7/17/2023 - Today is for Dragons, Tomorrow is for Author Workshops and Murder Mysteries in Space

Good morning,

I am stoked about two upcoming novella releases, which I am getting ready to send to first readers—(if you want to joining the launch team, simply reply and let me know; more details below). I am also prepping a workshop for this coming weekend (Saturday 7/22) for those who want to build comfort and confidence talking about their own books. But first, I want to take a moment to share the newly released anthologies from Zombies Need Brains, including DRAGONESQUE.

DRAGONESQUE, edited by S. C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier features stories from Esther Friesner, David B Coe, Jean Marie Ward, and me. If you’ve ever wanted to know why so many cultures have dragon lore but so few dragon bones are found on our planet, you can find out in my story “Sheep Rarely Wear Gold.”

DRAGONESQUE is one of four themed anthologies released this year, which also include some stories from Murderbirds authors. You can find them all here: https://zombies-need-brains-llc.square.site/#OcyuVT

Upcoming Workshop for Authors of All Genres: “Get Comfortable Talking About Your Book”

If you are an author, you probably get the question “So what is your book about?” And unless you have a lot of practice or literally no capacity for sheepishness, you probably know that this question is hard to answer.

As someone vulnerable to sheepishness, I have had to put in the research, the planning, and the practice, and I’m still learning with every new convention, panel, or podcast. As a high school teacher and creative writing coach, however, I had to get over that nervousness for myself early on and develop lists of prompts and scaffolds for others. This coming Saturday (7/22 at 4pm Eastern), I’m hosting a workshop for adults for exactly this practice.

I’ll note up front that this workshop is not about pitching to agents but rather having comfortable, organic(-sounding) conversations with potential customers, writing peers, friends, family, and whatever random stranger asks about your work.

All you have to have is a novel complete or in progress and a stable internet connection. This is a “pay what you want” interactive workshop, meaning there will be a paypal link provided, and your admission rate is up to you. If you plan to attend, please preregister at this Zoom link, and say that you are a newsletter subscriber in the registration form. Because there will be facilitated opportunities to share and practice, the number of attendees is limited.

Upcoming Novellas—2 Murder Mysteries in Space

In the next two months, I will be releasing two more stories, both in the “under two hour read” category, both about untimely demise on space ships: “Dead of Night” and “Murder on the Barge Inn.” I will be sending both out to early readers prior to release.

Dead of Night 

Crewman Doyle, Night Custodian on the Interstellar Settlement Ship Lincoln has a routine job:

--Wake up at shift change

--Check the ship’s systems

--Don’t slip into night-drift psychosis—which they say can happen to anyone, especially the only person awake in deep-space for hours on end every night

But even a litany of coping strategies and a soothing song on loop can’t help when Doyle discovers the body of a murdered crewman. That’s not part of the Night Custodian’s handbook, but safely rousing more senior crew takes far too long for comfort, and letting a murderer roam free could be deadly for everyone.

On a race to follow signs of foul play and prevent mission sabotage, Doyle quickly learns that some things are far more frightening than being alone in the corridors of a giant starship.

Murder on the Barge Inn

You are cordially invited to the event of our lifetimes…

An eccentric billionaire has chartered the Barge Inn, former cargo hauler turned luxury space hotel, for his two-hundred-fiftieth birthday extravaganza with an exclusive ten-person guest list.

Dell Petrovsky and her robotically augmented colleague were not invited.

But as Company Assessors, it’s their job to track down the vessel when it fails to make its rendezvous. If they’re really lucky, they’ll get to drag some snobs back by their ears. Both assessors have surveyed enough strange scenes to brace for far less pleasant outcomes, but nothing can prepare them for the aftermath of the psychotic game that’s taken place or the process of finding corpses, one by one.

Worse still, they might become players eleven and twelve as soon as they cross the airlock threshold—but can either survive a game no one was meant to win?

If you are interested in reading either or both before launch, please let me know in an email reply. Should you join the launch team for either, you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a paperback copy of Murder on the Barge Inn when the story goes live. If you’re new to the practice of launch teams, the practice generally works like this: you receive a free early electronic version of the story, then if you enjoy it, you leave a positive rating and review when it releases.

That covers it for me for today. I’m about to crank out another couple thousand words for the next novel. But if you want to hear more behind the scenes commentary and missed last week’s episode for Conversation and a Cocktail, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI2MZdZa7CQ

As always, happy reading,

Mike Jack Stoumbos