Coming Together: Strange Shifters -- Table of Contents

I've got all the contracts back, done all the editing, and am awaiting like 2 stories left for final versions...

Which meant that it was time for me to buckle down and set the order for the stories, which can be a really tricky task. You want to start with a bang and end with a boom, and keep the tension up for the entire book. It's tough, and it's a skill I'm still not sure I've mastered -- this is only my second anthology, after all...

But, here's what we got....




Introduction: The Animal Inside...                            

Bored in Heaven                                      Daniel Burnell
A Hand Outstretched                       Elizabeth L. Brooks
Gator Tail                                                 Leigh Ellwood
Mine                                                     Emma Whitehall
Small Change                                              Adrik Kemp
Moonlight Ride                                            Marie Piper
Water & Fire                                          Jaap Boekestein
Circus                                                      Nickie Jamison
The Storyteller                                            Tony Haynes
The Dive                                                       Lukas Scott
A Reindeer by Any Other Name               Delilah Night
Tar Pit Triage                                               Lily Malone
Valkyrie                                                  Nickie Jamison
Champ                                                  Margot McGuire
Woman without a Shadow                          Bruce Meyer
Rezoned                                                          T.B. Bond
Mouse Games                                       Lynn Townsend
Snowbound                                                Lisabet Sarai
                               
                                                                   Author Bios

Scary Amounts of Editing

I've mentioned from time to time how much I adore my beta reader and editor, Elizabeth L. Brooks, right?

I've been told by a few editors (NOT Liz) that I have very clean copy, they only needed to make minor changes, nothing to worry about.

The above screen capture is part of the reason why.

I have a new word for Liz's edits; she's not bleeding all over my manuscript, she's blue-bricking up my margins.

Look at this, my god! Every. Freaking. Page... it's a wonder I had any sanity left after I finished working with this manuscript...


As a note, you should have seen me a few weeks back, sobbing over edits for A Marked Man. It's not that my editor was harsh or anything, she's not... Elizabeth Lance is a godsend! but simply that there were so many changes that needed to be made.

Joke: How many dialogue tag mistakes can one writer make?
Answer: Apparently, all of them!

I was talking to a fan of the Rainbow Connection series who read Blues early for review... (it's already got one 4.5 star, so check it out!) and she says, coyly, "Well, you've already written Classic, right?"

I knew where this was going. "Yeah."

"Can I read it?"

"No! Jesus, no."

"Why not?"

The primary reason is that Classic is still in 2nd drafts. I have to fix / review / look at all the various stuff my beta readers pointed out, and THEN it will go off to Liz for content edits... after that, it goes through 2 rounds of proofing... at least one of those rounds of proof-reading has to happen before I'm not utterly ashamed to have anyone reading my work.

I love my editors. I really, really do. And you should, too...

Coming Together: Among the Stars Table of Contents

I've finally gotten all my contracts in house. I've been working on the edits for stories, and today I can finally announce the table of contents, since all my writers are signed on.

I'm so excited to say that. My writers.

Mine.

My precious....

Okay, maybe I'm a little obsessed. I've really been enjoying the process of making an anthology. It's new and different and exciting. I've got 21 stories here that range from really good to Oh my FUCKING God.... and I think you're going to love them as much as I do. Also, about a third of my writers are men, which is a pretty good mix for a genre (erotica) that tends to be highly female dominated.

Table of Contents

Introduction, "The Thrust of Curiosity; a little science friction..." - Lynn Townsend

Rose Caraway - Duali-Teaze

Annabeth Leong - Repair Mission

Lynn Townsend - Situation Normal

E.S. Wynn - A Matter of Taste

T.B. Bond - Getting Even

T.B. Bond - Love in a Space Elevator

Elizabeth Black - Longing

Zee Giovanni - Forbidden Goods of the Galaxy

Nobilis Reed - Birth of a Monster Whisperer

Essemoh Teepee - Gyozo's Mate

George Box - Yvette

Jade A. Waters - The Joy Ride

Nickie Jamison - S.E.T.H.

Elliot DeLocke - Sense-Think-Act 

Delilah Night - Love is a Virus 

V.L. Locey - Rose of High Barbary

Adrik Kemp - Of Gods and Men

 Skilja Peregrinarius - A Fully Functional Lo^ghi

Kathleen Tudor - Navigator

Elizabeth L. Brooks - Bleeding Red

Malin James - The Power of Positive Thinking