tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523Life in a Northern TownLaylaLayla2014-01-21T03:55:13Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523:231064Short story anthology announcement2014-01-21T03:54:43Z2014-01-21T03:55:13Zpublic0My science fiction short story "Stormrider" appears in the anthology <a href="http://crossedgenres.com/titles/fierce-family/">Fierce Family</a> from Crossed Genres, out this month. From <a href="http://crossedgenres.com/titles/fierce-family/">the website</a>:<br /><blockquote>Strong, united families are rarely portrayed in speculative fiction. They’re often dysfunctional, combative, self-destructive, or miserable, when they’re portrayed at all. This is especially true for non-nuclear and adoptive families, single parent families and families with no children, which are easy targets for invalidation.<br /><br />And QUILTBAG families are almost never portrayed in speculative fiction, regardless of whether their families are loving or falling apart.<br /><br />15 exhilarating stories of QUILTBAG families experiencing adventure, disaster, and triumph make up Fierce Family. They are families of any constellation: all sizes and configurations, families of choice as well as families by birth. They are caring and connected – when outside conflict arises, they come together to defend and aid one another. Fiercely, and without hesitation.</blockquote><br />My contribution, "Stormrider", is action sci-fi about a family who perform search & rescue operations on a storm-torn ice planet, riding native wildlife that resemble giant <a href="http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/Content/leafy-sea-dragon-ocean-pobook006-sw.jpg">leafy sea dragons</a>. Because I needed more ice dragons in my life! More info and buy links at the website above.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=layla&ditemid=231064" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523:225860Big Damn Heroines anthology2013-07-22T07:01:38Z2013-07-22T07:01:38Zpublic0I have a fantasy novella in <a href="http://www.stormmoonpress.com/books/Big-Damn-Heroines.aspx">Big Damn Heroines</a>, a small-press SF/fantasy erotic anthology released today from Storm Moon Press celebrating "plus-sized women kicking ass". It's under my romance/erotica alias, Layla M. Wier, which I clearly suck at keeping separate from my Layla Lawlor author identity, i.e. my real name. (Probably I should just give up.)<br /><br />Anyway, my story is called "Finder's Keeper":<br /><br /><i>Cat can find anything that’s been lost, from personal items to missing people. The one lost thing she can’t seem to find is herself. She scrapes out a meager living in the poor district of her walled desert city, until a friend and lover from her past, Mirsagh, comes to seek Cat’s help. As the two women journey into the desert in search of a missing merchant’s son, Cat will find herself pushed to the limits of her physical and mental strength, and forced to confront feelings for Mirsagh she thought she’d left behind years ago. But none of that will matter if neither of them makes it out alive …</i><br /><br /><img src="http://laylawier.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/bigdamnheroines_500.jpg"><br /><br />Right now the anthology <a href="http://www.stormmoonpress.com/books/Big-Damn-Heroines.aspx">can only be purchased through Storm Moon Press's website</a>. Most of their other titles are available from Amazon, etc, so I hope this one will be soon. :)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=layla&ditemid=225860" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523:191677Short story sale2012-06-14T08:16:37Z2012-06-14T08:16:37Zpublic21I'm thrilled to announce that my short story "Netcasters" will appear in <i>Sword and Sorceress 27</i> this November. <a href="http://www.mzbworks.com/S27.htm">The complete anthology lineup is here.</a><br /><br />This is my first "pro" short story sale -- as determined by pay rate -- and I'm totally jazzed about it. :) (Naturally this is the first year in awhile that I haven't included "pro short story sale" in my list of goals for the year. Nuts.)<br /><br />This story was inspired by macramé, the art of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macram%C3%A9">creative knot tying</a>. Looking at a piece of ornamental macramé on my desk, the thought occurred to me that it might be an interesting idea for a story to include a magic system that uses knots as a spellcasting medium (rather than, say, a spoken spell, a scroll or potion, etc). Then I started wondering what sort of people might find magic knots useful, and what instantly came to mind was "Fishermen!" So that's what this story is about: a fishing village in which the fisherfolk have a closely guarded talent for tying very special knots, and a thief who stumbles onto their secret.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=layla&ditemid=191677" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523:174886New fiction by me2010-05-04T09:21:23Z2010-05-04T09:34:31Zpublic0My short story <a href="http://emg-zine.com/item.php?id=636">The Dragon of Gettysburg</a> appears in this month's dragon-themed issue of <a href="http://emg-zine.com/">EMG-zine</a>. (Due to violent/gory content, you'll need to <a href="http://emg-zine.com/account.php">register</a> on the 'zine's website and then set "View Questionable Content" to "true" in order to read it.) "The Dragon of Gettysburg" is about 1000 words and, as well as being a stand-alone story, is also backstory for a character in the novel that I'm currently working on.<br /><br />A teaser snippet, with a bit of the aforementioned gore:<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://layla.dreamwidth.org/174886.html#cutid1">Snippet from 'The Dragon of Gettysburg'</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />I also have a story called "Those Who Favor Fire" in the erotic e-anthology <a href="http://www.circlet.com/?p=944">Like a Mask Removed: Volume 2</a> (superhero/supervillain-themed adult fiction). There's a list of places to buy it in the link, including <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DKJBEK">Amazon (Kindle)</a> and <a href="http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b106643/Erotic-Tales-of-Supervillains-/Bethany-Zaiatz/??r=3a22">Fictionwise (multiple e-formats)</a>. (Notice that there are <i>two</i> books and my story is in the second volume, the supervillain one, with the red-and-black cover. The blue cover is the first volume and not the one with my story in it. Not that I'm trying to discourage anyone from buying the other one, of course!)<br /><br />"Those Who Favor Fire" is about 3000 words long and features original superhero/supervillain characters (i.e. not specific ones from the Marvel or DC universes). A teaser snippet: <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://layla.dreamwidth.org/174886.html#cutid2">Snippet from 'Those Who Favor Fire' (basically work-safe, though the story itself decidedly is not)</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=layla&ditemid=174886" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:50523:163510On the road2009-08-08T19:11:30Z2010-05-04T08:50:38Zpublic0First, a teeny plug: my SF(ish) short story <a href="http://crossedgenres.com/archives/009/hetsies-wonders-by-layla-lawlor/">Hetsie's Wonders</a> appears in this month's issue of <a href="http://crossedgenres.com/">Crossed Genres.</a> It's about 8000 words.<br /><br />I'm presently in Chicago at Wizard World Comicon; I've been on the go for a little over a week now, visiting friends in various cities in the Midwest, plus a side trip to Tulsa (... look, when you've just flown down from Alaska, what's another thousand miles?) to see family. I'll be heading back home on Thursday -- I hope; wildfire smoke in the Interior has been so dense that they've been intermittently grounding flights or diverting them to Anchorage.<br /><br />I'm presently at the hotel after spending the morning walking around at the con -- which was really as much time as it took to run up to the limit of what I wanted to spend, and see the people I wanted to see. (Oh, I could definitely visit a lot more -- it's so <i>nice</i> to see the Midwest comics folks again! -- but I don't want to distract people who are actually working.) I'm sharing a hotel room with <a href="http://www.vogelein.com">Jane Irwin</a> and husband <a href="http://www.paulsizer.com">Paul Sizer</a>; I've also been able to visit a bit with <a href="http://www.timbroderick.net">Tim Broderick</a> (the first web cartoonist I ever met, I think, and a hell of a nice guy) and <a href="http://www.dynamanga.com">Dirk Tiede</a> from the old Modern Tales bunch, and I finally got to meet uber-talented <a href="http://www.ironcircus.com">Spike</a> in person for the first time! I'll head back to the con later this afternoon, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying a little bit of downtime for websurfing, writing and blog updating. (The hotel wireless is a bit flaky, though. *crosses fingers, presses "post"*)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=layla&ditemid=163510" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments