yourself. This nifty GIF they did shows you how.

What books? What lectures? What discounts?

Here’s an excerpt from my write-up for the Storybundle website to help with those questions

The inspirational Joanna Penn points the way with The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook For Surviving The Writer’s Journey. We also offer some genre help, so you know which road you’re taking that journey on. Mystery Grand Master Lawrence Block maps out the way that mystery writers sustain a long-term career in The Crime of Our Lives. Finally, my Freelancer’s Survival Guide Short Book: Goals And Dreams helps you figure out how to turn your dreams into achievable goals.

Then, we focus on craft, with the help of Mary Buckham’s Writing Active Setting, Leah Cutter’s The Intermediate Professional Storyteller, Dean Wesley Smith’s Writing a Novel in Seven Days, and a lecture from WMG Publishing called The Master Plot Formula.

Next, we concentrate on getting your precious work to market. Maggie McVay Lynch shares tips on publishing with Publishing Basics: Secrets Every Author Should Know. Publishing means hitting deadlines, and Tonya D. Price shares her secrets for Meeting The Writer’s Deadline. If you meet your deadlines and follow Maggie’s tips, you’ll probably want to use the 40% off coupon we provide for Jutoh, the indispensible ebook publishing tool.

Finally, part of publishing includes working with other writers in (ahem) ebook bundles, and the owner of the BundleRabbit bundling website Chuck Heinzelman shares his knowledge in The Author’s Guide To Ebook Bundling.

So click over to Storybundle.com right now and get your bundle. This offer goes away in less than two weeks.

And now for a few other bundles…I mean anthologies…you might want to pick up. These are the ones I neglected to tell you about as they appeared.

First, really fun anthology called Little Green Men…Attack! The anthology centers around humorous stories about aliens, and features even more of my favorite authors (including Esther M. Friesner and Mike Resnick). My story features tiny aliens, a bar in Southern Oregon, and Louisa May Alcott. No, I have no idea where these stories come from. Truly. Maybe aliens inspired me.

Next, Neil Clarke asked me to be a part of an anthology I can’t wait to dig into: Galactic Empires. This book is huge. It features stories from a variety of sf writers who specialize in galaxy-spanning space opera. Ann Leckie, Robert Reed, and a dozen more, including one of my rare standalone Retrieval Artist short stories. If you want to discover entire new sf series to read, pick this one up.

Finally, the latest issue of Fiction River Presents appeared last month. This one focuses on family. And, to be honest, I love all of the stories in here, but then, they’re from Fiction River. Three of my all-time favorites appear in this volume, though: Kelly Washington’s “Prism of the Crab Gods,” Leah Cutter’s “Sisters,” and Irette Patterson’s “Legacies,” which is the title story. My own “My Real Cousin Ruby” also appears here.

And that’s it for a week or so. More new fiction next week, and maybe some other news, if all the negotiations go well. (Yeah, I’ve also been negotiating a lot of various side projects.) Until then, you have some reading to do…