The tree is beautiful and they call her Eden. Her branches reach for the stars. But this tree does not sprout from the dirt. Eden fills the sky, high in orbit above the blue expanse of Uranus. Eden changes humanity’s very concept of extraterrestrial life.

From the second he sets foot on Lola, Malcolm’s own future is in jeopardy. He soon finds that love, friendship, and his own mortality tremble like a leaf at the sound of Eden’s call.

EDEN, Phil Rossi’s beautifully haunting podcast, is now a beautifully haunting novella from Dragon Moon Press. Available in trade paperback, ebook (forthcoming) and collector’s edition hardcover.

“Science can’t explain what is sometimes called ‘magic.’ Magic can’t explain the wonder of EDEN.”
– Scott Sigler, New York Times best-selling author of CONTAGIOUS

Please join Phil’s Amazon Rush on December 8th. Get your copy of EDEN and help propel the celebrated author of CRESCENT up the charts.

Thanks for your patience! The December 2011 Open Submissions guidelines are now up at dragonmoonpress.com, where they will remain through the month of December.

The rules are slightly different this time around. Most notably, DMP is ONLY seeking fantasy (traditional fantasy, sword and sorcery, epic fantasy) and urban fantasy. DMP is solid on science fiction for 2012, we just need a couple more great titles to round out a great list.

As always, opening submissions in December is a risk. It’s when many publishers are closed for submissions due to the holidays. It also immediately follows NaNoWriMo. As always, DMP does not want your just-completed NaNoWriMo manuscript. Let us consider it next year, once it’s been through NaNoEdMo.

As always, send an electronic query that includes your name, contact info, title, genre and word count. Paste the first fifteen pages into the body of the email. Please do not send attachments. Submissions that haven’t consulted the guidelines will not be considered.

Check out the guidelines for more information, and spread the word. We’re looking forward to a great month!

I don’t have any children, so I’ve never been the parent of an honors child. But, I’ve been an acquiring editor for a while now, and I think the pride and joy I feel when one of my book-children does well are probably the same buzz that a parent gets when a child wins some huge accomplishment.

Publishers Weekly listed Triptych by JM Frey as one of the Best SF-Fantasy-Horror Books of 2011. In championing a book that goes outside humanity to tell a poignant, human story, I’ve come to know a wonderful friend and author, I’ve learned that my acquisitions-fu does not steer me wrong, I’ve learned a lot about how to shamelessly promote a book with queer content in non-queer spaces, and I’ve watched both story and author grow, blossom, and thrive.

To say that I could not be more proud, does not begin to express how important the experience of working with JM Frey and Triptych has been for me.

Download a sample free for Kindle | Buy on the Publisher’s website: Kindle, ePub or Print | Buy on Amazon | Buy on B&N

If you like it, please post a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews help authors. Editors like happy authors. :)

First, a big thank you to all 669 readers who participated in our first WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME giveaway on Goodreads!

Congrats to our winners, Gabriel and
BL834 — your copies are in the mail!

Thanks again, everyone who participated! As a reminder, the Kindle edition is only $3.99. And keep an eye out — we may do another Goodreads giveaway toward the end of the year.

LIGHTBRINGER by K.D. McEntire

Pyr kicks off their new Young Adult line with LIGHTBRINGER by debut author K.D. McEntire, releasing on November 15.

This was a FUN book to work on, and I’m excited to see the early reviews starting to come in!

“Lightbringer is a superb unforgettable young adult romantic urban fantasy filled with a strong venue that will have readers believing in the McEntire mythos.” — Worlds of Wonder

“The girl-meets-ghost love story is more than it appears to be on the jacket cover… Lightbringer is a fun read full of mystery and surprises, and one that will leave you looking for the upcoming sequels.” — #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat)

Available for preorder: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million

Ed Greenwood and I sat down for a great chat with Patrick Hester (@atfmb) about all sorts of things, including anthology editing, Forgotten Realms, WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME, and (I neither confirm nor deny) bubblegum.

It was a great time, and you can listen to episode 083 here.

SECRET PROJECT #1

A long while back, I tweeted this photo of a secret non-writing project in progress:

Guesses started to pour in; the most common was “seahorse.”

In actuality, it was one of these:

It was a secret because I was making it as a gift for Ed Greenwood, to celebrate the release of our anthology. :)

It came out like this:

And it made this dear friend very happy:

SECRET PROJECT #2

 Around the time that I started spending my free evenings cross-stitching, J.M. Frey, one of our fabulous authors from WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME, offered to take the lead in the production of a book trailer for the anthology.

J.M.’s “secret project” was, I’ll be the first to admit, epic in scale compared to mine. It soon had the help of filmmaker Nadine Bell (@makegowork) and filmmaker Jason Leaver (@HeyBishop), a beautiful re-scored original soundtrack by composer Adrian Ellis (@Adrian_Ellis), and the acting talents of HERO contributor Erik Buchanan, with props on generous loan from Chris Warrilow, a Toronto-area film industry propsmaker.

HERO is a hard book to promote, because it spans the full range of the F/SF genre. But J.M.’s vision translated beautifully, and we owe a serious debt of thanks to all the industry professionals who volunteered their time and resources to create a truly top-notch video. I would not have been able to do half the job of putting this project together, and I’m awed by the finished result.

Or, visit it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M60GduVCrE.

I got back from GenCon last night. Instead of relaxing and decompressing, I ended up launching right into a game of Power Grid, which made for a nice transition home.

I spent most of the con at my booth, selling When the Hero Comes Home. If you purchased it this weekend, thank you! If you’ve read it and liked it, please consider posting a review on your blog, on Amazon or on Goodreads. Or at the very least, send me a comment and let me know!

The people around me made Author’s Avenue and the Writers Symposium a pleasure. I got to spend quality time with writers, editors and game designers. I bought shiny things. I made new friends, saw old friends, and got to meet some long-time friends in person. I got a couple exciting new opportunities, and I was able to open a few doors for others, as well. I gave writing advice. I got writing advice. I got turned on to a few new games I want to check out, and books I want to read. I wore a corset, and posed for pictures with monsters, giant kitties, and Ed Greenwood. I remained vigilant in my abstinence from caffeine. Somehow.

While I was gone, Inkpunks posted a guest post I wrote: On Seeing It Through is advice and encouragement for writers trying to survive publishing’s long wait.

Also while I was gone, Dead Robots Society posted an interview with Ed Greenwood and me. We talk about all sorts of writery topics, including our new book, editing, heroes and their journeys, tips for putting anthologies together, and the importance of treating people well.

Check out the links, enjoy, read, listen, and so on. Normal service has more or less resumed!

Next stop: WorldCon…Will I see you there?

Jenn of the Jennisodes RPG Podcast interviewed me and Ed Greenwood about WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME.

Ed says wonderfully insightful things, and I ramble a lot and stumble over my words. Hopefully I say a few insightful things too. :)

Have a listen!

Thanks for having us, Jenn!

Today I’m working on copyedits for Book 2 of Andrew P. Mayer’s Society of Steam series, Hearts of Smoke and Steam, for Pyr.

Rather than post my own thoughts, I’ll direct you to a great interview that Andrew has just done with SF Signal. He says interesting things about writing the book, and about what puts the punk in steampunk. Go and have a listen, pick up The Falling Machine, and enjoy!