General rambling – Joe Monson – SF Editor & Author

Anthologies and babies and writing, oh my!

Posted on January 16, 2020 - January 16, 2020 by Joe

It’s been a while since I last wrote on this blog, but I have reasons. Good reasons, even.

A Dragon and Her Girl, the second of the LTUE Benefit Anthologies, is all done and ready for publishing. You can preorder it on Amazon, and it will be available on Kindle Unlimited through the end of May. On June 1, it will become available on all the ebook platforms possible.

This anthology is exciting because I got to work with one of the nicest, most gracious, and prolific authors I know: Mercedes Lackey. I’ve enjoyed her short stories for years, and eventually I’ll get around to reading some of her novels (I really haven’t read any of them, honest). She and co-author Elisabeth Waters were so kind to let us include their story in A Dragon and Her Girl. The other authors in the anthology were great to work with, too. I think I’ve been blessed to work with amazing authors so far in my editing career. It’s been a joy working with Jaleta Clegg again, too.

In December, my son (who was due at the end of January) decided he’d had enough of baking and came very early. He spent a bit of time in the NICU to make sure he wasn’t going to have any of the issues often associated with premature births. He’s home, off the CPAP, and he and mom are doing fine now.

I’ve been stuck a bit on writing because of spending all my time on the above two items. I (along with Jaleta) also finished selection for Twilight Tales, the third LTUE Benefit Anthology, due for release in February 2021. It’s a light horror (think “Twilight Zone”) anthology in honor of Betty Pope, and will feature 31 tales of light terror and woe. We are now working on selecting the theme (and the honoree) for the fourth anthology in this series.

I’m about to begin work on editing A Universe of Stories, a short collection of stories by winners of the first American Fork Library creative writing contest. This anthology gives those winners the opportunity to go through the editing process and even earn a little money from the sales of the anthology. This will be an ongoing series, published first in ebook format, with a print omnibus version available after 3-4 of the ebook anthologies have come out. I’ll post more about this anthology (and its sequels) when it gets closer to release.

If you want to pick up signed copies of Trace the Stars and A Dragon and Her Girl, I’ll be at Life, the Universe, & Everything in February. A bunch of the authors in those anthologies will be there, too. I will also have a few copies of All Made of Hinges if you’d like to read “Napoleon’s Tallest Teamster“, my clockwork android story set in 1870s France.

That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

A guest post over on Mad Genius Club

Posted on June 17, 2019 - June 19, 2019 by Joe

I wrote a guest post, “Taking Out a Contract“, over on Mad Genius Club. I pontificate on anthologies and contracts and such. Check it out!

High school nostalgia

Posted on December 8, 2018 - December 8, 2018 by Joe

For the first time in over twenty years, I’ve run into one of my high school teachers. Cindy Clark taught various art classes, and I took a least one (I forget if I took more than one). It was one of my favorite classes. My favorite part of it was ceramics, where I sculpted an ice cream sundae from clay, paint, and hot glue (it makes great hot fudge). It was one of the most fun experiences I ever had, and I still have it (in a box somewhere, so I can’t show it to you right now).

Cindy Clark at the "Women in Waiting" exhibit. — Cindy Clark at the “Women in Waiting” exhibit.

Cindy opened her first solo art exhibit last night at the Eccles Gallery in the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. The title of the exhibit is “Women in Waiting”, and the thirty works display a variety of activities and situations where women currently and previously had to wait. The works are done using encaustic painting, a medium that uses beeswax, pigments, and resins to achieve a unique, somewhat translucent quality.

The exhibit goes through January 28, 2019, on the lower level. I highly recommend taking the time to visit it.

Getting back into writing mode

Posted on August 1, 2018 - July 31, 2018 by Joe

So, after years of squeezing in writing here and there (mostly non-fiction writing and reviews) due to needing to spend most of my time on school stuff, I’m finding it hard to get into fiction writing mode. I think part of it is just wanting to rest for a bit. That’s understandable, I think, because of taking over five years to finish up school while working either full or part time, raising two kids, and trying to fit “all the things” into life. Now I have to do it while looking for a really good job and still trying to do “all the things” that pop up.

Right now on the writing front, I am working on two different short stories, as well as one novella that will possibly turn into a novel. One of the stories is my first attempt at writing something for the YA market. Yeah, I know there isn’t a huge short story market for the YA crowd, but I think it’s growing. The other short I plan to submit to my favorite hard SF magazine. The novella is undergoing structural changes to make the story flow better.

On the editing front, I’m working on Trace the Stars, the first LTUE benefit anthology (to be released in February 2019 through Hemelein Publications and LTUE Press). We have all the stories and are working through those that need editing work (mainly the four brand new, never-before-published stories). Most of the stories were previously published, so they only need a quick copyedit.

So, happy birthday to my dad as I boldly go where many have gone before, but where I have to make my own way despite all the potential roads already built there.