364 Days Until Halloween 2021

If you're like me, you've already begun to count down the days until Halloween 2021.

I know, I know. It's Nov 1st. There are other holidays to look forward to.

Okay, I'll give you that. There ARE other holidays. But I'm still going to pine for the next Halloween. The most wonderful time of the year.

And in the meantime, I'm going to share a pretty cool Kickstarter project that I'm honored to be a part of. It's WMG Publishing's Holiday Spectacular 2020.

Imagine an original holiday story delivered to you every day during the holidays? But not just the regular "the holidays" - on top of the Christmas themed tales, you can get Valentines and Halloween tales for 2021.

It's the story gift that keeps on giving, almost all of the way through 2021.

This project was born out of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's combined love for short fiction and holiday countdown calendars.

Subscribers to this project will get the first story on November 26th, 2020 and then a new story EVERY DAY through January 1st, 2021.

That's right! A Brand New Original Holiday Story Every Day, following three distinct themes. Mysterious Chrismas, Fantastic Christmas, and Sweet Holidays.

But wait, there's more!!!!!

Because (and you'll see why I related this to my eagerness for Halloween 2021) there are two more wonderful projects:

•  From February 7th through the 14th, 2021, you can get eight original Valentine stories delivered to your inbox. One each day. This Sweet Valentines collection is edited by Annie Reed.
• From October 25th through November 2nd, 2021, you can get nine original Halloween stories delivered to your inbox. This Halloween Harvest collection is edited by yours truly.
  

All of the stories are fantastic. I've had the privilege, as one of the series editors, of reading them all. But I'm a little biased about the ones I selected for my combined Halloween and Harvest themed anthology.

The stories are available to be delivered on those calendar dates but will also be available in book format.

And you can get in on the action and check it all out before this Kickstarter runs out in another 16 days.

What's your favorite time of the year?

Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction

On Wednesday April 22, 2020, I'll be presenting in one of Jane Friedman's online classes.

Jane is a consistently reliable authoritative source of solid information about the writing and publishing industry. Her blog and The Hotsheet are two amazing resources I regularly consume. I'm honored that I get to participate in one of her online workshops.

Creating Income & Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction

The course is $20 USD and will be a video chat where I'll be talking through several of the examples that Matty Dalrymple and I wrote about in our February 2020 book, Taking the Short Tack.

I will share many of the examples that we write about in the book as well several other options and examples with the goal of informing and inspiring authors on how they can leverage their short fiction IP in multiple ways.

Spring Is Sprung, The Sun is Riz, I Wonder Where The Snowman Is

Ah, the joy and wonder of spring.

The temperature rises, mother nature begins to peek out from under the slowly melting snow.

All is wonderful and joyous as "new life" takes form in the annual cycle of life.

All is good, of course, for everybody except certain creatures.

Like snowmen.

What does spring mean for a snowman?

That's exactly what the two dark humor stories in SNOWMAN SHIVERS explore, each in slightly different ways.

THAT OLD SILK HAT THEY FOUND - What might really happen if a snowman were brought to life. Would he really be jolly and happy? Would he dance around, singing? How could he? He doesn't even have legs!

IDES OF MARCH - Taxes are due soon. But that's just a minor annoying deadline. There are more urgent things to be concerned about. Such as why a pair of odd strangers are kidnapping snowmen.

The eBook is free virtually everywhere. Check it out at various online retailers.

If you prefer to watch me read the first story in this collection "That Old Silk Hat They Found" (my attempt to wonder if a snowman that suddenly came to life might actually be a jolly, happy soul) via this #FreeFridayFrights video from April 2018.

You can also watch the video on my author Facebook page.

Enjoy. And happy spring.

Just try not to think about what it means for those delightful masses of snow that we enjoy building and then just forgetting about.