It’s been a while since I posted, so I’ve got quite a bit to talk about.  So let’s get on with it!
The most recent news is that Etched Offerings, the Pagan fiction anthology Chris and I have been working on for a very long time, is finally published! This is Misanthrope Press’s second short fiction anthology that isn’t specific to our writers’ group (Creative Minds Collective), and it has some really great stories in it. It also has some pretty exciting names inside, including S.J. Tucker (who did the introduction for us) and Llewellyn author Kenny Klein! We also have stories by three Pagan podcasters: Cory Hutcheson (of New World Witchery), Saturn Darkhope (of Pennies in the Well) writing under her pen name Samantha Herne, and Oraia Helene (of Between the Earth and Stars, formerly Media Astra ac Terra) writing under her pen name of… well, that one you actually have to figure out on your own! If you follow her show, then reading the author bios should make it pretty clear, even if the story itself doesn’t. Also the totally awesome cover you see to the left was done by yet another Pagan podcaster, Christopher Orapello.  I have a story in the book myself, and I’m very excited to be among such great company!
So, let me get the little commercial plug out of the way: you can get your very own copy of Etched Offerings at our website, www.misanthrope-press.com, or on Amazon. Or, if eBooks are more your style, you can get it at Smashwords instead!
And it’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, publication-wise, as another anthology (not published by Chris and I this time) I’ve been waiting for has finally been made available. Grim Fairy Tales, from Static Movement and edited by Dorothy Davies, is a collection of twisted fairy tales, including two of mine,” A Flash of Red” and “A Midsummer’s Nightmare.” ”A Flash of Red” is my twist on Little Red Riding Hood, and was also included in audio form (read by yours truly) in New World Witchery’s All Hallows Read episode this past October. “A Midsummer’s Nightmare” is seeing its first time in publication, and is my twisting of the Titania-meets-Bottom scene of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And another quick plug, you can get Grim Fairy Tales at Pill Hill Press or Amazon.
I’ve also recently had my second appearance on a podcast! Chris Orapello interviewed me about Etched Offerings and Misanthrope Press on episode 24 of his show The Infinite and the Beyond. The Infinite & The Beyond is one of my very favorite podcasts, and even though I’ve known Chris for a while now (he does all that fabulous cover art you see on the covers of Title Goes Here: !) it was just unbelievably exciting to actually be on the show! The bulk of the episode is an extensive interview with another of my podkin faves, the previously mentioned Oraia Helene. It’s a seriously great interview, and in addition to the expected metaphysical topics, they talk a lot about Oraia’s fiction writing.
Oraia’s new episode also came out this week, Episode 39 of Between the Earth and Stars (though the first episode under its new non-Latin name.) She talks about Etched a bit at the beginning, and mentions me by name—I’ve had a very famous-feeling week!
And I suppose that’ll be all for now. I could probably find more things I’ve failed to mention in my extended posting delay, but at this point, who’s really still reading this long thing anyway?
Thanks for reading!!
Inanna

A couple of weeks ago, I got an exciting email from Cory Hutcheson, one of the hosts of the podcast New World Witchery (which, for those unfamiliar, is exactly what it sounds like it is!) NWW’s October tradition is to suspend their normal episodes for the month and instead to offer us listeners a great selection of spooky/scary stories. Stories picked by Cory, a genuine folklorist, so you know they’re good. This year, for most of the month, he’s done stories by historical American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and (of course!) Edgar Allen Poe.

For the final episode of the month, however, they decided to do something different. Cory, being an excellent fiction writer himself, decided to include stories by authors he actually knows personally (or as personally as online, at least), and I made the list!  Cory sent the authors the file early, so I’ve already listened, and can assure you I’m in excellent company!

Now, I do want to apologize to all of you, because he wanted the authors to read our own stories, so instead of Cory’s deep, resonating voice, you get me and my little Skype microphone.  Also, I’m the only one included who’s not a podcaster–yikes! Hopefully, I held my own OK I do want to thank Chris Orapello profusely for his assistance while I was fighting with recording programs!

The other authors included are Saturn Darkhope (from the podcast Pennies in the Well), Oraia Helene (formerly Oraia Sphinx, of the Media Astra ac Terra podcast), Ben Reeder (read by Peter Paddon of The Crooked Path podcast), Scarlet Page (of the Lakefront Pagan Voice podcast) and Cory Hutcheson himself, of (of New World Witchery, of course!) They’re all great authors–three of them are actually in Misanthrope Press’s soon-t0-be-released Pagan fiction anthology Etched Offerings, in fact, and one (so far) has also appearedin Title Goes Here:. I’ve published these people myself, so you know I’m not full of shit here!

And one last thing I want to go into before I shoo you off to go listen. As his theme for this episode, Cory directs us to the infant tradition of All Hallows Read. I hadn’t heard of this before, and it’s just simply brilliant! Begun last year by Neil Gaiman, All Hallows Read is the tradition of giving the gift of a scary book for Halloween. Cory goes into it a bit more in the episode, and there’s a lot more detail still on the official website www.allhallowsread.com, so go check it out. There’s even a “book drop sticker” you can download, so you can simply label a book (or a stack of ‘em!) and leave them around for lucky people to find and claim as their own! (and maybe drop again next All Hallows, if we’re all even luckier?)

OK, that’s it for me… go listen to the podcast!

Inanna

My friend and fellow writer J.M. Vogel just got her first story acceptance back. And not just one, but two on the same day! Hell of a start, wouldn’t you say? I’ve read both stories, and had the honor of being a beta reader on one of them. They’re both available online now, so check ‘em out!

The Paranoia Conspiracy at Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers

Bernie and Gerard Take a Hike at The Fringe Magazine

J.M. also has stories in two our our writers’ group’s annual anthologies, so if you like her stuff, there is more to be had! The Creative Minds Collective vol. II includes “Beauty Becomes the Beast,” and the third volume, titled “Welcome to Havisham Corners” includes her story “Until Death Do Us Part.” She also edited the Havisham anthology, as well as came up with the whole premise of Havisham Corners itself.

And yes, those links to the CMC anthologies go shamelessly back to the Misanthrope Press bookstore. Sorry about that. They’re available in print only right now, but the eBooks should be available in the near future, if that’s more your style.

You can follow J.M. on Twitter, too, at @jmrv09 . And you should. She’s quite witty.

~Inanna

Hello!

Well, it’s a new month, and as promised I’ve just put up another eBook single at Smashwords. This month it’s “The Seventeenth Sphere,” the first in my SphereCasters series. This story was originally published in the anthology “Darkest Secrets.” Its companion piece, “Where Are You?” is available at Midnight in Hell. (A note for the curious – you can read the two stories in either order, but “Where Are You” was written first.)

Since it’s a short, the book is priced (like all my others) at just 99 cents, but, as always, this one is free for the next month to my site visitors & Twitter followers. Just enter coupon code SH86C when you check out! Also, as always, anyone kind enough to post an honest review of the story, let me know where I can find it and I’ll send you a coupon code for another free story!

Thanks as always! Hopefully I’ll have another short to announce next month, and some news between now & then as well.

~Inanna

So, a while back I posted that I’d been asked by one of my favorite publishers to write a foreword for one of their projects. Well, that book was The Scribing Ibis: An Anthology of Pagan Fiction in Honor of Thoth from Bibliotheca Alexandrina. I’m excited to announce that the book is now available! A bit sad that they beat our own Etched Offerings: Voices From the Cauldron of Story to press, but we all have the same goals, so I don’t mind all that much.

The book will be available at Amazon soon, as well as Smashwords in eBook form, but if you’re like me and are eager for some Pagan fiction NOW, it’s already up at CreateSpace. (And, speaking as a publisher who uses CreateSpace as well, I know that the publisher will make more money if you buy through the CreateSpace link, too!) Click here to link directly to the book at CreateSpace, or here to read more about it at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina website.

Meanwhile, we’re in the last stages getting Etched Offerings ready for publication. I’ve been working with Chris Orapello as he develops the cover concept (which is going to be freaking fabulous, let me tell you!) and we’ve finalized the Table of Contents order. I’m finishing up page layout, so once Chris is done with the art, and Sooj has the introduction for us, we’re good to go! We’re still hoping to have the book out by Mabon–fingers crossed!

Inanna

Hello, all!

I have just posted a new eBook on Smashwords, “Violin Concerto No. 9 in A Minor.” The story was originally published in the Snuff Books anthology Raw: Brutality as Art in 2009, and is yet another installment in my Barrow City series.

Get it for FREE for the next week (through August 14th) by using coupon code XE84J on the Smashwords website. Reviews on the Smashwords site and elsewere are always very much appreciated! (Also, if you post a review and let me know where it’s posted, I’ll send you a coupon code for another free story!)

I’ll probably be posting another story next month, very possibly the first in a new series, SphereCasters. Stay tuned!

~Inanna

So, I was making one of my regular checks at Smashwords to check up on the eBook short stories I have there, and discovered they’re having a sitewide sale. I decided what the hell, and included all three of my books. Because my books are already only 99 cents, I wasn’t allowed to just discount them, so that means from now until the end of the month they’re FREE!

In other news, I’m still reading the last of the subs for the forest-themed anthology I’m editing for Misanthrope Press, as well as reading the stories for the other fiction anthology I’m writing the foreword for. All this, and a short story due for my writers’ group anthology by the end of the month–yikes!!

That’s it for today, short & sweet, just wanted to get the word out about the free stories. For now, I’m off to get back to reading!!

Inanna

So, I just got an email last night from the Editor-in-Chief at one of my favorite publishers, asking me to write the foreword for a fiction anthology! It’s someone else’s ongoing project, so I won’t divulge any details at this time, but needless to say, I’m very excited! Having my name associated with a book put out by a publisher I greatly admire is exciting enough, but being invited to be a part of the project, especially to do something as important as writing the foreword, is just an amazing honor!

That’s really all I have for right now, I just had to share! Back to editing stories for Etched Offerings and trying to figure out what significance silica might have to an alien race for a SF story I’m writing…

Thanks for reading!

Inanna

I forgot to mention this when I did my post earlier this evening, but it deserves a post of its own anyway. My writing companion, business partner, and bestest friend C. Bryan Brown will be at Contamination this weekend! If you’re in the St. Louis area and plan to be at the con, look for him! He’ll be at the Post Mortem Press dealer table signing books at some point. Probably at a lot of points, because he’s not exactly the type of social butterfly who’ll be out mingling with the crowd! So hunt him down and make him talk to you!! Tell him Inanna sent you

Hello!

Well, it’s been longer than a week, but still, two in one month is pretty good for me! Last post, I talked about my stories I’d published as eBooks via Smashwords. Well, they’ve finally all been approved for the Smashwords premium catalog, which means the distribution process has begun! They’re already available for Nook at Barnes & Noble and at Diesel eBook Store. It’s funny; I’ve grown pretty well used to the idea that my work is available at Amazon, but I’m just downright giddy to be able to seach my name at Barnes & Noble and get results! Also, I’d never even heard of Diesel before I signed up with Smashwords, but it looks like a pretty cool site. They have a purchase rewards program (which, sadly, my books don’t get you any points for) and they also give you a 50 cent credit for every book review you post!

Distribution to Apple, Kobo, and Sony are all still pending, but they’ll probably be available sometime next week as well.

Meanwhile… Chris & I have finally gotten all of our decisions made for Misanthrope Press’s Pagan-themed fiction anthology, Etched Offerings. We’ve got some really great stories, and a good mix of newbies and recognizable names. And I finally got my own story for the book ready to go, which is really exciting for me at least! I’m sure I’ll have more news about that one as we go along. For now, I’m editing my half of the stories for Etched, and still reading subs for A Rustle of Dark Leaves. Turns out a loooottttt of people wanted to write about the forest!

I’ve found a new writing program that I’ve been using for about a week now, and I’m really loving it. Actually, I first tried it out last October, and hated it, but I’ve given it a second chance, and I’m glad I did. It’s called Liquid Story Binder. When I first played around with it last fall, I think I was just a bit overwhelmed with all the different bells and whistles and built-in gadgets. I was so busy trying to figure out how to incorporate every single one of them that I was spending all my time playing with the software and wasn’t actually writing at all. So, I said “screw this” and uninstalled it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to pull an old idea off the back burner and actually write it. I discovered, however, that like a dumbass the only version of my notes & outlines I’d saved was… you guessed it… the Liquid Story Binder files. So, grumbling and bitching, I reinstalled it and started a new 30 day trial, so I could copy/paste my info out and uninstall it once again. Imagine my surprise when I started playing around with it, and found that when I actually only use the features I need, it’s a pretty awesome suite! I went to the website to make sure it was even still out there, and turns out it’s on sale for the summer for less than half price! (sorry, no link; I recommend it, but this isn’t an infomercial after all! )

And finally… I now have 9 followers on Twitter. That’s pretty impressive for a person who’s literally never tweeted once! I only signed up for Twitter so I could see the Misanthrope Press and Title Goes Here: tweets that Chris sends out, but of course, people see who’s following whom, and decide to jump in and follow them, too! So I now have followers ranging from members of my writers’ group, to my cousin, to one of my favorite podcasters (!). So, I’m thinking I might actually have to start tweeting sometime in the near future… we’ll see…

And that’s it for me for now! More later Oh, and if you’re interested in following me just to see if I ever do actually tweet, I’m @inannagabriel.

~Inanna