Author Rie Sheridan Rose will be debuting the third of the Conn-Mann Chronicles titled The Incredibly Irritating Irishman at ConDFW.
Author Rebecca Kightlinger will be attending the National Book Critics Circle annual meeting with finalists’ readings and NBCC awards ceremony. There will be some great new novels to read, study, and learn from prior to attending the readings!
Appearances
February 10-12, 2017 – Gloria Oliver, Rie Sheridan Rose, and Elizabeth K. Burton will be panelists and be in the dealers’ room of ConDFW in Fort Worth, TX.
February 17-19, 2017 – author Kathryn Sullivan will be in attendance at Gallifrey One in Los Angeles, CA.
If you happen to come to either venue, drop on by and say “Howdy!” 🙂
Artist François Thisdale recently won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. The award is the highest recognition in Canada for Children’s Literature. Two books he illustrated had been shortlisted in previous years. This year he won the Award for his illustrations in the book Missing Nimama. Congrats!
Artist Jared Boggess’ cover for the Assassination of Ambrose Bierce has won the Society of Illustrators 59—one of the top competitions in the states. It will be featured in their exhibit this February. This is his second book cover selected by the Society of Illustrators. Congrats!
Author Rie Sheridan Rose will be participating in this years NaNoWriMo. This will be the 13th year she has participated in the event. Rie commented “some have been more successful than others. ;)” Kudos to all who decide to participate this year. Good luck!
Author Gloria oliver recently released a historical/alternate history/thriller novelette titled Charity and Sacrifice.
Gloria also recently went on an overseas trip for a one week whirlwind tour in the Mediterranean. Here are a couple of tantalizing pictures from her trip.
Author Roberta Rogow’s song “The ship” has been nominated for the Pegasus Award for Best Classic Filk, given by the Ohio Valley Filk Fest. The winner will be announced on November 5, at the convention’s banquet. Let’s wish her luck!
She’s also shared a neat spread of pages from a children’s book she recently finished designing and laying out.
Author Ann Curtin won an Honorable Mention at the San Francisco Book Festival for her ZP published Novel – Dreamcatcher. Congrats Ann!
Author Kate Dolan has joined the guys at the Jump Rope Jam as a guest on their podcast. Kate has recently published the novel “Roped In”, which deals with competitive jump roping.
Gloria oliver – recently received an Honorable Mention for her fantasy short story “The Queen Lorellai” for Q1 2016 from the Writers of the Future.
Kate Dolan (writing as K.D. Hays) will be featured in Southern Writers Magazine’s “What’s the Story” section explaining the inspiration for her latest book, Roped In. Since Kate was a jump rope coach for eight years and Roped In is a mystery surrounding a jump rope competition, the story behind the story could have easily stretched to novel length all by itself.
Stephen Tiano – who works as a book designer, Page Compositor and Layour Artist – has been quite busy recently. He’s currently working on three book interiors, one of which is a sort of retelling of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with a transgender twist!
See some of what he’s been working on below.
Author Rajendra Kher has signed a contract with Leadstart Publishing Corp. for his upcoming non-fiction work Life After Life; Lifting the veil on Death. Congrats!
Rie Sheridan Rose has a short story titled “It’s…Complicated” in the anthology Lightships and Sabers which should see release 4/18/16.
Pennwriters – Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction with Barbara Mountjoy (AKA Alana Lorens and Lyndi Alexander)
WEEK ONE:
Discussion of different types of sci fi (hard sci fi, space opera, etc) and fantasy, high fantasy, urban fantasy, etc. Writing assignment will be to sketch out a rough outline of the piece students will be working on for the class, using the above guidelines, whether a short story or novel beginning.
WEEK TWO:
Discussion of tropes and how to avoid them. Drawing characters. Power Point presentation on world-building. Lessons from AVATAR on how to shortcut some world-building by using similar concepts that people already know. Writing assignment will be to continue to embellish the outline with interesting characters, situations and oddities of the world they are creating.
WEEK THREE:
Watching Firefly episode “Out of Gas,” an exercise in learning how to insert small details so that it doesn’t look like heroes are God-moding when they can suddenly do everything at the climax. Writing exercise will be to analyze piece for possible placement of such details.
WEEK FOUR:
Sharing the works we’ve done over the month, feedback offered, “pickles of praise” as well as whatever participants request. Discussion of what might be done to expand this piece into something longer, and encouragement offered!
Babs Mountjoy, who writes for Zumaya as Alana Lorens and Lyndi Alexander, will be teaching two seminars at the Flathead River Virtual Conference. The classes will be: Writing the Series: How to Keep Stories Alive and Building Real and Alien Worlds.
Babs Mountjoy, who writes for Zumaya as Alana Lorens and Lyndi Alexander, will be teaching two seminars at the Flathead River Virtual Conference. The classes will be: Writing the Series: How to Keep Stories Alive and Building Real and Alien Worlds.
Babs Mountjoy, who writes for Zumaya as Alana Lorens and Lyndi Alexander, will be teaching two seminars at the Flathead River Virtual Conference. The classes will be: Writing the Series: How to Keep Stories Alive and Building Real and Alien Worlds.
We at Zumaya mourn deeply the loss of Roger Margason, better known as Dorien Grey, and Joan Blacher, two well-respected and talented mystery writers. Both were a joy to work with, I will miss being able to spend time with them, even if only virtually, more than I can say.
Award-winning author Dr. Joan Blacher, a licensed psychotherapist in private practice for the past twenty years, was a former university professor and director of a counseling and guidance graduate program. She was the author of the mystery novels Murder Canyon, Lethal Lake, and Death on the Run, and co-author of Difficult Teens: A Parents Guide for Coping.
Her works were published in counseling and educational journals, mystery publications, magazines, newspapers, and she was a former member of a counseling journal’s editorial board. In 2003, the California Association of Marriage Family Therapists awarded her its Carl Vincent Award for her literary contribution to mental health with the publication of Difficult Teens.
She is survived by her husband of 42 years, Norman, who has requested her mystery series featuring forensic psychologist Ardis Jensen remain available to readers.
When long-time book and magazine editor Roger Margason chose the pseudonym “Dorien Grey” for his first novel, it set off a chain of circumstances that led to a comfortable division of labor and responsibility. Roger had charge of day-to-day existence, freeing Dorien (with the help of Roger’s fingers) to write. Both Roger and Dorien died in November after a minor surgical procedure resulted in fatal complications.
Two years into college, Roger left to join the Naval Aviation Cadet program. Washing out after a year, he spent the rest of his brief military career on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean at the height of the Cold War. Returning to Northern Illinois University after service, he graduated with a BA in English and embarked on a series of jobs that worked him into the editing field.
While working for a Los Angeles publishing house, he was instrumental in establishing a division exclusively for the publication of gay paperbacks and magazines, of which he became editor. He moved on to edit a leading LA-based international gay men’s magazine. Then, tiring of earthquakes, brush fires, mud slides, and riots, he returned to the Midwest, where Dorien emerged, full-blown, like Venus from the sea. They were inseparable (and interchangeable) from that point on.
Roger—and Dorien, of course—moved back to Chicago in 2006, where they devoted time to writing and travel. Both Dorien’s excellent mystery series—Elliott Smith and John and Dick Hardest—will remain available to readers, as he requested. His popular blog will also remain available with the able assistance of his good friend Gary Brown.
Rajendra Kher’s non-fiction book Empire of the Gods has been released.
One of our artists, April Martinez, has just published a lovely coloring book called Patterns.
Gloria Oliver has received a contract for a historical/alternate-history novelette entitled Charity and Sacrifice which should see release in October 2016.
Appearances
Zumaya will have a table a ConDFW on February 12-14, 2016 in Dallas, TX. Come meet some of our writers and editors!
Author Gloria Oliver will also have a table and will participate in panels at ConDFW as well. Come on by and say “Howdy!”
One of our artists, Tamian Wood, was chosen by the publisher of Pope Francis to do the cover for his Encyclical Letter Landato Si.
And now she’s even won an award for that cover from The Book Designer.com peeps! Congrats!
Greg Austin’s feature screenplay “Haven’s End” is an Official Selection at Oaxaca Film Festival in Mexico. So far, it’s a quarter finalist in Screencraft’s Sci-fi competition. How cool is that? Congrats, Greg!
ALWAYS ALI!, the fourth book in the Ali Caldwell series, by Christine Marciniak will be released soon. Ali finally thinks she has her life together, when a new girl at school sends everything topsy-turvy.
If you prefer getting your ebooks from iTunes – some of our more recent titles can now be found there! If you check for your favorite title here at the ZP site, there’ll be a new iTunes/iBook icon on the book page.
Yet another way to find our titles for your enjoyment! 🙂
We keep adding more venues as ties go by and we’ll keep you informed of developments.
One of our artists, Tamian Wood, was chosen by the publisher of Pope Francis to do the cover for his Encyclical Letter Landato Si. How cool is that? Congrats, Tamian!
Rie Sheridan Rose will be celebrating the release of Bruce and Roxanne: From Start to Finnish from Yard Dog Press at FenCon in Sept 2015. Lyndi Alexander participated in the First Annual Book Sale on the Mercer County Courthouse grounds, July 25, 2015, sponsored by the West Pennsylvania authors. The event, held in conjunction with the Saturday Farmer’s Market, was well attended and very successful.
**This month we got some not so great news and our second loss to our roster**
“It’s with deep sadness that I report our fellow Zumayan, James Choron, died of pneumonia and complications of asthma in Moscow, Russia, on July 23 of this year. Jim and I were in the process of developing a new, updated version of his excellent collection of paranormal investigations, Footprints in the Snow: True Tales of Haunted Russia. He was a delightful person to talk with and will be very much missed.”
He will be missed.
Appearances
Sep 4-7, 2015 – Author Gloria Oliver is on the Emergency Waiting List for Animefest 2015 in Dallas, TX. What this means is if a table frees up at the last minute, she’ll have to drop everything that Friday and GO! Wish her luck! 🙂
Sep 25-27, 2015 – Will see several Zumayans at Fencon 12 in Dallas, TX. Attending will be Gloria OliverRie Sheridan Rose and Elizabeth K. Burton – This year they’ll be at a new venue, so should be exciting!
Book Trailers
This month is a book trailer is for K.D. Hays and Meg Weidman from the Thresholds Imprint called – Toto’s Tale