Jason Adams and the Brain Squirrels

All about Jason, his writing, travel, and whatever else crosses his mind.

News

New from Spiral Publishing: Thursday Escapes!

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Hey, everyone.

Intentions coverWe’ve all been stuck at home for a while, and I don’t know about you but I’ve about run through all the stuff I already have. In the spirit of helping folks stay entertained, I thought I’d let you know about Spiral Publishing’s Thursday Escapes! They’ll be sharing a different story from me or Kari Kilgore on their site free each week. Just our way to try to help folks stay entertained while we’re all staying safe.

First up is Kari’s Contemporary Fantasy story Intentions. Check back next week for my (somewhat) hard-boiled Space Opera story Sunlit Dispositions.

Happy reading, and here’s more about Intentions!

Angela Garcia builds websites to help make other people’s dreams come true.

Now one of her childhood dreams waits, ready to come to life.

Sometimes procrastination feels like the safest choice.

And sometimes your intentions make all the difference.

Welcome to Intentions!

Intentions brings all the flexibility and customization you’ve ever wanted to your website and your life, and even more than you’ve imagined.

Our easy-to-configure plugin lets you design and implement anything you can dream up.

Not even the sky is the limit!

Head over to Spiral Publishing for your Thursday Escape!

Good Acorns in the Squirrel Tree!

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A lot has been happening for yours truly and Spiral Publishing. Kari and I went to the WMG Anthology Workshop last month, and had a blast.

For those who don’t know, the Anthology Workshop is an annual get together of writers and anthology editors. Between the regular eight stories for the various anthology calls, Kickstarter rewards, and other workshop stories, we both went with eleven new tidbits and watched while seven editors discussed, argued over, and occasionally stole from each other.We sat with forty two other writers and sweated, cheered, and applauded as each story came up. Kari sold five, I sold four, and we both have two more in consideration.

So yeah, I’d call that a success!

On the home front, I’ve recently published four new short stories standalone, and collected these four and three of my previously published stories into a new collection, Tales from the Squirrel Garden, Volume 1. This collection also includes a short piece not published anywhere else, a delightfully dark story called Swift’s. The whole collection contains stories of a darker bent than some of my other work, but rest assured. In at least two of the stories, things turn out well for the heroes.

I really enjoyed the challenge of organizing and publishing a collection. There’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to compiling multiple works into a single volume, but I had a great mentor at home to help me through the challenge, and I’m plumb tickled with the result.

Keep an eye on the Brain Squirrels. We’ll be announcing a couple of publications in Pulphouse Magazine in the next few months, as well as a couple of stories in a couple of Holiday Spectaculars. Vague, I know, but more shall be revealed when the moment is opportune.

And finally, Zortea wants me to remind you all that in this time of uncertainty, it’s important to relax.

 

Zortea in repose

Holiday Spectacular: A True Family Holiday

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A True Family Holiday cover

Thank you for stopping by to read my sweet holiday story A True Family Holiday! Alas, the free week is over, much like the holiday season for 2019.

 

Check out this post on Kari Kilgore’s site (yes, I am indeed lazy) for more information about the WMG Holiday Spectacular, including my story, two by Kari Kilgore, and a bunch of wonderful holiday tales by some of my favorite writers.

Thank you for all of your fantastic support, and see you in 2020!

Spiral Publishing’s Appalachian Stories

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Hey, gang. Just a quick nut from the squirrel tree. Spiral Publishing now has a way to go directly to stories set in the Appalachian region or at least flavored with a little mountain madness. Check out the current selection, and keep checking back! We love writing stories set in our homeplace.

Large Print Editions Available for Most Spiral Publishing Titles

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Restricted Species LP coverWith our Large Print editions selling well over the summer, we decided to make that format available for all of our novellas, novels, and collections (when possible, more on that later). We’re delighted to have this format available for anyone who needs or just wants it.

With our first book to launch both regular paperback and Large Print simultaneously, Kari Kilgore’s Secrets in the Land, Large Print sales numbers were very close the standard size! So we’ve gone back and updated everything out so far and forthcoming, including Walking the Ghosts, a novella in the same Voices through Time universe as Secrets in the Land and Songs in the Mountain.

To find out which books have that option available, just click on the Fiction menu at the top of Spiral Publishing’s page. You’ll see Large Print Books right there. Retailers like Amazon also have a section for Large Print, like Kari Kilgore’s.

Agonist LP coverWe’re also excited to be able to support libraries with this new format! If you or someone you know would like to read any of our titles in Large Print, or in ebook or regular paperback, be sure to ask your librarian to order a copy through their normal distributors (at their normal discount). That’s a wonderful way to support your local library, your community, and Spiral Publishing. Thank you in advance!

Near Future Forward LP coverLast but not least, we’re planning to cover our short story titles in collections available in the Large Print format, but if you have a special request just let us know. The only exception is really BIG books, like Kari’s collected Storms of Future Past Books One through Four. At 828 pages in regular format, that one is simply too big for most Large Print suppliers. Once we find a way, though, we’ll add that and other big books to the list.

Happy reading!