Author Archives: Dayle

Uncollected Anthology, Issue 11: Bewitching Love

By DayleFebruary 2, 2017Uncategorized

Welcome to the latest issue of Uncollected Anthology! It’s our annual urban fantasy romance issue, where the magic that lurks around every corner collides with love. Our guest author, Lisa Silverthorne, has written some of my favorite stories, and I can’t wait to read her contribution!

But before I get to the stories, I have to share some exciting news! Uncollected Anthology received a smashingly fantastic review from one of the founders of the Urban Fantasy genre, Charles de Lint! In the February issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, he wrote, “The idea behind this anthology series is a little different…what can’t be denied is that something is working with this new method.”

You can read the full review here.

Also, you can buy all seven of the stories in one bundle for only $4.99 at any of these fine retailers! (You can still buy each story individually for $0.99 each, but this way you save almost $2.)

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Bundlerabbit

Now, on to the stories…

“Good Scrying Gone Bad”

The First Rule of Witchcraft: Harm none.

The Second Rule of Witchcraft: Practice magic only when you’re clear of mind.

That includes not practicing magic while drunk.

When drunken scrying goes awry, Madison connects with Brody, a cute guy trapped…somewhere. Freeing him becomes her obsession.

Does the Second Rule of Witchcraft count when it comes to love?

Buy it at any of these fine online retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

The other incredibly fabulous authors—go check out their stories!

“The Bee-Keeper’s Daughter,” Leah Cutter

A ghostly swarm of bees haunt Elizabeth. They coat strangers in pollen while holding her still, making her watch.

Then they come for her. Sting her. Give her magical power, but at such a cost.

Why do they attack her? What do they want? And how can she make them go away?

Set in the same world as “The Midnight Gardener” and “Lost Stars.”

Part of the Uncollected Anthology series, written for the theme Bewitching Love.

“Burning Up,” Michele Lang

Marcy, a young Boston mage, works in a spellworkers’ boiler room on the wrong side of town. Magical malware in her brain threatens both her friends and her livelihood. She has to chase down the cause, but she’s running out of time.

Meanwhile, Marcy’s boss, a wolf shifter up against the full moon, grapples with secret demons of his own. And a malevolent, relentless evil hungers to burn them both.

On the midnight streets of Boston, they must fight an ancient and terrible adversary. And unless they surrender to the fire, they might not make it until morning.

A story in the anthology Bewitching Love, part of the Uncollected Anthology.

“Helmie,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch

When Helmie—a pampered Persian cat worth millions—goes missing, the estate hires not one but two investigators to find him.

Kelsie uses magic to track down lost animals. But in this case, even she wonders if she can find Helmie.

Travis normally uses his investigation skills to track down people, not lost pets. And he works alone.

But when the pair find themselves on the same trail to Helmie’s whereabouts, they realize finding Helmie will prove only the beginning. Rescuing him might just take more magic than any of them realize.

Part of Bewitching Love, an Uncollected Anthology.

“Rusch is a great storyteller.”
—RT Book Reviews

“Oracle,” by Leslie Claire Walker

To save the people she loves, Erynn consented to carry within herself the soul of the cruel man who once enslaved them—Sebastian, London’s criminal mastermind and soul-dealing sorcerer. Day by day, she wonders whether she will become as evil as he was—and whether her friends will be forced to kill her to keep that evil from destroying them all.

Now, Sebastian’s restless soul wakes her in the darkest hours of night. He compels her to search the dungeons beneath her home to uncover a secret so explosive it may turn her against her friends.

Erynn’s discovery may leave her with no choice but to trust Sebastian with the shreds of her life and her clockwork heart. She and Sebastian both understand that the consequences of such trust could be deadly.

In fact, they’re counting on it.

Oracle is a standalone novella, and the third story in Leslie Claire Walker’s series, The Clockwork Heart Tales.

Sorcery. Alchemy. Necromancy. Friends and enemies who have lost everything but the fire of magic that burns within.

Join Erynn’s journey of courage, strength, and heart. Bewitching love awaits…

“There is a complexity to Leslie Claire Walker’s stories that invites the imagination to put away the worries of the day-to-day and abandon oneself in realms as fraught with danger as they are joy.”
—Phaedra Weldon, National Bestselling Author

“Love’s Breaking Storm,” Stephanie Writt

One big-city were-cat seeks anyone to save her from her new home. A dog filled suburb. (Shudder.)

Emily’s human companion believes she only lives one life: as a cat. So doesn’t take Emily into consideration when she moves them across the country. Away from everything Emily has ever known. Cleaning herself on the branch of a tree one summer’s day, Emily ponders the next step out of her lonely circumstance.

Enter one steaming hot guy with storms in his eyes.

Lightning, love and a hefty kitty-freak out fills Emily’s story as she discovers a new place for herself and a future she never (ever) imagined.

Guest Author

“Jar of Souls,” Lisa Silverthorne

Finding an unconscious man on the steps of her magical perfume shop is just the beginning of Seattle sorceress Avery Starling’s troubles. She’s drawn to Braxtan Rhodes, a handsome and intriguing young man who reeks of a strange dark magic that is slowly killing him. Pushing her healing air magic to its limits, Avery puts her heart on the line to battle a powerful Fey queen for Braxtan’s soul.

Want More?

We do have a website and a newsletter, for the sole purpose of telling you when the next batch of stories is available. Check them out!

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A nice review of Tempest, the new Valdemar anthology

By DayleJanuary 13, 2017Dayle A. Dermatis, Fantasy/SF, Kudos, ReviewsValdemar

Here’s a thoughtful review of Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar, the latest Valdemar anthology, with a specific mention of my story, “Unraveling the Truth” (warning: there’s a minor spoiler in the review, so you might want to read the story first).

And here’s a link to Tempest on Amazon, if you’re so inclined. (It’s available via any bookseller.)

Happy reviews mean happy authors! It’s always such a thrill to be included in these volumes, too!

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Snow day!

By DayleJanuary 11, 2017Lifecottage, snow

Front porch

Front porch

Backyard

Backyard

Front yard

Front yard

Busted, by Sophie Mouette

By DayleJanuary 10, 2017Erotica, Little Kisses Press, Short Stories, Sophie Mouettelesbian erotica

We had so much fun writing this story!

When cop Elle and hippie Destiny get it on at the beach, they discover a mutual love for voyeurism and exhibitionism that leads to even more steamy encounters. A sexy-fun short story from acclaimed lesbian erotica author Sophie Mouette.

“Busted” originally appeared in Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists (Cleis Press, 2006) and was reprinted in Soaking Wet: Lesbian Sex Stories, Cleis Press, 2011.

Buy it at any of these fine online retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

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Food, Glorious Food

By DayleDecember 1, 2016Lifefood, holidays

I’ve been cooking a lot lately, which I know sounds weird to those of you who know that I don’t really enjoy cooking. I don’t hate it, and I get some satisfaction out of it, but there are many things I’d prefer doing. (Like having someone cook for me while I read a good book.) I think it comes down to preferring creative endeavors that produce things that last, like books. Food gets eaten. This is also why I don’t like gardening. Didn’t I just weed that patch?! Stop growing! Sheezus criminy.

But cooking is cheaper and healthier than eating out, and (a) we just bought a house so we’re paying off a lot of stuff and (b) I’ve lost 14 lbs since August solely by not eating as much crap, and I’d like to continue that trend. I think, also, that I’ve been in a bit of nesting mode, because the world feels stressful and uncertain. Plus, I’m happy to be in the house with all of our kitchen stuff, and all along we hoped to find a house with a basement so we could put an upright freezer down there and fill it with food. We have a house with a basement and an upright freezer. Time for the food-filling part.

Before the craziness that was October, what with a trip to Atlanta and a workshop and two Marillion concerts in San Francisco and LA and then driving home with a truckful of furniture, I prepped some slow cooker meals and whatnot and froze them so I could feel both our moms without having to figure out what to cook each day. I made an anal-retentive calendar of what I had to take out of the freezer each morning, what we’d be eating that night, etc.

That worked so well that I continued with the slow cooker meal prepping thing. I’m not quite up to doing a 40 Meals in 4 Hours extravaganza, but so far I have the following meals in the freezer (the morning before I want to cook one, I’ll take it out of the freezer): Italian chicken, chicken taco bowls, balsamic chicken, chicken gyros. We also have leftover chicken stew and some kind mystery meals already cooked and frozen; I blame Ken, who never labels anything. We’ll be eating some of those this week.

This past weekend I made sweet potato/jalapeno soup (the second time I’ve made it; the first time was when the moms were visiting), cauliflower stilton soup, and healthier mac-and-cheese. All are in the freezer for the future.

In the past weeks, I’ve also made

a chile egg puff
unstuffed cabbage rolls (basically cabbage, onion, ground turkey, and Worcestershire cooked together in a big pot)
goulash (with ground turkey)
a frittata with chicken, crumbled bleu, bacon, and avocado
vegetable soup with homemade mini meatballs (normal meatball recipe with ground turkey instead of beef, plus a bit of finely shredded baby spinach for an extra health boost). This is what I’ve been eating for lunch, with a sprinkle of shredded parmesan.
breakfast bowls (frozen)
split pea soup
turkey sausage patties (they’re all gone, though, and we need to make more. This time I’m going to use the George Foreman grill.)

On deck coming up are Thai soup (for my lunches), turkey meatloaf with zucchini and feta (a new recipe to try), and Michigan sauce (I have a hankering). And I should probably research another slow cooker meal or two…. Oh, and we’re hosting a Christmas get-together, and I’m already making lists of food ideas.

I don’t know who I am anymore, but at least I’m well-fed!

Uncollected Anthology, Issue 10: Fabulous Familiars

By DayleNovember 2, 2016Dayle A. Dermatis, Fantasy/SF, Soul's Road Press, Uncollected Anthology

Witches and familars go together like shortbread and tea or cheese and wine, and so Fabulous Familiars is the theme of our 10th issue. It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve put out 10 issues already. Thank you, dear reader, for being a part of this project!

Fabulous Familiars required an equally fabulous guest author, and we found just the person in Valerie Brook. Her story is a whole new take on the idea of a familiar, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as all the others. I hope you do, too.

“Hedging the Witch”

An honest politician: far more rare than hedgewitches, at least in Portland, Oregon.

When one such politician asks hedgewitches Holly and Willow to investigate whether his rival employs a magical advantage, Holly’s familiar, Cam, must support Holly through a treacherous investigation…or risk losing her forever.

The first story in a spellbinding new urban fantasy series by the author of the Nikki Ashburne Ghosted stories.

Buy it at any of these fine online retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

The other incredibly fabulous authors—go check out their stories!

“In the Matter of Snake Vs. Stone,” Michele Lang

Something wicked walks in Buffalo…

Rikki Pollard, a divorce lawyer for the down and out in gritty Buffalo, NY, makes a living out of rendering asunder what the Lord had brought together. Despite her unholy trade, Rikki never expected to encounter Old Scratch himself in open court.

But now she has to rescue her young client, Chance Stone, from a fate worse than death. It’s Rikki vs. damnation in a courtroom custody case like no other. To save Chance, she will have to outwit the devil himself, with only a little voodoo-related backup. A supernatural courtroom adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

“Un-Familiar,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winston’s familiar Ruby, a small black cat, avoids dogs whenever possible. So when Winston finds her in cahoots with a toy poodle-Chihuahua mix, he wants to know why.

Ruby, usually so vocal, says nothing. Her silence, that dog, and a storm in the Oregon Coast community of Seavy Village all combine into one of the most memorable days of Winston’s life.

“Rusch is a great storyteller.”
—RT Book Reviews

“The Mouse Who Laughed,” Leah Cutter

As a familiar, Ina expected to bond happily ever after with a single master or mistress.

Not two.

And certainly not three.

But when her current Master turns on her, attacks her, she breaks the bond and flees for her life.

What’s a poor mouse to do?

If you need a pick-me-up, “The Mouse Who Laughed” fits the bill nicely as a warm fantasy about learning to stand on your own two (or four) feet.

“The Reveal Within,” by Rebecca M. Senese

Eed graduates from an insect familiar to a raven familiar, but his first pairing with a pushy warlock ends in disaster. Eed barely escapes before the warlock enslaves him, breaking the rule of cooperation between witch and familiar.

But when Eed tries to return to the raven clan, he finds himself blacklisted. Facing enslavement to the warlock or getting busted back to insect, Eed turns rogue.

How can Eed clear his name before the raven clan catches up?

Guest Author

“Aunt Fabulous and the Talking Tattoo,” Valerie Brook

Magnificent Maggie Fontaine has been around the mysteries of magic all her life. But when she wakes up with an underage hangover and a talking press-on priestess tattoo on her arm, all Mag wants is for both things to go away. When Aunt Fabulous turns out to have vanished overnight, and it’s up to Mag to find her guardian, will the strange talking tattoo be a help or a hindrance?

Want More?

We do have a website and a newsletter, for the sole purpose of telling you when the next batch of stories is available. Check them out!

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The Year of Dare

By DayleNovember 1, 2016Life, Publishing, WritingCeltic New Year, dare, Halloween, Samhain, word of the year

The Celtic year ends on Halloween/Samhain, so November 1 is my New Year’s Day. (Although I celebrate the other one as well because hey, any excuse for a celebration!) And for at least five years now, I’ve been picking a word for my year. Something I want to take in, to embrace, to expand into my life. It’s generally geared towards my career, but usually applies to other areas of my life as well. Previous words have included Joy, Focus, Create, and last year’s Trust.

Trust ended up having a profound effect. I first started thinking about it at the annual publishing summit Master Class I go to most every year on the Oregon Coast. It’s a week of intense learning about making a living as a writer and keeping up with the whiplash-inducing changes that are happening in the publishing world nearly every day. I realized at the workshop last year that I was letting fear hold me back in a lot of areas. If something seemed “too hard” or “too much to learn,” I never let it rise to the top of my To Do list—and that clearly had to stop. Avoidance is not the way to success.

It took me a while to find the right word. I knew I wanted to opposite of Fear, but Courage wasn’t right, nor Fearless (which hides the negative in the positive), nor Bravery. I actually found Trust by looking at thesaurus.com on November 1, after a Samhain ritual the night before where we talked about what I was trying to embody, and brought it in as best I could.

I told a writer/publisher friend about Trust, and a few weeks later, a surprise showed up in the mail for me: she’d made me a ring that said Trust. I started wearing it every day. Alas, one day it disappeared (no idea how), but I ordered myself one from Etsy, and now I wear that every day.

I trusted myself to have the skills to figure difficult things out. I trusted the smart, savvy people around me to help me when I asked for assistance or explanation. I trusted my subconscious, my creative core. So many things stopped being scary, and started being fun—and surprisingly easy once I got out of my own way.

This year’s word hit me like a cosmic two-by-four a month or so ago, although in the wrong form at first. And since then, the universe has been showing me again and again that it’s the right word at the right time. It’s absolutely what I need.

I thought it would be Challenge, but I realized I might be inviting the universe to throw challenges in my way, and that’s not what I meant at all. I wanted to challenge myself. Not necessarily big challenges, but little ones, too. It might be challenging myself to write an especially high number of words on a day when I don’t have any freelance work. It might be challenging myself to try something new (now that Trust is firmly engrained).

Since Challenge wasn’t quite it, I meditated some more, and it came to me: Dare. Not only to be daring, but to dare myself. Big dares, little dares, double-dog dares if it comes to that. In August, to reboot myself after a few months of a mini-depression, I dared myself to write a minimum of 500 words a day. I wouldn’t go to bed until I’d done them. At the end of the month, I had a nice chunk of words. That was my first cosmic two-by four. There were more to come at this year’s Master Class.

In this spirit of that, I’m not exactly doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but I’m doing my own personal dare version. I have two novels to finish (one coauthored, one solo), as well as a novella, and other projects if I can get to them. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I’m gunning for 50K words this month.

This will be a challenge, because my mom’s still in town until Saturday morning, I’ve got three days of Orycon plus a friend coming early to help me with website stuff, and I’ve got a slew of freelance work on the schedule. But I also wrote 1200 words on several of the days at the Master Class, in between sessions, and 500+ on a couple other days, so I know I can get words out even when I’m busy—and I know that I’ll have days when I get fewer words written than the average, so I’ll just have to have days where I write more.

I won’t be posting all my dares throughout the year, but I’ll talk about them on and off, if anyone’s interested. Just be prepared to see more words, more projects, and more fun. I dare you!

(The image above is of the necklace I’m waiting to arrive from Etsy…)

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Hauntingly Good Publications!

By DayleOctober 31, 2016Dayle A. Dermatis, Fantasy/SF, Fiction River, Mystery/Thriller, Romance, Sales

So much good news to impart!

First, a new publication: Haunted, an anthology from Fiction River edited by the fantastic Kerrie Hughes, is now available. It contains my story “Land of the Living,” a Nikki Ashburne/Ghosted short story.

Rubicon: less rehab, more luxury spa for the ultra-rich elite of Hollywood.

Nikki Ashburne: less recovering from an accidental OD, more hiding from the world and grieving for her beloved grandmother.

Nikki’s Rubicon roomate: less alive, more ghost.

Nikki’s choice: less hiding away, or more living?

Available in ebook format from these fine establishments:
Amazon | all other retailers

TWO BUNDLES

Magical Tales of Witches!

I have a story in a frightfully luscious bundle of Witch stories!

For only $2.99, you can get 20 short stories of witches and spells. That’s a mere $0.15 per story. Way cheaper than the mocha frappuccino I had in an airport recently to keep me awake on the flight (I had work to do, don’tcha know).

I read all of the stories this month and let me tell you, they are delicious—some spooky, some funny, and all witchy goodness.

My story in this bundle is “This is the World Calling”:

Tansy and Ki come from two of the most powerful witch dynasties—and the feud between their families puts the Hatfield and McCoys to shame. So why, then, did their parents not care when the two would run off and play as children, lost in their own little world?

When they meet again as adults, Tansy and Ki’s mutual attraction makes it vitally important that they find the answer to that question.

Note that the price will go up to $4.99 on November 2, so strike while the witchy iron is hot!

Available in ebook format from these fine establishments:
Amazon | K obo | iTunes | Barnes & Noble

Pulse Pounders!

This one’s called Pulse Pounders, and it’s a bundle of novels and anthologies. Coincidentally, one of the books is the anthology Pulse Pounders, which contains my story “The Scent of Amber and Vanilla” (which was an honorable mention in the The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016). So if you haven’t bought the story already, here’s your chance to have it along with a bunch of other nail-biting, roller-coaster-ride stories.

Plus, the the anthology is bundled with 10 other books, all for only $15 (you can pay more if you want the novel authors, anthology editors, and/or the charity to get more). That’s a pretty sweet deal…just don’t blame me for your sleepless nights because you couldn’t put the books down.

Available in ebook format from S torybundle

SPEAKING OF GHOSTS…

What Beck’ning Ghost
a gothic romance novel

Touch not the cat bot a glove…

The MacPherson family crest above the door gives Rachael de Young, genealogist and psychic, an unexpected chill. She doesn’t know that by crossing the threshold, her life will change forever. Because the MacPhersons are a family cursed by jealousy, betrayal, and fire….

Rachael grows closer to the truth even as she grows closer to the ghost of Jordan MacPherson, who died in the tragic fire…and could very well be the person sabotaging her research. But she must trust Jordan’s love in order to find the strength to face her own fears, break her one cardinal rule, and stop a madman before he can kill again.

Available from these fine establishments:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | A llRomanceEbooks

Waking the Witch
a gothic novel

Four boys confess to the murder of a woman who died a hundred years ago…

The violent encounter Rowan Everly survived in college jolted awake her psychic power to see past images while holding a related object. At the behest of a friend, she comes to the privileged prep school town of Millburn, New York, to investigate the current rape and murder, and hopefully clear her friend’s son’s name.

Rowan’s not sure she’s up to the task. Her deeply ingrained mistrust of men makes her question where her loyalties lie. The deeper she investigates, the less anything makes sense. The boys seem truly horrified by what happened—almost as if they hadn’t had control over it.

Her initial encounter with sheriff Toby Candusco isn’t pleasant for either of them. But his calm support of her, and his unwavering desire to see justice done, gives her the strength to not only face her fears, but to reexamine the core beliefs that shape who she is.

Only then can she face and destroy the real menace…and save everyone around her.

Available from these fine establishments:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords

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Writers! Here’s a great opportunity!

By DayleOctober 31, 2016Dayle A. Dermatis, Fiction River, Short Stories

Writer friends! Want to write for professional short story markets and experience in real time how the selection process works, while hanging out with a whole slew of smart, savvy, creative, and fun writers and editors?

If you’ve known me for a while, you know I attend an Anthology Workshop on the Oregon Coast every year, and have sold a number of stories to both DAW Books anthologies and, more recently, Fiction River anthologies. This coming year, I’ve been invited to be one of the editors.

I’m told there are a few slots still open in the upcoming workshop, so let me tell you all about it.

Editors this year are Dayle A. Dermatis (me), Leah Cutter (a fabulous writer), Allyson Longueira (editor of Fiction River: Presents), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (multiple-award-winning writer and editor), and Mark LeFebvre from Kobo Books. Kristine will be editing two very special volumes, so the writers attending will be writing six stories for six anthologies.

Attendees will write two stories in early December, then four stories in four weeks in January. You get the anthology theme on Monday, and the story will be due the following Sunday. Lather, rinse, repeat. The anthologies will be different genres, so writers will get to stretch their wings as well as write in genres they already enjoy. (I challenge myself to write a story for every anthology, no matter how I feel about the theme. I have sold stories to themes I loathed—much to my surprise and delight.)

Anyway. This year, stories will also have two other special project chances:

A story, if not picked by an editor for an anthology, will have a chance for that editor to pick it for a special “Editor’s Saves” volume of Fiction River. That’s seven anthologies every story will have a chance to be in.

On top of that, WMG Publishing is bringing back Pulphouse Magazine, edited by Dean Wesley Smith. This will be an invite-only magazine, with stories only from this workshop, not open to outside submissions. Dean intends to fill the entire first year of Pulphouse Magazine, four issues, at the workshop.

Doing the math (ow), that means the six stories written by attendees will have a chance at seven anthologies and four issues of Pulphouse Magazine. This is way more than previous workshops, and I’m super excited!

WMG pays professional rates for stories, and you will have the chance to review the contract before you commit to selling them your work.

Plus there are lunches with editors and other writing/publishing professionals, and so many amazing talks every evening. The Uncollected Anthology project, for example, came from some late-night brainstorming sessions.

Dates are February 25 to March 5, Lincoln City, OR.

For more information, see http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/workshops/ (The website says the workshop is full, but I’ve been told there are still a couple slots available. At worst, you’ll be put on a waiting list, and you’ll know by the time the first story assignment is sent out whether you’re in.) If you’re interested, contact Dean Wesley Smith via his website. I’m also happy to answer questions about the workshop and my experiences with it over the years.

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