Athena's Daughters Has Achieved Cover

Isn't the print cover just gorgeous? I can't wait to hold this book in my hands.

Even better, from a purely selfish point of view is the illustration for my story, "The Gap in the Fence" (below). Want to know more? Well, you can read a taste of my story here. Or better yet, pre-order the entire book here. You won't be disappointed!

Looking ahead

Art by Kelli Neier

Those of you who obsessively check the sidebar of my website (there's gotta be one of you, right?) will have noticed the release of Hellfire Lounge 4: Reflections of Evil has been pushed back again, and I still don't have a release date for Gaslight & Grimm. (Boo.) But a new story and a new convention have joined the list. (Win!)
First and foremost in any writer's mind is the latest acceptance. "The Gap in the Fence" is one of my favorite contemporary fantasies, but I wasn't sure it would find a home. Then Janine Spendlove and Ron Garner of Silence in the Library Publishing invited me to submit a story to Athena's Daughters. The fit between story and anthology was so close, it's almost as if I wrote it with Athena's Daughters in mind.
Athena's Daughters will be the subject of a Kickstarter later in the year. The first level will fund the ebook, which features the beautiful cover by Kelli Neier shown here. As we go up the levels, there will be additional authors, illustrations and a paper edition. You better believe I'll have more about that as we get closer to launch.
Also listed is my first confirmed con of 2014: World Fantasy Con. The 2014 edition will be happening just a few minutes from my home. But this is one local on I won't be commuting to. I plan to party!
I also plan to party at next weekend's Capclave, and I'll be posting my schedule early next week. Hope to see you there!

"Burning Down the House" for Fun and Promo

I missed the posting deadline for Six Sentence Sunday for the second week in a row. Bad blogger, that's me. By way of apology, I thought I'd offer a slightly longer excerpt from "Burning Down the House" from Hellfire Lounge 3: Jinn Rummy which will be launched at Balticon, May 25-28. I promise to share the date, time and details as soon as I learn them. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy what happens after our poor protagonist Eddie Woodhouse sits in that big comfy chair:

“Do you have the bottle?” he asked.

A flash from the dance floor lit her eyes like an evil smile. She placed an empty absinthe bottle on the table.

“May your next transfer run as smoothly as the one from your bank.” The blare of the music muted the scrape of her scimitar nails along the glass. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather do this someplace more private?”

“No.” The jinni inside him lashed his face. He couldn’t hide the bulge of their shared skin or his flinch of pain.

The woman added teeth to her smile. “Your funeral. I trust you’ll be more careful where you stick your straw in the future.”

Her exit line raised a different kind of welt, but he didn’t care as long as she left. Nobody paid any attention to a fat man in a club full of beautiful people. More importantly, the security cams and warding spells focused on the tables would keep her from trying anything more than what he paid for. He’d never been a contender in the magical department, but he never thought he’d sink so low that he’d owe his life to the sorcerous paranoia of Ducky “Duc d’Or”.

Eddie’s teeth chattered against the glass as he closed his lips around the neck of the bottle and chanted the first of the thirty-one goetic evocations from The Secret Key of Solomon under his breath. The words didn’t always make sense, but he suspected the real spell lay in his mind’s desperate prayer: “Take this damned thing outta me and I’ll never do magic. I’ll never so much as make a wish. Never. Ever.”

The words burned his throat. Never. The jinni swelled inside his lungs until he thought his ribs would explode. Ever.

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What happens next? Well, you'll just have to read the story--or come to the launch--to find out.

Six Sentence Sunday: "Fixed", Part 4

Here it is, your last Six Sentence Sunday entry for the month of "Fixed", my story in The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity. And because I am evil, it is a cliffhanger. If you want to read more, well, you just have to buy the book. ;-)

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“Just as I thought,” she said. “Prepare this animal for surgery. I need to operate immediately.”
His head shot upward. Backed against the steel bars, he couldn’t help seeing past her glamour. The lines scoring her forehead and bracketing the corners of her wide, lipsticked mouth floated like a painted veil over a pale, ageless face as perfect as a marble Madonna.

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Six Sentence Sunday: "Hoodoo Cupid" Two

As promised, February's first three Six Sentence Sunday entries are all from my short contemporary romance, "Hoodoo Cupid", available wherever fine ebooks are sold.

Today's scene takes place in the ER after Maggie Scanlan's hoodoo has done it's work on her professional rival and new boss, Dan Constantine:

When [Dan's] eyes focused on a person—the way they focused on her now—it was like being targeted by a pair of lasers. The fan of creases deepening at the corners of his eyes and his slowly widening smile only made it worse.

“My ride.” His voice had a husky quality—a subtle roughness like vintage mohair upholstery, which inspired almost as much thigh wriggling and skirt palming among the agency power groupies as his eyes. “Talk about answered prayers. Please tell me it’s going to be a long one.”

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Sparkly Cover Goodness

Yeah, I know, you've been wondering whether I forgot how to do this blog thing. Not quite. I just wanted to save it until I had something to make you go Ooooooh! And I do, Ben Fogletto's wonderful cover for Hellfire Lounge 2, where you'll find one of my darker little stories, "Billy's Monster".
I don't have an ISBN or release day yet, but when I do, you'll hear it here first. Not to worry, you won't be bored in the meantime. It'll take days to see all the fabulous details in this image. Enjoy!

Happy Dancing Through Tuesday

This is so good I'm dancing. Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier announced the table of contents for their new fantasy anthology, The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity, coming from DAW Tekno Books in March 2012. And the writers are:

Introduction by Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier

"We Will Not Be Undersold" by Seanan McGuire

"Changeling" by Susan Jett

"Water-Called" by Kari Sperring

"The Roots of Aston Quercus" by Juliet E. McKenna

"To Scratch an Itch" by Avery Shade

"Continuing Education" by Kristine Smith

"How To Be Human™" by Barbara Ashford

"How Much Salt" by April Steenburgh

"Hooked" by Anton Strout

"Crash" by S. C. Butler

"Fixed" by Jean Marie Ward

"A People Who Always Know" by Shannon Page & Jay Lake

"The Slaughtered Lamb" by Elizabeth Bear

"Corrupted" by Jim C. Hines

Yes! That’s me on that list! “Fixed” is the story of a teenaged cat shifter who gets taken to an animal shelter while wearing fur. Needless to say, he really REALLY doesn’t want to get “Fixed”.

Although you won’t be able to hold the book (or the pixels of the ebook version) in your hands until March, The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity is available for pre-order on a number of sites, including Amazon. Buy, buy, buy! In multiples, if you can. Patricia and Joshua were so much fun to work with, I’d love to do it again.

Meanwhile, I’m grinning from ear to ear.

"Personal Demons" under contract

"Personal Demons", a tale about demonic possession and tantric sorcery in Alexandria, Virginia, has been accepted and contracted for Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff. (Insert demented happy dances here. :D) I've loved this story for ages, but people told me it would never sell because my protagonist happened to be a lesbian. Just goes to show the story (and its magically gifted heroine) knew better than anybody. They were waiting for the right home, and what a lovely home it will be. Drollerie Press has a rep for fantastic covers and amazing content. I can't wait to read the other stories in the anthology. Fortunately, the wait won't be too long. The editors and Drollerie Press hope to issue the ebook in time for Halloween. This year! Color me thrilled.

New Short Story

I took a page out of S.J. Willing's book today and posted a short short story for my Samhain blog. Consider it a free pass into the weirder corners of my mind. It's "All About the Flies". Really. ;-)

Cover Glee

It's now live: my cover for "Hoodoo Cupid", coming February 4, 2010, from Red Rose Publishing.



Isn't it gorgeous? The artist is Red Rose's Art Director Shirley Burnett, and she totally aced it.
Cheers and big, big smiles,

Short Story Video: "Duzell's Due"

Decided to start working on my book video skills in anticipation of all the different projects scheduled for next year. Yeah, yeah, I know I need to invest in a music editing program, but one thing at a time. Happy weekend!