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Trek writers original works

There are two Kickstarters now running that I'm involved with that you should all go out and support right now this second. :)

The first is Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups, edited by Jonathan Maberry & Keith R.A. DeCandido, which features 15 (or 18, if we hit some stretch goals) stories that put some classic characters together. A bunch of Trek scribes are involved, including:
  • Rigel Ailur (Marian of Sherwood and Annie Oakley)
  • Kevin J. Anderson (Captain Nemo and Frankenstein's monster)
  • Derek Tyler Attico (Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde, and John Henry)
  • Diana Dru Botsford (Ernest Shackleton, Sacajawea, and Lemuel Gulliver)
  • Greg Cox (The Brain that Wouldn't Die and Night of the Living Dead)
  • Keith R.A. DeCandido (Ayesha, a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed, and Engungun-oya)
  • David Mack (Prospero and Don Quixote de la Mancha)
  • David A. McIntee (Tang Sanzang, a.k.a. Tripitaka, and Emperor Taizong) *
  • Dayton Ward (Captain Battle and Blackout)
For those who might be interested, the anthology DOUBLE TROUBLE which Keith told y'all about a while back is now available from Amazon. As you can see from the quoted post, the book has quite a few Treklit authors in its mix, including myself, and I am particularly proud of how my Don Quixote / The Tempest team-up turned out.

An eBook version of the anthology is in the works, but for now you can order it in trade paperback and/or hardcover.
 
I'm also excited that DOUBLE TROUBLE is a book at last and folks can finally read my contribution, which is a grisly mashup of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE.

Titled "Night of the Living Brain," of course.
 
Another crowdfund is currently running on the Starter that Kicks for a nifty anthology that I'm part of: The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny: Tales of the Weird West, edited by Jonathan Maberry, and to be published by Outland Entertainment. These Weird Westerns include tales by a few Trek scribes:
  • Greg Cox (A Contest of Principles)
  • Keith R.A. DeCandido (Articles of the Federation)
  • Jeffrey J. Mariotte (Serpents in the Garden)
  • Aaron Rosenberg (Creative Couplings)
In addition, there are stories by New York Times best-selling authors Josh Malerman and Scott Sigler, as well as R.S. Belcher, Maurice Broaddus, Jennifer Brody, Cullen Bunn, Laura Anne Gilman, Carrie Harris, John G. Hartness, James A. Moore, Marguerite Reed, and C. Edward Sellner.

The Trek BBS doesn't allow links to crowdfunds, but if you follow me on any of my social media, you can find Kickstarter links.
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^ Jumping on the bandwagon, I can report that my Weird Western story is title "Bigfoot Gorge," and is a grisly tale of gold prospectors who venture into sasquatch territory in search of a jackpot.
 
Chapter 4 of my Troubleshooter serial Guardian Angel went up today on my Patreon's Original Fiction tier, along with its annotations on the Behind the Scenes tier.

GUARDIAN ANGEL Chapter 4: "How Do You Live?"

GUARDIAN ANGEL Chapter 4 Annotations

This month, both Kari and Bast have unhappy reunions that set them on the path toward a climactic confrontation. Plus, learn how Kari and Emerald Blair first met!

This serial hasn’t sparked the boost in Patreon subscriptions that I’d hoped it would. I imagine some of you might be waiting for the final chapter next month before you subscribe and binge-read the whole thing at once. I don’t mind that much; at this point, with my money situation no longer desperate, what I want most is just for people to read my fiction, even if you only join for a month. The final chapter will be released on July 21, so if you join anytime from now onward, you’ll still get the complete serial.

But I’ve just learned that the repairs for my car’s fuel leak and so forth will probably cost more than the frame repair I just got, so the total will be more than two grand. Getting my car back into shape is cheaper than replacing it, but it’s still turning out to be a pretty big investment. So if anyone is willing to help out by joining my Patreon, even for a little while, I’d really be grateful.
 
COVER REVEAL: The front cover for The Four ???? of the Apocalypse.

the-front-cover-of-the-apocalypse.jpg


Coming this fall from Whysper Wude, the very small press started by me and Wrenn Simms: The Four ???? of the Apocalypse, an anthology of biblical proportions that has new takes on the end-of-the-world quartet.

Stories of the four lunch ladies of the apocalypse, the four cheerleaders of the apocalypse, the four lawyers of the apocalypse, the four cats of the apocalypse, and so many more by the following amazing authors:

  • Star Trek scribes Derek Tyler Attico, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, David Gerrold, Robert Greenberger, David Mack, Aaron Rosenberg, and Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
  • New York Times best-selling authors Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, and Jody Lynn Nye
  • Award-winning authors Adam-Troy Castro and Laura Anne Gilman
  • Plus a ton of other great writers: Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Russ Colchamiro, Randee Dawn, Mary Fan, Gerard Houarner, Gordon Linzner, James D. Macdonald, Megan Mackie, Gail Z. Martin, Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg, Hildy Silverman, Patrick Thomas, and Michael A. Ventrella
  • Oh yeah, and me and Wrenn have stories, too!
Cover art above by longtime Trek comics artist JK Woodward, with design by the aforementioned Aaron Rosenberg.
 
Will The Four ???? of the Apocalypse be available as a eBook?
Since an eBook of the antholgy was one of the bonusses for backers of the kickstarter, I dont see any reason why it shouldn't also be available as such when it is released.
 
Yes, The Four ???? of the Apocalypse will be available in both trade paperback and eBook form. Possibly in hardcover, also, but definitely the other two. :)
 
Let be noted that Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups, which came out in print awhile ago, is now also available as an ebook. Featuring stories by me, Dave Mack, Keith DeCandido, and many of the other usual suspects.

I remain perversely proud of my story, "Night of the Living Brain," which, obviously, is a work of delicate literary subtlety. :)
 
Now available for preorder: Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, an anthology celebrating the renowned magazine Weird Tales reaching the century mark.

100yearsofweird.jpg


Debuting in 1923, Weird Tales has been one of the most important sources of stories of the macabre. It's where H.P. Lovecraft debuted his Cthulhu mythos and where Robert E. Howard debuted Conan the Barbarian, among many others.

To celebrate, Blackstone Publishing (the current publisher of the magazine) is releasing an anthology celebrating everything that has made WT endure, with new stories, classic reprints, and essays.

One of the new stories is by me! I've written "Prezzo," a tale about Italian immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1930s, and also monsters.

Here's the full list of contributors (those with an asterisk * are reprints):
  • Linda D. Addison
  • James Aquilone
  • Michael Arnzen
  • Isaac Asimov & Frederik Pohl *
  • Ray Bradbury *
  • Keith R.A. DeCandido
  • Jacopo della Quercia
  • Dana Fredsti
  • Owl Goingback
  • Laurell K. Hamilton
  • Allison V. Harding *
  • Henry L. Herz
  • Robert E. Howard *
  • Lisa Kastner
  • H.P. Lovecraft *
  • Jonathan Maberry
  • Usman Malik
  • Richard Matheson *
  • Jessica McHugh
  • C.L. Moore *
  • James A. Moore
  • Lisa Morton
  • Christopher Neumann
  • Blake Northcott
  • Hailey Piper
  • Charles R. Rutledge
  • Scott Sigler
  • Marge Simon
  • R.L. Stine
  • Karin Tidbeck *
  • Anne Walsh
  • Tennessee Williams (writing as Thomas Lanier Williams) *
The cover is by Francesco Francavilla, and the book will be out in October!

Preorder links:
 
Not sure if this counts as original work or not, but on sale today: GALLOPING AROUND THE COSMOS: MEMORIES OF TV'S WAGON TRAIN TO STARS BY TODAY'S GROWN UP-KIDS, edited by Jim Beard.

Basically, it's a collection of nostalgic essays about growing up on the Original Series by the likes of me, Keith, Dayton, Derek Tyler Attico, Robert Greenburger, and others. My contribution, "Scare Trek," focuses on the spookier side of TOS. Just in time for Halloween!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJXLKWZ...vwLXESjtGhRuZ6ecZUWrE549E59oyi30_tesPsFX_VY8Q
 
Coming this fall from Whysper Wude, the very small press started by me and Wrenn Simms: The Four ???? of the Apocalypse, an anthology of biblical proportions that has new takes on the end-of-the-world quartet.

Stories of the four lunch ladies of the apocalypse, the four cheerleaders of the apocalypse, the four lawyers of the apocalypse, the four cats of the apocalypse, and so many more by the following amazing authors:
  • Star Trek scribes Derek Tyler Attico, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, David Gerrold, Robert Greenberger, David Mack, Aaron Rosenberg, and Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
  • New York Times best-selling authors Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, and Jody Lynn Nye
  • Award-winning authors Adam-Troy Castro and Laura Anne Gilman
  • Plus a ton of other great writers: Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Russ Colchamiro, Randee Dawn, Mary Fan, Gerard Houarner, Gordon Linzner, James D. Macdonald, Megan Mackie, Gail Z. Martin, Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg, Hildy Silverman, Patrick Thomas, and Michael A. Ventrella
  • Oh yeah, and me and Wrenn have stories, too!
Cover art above by longtime Trek comics artist JK Woodward, with design by the aforementioned Aaron Rosenberg.
UPDATE! The new anthology THE FOUR ???? OF THE APOCALYPSE is now available for purchase in eBook and trade paperback, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo (eBook only).
 
I've just slashed the prices of my Patreon tiers, since I realized I was charging too much for the limited amount of content I offered, which is probably why I've been unable to attract more subscribers. At this point, I don't need the money as much and I just want more people to read my stuff. So my Original Fiction tier has been reduced from $10 a month to just $3 a month, and the formerly $12 Behind the Scenes tier of story annotations and background notes is now just $5 a month. Here's the index (on my free blog) to my Patreon fiction content:

https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/home-page/original-fiction/patreon-fiction-index/

I'm also reducing the cost of my Reviews tier from $5 to $2, but I have to re-price all the posts manually and there are over 170 of them, so I'm going to pace myself and do them gradually.
 
I'm relaunching my Patreon's Original Fiction tier, now just $3 per month, with an excerpt from my novel in progress Arachne's Legacy, the third book in the Arachne series of interstellar adventure and intrigue. In this sample, the crew of the starship Arachne contacts a mysterious, dangerous new order of interstellar life in search of a way to fulfill their clandestine mission on behalf of humanity. To gain the information they need, will they have to sacrifice one of their own?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/fiction-arachnes-92404572
 
Now on sale is Joe Ledger: Unbreakable, the second time that Jonathan Maberry, aided and abetted by co-editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt, has allowed other writers to play in his "Joe Ledger" series of spec-fic thrillers. (The prior was was subtitled Unstoppable, and featured my Scribe Award-winning story "Ganbatte.")

In this book, my story is called "Another Dead Body on the Corner," and focuses on one of Ledger's previous careers, to wit, as a detective with the Baltimore City Police. The story owes a certain debt to David Simon's classic Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, and the two TV shows that spun out of it, Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire.

The other stories are by Kevin J. Anderson, John G. Hartness, Scott Sigler, Dana Fredsti, Wayne Brady (yes, that Wayne Brady) & Maurice Broaddus, Tori Eldridge, Kevin Ikenberry, Heather Graham (no, not that Heather Graham, but rather the horror author), Ray Porter (yes, that Ray Porter, the great narrator), Kat Richardson, Marie Whittaker, Peter Clines, and both editors.
 
It's been officially announced: I'm going to be writing a new original series for the Weird Tales Presents imprint of Blackstone Publishing called Supernatural Crimes Unit, about a division of the NYPD that handles crimes involving magic and monsters. Those of you who follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, or the Site I Insist On Still Calling Twitter have been seeing word count updates -- Book 1 of SCU is what that's for.
 
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