Happy March! And a very happy March it is. I don’t usually get to announce good news again so quickly, but my story “Mother of Waters” is out in the March 2013 issue of Crossed Genres Magazine. Here’s a taste:

She shaped the mud into a tiny manikin, a baby-doll with stubby little legs and arms and a large head. She knelt in the streambed with the dolly in the palm of her hand and pressed her thumb to its forehead and said, “You are Shasa. You are precious water. You are life in the desert. I mark you with the name of God.” Then she swallowed the mud baby.

Eighteen weeks later, she gave birth to me.

Crossed Genres Magazine is kind of fascinating. I already knew their name from some very interesting-sounding anthology calls when they ran a Kickstarter to re-launch their magazine as a monthly release paying SFWA professional rates. But there’s a twist: each issue has a theme. March’s theme is myth.

You can read “Mother of Waters” and the rest of the magazine on the web for free. Each issue is also released in e-book format, and every six months they collect six issues’ worth of stories into an anthology that’s available in both electronic and dead tree formats. So if you like my story or or the magazine or both, consider a donating or subscribing so they can continue as a professionally-paying market after this Kickstarter-funded year is done. They offer two subscription options, one strictly electronic format, the other for both paper anthologies in addition to the monthly e-book issues. It’s kind of a fascinating model and one of the best editing experiences I’ve had with regards to short stories. I’d really love to see them continue it.

“Quick Karma” is now available in FISH

“So how do you screw up your karma so badly that you come back as a goldfish?” Read “Quick Karma,” by April L’Orange, now available in Dagan Books anthology

FISH, ed. Carrie Cuinn, is now broadly available as an e-book from major online booksellers. If you buy it directly from the publisher, you get a nice clean DRM-free version. You can also get it through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com if you prefer. The dead tree version should be available soon–I’ll let you know!

I’ve been waiting excitedly for this one, both because I have a story, “Quick Karma,” in it and because I want to read it. FISH is now available direct from Dagan Books. It will be available through third-party resellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble soon, both electronically and in print. I’ll update you when that wider release rolls around.

The publisher describes FISH as “a genre-bending anthology of delightfully fishy tales,” and so far I agree. The very first story sucked me in, which is almost never the case with me and anthologies for some reason. I consider it a positive sign.

Want to win a copy? The publisher is doing a giveaway at Goodreads. The contest is open through February 15.

More good news: I’ve had another sale! I’m never sure how much I really ought to talk about them before the publication actually happens, but it looks like this one will be published within the next couple of months, both on the web and as an EPUB. The story may also become available some months after that in print format, anthologized with other stories from the same online magazine.

. . . and meandering prose. I wish I had some kind of an exciting story involving time travel or at least publications as an excuse, but the truth is, I am trying to get healthy. Emphasis on trying. I actually had sinus surgery two weeks ago, after about a dozen years of doctors shuffling me around trying to figure out why I get sick so often. I find that the recovery process is harder than I had anticipated, and it leaves my head awfully fuzzy much of the time.

In between bouts of fuzzy-headedness, I’m still editing and even poking (slowly) at my current attempt at short fiction. So save thatfar, I think the zombies have gone quite well, and I’m now deciding how to introduce the bikers.

I continue to look forward to my next publication, which will be in a Dagan Books anthology entitled Fish. The release has been slightly delayed, but is still scheduled for sometime this spring. And then you will all get to meet Merritt and Susan and Davey, mwahahaha.

I know, I’m dull when I’m recovering from sinus surgery. If you want more frequent updates, please consider following me on Twitter. Twitter is one of those things I never would have thought I’d use, and then I discovered I can use it as a newsreader. And it runs on my eReader, so I can poke it even when I’m in no condition to sit upright in front of a computer. I may not be as loquacious as in my blog posts, but I can guarantee I’ll be more present. ;-)

The city where Nalo’s spaceship crashed is beautiful and ever-changing, a near-ideal environment governed by one central rule: its citizens always come first. “Stop Errors” is science fiction in a classic style, one of ten stories in Orbital Hearts, an anthology of love gone wrong.

Now available from Escape Collective Press, this electronic-only anthology runs $3.99 from either Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. We’ve already got some good reviews coming in based on advance review copies, and we hope to see some more now that it’s actually on sale.

I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s fantastic fiction of all kinds–science fiction, fantasy, and horror have all been mentioned specifically in the advance reviews–and it’s just in time for Valentine’s Day. If you’re not into hearts and flowers, don’t have special plans, or just generally feel like thumbing your nose at the notion of one very commercial day devoted to love, consider staying in with a book bent on proving that happily ever after may not be.

Never read an eBook? Read All About eBooks for an overview.

Good reviews are starting to come in for Orbital Hearts! Check ’em out on GoodReads! Release date 2/11/12 from Escape Collective Publishing. Want to celebrate Valentine’s Day by reading twisted tales of love gone wrong? It sounds like this will be the anthology for you. *g* Featuring my short story “Stop Errors.”

I have a solid release date for Orbital Hearts, the anti-Valentine’s Day anthology I mentioned. You can pick it up starting February 11 from both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. In the meantime, have a sneak peek at the artwork!

Orbital Hearts

As you can see, I’ve got a couple of advance review copies to giveaway. If you can commit to doing a review of the anthology–and keep in mind, we are looking for honest reviews, regardless of whether they’re *good* reviews–and you would like a free copy, leave me a comment or send me a message. What we’re looking for is reviews posted to Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com (GoodReads would be a bonus) as soon as the book goes up. There’s no requirement for length, but the better a reviewer gives the pros and cons of the book, the more helpful to review is.

My author’s copy of the trade paperback edition of WTF?! arrived today. It looks darn good, and the italics are, in fact, where they’re supposed to be in my story–we had great fun with that during the proofing process, let me tell you. *g*

I’m about 100 pages into the electronic version and really enjoying it. There’s a definite surrealist aesthetic going on, which means that if you like a very traditional storytelling style, this may not the the anthology for you. But if you can go with surrealism, it’s really pretty awesome so far. I just read “The Squirms,” which made me giggle very hard. Never eat zombie powder!

Seriously, if you need a last-minute gift for somebody, you might consider buying them a copy of the eBook version–both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble will let you buy an eBook for someone else and have it instantly delivered to them.

"Magic Man" is now available in WTF?!

Davis said his mother once referred to what he did as “hit-and-run hope.” I got the feeling she didn’t really approve.

“Magic Man” is a “concept story,” which makes it awfully hard to describe without giving away certain integral bits of the story. It’s near-future speculative magic realism, I guess you’d say, in a book with who knows what other kinds of genre-bending goodies. The cover price is $16.99 for the trade paperback or $8.99 for the eBook. If that seems high, just remember, you’re getting thirty-seven stories for that price, which is about double what you’ll find in most traditional anthologies. *g*

You can read “Magic Man” in the WTF?! anthology from Pink Narcissus Press. Available in trade paperback directly from the publisher, or buy it at Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble in both eBook and dead-tree formats.

The WTF?! anthology, containing my short story “Magic Man,” is now (really) available for pre-order in dead tree format directly from Pink Narcissus Press! It’s not yet listed through Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com, but I’ll let you know when it goes up there and when the electronic version is available. If you’re planning to order the dead tree version, please consider ordering directly from the publisher through one of these links, as the authors make a little more money that way.

Here’s a short teaser from “Magic Man” to tide you over. *g*

Davis said his mother once referred to what he did as “hit-and-run hope.” I got the feeling she didn’t really approve–he always looked sad when he mentioned her. But he had a job to do, and he was going to do it. Davis was a magic man, and we need more magic in our lives. “They killed Santa Claus,” he said.

“They’ve forgotten what wonder is.”