In February, I let you all know about the opportunity to get your hands on one of my short stories for free for a limited time. And now that time is almost at an end! "Bother," along with many other fantastic stories collected by M. David Blake for the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology, will only be available until 4/30. So what are you waiting for? Click your browsers on over to Stupefying Stories and get your copy! And be sure to give Durham author Mur Lafferty your congratulations on being nominated for the Campbell Award for the second straight year. Some of her work is also available in the anthology. You can find her at the Murverse.

Here's what I posted to explain the anthology in February:

Published by Stupefying Stories, the 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology is now available for free -- that's right, free! -- for anyone interested in perusing the works of authors eligible for Campbell award nominations this year. What's that? As M. David Blake, editor of Stupefying Stories explained,

Named for John W. Campbell, Jr., whose 34 years at the helm of Astounding Science Fiction (later renamed Analog) defined the "Golden Age" of the genre and launched the careers of dozens of famous writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is presented annually at WorldCon to an outstanding author whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the previous two years.

What does this have to do with me? Well, with my sale of "Bother" to Bull Spec nearing on two years ago now, I became eligible for the Campbell Award. I have absolutely no expectations of being nominated, especially because I haven't had other speculative fiction published since then -- I've been working on my first fantasy novel instead of sending out my short stories. But "Bother" has been reprinted in the anthology, and now's your chance to read it for free along with other worthy works by a large list of fantastic speculative fiction authors. All for free until the Hugo nominees, including for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, are announced at the end of April.

To take advantage of this amazing access to these stories, just click here and chose the e-format you prefer at the end of the publication announcement post. And if you do read "Bother," please let me know what you thought! Us writers do thrive on feedback.

About a month ago, I took part in Winter Tales, a reading of holiday-themed works by local authors that was hosted by the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough. Poems, essays, stories, and songs were all shared that evening, and now we have video of each reading! I'm embedding them all here so you can enjoy the event as we did.

First, because this is my blog, I'm sharing my reading of a personal essay, "Treasures in Cardboard Boxes." It's a reflection on losing a mixtape of Christmas carols and on growing up a little different from your family.

http://youtu.be/RASxC6VbDnw

Next is "Winter Sonnet," a poem by James Maxey, the organizer of the event. It is a quick, sweet listen about celebrating winter with his wife.

http://youtu.be/0n8d_4kxufM

Also from James is a personal essay, "Christmas Dismemberment," about receiving presents you don't really want as a child.

http://youtu.be/JyMesp5iZxM

The evening began with a reading of a drabble, a 100-word short stories, by Mur Lafferty, the first of which was "Zuzu's Bell" about Lucifer on his birthday.

http://youtu.be/FvO5Xr4mYWY

Mur's second reading was "750,000 of Your Friends Like This," a futuristic, cynical, yet fun take on the Christmas Carol revisions in the future. Sorry it's a bit lower quality than the rest of the excerpts.

http://youtu.be/rXQn3qydFhU?t=4m47s

Alex Granados gave less of a reading and more of a storytelling, sharing an adventure with in-laws called "Death By Big Screen TV." It's a great portrayal of his father-in-law and his can-do-anything attitude.

http://youtu.be/DWLtPhQDqq4

Last, but not least, are two songs from Gray Rinehart. The first was inspired by his time in Greenland and is titled "Winter Simplifies the World."

http://youtu.be/NcuFopdrE3Y

The second song is light-hearted and FILK, meaning it's a play on science fiction or fantasy works. This is "Tauntauns to Glory," a fun tribute to the majestic tauntauns of Star Wars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RS-YAgk2U&feature=share&list=PLQpBV0kAm077EazC-jrPE5iaGkhIn_-5j

And thus concludes these Winter Tales. Hopefully, they brightened yours, wherever it may be.

Winter Tales Reading: Come listen to me read!

This coming Thursday, I will be one of five speculative fiction writers participating in a reading on the topic of winter tales at the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough (137 W. Margaret Lane) at 6 pm.

Personally, I’m most intrigued to see what a pack of sci-fi writers comes up with for holiday-themed readings! I am opting for a personal essay, and I know at least one of the other authors is writing a song or three. I’m honestly expecting this to be a lot of fun. Here are brief bios of the other participants. By brief, I mean this is how I am most familiar with them:

• James Maxey-Author of the Dragon Age fantasy saga and his current Dragon Apocalypse series. He’s also a great conversationalist at dinner parties full of people you’ve never met before. Or at least that’s my experience.
• Gray Rinehart-Author of several short stories, slushmaster general at Baen Books, and singer of songs.
• Mur Lafferty-2012 Campbell Award nominee, author of Playing for Keeps and the Afterlife series, expert podcaster, and composer of snarky social media statuses.
• Alex Granados-Author of Cemetery Plot, producer of the State of Things, and that guy that was supposed to edit a short story for me once.
• and me, Rebecca Gomez Farrell-Author of Maya’s Vacation and several short stories, food blogger extraordinaire, and the person who wrote this post.

Please come on out on Thursday at 6 pm and join us for the merriment! It will continue all evening for me, because I have a date with the Hobbit at midnight that night!

Official invitation is here.

My weekend was what some would call a writer's paradise.  I spent it attending various authors' sessions at the North Carolina Literary Festival held at UNC Chapel Hill, which happened to be free!  Yay!  I would say, however, that a writer's paradise would be to sit on the other side of the table from where I sat, as an author with published works.  Someday, someday.

Anyhow, I had a great time at the sessions I attended, which featured a mix of well-known and newly published authors, almost all with some sort of connection to the state.  The first I went to was "The World of Sci-Fi and Fantasy," which featured John Kessel, Warren Rochelle, and Mur Lafferty.  I enjoyed the readings, Lafferty's especially, and will likely buy Playing for Keeps soon, which is her superhero novel about a woman who has something both the jock-like superheroes and nice guy villains want. Lafferty is a friend of a friend and also runs a writing resource website called I Should Be Writing.

Next up, I planned to go to Rick Bragg's reading and discussion on writing about real people in real life situations, as it would likely have been beneficial for me as a writer.  But in my heart of hearts, I really wanted to screw that sentiment and go see RL Stine instead.  Luckily for me, Rick Bragg's reading was cancelled so I was able to see Stine guilt-free, whom I have fond memories of from my speed-reading days in elementary school.  Fear Street rocks, yo.  He's mainly famous for the younger-skewing Goosebumps series these days, and did a great job of keeping the youngins interested by telling a story with audience participation.  I'm glad I got to see him as those page-turners probably deserve some credit for both my desire to write and my genre preferences.

Carrie Ryan, author of the young adult novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth, gave a great session after that.  She's but a few years older than me, which always gives me hope that I could also get published, and is writing a post-zombie-apocalypse series.  Her readings definitely had me intrigued-another book to add to the "to read" list.  As a fellow lover of horror, discussions of how it and other genre fiction can be so well used for social commentary always keeps me engaged.

Then Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge, read from that book and answered questions at Memorial Hall.  It was great to see her in person.  If you have not read Olive Kitteridge and you like literary, modern American fiction, then you need to.

I ended my NC Lit Fest adventure by checking out the "Chefs of the Triangle" session on Sunday afternoon.  Chefs Bill Smith (Crook's Corner) and Bret Jennings (Elaine's on Franklin) were on hand as they are featured in Ann Prospero's book of the same name as the session that took shape first on her blog, Prospero's Kitchen.  Obviously, for an aspiring foodie and reviewer like myself, the book will be required reading.  Add another one to the list!  She read a few snippets about a bunch of different Triangle-based chefs and also gave us some background on the whos and whats of our fantastic dining scene.  Ann gives much credit to three chefs; Bill Neal, Scott Howell, and Ben Barker, for drawing talent to our area and helping create the chef-farmer relationships we benefit from.  When asked about how his own personal scene as a chef has changed over the years, Smith replied that he's "older and more tired" and because of that, he's learned that "simplicity can be as good as complexity" in making a dish, with which I completely agree.  He also attested that part of the benefits of having so many talented chefs here is that he is "influenced to keep up the good work."

On the farmer and chef relationship, Jennings feels that the "farmers here are as imaginative and creative as the chefs," and loves that they experiment with new ingredients that he then will experiment with in the restaurant.  He also commented in response to a question, that the dining clientele has become smarter about food and that children are influencing their parents in making good choices on where to eat, both of which can be at least partially credited to the locavore movement.  There were samples from the chefs available after the session but I did not stick around to try them.  Shameful, I know.

To sum up, I was very impressed with the NC Literary Festival and glad I managed to get myself on out to several sessions.  Now, does anyone know if any local bookshops carry Playing for Keeps, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, or Chefs of the Triangle?