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Hysterical Realms Release, Science Fiction Submissions, and Six Degrees of Jensen Ackles

astheheroflies2 Comments

 

Hystericalrealmscover
Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms cover image designed by Aimee Maroney. Image used with publisher’s permission.

It’s finally here: Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms was officially released yesterday, and, thanks to the awesome people who contributed to the Kickstarter, we raised enough funds for a print edition, so WOO HOO! Thank you so much to everyone who participated in that, and if you’re a reader who enjoys funny fantasy stories, definitely go check out the anthology:

Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms

They also interviewed the authors for this book, so I’ll post a link to mine when it’s up.

In the meantime, Strange Musings Press has just opened up submissions for their newest anthology, Weirder Science. This time around, they want humorous science fiction stories. They are also having a contest to potentially rename the book, since they are not married to Weirder Science. Thus, everyone who submits a story can also suggest an alternate title, and the prize for the winner is pretty cool. So, go check that out, too:

Weirder Science Submission Info

And if you happen to be more of a “serious” science fiction person, there is another anthology currently accepting subs for their My Favorite Apocalypse collection. They are accepting short stories of any length (though they will likely regret that when they see how long my submission is) as well as poetry, but the deadline is coming up fast for that one: April 30th. Yeah, you’ve got just nine days, so better make it short:

My Favorite Apocalypse Submission Info

Don’t worry, you can make it if you really hustle! And, while I really should be getting back to my own apocalypse story, I just had to share a fun fact I discovered while browsing the Strange Musings Press website:

One of their previous books, Vampires Suck, contains a story by none other than Nicholas Knight – an author who is very well known to anyone who’s ever picked up an issue of Supernatural Magazine. He’s got a least one article in every issue, and has also written all of the Supernatural season companions. Before the fire, I never missed a single issue of Supernatural Magazine. I also own several of the season guides, and have always loved Knight’s articles and interviews. You can just tell he is a huge fan, and truly knows the show backwards and forwards.

He has also done probably hundreds of interviews with the cast and crew of the show. Which naturally got my fangirly heart making some pretty wild leaps. Because, after all, Nicholas Knight and I now share a publisher. Which means I am about a degree away from knowing him. And he knows Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki! He’s freaking met them and everything! Like, numerous times. So, by the way my delusional mind works, I am roughly two degrees away from knowing Jensen and Jared.

This is almost as cool as the time I shook hands with William B. Davis at the X-Files Expo back in ’98. The other actor giving autographs that day was Charles Nelson Reilly, who played Jose Chung on the show. Right when Davis was finishing shaking my hand, Reilly said something to him, so Davis looked over, and, in doing so, accidentally made a black dot on my hand with his marker. It was a Sharpie, too, so it didn’t wash off completely for several days. Oh, how I cherished that little dot…**happy sigh**

Wait. Hang on a second. William B. Davis was in Supernatural, too. He acted in a scene with Jensen in the Season One episode “Scarecrow” (one of the all-time scariest eps!). So [insert fangirly drumroll here] I shook hands with someone who, years later, acted onscreen with Jensen Ackles.

One degree, anybody? 🙂

 

Up next on ATHF: Race Results for February and March (will include my thoughts on the new CW show iZombie), plus my Strange Musings Press author interview

 

Hysterical Realms: Kickstarter and Submissions

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Hystericalrealmscover
Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms cover image designed by Aimee Maroney. Image used with publisher’s permission.

I posted about this anthology last year, remember? Well, guess what? My story “Seeing is Believing” made the cut! 🙂 The anthology is currently set for a May release…and there may still be time for your story to get in, too! They briefly reopened for submissions, so if you’ve got a short fantasy humor tale lying amongst the dust bunnies under your bed, pull it out, blow it off, and send it in! Even if you don’t have one lying around, maybe you could still whip one off in time. You have until March 10th. Speed-writing, anyone?

More info on submissions here:

http://www.strangemusingspress.com/p/alternate-hilarities.html

In the meantime, the Kickstarter campaign to fund a print edition of the anthology is in full swing right here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/809941908/alternate-hilarities-hysterical-realms

Only 11 days to go on that – I really hope the funding comes through! I only just discovered Kickstarter a year or so ago, and what an amazing discovery it was. Though I’m a writer at heart, and always will be, I have secret hopes of someday being a publisher, too. There’s something so uplifting about the notion of helping other writers get published. When I didn’t have a credit to my name, Every Day Fiction took a chance on me and published my work. They made my dream come true, and wouldn’t it just be the most awesome thing if I could do that for someone else? If I could be the one who says “Yes!” after years of other publishers saying “No!”?

So, yeah, I’ve had some thoughts about becoming a publisher, even some very specific thoughts about publishing a magazine featuring writers from my home state. I even picked a title for this imaginary magazine. But I doubted it would ever happen, because how would I ever finance it?

Enter Kickstarter. When I saw what crowdfunding was all about, I knew that my dream of making other writers’ dreams come true might not be so far-fetched after all. If you’ve never looked at a Kickstarter campaign before, definitely go check it out. Kickstarter is a reward-based crowdfunding system, and the prizes for the Hysterical Realms campaign range from a free eBook and your name in the contributors section to signed hard copies of all three of Strange Musings Press’ anthologies, plus a character in the new anthology NAMED AFTER YOU. How freaking cool is that?

So, yeah, go check it out. And don’t forget to submit your fantasy humor shorts by March 10!