Hello there, fine blog readers! Last week, I did my first reading as part of Bull Spec's Issue #5 launch. My short story, Bother, is featured on the cover, and I got the pimp spot of the evening--by which I mean, I read after 7 other fabulous speculative fiction writers and editors did their things that I wish I had recorded to share with you, too! I didn't expect a recording at all, but that dastardly husband of mine pulled out his cell phone camera and . . . it wasn't that bad! So I'm sharing it with you today, and I hope you enjoy hearing the first few pages of the story. If you do, pick up a copy of Bull Spec now! If you're local, it's at the Regulator and both Durham Barnes & Nobles this week and will be expanding to the locations listed below the video in the next few weeks. If you're not, then order it here.

Becca Gomez Farrell at Quail Ridge Bookstore from ben farrell on Vimeo.

Tips for polishing up my reading presentation are very welcome. Hope you enjoyed it!

Locations where Bull Spec #5 is or soon will be available:

The Regulator Bookshop (Durham, 9th Street) Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games (Durham, 3215 Old Chapel Hill Rd between University Dr and MLK Blvd) Quail Ridge Books & Music (Raleigh, 3522 Wade Ave at Ridge Rd) Internationalist Books & Community Center (Chapel Hill, 405 W Franklin St) Chapel Hill Comics (Chapel Hill, 316 W Franklin St) Foundation's Edge (Raleigh, 2526 Hillsborough St) Storyteller's Books (Wake Forest, 100 E. Roosevelt Ave) Capitol Comics (Raleigh, 3027 Hillsborough St) Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) All Fun & Games (Apex, 958 US Highway 64) Ultimate Comics (Durham: 9th St; Chapel Hill: Farrington Rd) Barnes & Noble of Cary (760 SE Maynard, Cary Commons) Barnes & Noble of Durham - The Streets at Southpoint (8030 Renaissance Parkway) Barnes & Noble of Durham - New Hope Commons (5400 New Hope Commons) All Booked Up (Apex, 104-B North Salem St) Northgate Books (Durham: Northgate Mall) North Carolina: Barnes & Noble of Greenville, NC (3040 Evans Street) New York: Forbidden Planet NYC (NYC, NY) Pennsylvania: Golden Eagle Comics (Reading, PA)

Today, I have an update on my writing ventures, specifically, on two writing ventures that are coming up in the next two months! At the end of March, my romance novelette, Maya's Vacation, will be released by Astraea Press! It will be available in e-book formats only, but Astraea hopes to add print-on-demand to their repertoire in the future. Regardless, I'm super excited to have signed with them and to have Maya's Vacation out in the world soon.

I'm posting the synopsis in a moment, but I think this novelette will be great reading if you're a fan of this blog---my years of writing and pondering food and wine play a huge role in the story's concept. If you enjoy how I describe a dish or beverage, I hope you'll buy a copy and delve in! It'll be a fast read and safe for anyone who enjoys passionate characters without the busom-busting to go along with them. Astraea only publishes nonerotic fiction, which is one of the many reasons they and Maya's Vacation are a great fit. Here's that synopsis.

Twenty-year-old Maya knew, as she watched Dean walk away from her front door, distraught at her silence and her father’s threats, that she would never love anyone with the intensity that she loved him. He was her painter, her artist, her soul mate and being apart from him hurt too much. She tucked those feelings away, determined to enjoy the safe and secure life her parents approved of: business school and a marriage to Chuck, a successful real estate agent.

Thirty years later, Chuck has cheated on and divorced her. But when he comes back, begging for reconciliation, Maya follows her intuition and takes a vacation to think it over. Her love of art, food, and wine combine at this retreat in the woods, and she prepares for a week of making new friends, tasting exquisite wines, and learning to paint again. What she hasn’t prepared for is the familiar voice she hears the first morning at camp . . . a voice that makes her skin tingle and brings back memories of who she used to be before Chuck. Has Maya buried her passion too deep to find love with Dean again?

In other news, the fifth issue of Bull Spec is set to to appear on April 15, with my short story, Bother, in the fiction section. Woo hoo! The release party for Issue #5 will be at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on the same date.

As part of the festivities, I'll be reading from Bother. Be prepared for urban marital angst and dragons! If you don't want to miss my short story or you're just a fan of speculative fiction, you should definitely subscribe to Bull Spec now. It's a gorgeous print magazine, but if you prefer reading online, e-subscriptions are available too.

Don't worry, I'll be posting reminders as the dates draw near, and I will definitely keep you posted on any release night plans I come up with for Maya's Vacation. My family will be in town, so dinner out, at the very least, will be in order!