Call for Submission: Strange Shifters... a Shape-Shifter collection to benefit Bat World

Coming Together: Strange Shifters is a collection of shifter erotica edited by Lynn Townsend. Sales proceeds benefit the Bat World Sanctuary.

Werewolves get all the glory and attention. What about the shy were-deer or the aggressive were-badger? Where are their stories? Calling all skin-changers. There's nothing sexier than a lover who isn't afraid to let their inner animal out!

Paranormal writer, Lynn Townsend, is looking for your best were-creature stories: were-foxes, shape-shifting llamas, or even were-men, beasts who come out of the forests to assume human shapes and walk among unsuspecting mortals.

The final book will contain the best of erotic shape-shifter tales (tails?), a wide range of characters, pairings, ideas, and situations, exploring what it means to be human... and what it means to be beast.

Standard Rules apply:

No underage, no non-consensual, no scat, incest, or necrophilia. The nature of the anthology allows for some bestiality, but keep them all sentient beasts. Any pairings or groupings accepted and encouraged. Heat level, medium-warm to nuke my brain! Happily-Ever-After or Happy-For-Now not required. I'm looking for satisfying stories and incredible sex first and foremost.

Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2015.

Send double-spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman or Georgia) in .doc or .rtf format, 2,000 – 4,500 word stories to lynntownsend.writer@gmail.com, with “ATTN: Coming Together, your pen-name, your story title” in the subject line. Indent the first line of each paragraph, do not add extra lines between paragraphs. US English grammar please. Double quotes around dialog. (If your story requires non-comprehensible speech, other punctuation may be acceptable, brackets, etc. Consistency is key.)

Only submit your final, best version of the story; do not send multiple versions of the same story. Up to two stories will be considered from each author. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable and be clear which one is which), mailing address, and up to 250 word bio. You will be notified as to the status of your story by no later than September 1, 2015.

This is a charity anthology. Contributors will receive ebook copies of the publication. Additional compensation in karma and tax-write offs. Bat World Sanctuary will benefit from all proceeds. Bats are clean, gentle and intelligent, they are vital to the ecosystem, and they enhance our lives in many ways. Insect-eating bats are literal vacuum cleaners of the night skies, eating millions upon millions of harmful bugs. Bat World Sanctuary cares for and rehabilitates bats who have been retired from zoos, harmed by industry, or who need to be relocated from human spaces. Find out more at batworld.org

ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Lynn Townsend is a geek, a dreamer and an inveterate punster. When not reading, writing, or editing, she can usually be found drinking coffee or killing video game villains. Lynn's interests include filk music, romance novels, octopuses, and movies with more FX than plot. She grew up half in central Virginia, half in way-upstate New York and went to college at William & Mary, where she met and later married a guy who grew up half in Kentucky and half in Utica. They have one child, one murder-death-cat, a turtle, and two chinchillas.

So Much Work

I've been doing so much work recently, it feels like I haven't gotten anything done.

I mean, it's almost the end of April. I'd meant to do Camp NaNoWriMo this year because I am behind on a bunch of projects, but no, I ended up with other projects and more projects, and while I've gotten a lot of writing and stuff done, I'm still behind. Sort of.

In some senses of where I wanted to be with done-ness.

I'm about somewhere between a third and halfway done with Sins of Angels, but it's the same place I was last month, because other projects and editing and outlining have gotten in the way. On the plus side, I don't actually need to have it turned in to my publisher until December, so I still have plenty of time, but I hate feeling like I might be rushed LATER, so I'm making up for it by being rushed NOW.

I just got the edits back in for Classic. And an acceptance for Cascade Failure. And marketing documents for two pieces in house. And I'm expecting a beta-read back for A Wanted Woman soon, which is due to my publisher June 1st. Which will mean I need to do those edits VERY Soon Now.

And I'm writing a novella for a series that sounds really fun. I'm most of the way done with writing that, and I expect to be done with it in the next week or so... if I can just get past the sex scene, really. (I write so much sex that sometimes it's hard--oh, so hard!--to avoid writing the same damn scene over and over again.) I mean, I love sex, I really do. And I like crazy sex. But real people have the same sex over and over again. You just do. Especially when you've been with the same person for years....

Cascade Failure, which is a continuation of the Home Improvement series (started in Home Inspection, found in Whetting the Appetite and continued in last year's Building Us in the They Do anthology), seems a bit like my life recently. When one thing goes wrong and then another, and none of the things in and of themselves are very difficult or awful, but they just sort of pile on you until you're at the bottom of a stack of shit going "can I just stop now?"

My husband broke a tooth all the way to his jaw, there were complications with that which prevented him getting into the dentist for almost three weeks... and the joy that is my husband in pain AND on pain meds. Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse. And I chipped a tooth in the same week, because why not? And while my daughter is doing very well in school, we've had a ton of parent-school activities that just keep stacking together... and my cousin's husband died in a terrible car accident... and my mother came to visit for the first time in... honestly, I can't actually remember the last time we saw her at our house? Maybe when the childthing was three? (she's almost 12 now)

I've had a few issues with one of my publishers that resulted in a story I wrote potentially being off the market, after they even had Amazon pre-order dates and everything. I have a couple of other stories out in limbo and editors have not responded to emails for clarification.

I'll be opening submissions for my new anthology Soon... but not entirely sure when, altho we're aiming for a Halloween publication because that's the perfect time to release a shape shifter anthology. (keep an eye on this space for details!)

So, I've been really busy...

Breathe.... breathe...

Cascade Failure 

Teaser: Parenting never even looks easy. When a high-travel job conflicts with raising a family, will Eric and Temple be able to be there, for their kids, or even for each other?

'Blurb: The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins—trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?

A Wanted Woman

Sequel to A Marked Man, the Forging of Souls Duology concludes this June with A Wanted Woman.

'blurb

All the rules have changed.

Separated from her lover, Catreen An'dello is forced to forge new alliances with the underground world of thieves, whores, and renegade magi. Catreen must learn to negotiate in a society when the wrong move can mean death and discover that the fate of kingdoms suddenly rest in the hands of a leaderless hodgepodge of talented assassins, ruthless murderers, and selfish courtesans. Can Catreen find the key to protecting these fringe citizens while thwarting Aleck's world dominating ambitions?

In the hands of his enemies, Bastian Hooke is ensorcelled by ancient, dark magic. He witnesses the forging of a new soulstone and discovers the horrific reasons for their creation. Remorseless, soulless, he is set loose on the city with only one thought; Kill Catreen. Fractured by magic gone horribly wrong, will Bastian be able to mend his broken soul before he destroys everything that he loves and betrays everything that he is?