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.

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"!

For the first time ever, I will have a short story included in an anthology! In fact, I will have *two* stories in anthologies in the coming months, in addition, of course, to the publication and book tour for Wings Unseen, my first novel. "Treasure," a fantasy fable appearing in Dark Luminous Wings from Pole to Pole Publishing, shares quite a lot in common with Wings Unseen, actually. Here's the early anthology cover art that co-editor Vonnie Winslow Crist revealed in May:

"Treasure" is one of my oldest short stories -- I began Draft #1 in 2007, and my filename at that time was "black and white." That name reflects what I wanted to accomplish in writing this story -- I wanted to play with the idea of a female thief being thrust into a culture very different from the more violent, selfish one in which she'd been raised, so different that 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 protoganist, makes of these questions...under threat of a flying sea monster called the Laklor and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels and....

And, I think that's enough info on "Treasure" for now. ;) If you've read an early ARC of Wings Unseen already, then you know those same questions are ones that factor heavily into Vesperi's point of view in the book, though I might argue that figuring out how to deal with a culture so foreign to one's own is also a hurdle for Janto and Serra, the two other main POV characters. Challenging our perspectives of how the world works can be one of the hardest quests there is. Obviously, the concept was strongly on my mind then; I began writing W__ings Unseen in earnest around the same time I drafted "Treasure." Both tales also heavily feature creatures with menacing wings. So does my horror short "Thlush-A-Lum" now that I think of it...

I guess I have a thing for spooky wings.

Before Pole to Pole's acceptance of "Treasure," I submitted it out a total of 18 times, resulting in 1 author withdrawal, 7 form rejections, and 9 personal rejections, including 2 from pro-level speculative fiction markets that got THISCLOSE to publishing the story -- and I mean that! The editors of both mags told me they held onto it for so long because they'd been hoping to find a place for it but ultimately could not. I also significantly rewrote the story at least twice in the six years since I first sent it out. After all that, I think Dark Luminous Wings is truly where this story was destined to go as I can't imagine a more perfect fit for it than what their call for submissions detailed:

The volume draws inspiration from Richard Henry Stoddard’s poem, Mors et Vita, particularly stanza two:

Under the awful wings Which brood over land and sea, And whose shadows nor lift nor flee— This is the order of things, And hath been from of old: First production, And last destruction; So the pendulum swings, While cradles are rocked and bells are tolled.

Send us your stories about angels and demons, dragons and fairies, airplanes and ornathopters—and more. Let your imaginations soar, but let your stories be found in the darkest of places.

Late October is Dark Luminous Wings' planned publication date, and I'll let you know where to order once I have that information. Until then, may your dreams be free of dark wings, but your mind prepared to tangle with them.

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