SPEC FARE: HUELER, GOLD, DUERRWAECHTER, CAILE, LASLO, OLIVER, SMITH, MURRAY, KDP, WEIRDBOOK+

What’s everyone up to? Short story sales, book releases, contests and shows… here are of the few bits of industry news I found interesting this week…

Ken Hueler’s “An Infinity of Worse” about “a late Victorian era odd couple, the brutish Lowell and smooth-talking Paul, who ply their charming trade of digging up the dead for the local medical and dissection trade” will be published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave due out Oct. 1 from Redwood Press. Find more details on this story here!

The Iron Writers competition is officially started with the first flash fiction piece posted. Briant Laslo was the first to post with his flash story “Universal Truths.” Follow this link to give him some love. You can also find the prompts for some inspiration and enter yourself. Rumor has it the horror writers are gathering to bring on the dark.

Jeff Oliver read from his poetry book Poetic Fiction: Journals Of Silent Screams at StokerCon 2021 recently. In his book, a narrative poem, “Xander has experienced a deranged and brutal childhood leaking into adulthood, pounding in his memories.” It’s getting great reviews on Amazon. You can check it out for yourself here.

Laura Kester Duerrwaechter has come out with the last book in her series of real-life pet sitting adventures. “Each story recalls a day in the life of the author during her more than a decade of self-employment in one of the most creative, funny and heart-wrenching industries of animal care.” Find that on Amazon here.

Maxwell I. Gold has a poem called “Spectres Untold” in Weirdbook #44. Rumor has it that this is not a prose poem, unusual for Maxwell. “The 44th issue of Weirdbook is a ghoulish delight of horror and fantasy fiction, with a terrific lineup of original stories and poetry. Stories featured in this issue include:

“Let Me Be Your Swamp Snake,” by Adrian Cole
“A Whisper in the Death Pit,” by Kyla Lee Ward
“Deadest Man in Town,” by Franklyn Searight
“Penumbra Over Millwall,” by Jan Edwards
“Birth,” by M. Stern
“Okiko’s Doll,” by Stefano Frigieri
“Heatseeker,” by Tim Curran
“The Librarian,” by Sharon L. Cullars
“Dream Warriors (1) Team Spirit,” by D.C. Lozar
“Bang!,” by Chris Kuriata
“Death and the Vampire,” by James Dorr
“The Dust of Sages and Fools,” by John R. Fultz
“Push Dagger,” John C. Hocking

Plus a selection of poetry by: Darrell Schweitzer, Allan Rozinski, Lucy A. Snyder, Ashley Dioses, Ann K. Schwader, Chad Hensley, Frederick J. Mayer, Cindy O’Quinn, and K.A. Opperman. You can find Weirdbook #44 here.

Dani J. Caile just published Under the Shade Sun, (The Bohatch Chronicles) “a claustrophobic, subtly humorous, psychotic future of people who no longer know why” that’s getting great reviews on Amazon. You can find that book here.

KDP is beginning to print books in Australia! This means: faster book deliveries Down Under and free, two-day shipping for books will be available to Aussie Prime members. This is especially exciting news for any Australian authors like Ryan Aussie Smith living in the US. Now his family and friends can get Shadow’s Lament much faster! Authors can learn more about paperback printing in Australia here.

Speaking of KDP… if you publish an ebook between May 1 and August 31, 2021 you can enter it in the Kindle Storyteller contest and have a shot at winning a £20,000 literary prize. To enter your book, simply paste StorytellerUK2021 in the keywords and make sure you’ve selected expanded distribution so it will publish to Amazon.co.uk. You have to publish an ebook and paperback version to qualify.

I had some personal wins myself this week. I’ve been doing some updates and maintenance. I updated my EVENTS and BIO pages finally. I’ve also been cleaning up and answering my out of control inbox. I started with 2,544 emails to respond to a few days ago and I’m now down to 1,286. I even finally got around to writing a newsletter to send out and I updated the SUBSCRIBE page as well. It’s been a relaxing and productive week.

Finally, Lee Murray was over on Dead Headspace: Ep.91 – Talking about mentorship. One of her mentees, Daron Kappauff, joined her on the show. This episode covers a deep dive into mentorships within the writing world. Lee Murray is a New Zealand author, editor, and mentor and recent winner of two Bram Stoker Awards®. She’s also the HWA Mentor of the Year for 2019. You can watch the video here. Mark My Words and Kraken Fever both got a mention!

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