I am thrilled to announce a new zombie anthology! The other authors in this collection are fantastic and I am humbled to be included with such fine wordsmiths. This collection is edited by the esteemed Paula Guran.

From the publisher’s website:

It’s too late! The living dead have already taken over the world. Your brains have been devoured. Nothing is left but spasms of ravenous need—an obscene hunger for even more zombie fiction. Forget the metaphors and the mildly scary. You want shock, you want grue, you want disturbing, gut-wrenching, skull-crunching zombie stories that take you over the edge and go splat. You want the bloody best of the ultimate undead. You have no choice. . . you. . . must. . . have. . . Extreme Zombies!

Extreme Zombies Table of Contents

“Charlie’s Hole” by Jesse Bullington
“At First Only Darkness” by Nancy A. Collins
“The Blood Kiss” by Dennis Etchison
“We Will Rebuild” by Cody Goodfellow
“Dead Giveaway” by Brian Hodge
“Zombies for Jesus” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
“An Unfortunate Incident at the Slaughterhouse” by Harper Hull
“Captive Heart” by Brian Keene
“Going Down” by Nancy Kilpatrick
“On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks” by Joe R. Lansdale
“Susan” by Robin D. Laws
“Makak” by Edward Lee
“The Traumatized Generation” by Murray Leeder
“Meathouse Man” by George R.R. Martin
“Abed” by Elizabeth Massie
“For the Good of All” by Yvonne Navarro
“Home” by David Moody
“Jerry’s Kids Meet Wormboy” by David J. Schow
“Aftertaste” by John Shirley
“Viva Las Vegas” by Thomas Roche
“In Beauty, Like the Night” by Norman Partridge
“Romero’s Children” by David A. Riley
“Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” by Monica Valentinelli
“Provider” by Tim Waggoner
“Chuy and the Fish” by David Wellington

Extreme Zombies is scheduled to debut in August 2012 and will be published by Prime Books. Be sure to check out other books in the Prime Books catalog, there’s a lot of great titles in there.

“Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” first appeared in The Zombie Feed, Volume One which was published by Apex Book Company and edited by Jason Sizemore.

Down a lonely alleyway, under a starless sky, lies a city that never was, yet is: the Mad City, where nightmares walk the streets, and a good night’s sleep can get you killed.

Here, then, is a book from that place. Within these recovered pages are the tales of the Awake, insomniacs who’ve walked those perilous streets, bringing a bit of the power of dream with them to fight back the night—always at a terrible cost.

For many, it will not end well. For a few, they might just become heroes—or at least find their way back home.

For you, a choice. Turn away. Don’t read this book. And maybe you’ll continue to rest easy. Or open the cover and enter a world unlike any you’ve ever dared to imagine…

Edited by Chuck Wendig and featuring the stories of…

- Stephen Blackmoore
- Harry Connolly
- Rich Dansky
- Matt Forbeck
- Laura Anne Gilman
- Will Hindmarch
- Mur Lafferty
- Robin D. Laws
- Ryan Macklin
- C. E. Murphy
- Josh Roby
- Greg Stolze
- Monica Valentinelli

My story is titled “Don’t Ignore Your Dead.” It is an exploration of grief for a college-aged insomniac plagued with guilt, anger, and loss.

Pre-Order the softcover edition at EvilHat.com today.

(via FlamesRising.com)

What you see here is not just the first peek at a cover for Redwing’s Gambit, but a representation of a scene from my science fiction novella penned for the Bulldogs! RPG. I designed this story like a pilot episode to help you get to know a very large cast and crew. Talus, the ship’s mechanic looms over Fang while a politician named Vincent Twist sneaks around the corner.

I can’t wait to share this story with you!

Yesterday, Galileo Games unveiled its 2012 plans in The Next Big Adventure.

Our newest venture is expanding into publishing fiction. This year we will be developing five new releases that will all be fiction pieces. This fiction is going to be based in the game worlds from Galileo’s own games, but not dependent on them.

Part of that initiative will be the release of REDWING’S GAMBIT. I’m excited to see this debut! Here’s the blurb:

Conspiracy and paranoia in the space-lanes.

Redwings’ Gambit is a novella set in the Bulldogs! universe. The crew of the delivery ship Haldis is en route to drop off a high-ranking politician on a remote world, but something isn’t right. They must overcome sabotage, kidnapping, and mistrust to get to the bottom of what is going on. Redwings’ Gambit is written by Monica Valentinelli.

Hope you’re getting ready for the premier voyage of this unique crew!

In an earlier post, I talked about how I achieved my 2011 publishing goals. Today, I’m going to share with you the publications that debuted this past year and hint about a few new titles that are at the presses.

Games

In January, the first publication that debuted was SCENES OF THE EMBRACE, a tool for Storytellers to use with Vampire: the Requiem.

After GenCon, I released a new INSTANT ANTAGONIST: THE CREEPY COTTONTAIL through FR Press, which is a hybrid game decide replete with a story, a systemless creature and story hooks. This critter has a Lovecraftian (albeit a bit satirical at times) flair.

The latest release is STRANGE, DEAD LOVE which is also for Vampire: the Requiem. This is a paranormal romance sourcebook that addresses many different types of settings. So far, the feedback has been pretty positive.

I finished up two other game-related projects that are scheduled to debut sometime in 2012.

Fiction

My goal this year was to focus on my stories, and I feel that I made some strides in that direction. Here’s a look back at what was published and what I experimented with.

In February, I (along with several others) experienced historic political unrest that took the form of extensive and consistent protests. I posted some pictures from February and March. This experience affected my work. I wrote a story, first shared on my blog, then self-published called Lady Yellowbird and the Flight of the Sad Panda set in the world of Occupation, a global dystopian setting I created many years ago. I ended up reading this story at WisCon, too.

Shortly thereafter, Bewildering Stories picked up another science fiction-related work called The Message, which you can read for free. Then, “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” appeared in The Zombie Feed, Volume 1. Readers enjoyed this story at OddCon and asked if there would be a sequel.

For April Fool’s, Paths of Storytelling for Vampire: the Masquerade debuted. This was a “lost” manuscript where readers can choose how the story progresses. I wrote the Gangrel storyline. And yes, before you even ask, I required lots and lots of reprogramming to flip from Requiem to Masquerade and back again!

Then, my story titled “Tailfeather” debuted in Apexology: Science Fiction & Fantasy this summer. It’s a tale about a woman who becomes a cybernetic bird in a dystopian setting, the second in my dystopian setting. Apex Publications was extremely supportive of my work and I’d gladly work with them again.

I donned my editor’s hat twice this past year. The first was for Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror which was the debut anthology for FR Press. The second was for Slices of Fate: The Collected Works of Eddy Webb, FR Press’s debut author collection.

Last but not least, the print edition of The Queen of Crows became available in full color and black-and-white.

For 2012, “Fangs and Formaldehyde” is slated to debut in the New Hero anthology from Stone Skin Press. REDWING’S GAMBIT, a novella for the Bulldogs RPG, will also appear this year, too. I had a *lot* of fun working on both stories.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction is ever on my radar. I wrote an essay for Apex Magazine Issue 24 titled “Grab Your Badge, Ready, Set, Meet!” I penned guest columns for the How To Write Shop and a new column geared for freelancers titled Adventure to Dice Castle for Geek’s Dream Girl.

This year, I am hoping to finish up a non-fiction book and continue writing guest columns and articles. I continue to write reviews for FlamesRising.com as I get time.