Because it’s that award-nomination time of year (though I doubt I’ll make any lists) here are my 2016 publications:
“Spite House” with C. E. Murphy in Urban Allies, Edited by Joe Nassise, Harper Collins, July 2016 (urban fantasy)

“Peacock in Hell” in Shadowed Souls, Edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie Lynn Hughes, Ace, October 2016 (urban/dark fantasy)

“Valley Girl” in Fast Women and Neon Lights: 80s Noir, Edited by Michael Poole, Short Stack Books, October 2016 (crime/mystery)

“Drafty as a Chain Mail Bikini” in Upsidedown: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling, Edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates, Apex Books, November 2016 (fantasy).

Hope I didn’t forget anything….

Indigo, the multi-author novel project I was working on with nine other authors (Christopher Golden, Charlaine Harris, James A. Moore, Cherie M. Priest, Kelly Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon, Mark Morris, and Jonathan Maberry for the past 18 moths or so, has been listed by io9 as a Best SFF Book Coming Out in 2017! Whoohoo! and isn’t that a nice start to the year?

Submissions for the Death of All Things anthology are now, officially closed. We have more than 100 new pieces to read from the slush pile, in addition to the contributions from our anchor authors, so it may be a while before we’re done. Thanks for being patient and for sending in your stories.

Just in case you know a writer who needs a holiday gift and you just don’t want to give then another blank book or coffee mug, I’ll be teaching a one-day workshop for Clarion West March 5 2017, in Seattle. Only $150 to talk character for 6 hours– that’s a pretty good deal!

From the site: Learn how to develop characters that come alive on the page and move your plot dynamically from the first word of a story to the last. In this workshop, you’ll practice exercises that will help you craft character motive, backstory, flaws, and quirks. You’ll come away from the workshop knowing how to produce exciting, relatable characters for every role in your story, from the biggest to the smallest.

Check out the details and register soon. Space is limited.

Reminder for writers submitting to the Death of All Things anthology that Laura Anne Gilman and I are editing for Zombies Need Brains:

We are still accepting submissions through December 31, 2016, but we won’t be sending out acceptance *or rejection* messages until sometime in Late Feb/ Early March (edited, because, sorry: my bad). So if you haven’t heard from us, it’s not because we didn’t get your story or we’ve already rejected or accepted it. We want to see all the stories before we accept or reject *any* of them. The only exceptions are the “anchor” authors (Stephen Blackmoore, Aliette de Bodard, Christie Golden, Jim C. Hines, Jason M. Hough, Faith Hunter, Juliet E. McKenna, and Fran Wilde), whose work is being managed separately from the general submissions. Please be patient with us–we promise to let everyone know their story’s status after we’ve reviewed them all.

Thanks, and have a wonderful, word-full December!

Sooo… I was looking around for strange Winter Holiday things and found Raincoaster’s annual posting of Christmas/Advent Ghost stories, starting with Jerome K. Jerome’s “Stories Told After Supper.” Ramble through the rest of the recent posts to read more public-domain tales of holiday horror.

Pat Rothfuss’s WorldBuilders annual charity is offering a lot of great editorial services, Tuckerizations, and other writer-or reader-friendly things for auction and raffles. Stop in and see what takes your fancy–or might be the perfect gift.

Over at the Barnes and Noble SFF Blog, my books got to hang out with some excellent company for binge-readers who like to gobble the whole series without waiting for the next book.

This Sunday, I shall be at the Barnes and Noble in the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale Washington along with some wonderful authors. Come and see us!

I don’t know where the other two anthologies stand, but over here at The Death of All Things, we’ve read over 100 submissions and although we’ve seen some good ones, the deadline to submit is almost two months away: December 31, 2016.

Please read the guidelines carefully and make sure you hit the marks on the theme and format–it doesn’t matter how great your story is if it doesn’t fit the theme or if it’s too hard to read due to format, spelling, word-swap, or grammar errors. Send your best work–we still want it!