Monthly Archives: October 2017

I’m Literally Reading 10/24 at Flywheel Press’s Literally Series!

Woosh! That was my schedule zooming by too fast for me to keep up with it. Thus, I haven’t had time to give my next reading much promotion, but there’s still time! Barely.

literally, flywheel press, san mateo

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 10/24, I’ll be reading at the Literally series at the Shop at Flywheel Press in San Mateo at 7:00 pm along with author Peter Carroll. Flywheel Press is an art and design center in San Mateo that has fostered a unique creative space in many different forms: as a letterpress studio, a co-working space for artists, a First Fridays destination, an art gallery, and a provider of classes for kids and adults.

If you’d like to share your own work, there will be an open mic afterward, too! And of course, I’ll have Wings Unseen available for purchase, should you like a signed copy. 😉

I hope you’ll join me!

Join me Friday, 10/20, for the Speculative Fiction Cantina Livestream and an At the Inkwell Reading!

I’m going to be busy this Friday promoting my fiction, through two different mediums! You, of course, are invited to join in.

First, S. Evan Townsend will interview me at 3 pm PST for the Speculative Fiction Cantina Livestream and Podcast show.

speculative fiction cantina

This show takes place weekly and includes a reading, so I’ll be sharing a selection from Wings Unseen. It’ll be a chance for my “radio voice” to come out, which people have told me I have for most of my life. I’ll be appearing along with author Brian James, and based on past shows, it should be a fun, casual time of speculative fiction appreciation. You can tune in here on Friday at 3 pm PST: LINKY LINK

Second, I’ll be reading for the At the Inkwell Flash Fiction Night, which takes place at Alley Cat Books in San Francisco at 7 pm.

at the inkwell

This is the second time I’ll have read with At the Inkwell, which is a national organization dedicated to helping writers get more exposure through reviews and reading series. The Alley Cat Books space is one of the best I’ve been to for literary readings, and I’m excited for flash fiction to be the chosen topic – it’ll give me a break from reading book excerpts! I’ll likely be sharing “What Scattered in the Wind,” which is published in Little Letters on the Skin, and some Halloween-themed micro-fiction I’ve been working on. If there’s time, perhaps “Hobgoblin” will also make an appearance at the mic. More info on the event is here: LINKY LINK.

I would love to see you at Alley Cat Books or know you’ve tuned in to the Speculative Fiction Cantina this Friday!

Dark Luminous Wings Pre-sale for $2.99!

My next short story will appear in the forthcoming Dark Luminous Wings anthology – and I mean forthcoming soon! Dark Luminous Wings will be released on 10/21, this next Saturday.

dark luminous wings rebecca gomez farrell

Synopsis:

From Icarus to Da Vinci to tomorrow’s astronauts, humans have dreamt of flight. Feathered wings. Mechanical wings. Leathery wings. Steel wings. Stories of winged creatures set in graveyards and churches, bustling cities, fantastical worlds, alternate histories, and outer spacet reveal the shifting nature of Dark Luminous Wings…Dark Luminous Wings will set your imagination soaring—but watch out for sharp beaks, piercing talons, and gravity.

Folks who pre-order this anthology of 17 speculative fiction short stories will get a discount on the price! The e-book is currently available for $2.99, which will go up to $4.99 on release day. Dark Luminous Wings will also be available in print for $14.99, which is a pretty good deal on its own for that much fiction. Get either one on Amazon by clicking right here:

My short story in the collection, “Treasure,” in one of the first short stories I wrote when I began my career. Don’t worry – I’ve revised it since then. 😆 I do think it’s one of my best now, though it took a while to find a good home (9 personal rejections, 7 form rejections, 1 withdrawal, 1 acceptance). I think you’ll agree once you read it that Dark Luminous Wings is a great fit.

“Treasure” features a female thief thrust into a culture very different from her own, so different she has a difficult time believing such a culture is real. Can someone raised to distrust everyone around her accept grace and love when freely given it? Is it truly given freely? You’ll have to read “Treasure” to find out what Enkid, the story’s protagonist, makes of these questions…under threat of a flying sea monster and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels.

The first few lines:

Wind thundered past the slats of the storage cabin. Hidden within a barrel of fish guts, the stowaway braced herself for lurching. But when the ship pitched sharply sternside, Enkid knew it was no ordinary squall. A storm this bad would force the captain out of his quarters despite his usual drunken stupor, creating an opportunity to filch the beveled, green-glass vial he wore around his neck. It held hemlock tincture, a rare poison that would come in handy for someone in Enkid’s line of work.

May your dreams be free of dark wings, but your mind prepared to tangle with them.I hope you enjoy the fantasy fable of “Treasure”!

city of frogs paperhand puppet intervention

Destroy all Cling-Ons with me at Con-Volution 2017!

This coming weekend, I’m attending Con-Volution 2017, a sci-fi and fantasy convention with a strong focus on all things crafty in the genre.

convolution3

While I will not pretend I can crochet a light saber coozy or program a light board for that perfect ET finger glow, I will share insight into my own craft: writing! Sunday, 10/8, at 12 Noon, I am teaching Destroy All Cling-Ons! This writing workshop is designed to help writers polish their work for publication. Attendees will learn the common phrases, words, and sentence constructions that may be the undoing of an otherwise solid story. Bring in a printed excerpt of your own work or work from my sample, and together, we’ll mercilessly cut out stage directions, prepositions, passive writing, and filler words in accordance with current speculative fiction preferred styles.

What makes me qualified to teach Destroy All Cling-Ons? In addition to the publication of nearly a dozen speculative fiction short stories, a contemporary romance novel, and a YA fantasy novel through traditional routes, I have also copyedited academic and fiction writing for eight years. I co-lead the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup group, a Women Who Submit Writing – San Francisco chapter, and a few Facebook groups dedicated to helping the careers of female writers grow.

If you’d like to join me for this workshop, you’ll need to purchase a membership to Con-Volution at the registration tables at the San Ramon Marriott when you arrive. You can opt for just a Sunday membership (I believe it’ll be $30), but if you want to join in the fun all weekend, the way to go is the full weekend pass for $70. Con-Volution begins with an opening ceremony at 3 pm on 8/6, and closing ceremonies are at 3 pm on 8/8.

I assure you, there will be lots to see and do at this con! But if you want more time with me, I’ll also be leading a discussion group on 8/6 at 4 pm: The Companion as Hero – From Samwise Gamgee to Bill Potts. Join me in discussing the heroic roles that companions have played in genre fiction. Doctor Who, Samwise Gamgee, Chewbacca, and the Buffy Scooby Gang are just a few possible angles. Who is your most memorably heroic sidekick?

I hope you’ll tell me there!

con-volution, convolution, writer's workshop, san ramon