McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a satire site that I’m often giggling at, decided they liked my piece of writing and published it.
Here’s a little humor piece I hope you enjoy. It’s called, “A Parent’s Guide to Surviving the Terribleness of Youth Sports.”
I wrote a short story (yay!), and now it’s published at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly (double yay!), and you can read and/or listen to it for free (even more yays!).
Here’s HFQ’s succinct blurb:
“Prerogative of Gods” – A servant of the God of Justice learns that the boundary between justice and revenge can be thin indeed. Audio version read by Karen Bovenmeyer.
Please take a minute to check it out. Of course, I’m excited to see my writing shared again, and I’m especially excited to hear the lovely voice and delivery of Karen Bovenmeyer narrate the whole thing for the audio version as well!
And while you’re there, definitely read some of the other great work in their archives and from their current issue, including the beautiful “The Bells of Bel-Hazir” by Michelle Muenzler.
Enjoy!
So much going on, including celebrating the release with Evan Ronan, planning the final arc of the entire Out of the Fire series, and seeing Rogue One, that here’s just a very quick notice:
The first in a new urban fantasy thriller series is available now!
This is a little different from our historical series (clearly), and I hope you enjoy all the adventure and danger we put these new characters through. Check it out at Amazon and let us know what you think!
Step 1: check out that gorgeous cover!
Step 2: enter to win a FREE SIGNED COPY at Goodreads!
Out of the Fire is what Evan and I call our post-apocalyptic, urban fantasy thriller. It’s the first book in a new series and will be available in print and ebook on December 16th. We’re so excited about this new cast of characters, setting, and genre, and I hope you’ll enter to win an autographed copy and add it to your to-be-read list.
Here’s the teaser:
After magic floods into the world, bringing with it unimaginable power, ex-rock star Tucker Ambrus and firefighter Andrew Byrne’s city is nearly destroyed by a devastating storm of fire.
Now, as the unlikely leaders of a desperate band of survivors, Tucker and Byrne struggle to unite and protect what’s left of a panicked, lawless public—both from themselves, and from new supernatural terrors like the mysterious eruptions of churning gray that devour everything in their path.
But when influential leaders begin disappearing and chaos splits the survivors into warring factions, Tucker and Byrne must race to uncover a secret that links a crazed murderer to the deadly surges of magic and halt them both before it’s too late … though if they succeed, they risk igniting another firestorm and tearing their homes, and their friendship, apart.
We hope you enjoy it, good luck in the giveaway, and watch for Out of the Fire on December 16th!
Where else can you get assassination attempts through hostile wilderness for just $0.99?
(You can read the full description for the book on the Amazon link above – and a billion other places on my site. So please check it out and it might just be the summer read you’re looking for!)
Andrew didn’t know that he’d killed the slut buck. He’d just settled to one knee, trained the crosshairs on the broadside and squeezed the trigger.
That’s the first line of my story “The Slut Buck” that appeared in Apiary Magazine a few years ago. You can read the whole thing here.
While you’re there, take a minute to check out some of the great poetry and fiction they’ve published … there’s a lot of good stuff, including one poem I really enjoyed called “Dr. Hermitcrab” by Max Webber.
Enjoy!
The best sledding of my life didn’t happen on a hill. Or even on a sled.
And I tell that story over at Eileen Wiedbrauk’s website as part of Rhonda Parrish’s Giftmas Blog Tour.
So go now for a fun little story about my childhood. And while you’re there, be sure to enter for a chance to win a MASSIVE package of 20 FREE BOOKS and other swag.
And, hey. Since I know you love books and reading, be sure to take a look at the other writers and participants in the Giftmas Blog Tour. Suzanne van Rooyen offered suggested gifts for writers on my site, and there are a whole bunch of other top-notch writers on this blog tour schedule.
So please take a second to check it all out and be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win lots of cool stuff, including paperback copies of my two historical novels from the Tomahawk and Saber series.
Surprise! The paperback version of book 2 of the Tomahawk and Saber series is out a few days earlier than scheduled. So you can literally get your hands on this book now.
In this book, which some of the early readers thought was even more suspenseful than Language of the Bear, we go along with Pyke and Wolf Tongue as they … well, I’ll just give you the jacket copy:
Wolf Tongue of the Susquehannock and Lieutenant Hugh Pyke of the British Army barely survived their first mission together. Now with the French and Indian War beginning to flame around them, the frontier of the Pennsylvania Colony is restless.
When they’re called back to protect Millers Town from Indian raiders, Pyke and Wolf Tongue discover the settlement is outnumbered and there is no militia to reinforce them. Even worse, Pyke and Wolf Tongue fear the townsfolk harbor secrets just as deadly as their attackers.
As Pyke tries to build a haphazard defense with a band of farmers and children against an almost inevitable slaughter, the mysteries of the town begin to unravel. Pyke realizes his life is in danger from the very people he is duty-bound to protect—perhaps, even from the beautiful French outcast who seems to know more than she should.
With a final, crushing attack imminent, Wolf Tongue hurries to rescue a kidnapped girl who might be the only hope for the town’s survival while Pyke struggles to protect the innocent. As they carve away layers of deceit, both men must confront the terrible truths behind Millers Town to survive the dangers to their lives, their peoples, and their honor.
Through the Narrows continues the historical adventure of the Tomahawk and Saber series, filled with suspense and action that captures the deadly brutality, danger, and history of Colonial America.
So, you know. If this is the kind of stuff you like, please check it out.
And if you do like it, you’ll be happy to know there are more stories coming—Evan and I are hard at work on the next Tomahawk and Saber adventures. I think you might be surprised at some of the twists coming down the, ahem, pike.
Here’s a post just to spread some free fiction around.
This is a short story (flash fiction, really) that I wrote and that originally appeared in Fractured West, Issue 2, edited by Kristy Logan and Helen Sedgwick. Sadly, the journal closed in 2013, but I thought I’d share my little contribution to it.
Hope you like it.
He never used to tell me I was pretty. Maybe sometimes, but then he’d say beautiful instead of pretty. Most times, he didn’t say either. He’d call me smart. I got mad cause I didn’t want to be smart. I wanted to be pretty.
Now he says it a lot, but his smile’s different. I smile too. I like being pretty. But now I miss what he used to say. I miss his old smile.
Dad still reads books at breakfast sometimes. When he gets up for more coffee, he folds the cover around back to hold his page. When he picks it up again, I can see the white scars and crinkles on the back. He says they still have all the same words in them. But I don’t like how the backs are all broken and they flop open like they’re too tired to hold everything inside anymore.
When he sees me staring, he watches me. He bites his lip like he’s waiting for something.
Sometimes he asks if I remember how he used to make me hot chocolate for breakfast. He pretended I was drinking coffee like he was. But he says I was too smart. I knew it wasn’t coffee. He always said I was too smart for him and Mom cause I read so much.
I remember lots of things before the accident. Like sitting in Dad’s big chair and reading a book he bought for me. Or pretending to drink coffee. I remember I got my license. He showed me how to drive, but he says I can’t drive now. I remember Dad used to wink and say, “Smarts last, pretty don’t.”
Now he smiles at me and it’s different. It goes away faster, like it’s too heavy to hold. But it makes me smile anyway. I can feel his fingers on the scar when he brushes my hair and says, “My little girl’s so pretty.”
***
I just put a signed copy of the first novel in the Tomahawk and Saber Series in the mail to our lucky winner from New Jersey. But if that’s not you, don’t despair—you could win a paperback of the second book before it’s released!
Enter here for your chance to win a signed copy
before it’s on sale on November 3rd!
Thanks and good luck!
P.S. If you’d like to take a peek, check out the ebook, which is available now, for a free preview.
Nathanael Green 