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Wayward Wormhole"“ A Castle in Spain "“ REMINDER: Patreon Early Bird Fees end April 20!!

Bedrooms. That quiet, cozy sanctuary where all things heavy can be folded away, tucked into a corner and laid down for a while. My quiet time is important to me. I work alone 90 percent of the time and find it hard to talk to others without taking breaks.

When I saw the size and comfort of the bedrooms at Castell de Llaes, I was not only charmed, but tremendously relieved. They’re as big as any standard hotel room, yet built with stone blocks carved back in 998 AD. Here’s four of the eight rooms. The owners have moved the two beds close together, but there’s lot of room to move them apart.

There is at least one outlet in every room, so you can charge your phones and computers, as well as use any medical devices, such as a CPAP machine. Linens are changed weekly.

Plus, every room has stunning views of the Spanish countryside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’re reaching the end of the Patreon Early Bird submission, I want to address one other concern I’ve heard from applicants. Bathrooms.

There are four full bathrooms at the Castle. Two in the tower, and two in the main area. They are modern, with a shower, toilet, and bidet. Bathrooms are thoroughly cleaned weekly, or as needed. We hope to see you there!

Check out http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/how-to-apply-for-the-wayward-wormhole-regular-and-virtual-versions/ for more information.

Altered America: Steampunk Stories

Steampunk fans will rejoice in the appearance of Altered America: Steampunk Stories, collecting Nebula and World Fantasy Award-nominated author Cat Rambo’s steampunk fantasies, including “Clockwork Fairies,” “Snakes on a A Train,” and “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” into a single book. Rambo’s wry humor, precise and evocative descriptions, and ability to create a world with a few deft touches are showcased in these ten tales.

Includes “Clockwork Fairies,” “Rare Pears and Greengages,” “Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?”, Darrell Award nominated “Memphis BBQ,” “Rappacini’s Crow,” “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” “Snakes On a Train,” “Web of Blood and Iron,” “Ticktock Girl” and “Seven Clockwork Angels.”

And the Last Trump Shall Sound

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”—First Corinthians 15:52

From New York Times bestselling author, Harry Turtledove, critically-acclaimed novelist, James Morrow, and Nebula Award winner, Cat Rambo, comes a masterful anthology of three sensational novellas depicting a dark fictional future of the United States.

And the Last Trump Shall Sound is a prophetic warning about where we, as a nation, may be headed. Mike Pence is President of the United States after years of divisive, dogmatic control by Donald Trump. The country is in turmoil as the Republicans have strengthened their stronghold on Congress, increasing their dominance. And with the support of the Supreme Court, more conservative than ever, State governments become more marginalized by the authoritarian rule of the Federal government.

There are those who cannot abide by what they view as a betrayal of the nation’s founding principles. Once united communities break down and the unthinkable suddenly becomes the only possible solution: the end of the Union.

The authors’ depiction of a country that is both unfamiliar and yet unnervingly all too realistic, make you realize the frightening possible consequences of our increased polarization—a dire warning to all of us of where we may be headed unless we can learn to come together again.

Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight

This debut solo collection Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you’ll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity. Cat Rambo doesn’t simply amaze and delight, she restores wonder to her readers with every page. You won’t simply believe that pigs can fly, you’ll question why you ever doubted the premise at all.

If This Goes On

Some of today’s most visionary writers of science fiction project us forward to the world of the future; a world shaped by nationalism, isolationism, and a growing divide between the haves and have nots. This anthology sits at the intersection of politics, speculative fiction, and American identity. The choices we make today; the policies of our governments and the values that we, as people, embrace are going to shape our world for decades to come. Or break it.

Cat Rambo invites you to worlds very like this one― but just a little different. Including:
-“Green Glass: A Love Story” by Lily Yu, Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee, and winner of the 2012 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, filters the future of now through a wholly relatable lens: relationships and marriage.
-Hugo-winning editor Scott Edelman’s “The Stranded Time Traveler Embraces the Inevitable” expertly employs an age-old -science fiction convention to tell a deeply human tale of love, loss, and desperate hope.
-Streaming our everyday lives has become commonplace, but in “Making Happy” Zandra Renwick examines a very uncommon consequence of broadcasting your every experience.
-Former Minnesota Viking and noted equal rights advocate Chris Kluwe’s “The Machine” deals with one of the most important and hotly contested questions of the day: what truly defines citizenship and American identity?
-Nebula winner Sarah Pinsker’s “That Our Flag Was Still There” uses possibly the most powerful symbol in American iconography to create a frightening and darkly illuminating vision of freedom of speech.
-NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Literary Work Steven Barnes offers up the consequences of integrating technology and surveillance into our daily lives with his detective story “The Last Adventure of Jack Laff: The Dayveil Gambit”

The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories

(co-written with Jeff VanderMeer) In a world where magic is fading and science begun to ascend, a young surgeon in medical school experiences an obsession so forbidden that its realization will change him forever. “She looked as if she were asleep, still with that slight smile, floating on the thick sargassum, glowing from the emerald tincture that would keep the small crabs and other scavengers from her. She looked otherworldly and beautiful.” Sometimes life is not enough. Also including five more stories of dark wonder from Rambo and VanderMeer, from “The Dead Girl’s Wedding March” to “The Farmer’s Cat.” Enter a world of rat suitors, severed arms, and Fungi Et Fruits de Mer, served up with prose both appetizing and uncanny. Dark fantasy has never been quite so decadent . . .

Neither Here Nor There

Cat Rambo’s newest collection of fantasy fiction contains both work original to the collection as well as work from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and other leading fantasy fiction magazines. The work is presented in the same double-sided format as Rambo’s previous collection, Near + Far, of which Don Sakers of Asimov’s said, “If you want some really excellent stories, get the e-book. If you also want a physical object to warm the heart of any print-book collector, go for the paper version.”

Neither Here showcases alt-world fantasy, including stories set in Tabat, the world of her first novel Beasts of Tabat, while Nor There features stories set in our own world, including “The Wizards of West Seattle,” original to the collection. In their starred review, Publishers Weekly said, “This double collection showcases Rambo’s versatility within the fantasy genre. Find out Ursula Vernon called Rambo “one of the brightest talents in the field,” Jodi Lynn Nye said, “Rambo has a gift for immersing her reader into a vivid universe full of adventure, sensuality, wit, and poignant observation,” and NY Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson simply advised, “Cat Rambo is endlessly innovative, ingenious, and just plain entertaining. Read her stories.” “

The Reinvented Detective

(co-edited with Jennifer Brozek) What happens when time and technology change the definition of crime and punishment?

Science fiction often focuses on future technology without considering the society housing it. Social norms may change as tech changes — or not. What will criminals, investigators, judges, and juries look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge the possibilities of new laws, new police methods, and the birth of sentient Artificial Intelligence, as well as all the ways they can clash or combine?

The Reinvented Detective presents stories that complicate law and order as well as the concept of criminals, detectives, punishment, and justice for all by showing how shifting technology, the rise of sentient AIs, and shifting social attitudes may affect what is not only acceptable, but expected, within both real world and digital communities—and everything in-between. These stories reinvent detective and true crime tropes, recasting them for the 21st century, and above all, experimenting, astonishing, and entertaining.

Includes stories and poetry by Premee Mohammed, Harry Turtledove, Jane Yolen, Peter Clines, Lisa Morton, Rosemary Clarie Smith, and more!

The Reinvented Heart

(co-edited with Jennifer Brozek) What happens when emotions like love and friendship span vast distances — in space, in time, and in the heart? Science fiction often focuses on future technology and science without considering the ways social structures will change as tech changes — or not. What will relationships look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge possibilities of new genders and ways of thinking about them?

The Reinvented Heart presents stories that complicate sex and gender by showing how shifting technology may affect social attitudes and practices, stories that include relationships with communities and social groups, stories that reinvent traditional romance tropes and recast them for the 21st century, and above all, stories that experiment, astonish, and entertain.

Carpe Glitter

Nebula Award-winning novelette from Cat Rambo, author of You Sexy Thing and the Tabat Quartet. What do you do when someone else’s past forces itself on your own life? Sorting through the piles left behind by a grandmother who was both a stage magician and a hoarder, Persephone Aim finds a magical artifact from World War II that has shaped her family history. Faced with her mother’s desperate attempt to take the artifact for herself, Persephone must decide whether to hold onto the past–or use it to reshape her future.

Moving from Idea to Finished Draft

Find multiple ways to take a story idea and flesh it out into a complete draft, looking at different ways in which ideas may manifest, such as plot, character, literary device, theme, scene, title, prompt, historical moment, collaboration, tribute to another writer, and more. Each section discusses a specific way an idea can appear, what that provides the writer, pitfalls to watch out for, and possible next steps, along with writing exercises designed to let the reader test each technique and idea and one of Rambo's stories that started in that way.

Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook
Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook

(co-edited with Fran Wilde) The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook features dishes as creative and varied in taste as the authors who shared them. (Please do not eat actual authors.) From Alien Scones to At the Fruitcake of Madness, DOOM Cookies, Falling Cloud Cake, and Miss Murder’s Black Forest Trifle, these recipes will help you prepare the perfect celebratory spread, no matter who—or what—you’re feeding!

All proceeds from this project will go to SFWA’s Legal Fund, which was established to create loans for eligible member writers who have writing-related court costs and other related legal expenses.

Near + Far

Whether set in terrestrial oceans or on far-off space stations, Cat Rambo’s masterfully told stories explore themes of gender, despair, tragedy, and the triumph of both human and non-human alike. Cats talk, fur wraps itself around you, aliens overstay their welcome, and superheroes deal with everyday problems.

Rumor Has It

Coming September 24 - the third book of the Disco Space Opera.

Devil's Gun

Life’s hard when you’re on the run from a vengeful pirate-king…

When Niko and her crew find that the intergalactic Gate they’re planning on escaping through is out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a pop-up restaurant to serve the dozens of other stranded ships.

But when an archaeologist shows up claiming to be able to fix the problem, Niko smells something suspicious cooking. Nonetheless, they allow Farren to take them to an ancient site where they may be able to find the weapon that could stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge.

There, in one of the most dangerous places in the Known Universe, each of them will face ghosts from their past: Thorn attempts something desperate and highly illegal to regain his lost twin, Atlanta will have to cast aside her old role and find her new one, Dabry must confront memories of his lost daughter, and Niko is forced to find Petalia again, despite a promise not to seek them out.

Meanwhile, You Sexy Thing continues to figure out what it wants from life—which may not be the same desire as Niko and the rest of the crew.

You Sexy Thing
Just when they thought they were out…

TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it.

Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.

But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Rambo.

2022 Dragon Award — Nominee

2022 Locus Award — Nominee

Exiles of Tabat

Revolution.

Riot.

Enslaved magical creatures and an exiled, reluctant hero.

Bella Kanto finds herself aboard a hostile ship bound for a frontier town. When she encounters an old lover along the way, she has a chance to escape—but does she really want to take it?

Meanwhile apprentice Lucy and her friend Maz have been kidnapped from Tabat and taken to the Southern Isles in search of ancient magic. They fear what will happen when they get there, particularly when their kidnapper realizes he’s wrong about Lucy’s identity.

Return to a world where magical creatures fight for their right to be free in a system that makes use of their work and sometimes their very bodies in a city full of revolution and riot, ready for the return of its lost champion: the reluctant Bella Kanto.

Hearts of Tabat

Fireworks, riots, and rousing speeches all mark the vast societal upheavals taking place in the city of Tabat. But personal upheavals reflect the chaos. Adelina Nettlepurse, noted historian and secret owner of Spinner Press, watches the politics and intrigue with interest, only to find herself drawn into its heart by a dangerous text and a wholly unsuitable love affair with a man well below her station.

The match offered by Merchant Mage Sebastiano Silvercloth would be much more acceptable, but Sebastiano is hampered by his own troubles at the College of Mages, where the dwindling of magical resources threatens Tabat itself. And worse, his father demands he marry as soon as possible.

When Adelina’s best friend, glamorous and charming gladiator Bella Kanto, is convicted of sorcery and exiled, the city of Tabat undergoes increasing turmoil as even the weather changes to reflect the confusion and loss of one of its most beloved heroes.

Meanwhile the Beasts of Tabat — magical creatures such as dryads, minotaurs, and centaurs — are experiencing a revolution of their own, questioning a social order that holds them at its lowest level. But who is helping the Beasts in their subversive uprising?

In the second book of the Tabat Quartet, award-winning author Cat Rambo expands the breathtaking story from Beasts of Tabat with new points of view as Adelina, Sebastiano, and others add their voices. Tabat is a world, a society, and a cast of characters unlike any you have read before

Beasts of Tabat
Mythical beasts. Legendary gladiators. The fate of a boy entwined with epic revolution.

When countryboy Teo arrives in the coastal city of Tabat, he finds it a hostile place, particularly to a boy hiding an enormous secret. It’s also a city in turmoil, thanks to an ancient accord to change governments and the rising demands of Beasts, the Unicorns, Dryads, Minotaurs and other magical creature on whose labor and bodies Tabat depends. And worst of all, it’s a city dedicated to killing Shifters, the race whose blood Teo bears.

When his fate becomes woven with that of Tabat’s most famous gladiator, Bella Kanto, his existence becomes even more imperiled. Kanto’s magical battle determines the weather each year, and the wealthy merchants are tired of the long winters she’s brought. Can Teo and Bella save each other from the plots that are closing in on them from all sides?

a fascinating world of magic, intrigue, and revolution.”—Publishers Weekly

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"Thank you for making the Wayward Wormhole a reality. I found the instructors, as well as the students, to be welcoming and collegial. The content of the lectures was challenging, but not overwhelming. There were so many things that don’t get covered in the kind of short courses I have been taking until now, and then the opportunity to put our lessons into immediate practice created a sense of relevance that I’ve been missing elsewhere. The instructors were not only of the highest quality, but they carried an infectious sense of enthusiasm that was profoundly uplifting. I learned, in those twenty-one days, but I also learned to trust myself and to love what I’m doing. My favorite quote of the month was from Anne Leckie when she said, “If you make a mistake with writing, it won’t put anyone in the emergency room.” I still think about this. And finally, the sense of camaraderie that was developed between us, the participants, is something that I can’t put a price tag on. Thanks again for making this possible. I will never be the same."

~Stephanie L. Johnson

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Why The Wayward Wormhole Believes in "Destination Workshops"

The Wayward Wormhole Barbados 2026

May Blog

Why do we insist on creating “destination workshops?” We believe personal experiences add interesting elements that ring with authenticity to a writer’s worldbuilding. Here are a few things I wouldn’t have learned about Barbados by doing research online.

  1. Barbados is a coral island with over eighty-five percent of the island’s surface composed of coralline limestone. How does this affect daily life? It turns out that this coral bed keeps pushing upward, making it difficult to maintain the roads. As we traveled around the island, we encountered major thoroughfares closed off because a shift in the coralline caused the road to collapse. Potholes were everywhere. The locals would swerve or suddenly dropped their speed to save wear and tear on their vehicles. Repairs were constant, yet the potholes and collapses kept happening—usually in the same spots.
  2. Because of the tropical heat in Barbados, sheep do not have wool. They look like goats, but with longer tails and are raised for their meat.
  3. Barbados has tiny tree frogs that emit a high-pitched whistle starting at dusk and go late into the night. I’m used to the late summer, early autumn chirping of the tree frogs in North America. It took a few nights to get used to the volume of noise those little creatures made outside our windows.
  4. Barbados has few snakes—none that are native to the area, anyway. The Small Indian mongoose has made sure of that. Is a good thing? I’m familiar with snake danger—I’m not so familiar with mongoose danger.
  5. Friendly acknowledgements are a custom in Barbados. Anytime Cat and I approached someone’s space, whether we wanted to talk with them, or were just passing by, Barbadians look directly at you and say hello, or good evening, or another friendly greeting. It made me feel welcome and safe. I can’t tell you how nice that was.
  6. The West side of the island has powerful, crashing waves that leaves grey sand along the shoreline. The East side of the island has calm waters and powdery, white sand—great for swimming, and full of marine animals like manta rays, and both the Leatherback and Hawksbill Turtles. The Southern area in between the two, mixes the two sands together, giving it a pink hue.

I’m sure you would note different things than me, but time is short now, and noting the difference between research and experiencing a location’s reality can’t be emphasized enough.

The application window for The Wayward Wormhole Barbados – The Art of the Novella closes on May 15, 2025.

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The Wayward Wormhole lands in Spain

Information about the Wayward Wormhole Intensive Writing Workshop

There’s a stillness atop Sant Bartomeu hill that settles my bones and calms my brain. At 998 meters above sea level, I lean against a centuries-old stone wall, part of the Castell de Llaés, and look across the fields below. Thirty-nine km to the right is a second hill of 1025 meters, where I can see remains of the castle of Besora as it sits alone with its past. In the other direction, at 961 meters, sits the medieval remains of Castell de Milany. With the slightest effort, I lower a cellophane sheet over the scene and add people in tunics walking with horses wearing baroque saddles. A second overlay adds dusk and wispy tendrils of cloud to the picture. Torches flare along the castle walls to both sides of me, and the glow of a central fire, ready to send messages across the gap between them as night descends. -Janet K. Smith

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