It's Official - Book Tour - Once Upon a Scream

There's a lot of information out there about the Bubonic Plague, aka Black Death. I happened across several places where priests played a part in various aspects. For instance, priests helped to care for those suffering from the plague, and were sometimes responsible for spreading it before realizing they'd been infected.

They were also active in leper colonies during this same time period. This comes into play later.

The plague wiped out a huge portion of the population during that time. Medicine wasn't terribly advanced then, so many things were blamed for the disease killing people left and right. As were many people. Among those people blamed, were lepers and priests. The reason for the lepers being the obvious skin lesions, as the plague also involved lesions. Even people with bad acne were blamed and murdered by terrified citizens.

Of course, we know the plague had to do with disease. And it's prominently thought that trade had more to do with the spread than other means of spreading the wealth. Still, it was the priests who caught my attention. And the poor lepers.

My story, The Black Undeath, is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that combines plague, leprosy, and the undead.

Check out this story and others in the new release, Once Upon a Scream, where you'll find all kinds of twisted, dark fairy tales!

Today's my official day on the book tour run by Horroraddicts.net, the creators of this anthology, but there are plenty of other fantastic authors involved:

Dan Shaurette (who also edited it)

Lynn McSweeney

J. Malcolm Stewart

Laurel Anne Hill

Emerian Rich

Adam L. Bealby

MD Maurice

DJ Tyrer

Charles Frierman

Alison McBain

Sara E. Lundberg

Chantal Boudreau

V.E. Battaglia

C.S. Kane

K.L. Wallis

Wayne Faust

Nickie Jamison

This book is available on Amazon in paperback now, but will also be available in e-book in about a week.

If you live near the San Francisco Bay area, Bay Con will feature a panel and release party for this book, with several of the authors, the editor, and staff attending. The party sounds like it will be a great time, and you can get the book signed by the authors who are present, as well as book plates from some who aren't able to make it. There will also be goodie bags!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there, but I'll be sending book plates.

Do you have any interesting facts about the Bubonic Plague? What's your favorite fairy tale? Do you prefer them dark, like the original Grimm's Fairy Tales, or light, like the Disney interpretations?

May you find your Muse.

Whirlwind Weekend of Releases

The publishing world is an odd one. Sometimes it moves at the speed of sloth. Sometimes everything hits at once.

I had five publications with unknown or tentative release dates, and I was waiting to hear when they'd be releasing. Well, Saturday I was notified of the release of Once Upon a Scream, an anthology I have a short story in.

My short story is entitled The Black Undeath, and is a new take on the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale. With zombies.

It can be purchased at Amazon or CreateSpace in paperback for $13.00, but the e-book won't release until May 28.

Horroraddicts.net also did a podcast that involved an interview with Dan Shaurette, the editor, and mentioned something about each of our stories. It's Episode 124. My kids loved hearing my name on a podcast.

If you'll be attending BayCon, those authors from the anthology that could make it will be doing a panel and release party. (I can't make it--sad face.)

The very next day, I received an email that Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, Volume 2, Issue 2 had released. My creative memoir flash fiction piece, Grandma's Leather Sofa, is in this issue.

This one is kid friendly (one of the very few things I've done that is.) In fact, there are stories in Ember written by kids. And it's fully illustrated! It's on sale for $14.95 at E&GJ Press, but you can use the coupon code SLAWRENCE-FRIENDS to get 35% off!

I actually waited on posting the Ember release, because I didn't want to be obnoxious with the releases on Facebook. But I'll post it today. The kicker is, it looks like one of the magazines I'll have a story in will come out in a week, so boom, boom, boom, three in a row.

Knowing the publishing industry, there will be a gap before the other two release. Funny how that works. Things have been crazy with these two releases and the details surrounding them, and then it will be back to glacier speed, as I wait for acceptances/rejections and release dates.

I enjoy the ride, even if it is sometimes random and stressful.

How was your weekend? Any publishing news to share? Other fun stuff? Have you ever had multiple publications come out at once?

May you find your Muse.