Our journey continues… World Weaver Press has agreed to publish a second volume of the Far Orbit science fiction adventure series edited by Bascomb James. We are once again looking for modern space adventures crafted in the Grand Tradition. We are not looking for slavish imitations of past classics. Rather, we would like to receive stories that establish a new tradition in the much maligned sci-fi adventure genera — smart, modern stories built around the classic traditions.

Praise for the first Far Orbit anthology:

We asked our authors and editors what they'd read in 2014 (not necessarily what came out this year) that had made an impression on them, and which books they'd loved that might not be on the tip of everyone's tongue. So here they are, our top picks from our recent reading!

First to Burn by Anna Richland — An immortal viking serving in the present day armed forces falls in love with the military doctor who is on the verge of discovering his secret. ALL kinds of mayhem ensues. Richland builds the romance slowly in a really enjoyable way. (And her follow-up romance novella is flat out fantastic, though it's missing the paranormal element of FTB. Still. This is an author to watch, for sure.)

The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan by Stephanie Thornton — okay, this is historical fiction, not spec-fic, but it is SO RICHLY WRITTEN that it feels like epic fantasy. The book is Thornton's finest work, and just so beautifully executed I am awed. If you love strong women in any genre, definitely read this book ASAP.

 — Amalia Dillin author of Forged by Fate and the recently released Beyond Fate

The Little White Bird by James M. Barrie which can be read online for free at Project Gutenburg 
My recommendation: Haven't heard of this title? I hadn't either, but as the official prequel to Peter Pan by the original author, it's a must read! The first story of Pan, beginning at age one week, is tucked within the overarching tale of an old bachelor who grudgingly saves a romance and befriends the resulting child. This child is the first to partake of the imaginary world of Pan, and is based on a boy who, along with his brothers, truly inspired Barrie in his vast imaginings. The tale is humorous, heart wrenching, candid and deliciously creative. The later story of Pan that we are most familiar with pales in comparison!
 
 — Kristina Wojtaszek author of Opal and contributor to Fae and Specter Spectacular

Gift cards burning a hole in your ereader? Take advantage of these end of year savings on ebooks through Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, or right here on WorldWeaverPress.com.

Use the code WinterSale2014 at checkout until January 3, 2015, to get 50% off any ebook purchase. (Code good only at worldweaverpress.com.)

If you'd rather get your ebooks through Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or OmniLit/AllRomance, check out these ebook sales:

• Legally Undead - $4.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, OmniLit / All Romance 
  
• Far Orbit - $3.99 (Regularly $5.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, !ndigo, Kobo
  
• Taming Fate - $1.99 (Regularly $3.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit/All Romance
  
• Tempting Fate - $1.99 Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
  
• Heir to the Lamp - $3.99 (Regularly $5.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
  
• Beyond the Glass Slipper - $4.99 (Regularly $5.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
  
• Opal - $2.99 (Regularly $3.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit
  
• Devil in Midwinter - Free (Regularly $3.99) Amazon
  
• Shards of History - $3.99 (Regularly $5.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, OmniLit / All Romance eBooks
  
• Forged by Fate - $2.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmiLit / All Romance
  
• Fate Forgotten - $3.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
  
• Haunted Housewives of Allister Alabama - $3.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon
  
• A Winter's Enchantment - $3.99 (Regularly $5.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit, All Romance
  
• Wolves and Witches - $3.99 (Regularly $4.49) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit 
  
• King of Ash and Bones - $1.29 (Regularly $1.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
  
• Cursed: Wickedly Fun Stories - $1.99 (Regularly $2.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo
  
• Glamour - $3.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon
  
• Specter Spectacular: 13 Ghostly Tales - $2.99 (Regularly $4.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit
• Fae - $4.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OmniLit

• Beyond Fate - $5.99 (Regularly $7.99) Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Barnes and Noble, Kobo

• Blood Chimera - $3.99 (Regularly $6.99) Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Omnilit

• Blood Sin - $5.99 (Regularly $6.99)  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

• Krampusnacht - $5.99 (Regular $6.99) Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo
• The Weredog Whisperer - Free (Regularly $5.99) Amazon

Tis the gift giving season, and a question we're getting asked by family and friends is how do you give an ebook as a gift? You can't pop it in a box and wrap it. You could give a gift card, sure, but what if you want something more personal or precise? What if you want to give someone a copy of this one great book you just read?

It's easy: there's a button, we tell our loved ones. And our loved ones look at us skeptically and consider revoking their previously bestowed title of She-Who-Is-An-Expert-In-All-Things-Book-and-Ebook.

So we're here to back up our statement with the following image-heavy tutorial: There is a button on almost all major ebook retailers' sites, and many of them offer you the option of emailing the recipient immediately with their gift, or on a future date of your choosing, or of retaining and printing the redemption code yourself.

Below we've detailed the process for Amazon Kindle ebooks, Barnes & Noble Nook books, Kobo ebooks, and OmniLit ebooks, as well as provided some suggestions for those of  you who'd like a physical gift to stick a bow on rather than a email present.

We ship all trade paperbacks via US Postal Service Priority Mail, and the last day in 2014 to place an order with guaranteed arrival before December 25 is Thursday, December 18. While the great deals seen below will continue until the end of December, any orders placed after 3:00 PM EST on Thursday (local mail pick up for WWP's home office) may arrive post-Christmas for these or any WWP title.

Ebooks, of course, always arrive immediately when purchased from our website. Just saying.

By Kristina Wojtaszek.

I never had a dog growing up, though I desperately wanted one. I grew up in an apartment and we weren't supposed to have pets. If our landlord had only known about the zoo we kept over the years! But of course, dogs were out. You can hide a hamster in your pocket (I did, once) and even stuff a turtle under your shirt (did that, too), you can dig up worms in the back yard for your pet frog (you bet I did!), but you can't exactly hide a dog. Especially when your landlord keeps outdoor cats and watches over the yard like a hawk. So I never did have a dog; not until I went away to college and set up camp in a place even less suitable for pets.

It was actually my last semester of college, and I was broke. I found a hole-in-the-wall hotel room that I could rent for the semester on very limited funds. My temporary home consisted of a single room, filled mostly by a bed and one chair, with an adjoining bathroom. I made do. The room was furnished with the tiniest refrigerator in the world and even a microwave, and bonus, I got a free continental breakfast every morning! I practically lived on hoarded bagels.

Introduction by Bascomb James:

For any reader who claims space-travel SF doesn’t come close enough to the known realities of physics to be believable, I hold up Eric Choi’s “From a Stone,” a hard science story steeped in scientific realism. In a way that puts the reader in mind of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, Choi explores the nature of intelligence and how one determines if an artifact is a product of an intelligent alien race. There are no star drives, blasters, or gee-whiz technologies. Everything is an extension of our current technology base. Rather than featuring the daring-do of fictional explorers, it shows the current realities of government- and committee-based space exploration. This story first appeared in the September 1996 issue of Science Fiction Age magazine.

Eric Choi is a writer, editor and aerospace engineer based in Toronto, Canada. His work has appeared in Rocket Science, The Astronaut from Wyoming and Other Stories, Footprints,Northwest Passages, Space Inc., Tales from the Wonder Zone, Northern Suns, Tesseracts6, Arrowdreams, Science Fiction Age, and Asimov’s. With Derwin Mak, he co-edited the Aurora Award winning anthology The Dragon and the Stars. He is currently co-editing with Ben Bova the forthcoming hard SF anthology Carbide Tipped Pens.

From a Stone
by Eric Choi

Stone.

Cold, hard, unimaginably ancient stone. A rough, irregular aggregate of it, angular, cratered, pockmarked and pitted. The stone was dark, with an albedo of less than five percent. It tumbled lazily about its major axis with a rotation period of 19 hours, 53 minutes. A third of it was frozen in shadow, while the rest roasted in the incessant light of the Sun. It was only ten by five by four kilometers in major dimension—on the scale of the Solar System, practically microscopic.

But the stone was not too small to escape human curiosity.

“Hold at three hundred meters for IPS parameter update.” The voice of pilot Ben Dixon came over Pierre Caillou’s spacesuit radio. Dixon and the mission commander, Poornima Bhupal, were monitoring the EVA from the bridge of the UNSDA spacecraft Harrison Schmitt.

Whether gifts for others or gifts for yourself, we've got some specials going on this season that are sure to please the reader of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction in your life.

Get the critically acclaimed anthologies of short fiction Far Orbit and Fae together for just $19.95 in trade paperback. These are fun short stories with edges of action, adventure, and a dark fae sense of humor.

Here's a great idea for the fan of urban fantasy who's already read everything: get them this three-pack of laugh-out-loud urban fantasy and paranormal mystery novels, all new this year, for something they've not likely to have picked up yet. 

These start-of-series titles promise much humor and wit within their pages and in future installments. 

Best of all, when purchased together, each trade paperback is less than $10 at this seasonal special discount.