I am incredibly excited to announce that I will be editing a cancer-themed anthology to be published by Wolfsinger Publications It will be titled Metastasis.

Call for Submissions

Cancer scares us. It scares us and it intrigues us. There is so much we don’t know about it, but it’s out there, waiting to strike when we least expect it. Cancer is not all-powerful and many people beat it, but to those who don’t cancer is cruel. It doesn’t show them the kindness of a quick death but draws things out, taking their life away in slices.

Metastasis will be a fantasy/sci-fi anthology all about cancer. The stories and poetry included could feature a character with cancer, be written from the point of view of cancer, or even be by someone with cancer. That being said, those which go a step further and dig deeper will be even better.

What if cancer isn’t a disease but an attack on the human race by aliens/demons/monsters/terrorists?

What if it’s sentient?

What if people wanted to get cancer?

What if…?

Cancer is the body turning on itself. It’s uncontrolled growth. It is invisible and indiscriminate. Submissions to this anthology are encouraged to explore metaphorical approaches to this theme as well as literal ones.

Due to the nature of cancer this collection will tend toward the darker side of the speculative fiction spectrum but we don’t want the entire anthology to be gloomy and depressing so the absolute best submissions will find a way to end on a high note, find something to be optimistic about, or evoke an emotion other than (or in addition to) sadness or dread.

A portion of the proceeds from this anthology will be donated to the American Cancer Society.**

The editor for this anthology is Rhonda Parrish.

How to Submit:

I are looking for stories up to 7,500 words long and poems up to 40 lines long.

Please follow standard manuscript formatting when submitting (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html) and send your submission to editor@wolfsingerpubs.com as an .rtf file.

Poetry doesn’t need to follow standing manuscript formatting (single spaced is fine) but should still be sent as an .rft file to editor@wolfsingerpubs.com

Put ‘Cancer Submission – “the title of your submission” – your last name’ as the subject of your email.

No simultaneous submissions, please.

Due to popular request, multiple submissions will be allowed but this isn’t NaNoWriMo. Quality over quantity, please.

No unsolicited reprints.

Payment is $10.00 advance with an equal share of 25% of royalties.

Deadline: June 30, 2013

**If you’re like me you’re always a little suspicious of vague phrasing like ‘some portion of the proceeds’ when it comes to charity donations. The reason I can’t say specifically yet what percentage of royalties are going to charity is because each contributor will be given the option of donating their percentage of their royalties or not as they’d prefer. The royalty breakdown looks like this:

25% – American Cancer Society
25% – Editor (me)
25% – Publisher
25% – Shared between contributors

and I am donating my royalties as well. So that means at least 50% of the proceeds from this project will be going to the American Cancer Society.

Please help spread the word about this anthology and, if you’re a writer, consider submitting something too.

Updates:

Update #1 – We have a title

Update #2 – Jay Lake, Kevin J. Anderson and Marge Simon

January 5, 2013: Edited to add information about reprints and multiple submissions.
January 23, 2013: Edited to add formatting information for poems and the anthology’s title.
March 18, 2013: Edited to add link to Update #2

Remember when I announced the Bewitching Book Tour and I said it was the first tour I was doing? This is the second Enchanted Book Promotions is also responsible for running a one week tour for Aphanasian Stories. The itinerary looks like this:

May 20^th: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

May 21^st: Book Review @ Books, Books and More Books

May 22^nd: Book Excerpt @ I’m an Eclectic Reader

May 23^rd: Author Interview @ Majanka’s Blog

May 24^th: Book Excerpt @ The Single Librarian

May 25^th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading

May 26^th: Book Excerpt and Giveaway @ Literary Me

I’ll be sure and let you know how both tours go and do a comparison post of some sort when they are through. in the meantime, I hope you’ll pop by some of the places I’ll be hosted at in the coming week.

I wanted to do a virtual book tour for the release of Aphanasian Stories but April was so crazy I knew I wasn’t going to have time to set it up, so instead I booked a couple tours with websites who would do all that stuff for me The first is the Bewitching Book tour. I’m going to be all over the interwebz on this one

But wait! There’s more! I’ve set up a giveaway that will run tour-wide over the next week. The winner will receive an autographed copy of Aphanasian Stories along with whatever Niteblade goodies I feel like tossing in. That’s likely to include postcards with free download links, magnets, pens–all sorts of things. You can earn entries for the giveaway by following me on Twitter (easy entry right there if you already do LoL), tweeting about the giveaway or leaving a comment on the blog which is hosting me. Perhaps best of all, you can get credit for leaving a comment everyday of the giveaway. Yay!

Please enter. I’ll feel unloved if no one enters and that wouldn’t be fun at all.

Aphanasian Stories Available at:

Amazon.com (Physical and ebook)
Amazon.ca (ebook)
Also available on other Amazon sites, just search for ‘Aphanasian’.
Coming soon on Kobo and other formats.

Aphanasian Stories.

I’ve bundled up three of the stories I’ve written which were set in Aphanasia into a collection I have cleverly titled Aphanasian Stories, and it’s now available for you Including in this collection of re-released stories are Lost and Found, which was originally given away here on this blog, A Love Story, which was originally published by Sam’s Dot Publishing as Shades of Green and Sister Margaret which was originally published by Wild Child Publishing.

~*~

A Love Story: Z’thandra, a swamp elf living with the Reptar, discovers a human near the village. When she falls in love with him, she faces the most difficult choice of her life, a decision that will affect the Reptar for generations.

Lost and Found: Xavier, the escaped subject of a madman’s experiments, and Colby, a young lady on a mission to save her brother, must combine their efforts to elude capture and recover the magical artifact that will save Colby’s brother before it’s too late.

Sister Margaret: A vampire hunter and a half-incubus swordsman are hired by a priestess to kill the undead pimp that is extorting, torturing and murdering vulnerable girls.

~*~

The physical copies of these books are fan-freaking-tastic, no word of a lie. The original art is the illustration I commissioned from Darek Zabrocki long ago for Lost and Found and Jo (my husband) had turned it into the sort of wrap around cover that dreams are made of (mine anyway). However, if you like to read electronic books I’ve got good news for you. The Kindle version of Aphanasian Stories is available for free for May 15th and 16th.

Enjoy

My poem, The Day After, is up at Napalm and Novocain

Yay! My poem, My Whole World, has been accepted for publication by Every Day Poets. I’m not sure when it will be out, but I am really, really looking forward to sharing this one. It’s a completely non-speculative piece I wrote as a part of the 2011 November poem-a-day challenge but only got around to revising last year and I adore it

My poem, Lost Miners, was published on Seven by Twenty today as a way of commemorating the anniversary of the Westray mining disaster.

Heavy with clay / scuffed & beaten / with dried tongues thrust out, / 26 boots await / owners who will never return (by Rhonda Parrish)

— Seven By Twenty (@7×20) May 9, 2013

Re-reading it now I can see that I made an error. It should be 26 pairs of boots, not 26 boots but it’s too late to change it now.
 

My poem, The Day After, has been accepted for inclusion at Napalm and Novocain — a webzine which features poetry with a theme of romance’s aftermath. I don’t often write things which would fall into that category but in going through some of my old poems on Monday I discovered one which did.

I’m pleased to know it has found a home outside of my computer. And so quickly too. Talk about a fantastic response time LOL

I’m on a social media retreat… but I couldn’t remember my Goodreads password offhand so I logged in via Facebook… and then I somehow ended up on Facebook and was scrolling down my feed before I remembered I wasn’t supposed to be on Facebook.

It’s insidious I tell you.

/facepalm

I write a lot of zombie poems. In fact, I’m planning to self-publish a collection of zombie poems later this year. I was just going through some of my April Poem a Day poems from last year to see if there were any I hadn’t transcribed but should when I found this one. I’m going to share it here because I like it and thought you might too

I look at my meds and know
if walkers don’t kill me
lack of pharmaceuticals will

ETA: I found another one! I think I’ve mentioned before that for every publishable poem I write probably five which are not. They serve their purposes though, whether they are personal and cathartic or just straight-up silly and helping me to just get something on the page. I think you can guess which category this one falls into

There once was an old man named Hugh
who owned a hound dog he called Blue
Blue’s collar was perfumed and florid
to cover his breath which was horrid
because he loved eating cat poo

Whee!

Me, to Jo: Hey, I have this idea for a short story that I think would be a great project for us to collaborate on.

Jo: What’s that?

Me: *Tells him idea*

Jo: *adds to idea*

Me: *adds more to idea*

Jo: *adds even more to idea*

Me: Um. I’m worried that this has gone from being a short story to being a novel.

Jo: Nah. It definitely hasn’t done that.

Me: No?

Jo: No. It’s got to be a series of novels.