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"!

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.

(con-volution, convolution, 2017, redshirts, sidekicks, minions, lee moyer)

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!

Today, I'll be travelling from Los Angeles to the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina for the final leg of my Wings Unseen book tour. Hooray! Here I am getting a little relaxation and cold recovery in at my sister's before taking off:

A post shared by Becca Gomez Farrell (@thegourmez) on Sep 17, 2017 at 5:37pm PDT

I lived in Durham, NC, for eight years, and it's where my writing career got its start. So I am glad to be able to share such a wonderful career milestone with my NC community of friends and fellow writers. And there is plenty of opportunity to join us and to check out some of the great voices living in this great area of the South.

NC Speculative Fiction Night Tuesday, 9/19, 7 pm The Regulator, Durham

Join me (and Vesperi!) and local NC authors Mur Lafferty (John W. Campbell award winner, author of the Shambling Guides 1&2) and James Maxey (author of the Dragon Apocalypse novels and much more!) in reading from our works. From dragons to invisible flesh-eaters to murder mysteries in space, our trio offers a little bit of everything sci-fi and fantasy. More details: Facebook or the Regulator website.

Becca Gomez Farrell and Friends Wednesday, 9/20, 7 pm Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

At this event, I'll be reading from Serra's point-of-view, and fellow authors Margaret S. McGraw and Natania Barron will be sharing stories from their own Weird West and early 1900s paranormal tales of adventure. More details: Facebook event or the Flyleaf Books website.

An Afternoon of YA Fantasy Saturday, 9/23, 2 pm Barnes & Noble, Cary

Join  myself (and a reading from Janto's POV) and Tony Daniel, author of the Wulf's Saga series from Baen Books for an afternoon of YA fantasy storytelling and book signing. This event is part of the B-Fest celebration of Teen Books at Barnes & Noble nationwide! More details: Facebook event or Cary Barnes & Noble website.

I hope to see you at any one of these events next week, Triangulars! I'm looking forward to celebrating Wings Unseen's release with the East Coast and all the wonderful folks and friends I met while living there. There will be more events coming up in October for me in the Bay Area - including a workshop and panel discussion at ConVolution! - and I'll be sharing information on all of those opportunities to meet up soon.

This coming Saturday evening, I am thrilled (or is it chilled?) to participate in Shades & Shadows, Los Angeles's only dark fiction reading series:

Details:

8:30 pm, doors open at 8 $10 entry fee. Tickets here. THERE WILL BE CAKE At the Mystic Museum 3204 Magnolia Blvd Burbank, CA

Click here if you'd like to RSVP at the Facebook event!

Dark fiction, you ask? But isn't your fantasy novel YA? Well, as many of the reviews can tell you, Wings Unseen is quite a bit darker than some readers expect for YA! I did pitch it as having elements of horror, for both the creatures contained within it and the horrific power struggle in Medua. Believe me, there is plenty of darkness to draw from in the worlds of Lansera and Medua. Now will I go dark horror, dark magic, or darkened halls for my selection? You'll have to come to find out! This is my one and only SoCal stop on my book tour, so I do hope you'll make it. If not, stay tuned for the podcast release of the evening's festivities....which may take a while -- the Shades & Shadows crew is about a year behind in podcast production. So you're best bet is to show up! I hope to see you there.

I have two more Bay Area readings coming up in the next two weeks! Which means two more opportunities for locals to come hear a little more about Wings Unseen and get me to sign your book - it's a harmless experience, I promise!

A Reading of the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup Group #

Where: Mad Monk's Center for Anachronistic Media, Berkeley

When: 9/2 at 1 pm

What: The East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup Group has been going strong since 2011! This critique group for speculative fiction writers of all adult ages and career stages has provided input for a great number of talented writers over the years. A great collection of talent has come through this group, and we thought it'd be nice to spotlight a few of them finding success as featured readers while also giving current members the chance to read their works in a supportive setting for perhaps the first time in the form of an open mic. We will have three featured readers: Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Andrew Roberts, and Tantra Bensko. Afterward, the reading will transition to an open mic for authors of speculative fiction to share excerpts of their works of up to 600 words, or 5 minutes of reading time.

More Information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1384209081676428

SF in SF #

Where: American Bookbinders Museum, San Francisco

When: 9/10 at 6:30 pm

What: Join SF in SF as they present authors DARYL GREGORY and REBECCA GOMEZ FARRELL! Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by audience Q & A moderated by Terry Bisson. Booksigning and schmoozing follows - both authors' books will be available for sale, courtesy of Borderlands Books (feel free to bring books from home as well!). Doors and cash donation bar open at 6PM - and, it's DEBUT NOVEL DRINK NIGHT! Help us raise even more money for the Bookbinders Museum by imbibing a little bit :) $10 at door - no one turned away for lack of funds All proceeds benefit the American Bookbinders Museum.

More Information: https://www.facebook.com/events/117232002272576

I hope to see you at either, or both, events! More info coming on LA and NC stops soon....

Wings Unseen, my debut epic fantasy novel, is now available at bookstores and libraries and everywhere online! Here's a perspective you don't see of the cover often, the full front and back:

If you'd like to see it in paperback near you, request to have Wings Unseen ordered at your favorite store. Such requests are much appreciated! And so are online orders. You can get it from any of these retailers in paperback or ebook forms:

I would absolutely love it if you would rate and/or review the book after reading as well - ratings are life for authors! We all know we are swayed by them. ;) So a big virtual hug from Mazu for those of you able to do so.

To celebrate the release of Wings Unseen yesterday, I thought I'd do a reading on Facebook Live...but I have a ton of Wings Unseen readings coming up, so I thought it'd be more fun to share some of my earliest short stories instead. And by early, I meant second to fifth grade. You can watch the video by clicking through to Facebook or click the video to play below:

Ah, elementary school storytelling. I was so precocious. You can also follow the Wings Unseen Blog Tour--full of interviews, guest posts, excerpts, and reviews of Wings Unseen from book blogs--over the next three weeks! Find the full schedule of tour stops here at the Xpresso Books tour page.

Upcoming Readings and Appearances To promote and celebrate the publication of Wings Unseen, I'll be reading at or participating in several events over the next few months, and hopefully, one of those will be near you! Here's the list of where you can find me coming up, including 4 Bay Area appearances in the next two weeks:

• 8/25, 8 pm, Feminist Spec Fic night at the Liminal Center, Oakland, CA
• 8/26, 4 pm, Wings Unseen Book Launch, the Octopus Literary Salon, Oakland, CA
• 8/27, 3 pm, A Trilogy of Shivers, Adventures, and Fantasy, Borderlands Books, San Francisco, CA
• 9/2, 1 pm, A Reading from the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup Group, Mad Monks Center for Anachronistic Media, Berkeley, CA
• 9/10, TBD, SF in SF, Location TBD, San Francisco, CA
• 9/16, TBD, Shades and Shadows Podcast, The Mystic Museum, Burbank, CA
• 9/19, 7 pm, An Evening of Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, the Regulator, Durham, NC
• 9/23, 2 pm, Barnes and Noble, Cary, NC
• 10/20, 3 pm, interview with the Speculative Fiction Cantina
• 10/20, 7 pm, At the Inkwell Short Fiction Night, Alley Cat Books, CA
• 10/24, 7 pm, Liminal Series, Flywheel Press, San Mateo, CA
• 10/26-10/29, SirensCon, Veil, CO

Events with more information available online are linked - I'll be adding links as I get more details ironed out as well! I would love to see you in the crowd, and of course, to sign your book! I think I'll also be posting some musings about the process of book publication once I get the chance to breath...which may not be until October. 😅

Thank you for your support, dear readers, and I hope to see you in the world of Lansera soon!

This is essentially a repost of info from when this reading was originally scheduled, but it was moved to do publication issues. Well...it's happening tomorrow! Time has flown by, and I am very excited to finally share "What Scattered in the Wind" tomorrow night in person and into posterity for anyone who orders this chapbook! Please come celebrate the launch for the anthology/chapbook it will appear in: Little Letters on the Skin.

What? The Cleave: Bay Area Women Writers and the Liminal Center Release of the Little Letters on the Skin

When? Friday, June 9, 2017   Friday, August 11, 2017

Where? The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St, Oakland.

Time? 7 pm.

Eight other writers and myself, who have been involved with Oakland's amazing creative space for feminists and womanists, the Liminal Center, will be taking part in the reading and small group Q & A afterward. The anthology will be available for purchase, with all profits going to help support the work of the Liminal Center, which I've written about before here and here. I will also bring along a few copies to sell of Typehouse Literary Magazine #9, which featured my humorous sci-fi story, "Mixed Signals, or, Learning How to Speak," last September.

"What Scattered in the Wind" is not humorous sci-fi, that's for sure. Rather, it's horror flash fiction done in a poetic prose style, and it's the first story I wrote upon moving to the Bay Area. I love the mood of it, and the angst within it, that of a woman struggling with her biggest regret in life and sentenced to forever re-remember it. The first lines?

Hollow rasps of laughter pestered her to wakefulness. Any noise would have done the same, though she clamped her eyelids together in protest. For years, Ruth had heard nothing but the teakettle's hiss or the slow scrape of her cane against the camper's floor panels. The creaking sound of her voice rarely interrupted the silence. Unlike the other wayfarers, Ruth had never developed the habit of talking to herself. She didn't care to hear what she'd have to say.

"Hee-hee, hee-he-heee!"

What I am most excited about for this event, however, is the exceptional list of fellow writers reading with me, at least half of whom I've read with before and they are STELLAR:

Christine No is a writer, filmmaker and pitbull enthusiast based in Oakland, CA. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee and the 2016 First Place Poetry Winner of the Litquake Writing Contest. Say hello at  www.christineno.com

Gina Goldblatt is the founder of Liminal, a writing center for women, in Oakland California. She is a writer, an educator and an aerialist.

Hannah Rubin is a writer and artist based in Oakland, CA.

Heather Schubert is a published author, visual artist, teacher, Priestess and mother of four.

Jasmine Wade is obsessed with the tumultuous, hilarious, heartbreaking, and never-ending process of growing up. Find a list of her short stories at www.jasminehwade.com.

Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, public speaker, mental health advocate and proud Oakland native. Visit her podcast and blog CocoaFly.com where she covers issues related to women, race, wellness and sex.

Norma Smith was born in Detroit, grew up in Fresno, California, and has lived and worked in Oakland since the late 1960s. In  support of her writing, she has worked as a ward clerk in hospitals, as a radio producer, as a translator and interpreter, as an educator, and as an editor and writing coach.

Rebecca Gomez Farrell writes all the speculative fiction genres she can conjure up. Find a list of her published shorter works at RebeccaGomezFarrell.com, and find her debut fantasy novel, Wings Unseen, in August 2017 from Meerkat Press.

Ruth Crossman was born and raised in Berkeley and currently lives in Oakland. She is a poet and a songwriter who teaches ESL to support her writing habit.

Additionally, the anthology is edited by Dr. Raina J. León, who's an associate professor at Saint Mary's College and the founder of the Cleave reading series along with numerous other accolades. That's a stellar line-up that I'm glad to be a part of! I do hope you'll come out and join us, celebrating what women are doing in the literary arts in Oakland. Here's the Facebook event page, if you'd like to RSVP. I always like to know what friendly faces I'll see in the crowd!

The first time Wings Unseen, my debut epic fantasy novel, got a map was out of desperation. I simply could not keep my own world-building straight without a visual to look at, and my artistic abilities are HORRIBLE, so I forced my husband to draw me one. Ben is a software developer and designer, so he can sneeze and create something pleasing to look at - the closest I can get is taking snapshots of artwork already in existence.

So I knew early on that this book would need a map, and what self-respecting fantasy book doesn't have one, anyway? I am pleased to share with you the final map that will appear in the final book, which Meerkat Press revealed on Monday:

I love it! The main shape of the land remains the same from that day that I forced Ben to craft it for me, but we've added terrain, made the fonts used for countries, regions, cities, and points of interest uniform, and see that smashing compass top right? Yep, it incorporates the three-headed bird featured on the cover of the book! It'll be a helpful resource for readers, as I do, or my characters, rather, cover a LOT of ground in Wings Unseen. One of my biggest regrets is actually how many cities remain unexplored in the book, which I may be addressing in my early plotting of a sequel...

Want to dive into that map? Pre-order Wings Unseen today! Less than three weeks until it's out!

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.

What lurks in the wild?[/caption]

The LibraryThings giveaway of Wings Unseen is now complete! But do not lose hope, dear readers. There are other ways to get your hands on an early copy of my book....

...Like on Goodreads!

Through June 24, you can enter to win one of five print copies of Wings Unseen through Goodreads. Yes, that's right! I said print! How exciting is that?! They are advanced reading copies, which means some important details have not yet made it into the book design, like that dedication and acknowledgment I still need to write....but the story is all there and the book is 90% what it will be in the final version.

The odds are not as much in your favor this time around, with 235 people already entered in the giveaway, but you should totally try. Why? Because I'm proud of this book and I hope you will be proud of it too, enough to leave a review and rating after you get a sneak peek at it.

Goodreads Book Giveaway #

Wings Unseen #

by Rebecca Gomez Farrell #

Giveaway ends June 24, 2017.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

To enter, you can either click the link in that widget right above this or head to the website to enter directly there - the result will be the same either way! And you may be among the first to hold a copy of Wings Unseen in your hands! Heck, I haven't done that yet.

To encourage you to enter the Goodreads giveaway, I am giving away a sneak peak myself of one of the four character sigils that Meerkat Press has commissioned for the book! These sigils appear on the chapter title pages for each of my point-of-view characters - or at least the four of them that matter most. The first one is...

Serrafina Gavenstone #

Serra is the daughter of Midra and Goning Gavenstone, the liege-lords of Meditlan, a land of spices and wine - thus the grapevines of her sigil. Both her parents tragically drowned when Serrra was a child. As the book opens, her older brother, Agler, is on a quest for the Ravens, the spies of her home country, Lansera. Serra is engaged to Janto Albrecht, the prince of Lansera, and will wed him in a month. Being a part of the Albrecht family and the someday queen of Lansera is all that Serra has ever wanted, since she moved into their home after her parents' death. But at 18, Serra has much to learn of wants and what the future holds.

Get your chance to follow Serra's journey to her own future with an ARC of Wings Unseen from Goodreads! Enter here.