From the Editor's Desk, March 2015

By Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief.

Happy birthday to us! March 2015 marks our third anniversary. Back in the spring of 2012, we launched with Susan Abel Sullivan's well-received four-story collection Cursed: Wickedly Fun Stories. 

Since then we've published novels, novellas, collections, and anthologies. We've slowly and selectively added authors to the WWP family. We've launched series. We've launched trilogies. We've launched an imprint! And most recently, welcomed new assistant editors to sit at the big family table, overstuffed with food and mismatched serving dishes, alongside our authors and anthologists and Uncle Kenny who always manages to pass the mashed potatoes so that you put your thumb in the smear down the side. Or does only my family have an Uncle Kenny?

There's a very "full circle" feeling to many of this month's goings-on:

The very first novel we published — Shards of History by Rebecca Roland — well, we're announcing its sequel! Fractured Days sees Malia return home the hero of a war she can't remember. Read the description now and stay tuned for release dates of this soon-to-be-released novel.

There's news from all of our recurring anthologists as well. Far Orbit Apogee, the next title in the Far Orbit anthology series edited by Bascomb James, is wrapping up the final month of submissions. Kate Wolford, editor of Krampusnacht and Beyond the Glass Slipper, just opened submissions for Frozen Fairy Tales, a joint venture between World Weaver Press and Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine. Anthologist Rhonda Parrish continues her magical creature anthology series that began with Fae in Corvidae and Scarecrow (to be released in July and August 2015, respectively), and announced that the submission dates for Sirens will be August 15 - November 15, 2015. I'll even be releasing a sequel to Specter Spectacular: 13 Ghostly Tales called Specter Spectacular II: 13 Deathly Tales in late-spring/early-summer — although that's not strictly a March announcement. (Anthology submission guidelines.)

Our assistant editors, Sarena Ulibarri and Laura Harvey, made it through their first open submission month in February, fielding roughly a hundred queries — a not insubstantial number when you consider that we open to queries three times a year and only publish 10-14 titles a year. Of those hundred, we can only sign 1-3 . . . maybe four. Maybe. Some tough choices are ahead. 

But what's not a tough choice? Getting an ebook copy of Legally Undead this week. You may have already seen it on BookBub, but if not, know that the first-in-series supernatural suspense / urban fantasy novel Legally Undead by Margo Bond Collins is just $0.99 this week only (ends Sunday, March 15) on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and AllRomance eBooks. To tide you over until the next novel featuring Elle Dupree, we've lined up a novella from Nick's point of view, Crazy, Stupid, Undead, which you can add to your Goodreads lists now.

We've got so many great projects and great people — including all of you who've joined us for previous #SFFlunch live Twitter chats or who will join us on March 20, Noon-2:00 PM EDT — to celebrate with, that we don't even need a cake to feel special on our birthday.

Unless it's a cheesecake. I never turn down cheesecake.

At the WWP Home Office here in Michigan, a sudden and shocking thaw has broken us out of a snowy, sub-zero thrall. We're poking our heads out our doors, cracking windows, and madly filling every carwash in town as we try to scrub the road salt from our cars before the next snow. Because we're Michiganders, we steadfastly believe there will be another snow. But for the moment, we're spring-crazy for this string of 50 F days that will give way again shortly to more March-appropriate temperatures in the mid-30s. But I'll take it, gladly take it. And while it's no cheesecake, it does feel like a fine WWP birthday present.

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