May 8

Free Fiction: Paul Jessup’s Open Your Eyes

Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup is being made available as a free PDF download for the remainder of May.

Her lover was a supernova who took worlds with him when he died, and
as a new world grows within Ekhi, savage lives rage and love on a
small ship in the outer reaches of space. A ship with an agenda of its
own.

“Open Your Eyes is surrealistic space opera in the tradition of New
Wave experimentalism, echoing the fantastic imagery of Samuel R.
Delany and the angst-ridden identity paranoia of Philip K. Dick, all
bound together in a distinctly modern vision of a post-technological
future bereft of a human core. Jessup’s bone spaceships and
resurrecting crews tumble into the core of a mystery which is
consuming the very hearts of suns. Go along for the ride, and open
your eyes.
–Jay Lake, author of Escapement and Green

“With unique imagination at work, Open Your Eyes bombards the reader
with stunning imagery, from living spaceships to mechanical
butterflies.”
–Ekaterina Sedia, author of Alchemy of Stone

Evocative, moving, elegiac, and sometimes surreal, Jessup’s Open Your
Eyes is a space opera novella that lives and breathes in the 21st
century. It blends together the best of fast-paced adventure and
intriguing characters. Open Your Eyes is truly a nova in the science
fiction universe.
–Alan DeNiro, author of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead

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May 8

Trying to resume normal functioning

I’m here. I’m okay. I have a few things to say:

1) Thank you so much to those of you who messaged, called, showed up on my doorstep or email me. I really appreciate it, and yes, I really needed it. Sometimes you just have to hear that people care. Even if those people don’t know what’s going on it helps you feel like you aren’t alone. If anyone out there is wondering if they should reach out to a friend (or coworker or relative) who is trouble or having a hard time don’t hesitate, tell them they aren’t alone. Sometimes that does more than a knight (of any color) rushing in to rescue you.

2) At this point I’m moving past my crisis and trying to deal with the major schedule change. Like how I should be in bed right now, but instead just got off the phone with someone who is one of the huge sighs in my life that I’m doing something right.

3) To those of you who worried that my hiatus was from writing, the good news is apparently that’s not allowed, seeing as during this crisis I’ve gotten a partial request from another Writers House agent, an edit and resubmit request, an invite to submit to an anthology that’s Right Up My Alley ™ and first edits on Rot. So even if I was inclined to need a break from writing it’s not allowing me to have one. Am I complaining? Hell no. I’m revelling.

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May 7

A Dangerous Climate by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Click to Buy
Click to Buy

*Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com
Tor, 2008

ISBN: 9780765319814

Available: New and Used

Yarbro’s cultured, enigmatic, vampire Saint Germain is back. This time he’s in Russia during the construction of St. Petersburg, as a spy in the Russian court, pretending to be a duke, a husband and a human. As Saint Germain tries to uncover the fate of the man he is impersonating, a man claiming to be Count Saint-Germain comes to town, threatening the real Germain and all of his entanglements.

Exquisitely detailed and smooth, A Dangerous Climate is a vivid, complex tale of political intrigue, led by a fascinating character who is almost harder to figure out than the full scope of Yarbro’s plot. Yarbro is the author to go to for historical fiction. She packs amazing detail into the world, so that readers open the book and feel as if they are there, in the middle of a completely different time and culture, enthralled through Germain’s voice and intriguing stories. Highly recommended for permanent personal and library collections.

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May 1

Vampires & Zombies: A Zombie Book by Rose Lee

Rose Lee is a precocious five year old who likes playing Monster Rancher almost as much as she likes her Mom. She thinks ghosts and vampires and zombies are scary, “but only a little bit”. Vampires & Zombies is her first sale. (Editor’s Note: Yes, in the spirit of publishing I paid her for it.)

* * *

A zombie came into the room, but he was a good zombie. Then a scary bad zombie came in.

“Jackass!” he said.

The scary zombie went over to AnneMarie and started poking her in the head with a pencil.

AnneMarie got poked in the head by a pencil and a bad zombie. She screamed.

The vampire was in his blood bath and heard her scream. He jumped out of the bath and went and rescued her.

He had a real sharp pencil and poked the bad zombie into the ear, and it came out the other ear and it hurt real bad. The bad scary zombie fell to the ground and was dead. And they covered him to the death.

AnneMarie was so glad that she said, “Thank you!”

He said, ” You’re welcome.”

AnneMarie gave the vampire a hug.

Then AnneMarie went over to the vampire’s house and they took a blood bath together. They blew lots of blood bubbles. A really big one popped over them and it was like raining blood.

The End

Category: Business, Family, Not My Work, Publishing | 6 Comments on Vampires & Zombies: A Zombie Book by Rose Lee