In the madness of moving, I haven't had time to share this news: "Submission Caws" received an audio production by the Centropic Oracle!

The recording was released on January 29, which was the day we were originally scheduled for escrow to close. The release of "Submission Caws" stayed on schedule, though our escrow took a few days longer...

...but that's another story! This story is a fictional rant about the process of submitting manuscripts out for publication. It is funny and silly, particularly if you are also a writer undertaking this process on a regular basis. It's a fantasy take on the concept, with recipes for magic spells subbed in for manuscripts themselves. It ends with a dare that the editors at the Centropic Oracle took, just like Defenestration did before them when the story was first published in 2019.

Jill Raymond performed the audio version, and I quite enjoy her take on the story -- the character of Betty, a bubbly and annoyingly successful composer of magical recipes, comes through loud and clear. To listen to or read "Submission Caws," head to the Centropic Oracle's website here.

Or of course, you can read "Submission Caws" at its original home at Defenestration, right here.

The first few lines to entice you onward:

A black crow swoops onto the open window ledge, and yearning gushes from deep within me. I tamp down the emotion swifter than the crow can deliver its charge: a rolled parchment that bangs against the bookshelves as it flips toward the floor. The crow musses its feathers and launches into the air, off to retrieve its next assignment. Soon, someone else will receive fresh misery. I retrieve the parchment, find it quaint that the Gate Keepers use it for correspondence when they could just place a call by sandspelling. The parchment’s seal displays a sentinel guarding a mountain of scrolls piled behind an ornate, locked gate.

And some photographic inspiration: