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

Sooo busy

It's funny, in a way. I get so busy actually working that I don't write blog entries.

I've been working really hard to get ready for Coming Together: Strange Shifters. (I wish I did cover art, because we still don't have any and I need some, but I'm a terrible graphics editor)

I've gotten all my stories edited and most of them returned, so I'm doing the final check-through for 16 of them and getting them mapped out in the anthology file.

I've written two short stories in the last two weeks, which has to be some sort of record, for me, at least. One of them is about 7,000 words and I wrote it from scratch, starting on the 10th and I finished it Tuesday, so 12 days. The other was half-finished a while back, I started it in February of 2014, and for reasons that I can't recall, never finished it. Then, this morning, I saw a story call and thought "did I ever finish that... no, no I didn't." I dug up the file, pulled it out, read it, decided it was actually fairly good and would meet the requirements for the call nicely.

I figured it would take me a week or so to finish it off, but no, apparently something started turning in my head and I cranked out almost 3,000 words today, did some quick editing, and sent it off to the publisher.

According to my calendar, on Monday I'll start writing my Twisted Fairy Tale story, which I'm calling Small Problems, and is a Tom Thumb m/m story.

For some reason, I decided that I'll try to write a short story for every one of Torquere's anthology calls for 2016. They have rather a lot of topics that I think I can work with. (I'm pretty sure I won't, actually, get all of them, but I might get at least seven done, and that's more short stories than I've done in a while... I think. I don't know, I lose track a lot...)

October will see me finishing off the Strange Shifters anthology -- the current anticipated publication date is October 31st, but if we don't get a cover soon, I'm concerned. (Do you have mad cover design skills? Want to donate some time? Please contact Alessia Brio at erotic.cocktail at gmail dot com for more information!) and writing a short story about Irish dancing. I have't decided much about that short story yet, but I do have some friends who do Irish dancing who've agreed to help me with the technical details...

And then I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I'm not what you'd call the best NaNo person, but I do want to finish writing All that Jazz by hopefully the end of this year, for fall publication of next year.

After that, I'll get Sins of Angels back from my betas and finish edits on that...

Which takes me through the end of the year...

Short Story Call, Coming Together: On Wheels

Your Regular Author: Let me hand you over to Leigh Ellwood, who has a short story upcoming in my Strange Shifters anthology (look for it at your favorite ebook retailer end of October)


Recently Alessia Brio at Coming Together gave us a short update about current and coming projects. I already knew about Strange Shifters because I have an M/M short, "Gator Tail," included. If anybody wanted to do something for 2016, just holler.

I recalled the fun I had putting together Coming Together: Girl on Girl (ARe ~ AMZ ~ BN ~ ITUNES ~ SMASH). That book was a finalist for the AAD Bookie Award and the GCLS Goldie. Since its publication, I thought often about another project for CT, and with the recent news of refugees I realized an idea.

This book won't be out for a while, but the charity it will benefit will always need help. While you wait, of course, you can research organizations that help global refugees and donate. Right now, though, I'm happy to announce calls for Coming Together: On Wheels.

SUBMIT Submissions of short erotica and erotic romance are sought for the upcoming collection Coming Together: On Wheels, edited by Leigh Ellwood, to benefit UNHCR. UNHCR assists refugees around the world in seeking asylum and rebuilding their lives. For this anthology, we're looking for stories about sexy, badass heroes and heroines on wheels. We want tattooed and leather-clad bikers, daredevil stock car drivers, daring street racers... fast on the streets but hot between the sheets, or in the backseat. We welcome all sub-genres and pairings for this project. We'll take futuristic or historical, BDSM or romcom, M/F or anything in the LGBTQ spectrum. If they ride, we'll read. We are looking for believable characters and strong and sizzling prose guaranteed to melt any digital reader.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Direct all submissions to ffcomingtogether@gmail.com and CC submissions@the-erotic-cocktail.com. Include “Coming Together On Wheels Submission” in the header of your e-mail. In your e-mail message, include a short summary of your story, a two-line blurb, and a short biography, about 150 words. Stories between 3,000 and 7,500 are preferred. The editor will consider stories as long as 10,000 if she finds them truly exceptional.

Coming Together contracts non-exclusive rights to publish, so previously published work may be considered. Please note it in your query, but remember you must own the rights to the work you submit. Stories over 5,000 words may be released individually through Coming Together as well, with the sales proceeds benefiting UNHCR. Please use RTF, DOC, or DOCX format when submitting a manuscript. Include your real name and pen name and a working e-mail address. The editor will only consider manuscripts in the aforementioned formats attached to the query e-mail. DO NOT paste your story in the body of your message. Please use Times New Roman font, size 12, and one-inch margins. Double-space paragraphs and set indentations to .3 – DO NOT use tabs or spaces to indent.

Coming Together is a non-profit organization, and all CT authors and editor have generously donated their talents to various causes. Compensation for inclusion in this work is a PDF contributor copy of the finished product and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping an amazing organization that is helping people around the world find better living solutions.

Wedding March, the full story

I almost missed the end of the story; I wrote parts one through four for the blog tour like two weeks ago, and then I was all, oh, I'll finish this off in a few days, no problem...

And I got all wrapped up in working on Strange Shifters, and I had my annual garden club Social that I had to plan, and my daughter's going back to school next week, so there's been a lot of planning and running around for that...

My husband's friend at work went to the Philippines for vacation and brought back some foreign virus, that he then generously spread around the office and that my husband brought home for me. Yesterday my sinuses were so badly infected that it looked like someone had punched me in the eye. Half my face was swollen up and I had a fever and a headache. (I got anti-biotics and I'm feeling much better now, so that's good, but yesterday I was pretty much useless.)

All of the sudden it's Sunday; I'm planning to post the full story on Monday, and it's not written.

Fortunately for you -- and me -- Beau and Vin's world is so easy for me to slip into these days that the rest of the story just poured out of me Sunday morning....

So, here you are, I hope you enjoy it.

Wedding March -- I'm keeping it as a separate page so people can find it easier when this blog post is archived.

Thanks especially to everyone who hosted the story as I wrote it, Em, Vicki, and the two Delilah's. I love you all and you're wonderful...

If you would like this story in a .mobi or .pdf or .pub version for your electronic devices, just shoot me an email at lynntownsend.writer (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me what you want. Otherwise, wait a few weeks, come back here, and I'll have links posted for downloading. (Provided that I can figure out how to do that, thus the few weeks.)