Another offering is Peter J. Wacks' "The Little Airship That Could".I was pleased to be asked to participate in the very cool Fairypunk Stories project. Here’s a teaser from the version of Sleeping Beauty that I just sent off.
(From “Seven Clockwork Angels, All Dancing”)
If a clock has ticked, it must tock, and thus time moves along. And in every tick and tock, there’s a story. Sometimes more than one.
Once upon a tick and tock, there was a great Lord and Lady, who were Patrons of the Arts and Sciences. They endowed libraries and laboratories, and commissioned portraits and poems and marvelous machines that could pay chess or spin a silk thread so fine you could barely see it or build their own, even tinier machines that could make tinier machines in turn, and so on and so on, until they produced the head of a pin inhabited by seven clockwork angels, all dancing.
The Lord and Lady loved the works they commissioned, but they yearned to produce something of their own. One day it came to pass that the Lady announced to her Lord that they had collaborated very well indeed, and that she would soon produce an heir.
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
You may also like...
Guidelines for Guest Blog Posts
Assembling an itinerary for a blog tour? Promoting a book, game, or other creative effort that’s related to fantasy, horror, or science fiction and want to write a guest post for me? Alas, I cannot pay, but if that does not dissuade you, here’s the guidelines. Guest posts are publicized on Twitter, several Facebook pages and groups, my newsletter, and in my weekly link round-ups; you are welcome to link to your site, social media, and other related material.
Send a 2-3 sentence description of the proposed piece along with relevant dates (if, for example, you want to time things with a book release) to cat AT kittywumpus.net. If it sounds good, I’ll let you know.
I prefer essays fall into one of the following areas but I’m open to interesting pitches:
Interesting and not much explored areas of writing
Writers or other individuals you have been inspired by
Your favorite kitchen and a recipe to cook in it
A recipe or description of a meal from your upcoming book
Women, PoC, LGBT, or otherwise disadvantaged creators in the history of speculative fiction, ranging from very early figures such as Margaret Cavendish and Mary Wollstonecraft up to the present day.
Women, PoC, LGBT, or other wise disadvantaged creators in the history of gaming, ranging from very early times up to the present day.
F&SF volunteer efforts you work with
Length is 500 words on up, but if you’ve got something stretching beyond 1500 words, you might consider splitting it up into a series.
When submitting the approved piece, please paste the text of the piece into the email. Please include 1-3 images, including a headshot or other representation of you, that can be used with the piece and a 100-150 word bio that includes a pointer to your website and social media presences. (You’re welcome to include other related links.)
Or, if video is more your thing, let me know if you’d like to do a 10-15 minute videochat for my YouTube channel. I’m happy to handle filming and adding subtitles, so if you want a video without that hassle, this is a reasonable way to get one created. 🙂 Send 2-3 possible topics along with information about what you’re promoting and its timeline.
Hydra House cover for Near by Cat Rambo. Art by Stephen Counley; cover deisgn by Tod McCoy.Today’s the official day that Near + Far is launched upon the world. Huzzah! If you’re wondering how to buy or spread the word about the book, here’s some details.
Some of you have received the mail I sent out talking about what you could do to spread word of the book. Here’s some of the pertinent details from that for those as wants such.As you know, publishing is changing and increasingly authors are part of the promotion process. I’m asking — if you should feel so inclined — for your help if getting the buzz out.
So what can you do?
Well, sure, buy the book is top of the list. But we don’t all have the budget. Here’s some other ways that you can assist in getting the word out about Near + Far:
1. Request it through your library. Most will even let you do this online.
2. Request it at your local bookstore. It’s available through Ingram, a major book distributor, so they should be able to get it.
3. Write an Amazon review or tag the book on Amazon. Amazon reviews are great! But if you don’t have the time to write one up, you can still help. One way that often gets overlooked is tagging. Scroll to the bottom of the Amazon page for the book until you see “Tags Customers Associate with This Product.” Add tags that you think might help someone find the book, if you notice anything missing, or just go through and check the boxes next to the tags you think are relevant (which is hopefully all of them.)
4. Review it or add it to your to-read list on book sites. Reviews on Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/work/13024203/book/89765198), and Shelfari are great!
5. Blog about the book. Any mention of the book, particularly one that explains why you liked it, is awesome. There’s actually some cool little things about the book:
The tête-bêche format, also known as the Ace Double. Flip the Near side of the book over, and you’ll find Far on the other side.
The interior artwork is by long-time friend Mark W. Tripp.
If you’re one of the people who’s already received a necklace, take a picture of it with yourself to send me for the Near + Far page. Or alternately, the necklace with someone/something/draped across a rotting log/in a bookstore/whatever?
Stories range from very early to very recent, spanning markets from Asimov’s and Lightspeed to small and somewhat obscure anthologies. I’ve included some of my favorite stories, such as “The Mermaids Singing Each to Each,” “Surrogates,” and “Bus Ride to Mars.”
6. Share news of it on social networks. Sharing links on Facebook and other social networks is great. I’ll be posting links to blog entries about the book on the main networks I use: Facebook, Google +, and Twitter. Just favoriting, plusing or liking posts helps give them a little Google juice. Even going to the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nearplusfar and clicking “Like” helps.
7. Share news of it on mailing lists and other groups. Pass the news along to your fellows on writing or SF-related discussion boards, BBSes, mailing lists, and other forums.
8. Share links on bookmarking sites. If you use bookmarking sites like Delicious, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, please think about bookmarking pages about the book. Here’s some pages that might be worth bookmarking:
Assembling an itinerary for a blog tour? Promoting a book, game, or other creative effort that’s related to fantasy, horror, or science fiction and want to write a guest post for me? Alas, I cannot pay, but if that does not dissuade you, here’s the guidelines. Guest posts are publicized on Twitter, several Facebook pages and groups, my newsletter, and in my weekly link round-ups; you are welcome to link to your site, social media, and other related material.