Wendy N. Wagner

December.

The sun sets before you get to leave work. The line at the coffee shop is at its seasonal high. The grocery store is always packed. You might get a few extra days off from work, but you’ll probably spend most of them driving in slow-and-go traffic and icy, windy, or just plain miserable conditions. And I won’t even start on the family gatherings. No matter how much you love your kith and kin, there’s bound to be an awkward moment just waiting for you.

You deserve a winter pick-me-up!

And while I’d love to give everyone in the world a big glass of holiday egg nog (or my delicious vegan nog), I only have so many glasses. So instead I’m giving away two copies of the audiobook of Skinwalkers! It’s just the thing to put on when you’re headed over the river and through the woods, or when you’re hitting the gym after too many cookies.

In fact, I’d go so far as to claim that Skinwalkers is the perfect holiday read. Reading about peril, mystery, and the threat of being eaten alive really helps put your own problems in perspective. Being forced to listen to twenty hours of Wham’s “Last Christmas” isn’t nearly as painful as being crushed by an ogre! And if you think your family has problems, wait until you hear about Jendara’s. Still, it’s that bond of love that matters in the end—and nothing warms the heart like a family coming together to fight all odds.

Plus, it’s, well, free.

Just drop me an email at wendy @ winniewoohoo.com with the subject line “Free audiobook” before midnight on Thursday, 12/17—that’s right, you can do it while you’re waiting for the premiere of The Force Awakens to start! I’ll draw two winners at random on Friday morning and let them know via email.

Is it really Orycon all ready??

For me, nothing signals the start of the holiday like our annual SF/F convention here in Portland–Orycon! I usually pick up a few holiday gifts in the dealer’s room or at the art show, and getting to reconnect with all my favorite writers (I almost typed co-workers–they kind of are!) from around Washington and Oregon just feels special.

This year, I’ll be on a few panels on Saturday and I’ve got a reading on Sunday. It’s at 11:30, so you have just enough time to get brunch, pop in for taster from my most recent short story (it has ghosts!), and then catch the last few hours of the con.

Of course the highlight for any book lover is always the post-Orycon author event: Authorfest 9! Make sure to stop by Powell’s Cedar Hills location at 4 pm on Sunday. There will be more than two dozen local writers ready to sign books and shoot the breeze. Rumor has it that a contingent from the Cloud City Garrison of the 501st Imperial Legion will be there, too. How often do you get to take your picture with a storm trooper?

If you love the Cthulhu Mythos as much as I do (or hey, even one-third as much as I do–that’s still a lot!), you should be sure to make it to Powell’s Books on Hawthorne on November 12th at 7:30 pm. That’s right, in a little over a week, I’ll be reading from Cthulhu Fhtagn!, along with some of the other terrific writers in the anthology.

For all the details, visit the event site. It’s going to be a blast!

Terrific news, audiophiles! Fifteen of the Pathfinder adventure novels have been released today as audiobooks, including my all-axes-on-deck novel, Skinwalkers. So if you need something to make your commute a little more exciting, we’ve gotcha covered.

You can check it out here on Audible.

It’s that time of year again, folks–the time when the Deep Ones come out of the sea to gather at the Hollywood Theater and celebrate their maker. H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an amazing line-up of films, gaming, and author events, and I’m glad to be a part of it this year. For the full schedule of the event, click here.

If you’d like to catch me while I’m at the festival, here’s my schedule:

Friday

4-6 pm – Meet & Greet at Sam’s Billiards. Come hang out!

8 pm – Lovecraft on the Tabletop. We’ll talk about Lovecraftian board games and RPGs. What’s not to love?

Saturday

10 -noon – Carbload for Cthulhu. I’ll be selling copies of Skinwalkers and signing anything you put in front of me. With donuts!

8 pm – Reading with Andrew Fuller and Molly Tanzer. They’re two of my best friends in this business!

Other than that, I hope to be hanging out, watching great movies and letting the Gospel of HPL wash over my soul. I hope to see you there!

PS: I thought I’d share a picture of me from a few years ago. It looks like somebody got a photo when I wasn’t wearing my makeup!

I am so, so excited for October 1st! I’ve been working on Queers Destroy Horror! for the last several months, and as I’ve watched the table of contents and the art come together, I’ve just gotten more and more thrilled.

First of all, there’s the cover. It’s a great cover–colorful, vibrant, and a weird blend of creepy and cute. Wanna peek?

It really captures my vision for the issue’s fiction, which I wanted to be polished, approachable, and creepy. Every piece had to appeal to my gut as well as my brain; every piece was selected because its language gave me goosebumps at some moment. Some of the pieces are immediately uncomfortably dark, while others have to be chewed on a bit before they elicit a solid surge of unpleasantness. I think horror is at its best when it makes you think about the world around you and the ways it can be cruel, dangerous, and downright gross.

Speaking of things that are downright gross, my love of the revolting brought me the biggest surprise of the entire issue. I’d fallen in love with a particularly nasty story by Chuck Palahniuk (“Top Potting,” which originally appeared in his frame novel Haunted) and really wanted to reprint it in QDH. But Mr. Palahniuk surprised me with a fantastic original piece called “Let’s See What Happens.” It’s a tremendously stylish piece filled with moments I didn’t want to read, but found I couldn’t not read. Like all the other stories in QDH, I adore it.

Here’s the full list of fiction for the issue:

Golden Hair, Red Lips — Matthew Bright (original)
Alien Jane — Kelley Eskridge (reprint)
The Lord of Corrosion — Lee Thomas (original)
Rats Live on No Evil Star — Caitlín R. Kiernan (reprint)
Dispatches from a Hole in the World — Sunny Moraine (original)
Bayou de la Mère — Poppy Z. Brite (reprint)
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers — Alyssa Wong (original)
Let’s See What Happens — Chuck Palahniuk (original)

All of the pieces are available Queers Destroy Horror’s ebook and print editions (available on Amazon starting 10/1), and some of them will be featured in our online edition, where a new story will be released every Wednesday in October. And all the original stories have brand-new illustrations from our talented artists, like Plunderpuss and the Hugo award-winning artist Elizabeth Leggett.

Another great feature in QDH is our amazing poetry section. I love poetry and sometimes write it, and I’ve had the luck to work with Robyn Lupo on several poem revisions. Robyn is a wonderful poet and a terrific writer; she’s also one of our Assistant Editors at Lightspeed Magazine. Since I know a handful of poets who work in the dark arts, I knew my special issue of Nightmare had to include a poetry section, and I knew Robyn was the only person for the job. She picked out eight tremendous pieces that explore the beauty in darkness that I know I’ll be reading and re-reading for years.

There’s more to QDH than just fiction and poetry, though. The nonfiction is terrific! I love good nonfiction and knew we had to have an amazing nonfiction editor. Picking Megan Arkenberg for the job was a no-brainer. She commissioned challenging, engaging work for the issue that really dig into queer issues and rip into the flesh of the horror genre.

Queers Destroy Horror! is my first solo editorial project, and I’ve been thrilled and awed and terrified to make it and put it out in the world. It’s not just a special issue of Nightmare, but a celebration of the tremendous community of LGBTQIA creators in the horror genre. I’ve felt so humbled working with these talented writers and artists. I’m so lucky to get to know them and listen to them. They’re some of the best people I’ve ever known.

So order a copy and snuggle up under the covers as the chill of fall settles over you. And as the ghoulies and beasties go bump in the night, remember: it’s only horror. It can’t destroy you–unless you let it.

Dear Me at Age 12:

Hi, it’s Me! I’m writing at age thirty-six. Yes, that is old. No, you don’t have an awesome motorcycle. Or a sword. No, no trench coat, either. Trust me, you’ll actually stop wanting to dress like Connor MacCleod someday, as impossible as that might sound right now.

Anyway, I thought I’d just make a list of some of the good stuff that’s happened the last couple of years, because it’s going to blow your mind. And because sometimes there will be kind of lousy days and you’ll want to have a list of your accomplishments. (That’s just a normal part of being a grown-up.) So here goes.

Remember how last summer you decided you wanted to be just like Margaret Weis and write those Dungeons and Dragons novels? Well, guess what? That totally happened! I mean, it’s a slightly different game, but it was born from D&D and it’s still all magical and stuff, and your heroine is super tough and has a sword and everything. No, her eyes aren’t purple. That trend died in the ’90s.

Oh, and I know you’re still thinking about Powell’s Books. Aren’t you glad your sister took you there last year? Anyway, your book is on their shelves, and you’ll be part of a big signing there in November. And that big yellow column with all the signatures? Yours is up there now, too. You should probably work on your penmanship.

I know that ever since you started reading that Fairy Tale series that you’ve wanted to be an editor like Terri Windling. No, I’m sorry. You don’t work in New York at a big publishing company. But you are an editor, and you got to work with Terri Windling last year! And you know what? She’s just as awesome as you thought she’d be. (Oh, and word to the wise? You should start reviewing the rules about using commas now, because they can be pretty confusing. Don’t worry about semi-colons, though; you’ve got those.)

And remember how you wrote down in your journal that someday you want to win a Nebula or a Hugo award, even though you’re not really sure what they are, but you know Anne McCaffery won them and she’s even cooler than Margaret Weis? Well, brace yourself, because this happened this weekend:

Hugo for Best Semiprozine: LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE

Just one more thing, little Me. I want to thank you for dreaming big. I don’t think there are a lot of kids out there who know what an editor is or want to write gaming tie-in fiction or would sit down and write “I want to win a Hugo award.” You’re kind of big weirdo, and I love that about you. I’m so glad I got to make your dreams come true.

Now I have to get back to work, because I didn’t stop dreaming when I was 12, and dreams don’t keep coming true if you don’t keep fighting for them. And don’t forget: you’re destroying science fiction, and that’s pretty great.

Hugs and kisses,

Wendy N. Wagner, aged 36

One of my favorite short stories that I’ve written is the story “The Secret of Calling Rabbits,” which originally appeared in the anthology The Way of the Wizard. There’s something charming about the interaction between the tough dwarf and the sweet little girl, and I can’t actually read it out loud because I get teary.

Luckily, there’s a new recording “The Secret of Calling Rabbits” up at Far Fetched Fables. It’s a lovely recording, so go enjoy it!

It’s a rite of passage for every SF/F writer, especially those of us in the Pacific Northwest: signing the legendary column in Powell’s Gold Room. For a measure of the artifact’s true awesomeness, here’s a photo from the Powell’s Tumblr. Yes, that is Douglas Adams’ signature. And Peter S. Beagle’s. And Ursula K. LeGuin’s. Neil Gaiman has particularly epic piece of art he added to the column a few years back.

So when a group of us local writing gals met up with an out-of-town friend—the talented Tex Thompson—we knew we had to take her to see this holiest of all landmarks. You can’t help but feel the presence of the great ones when you’re standing next to their scrawled messages. Elizabeth Scarborough left her email address! Brian Froud drew a fairy! I mean, how cool is that?

Staff in the Gold Room were just as geeked out about it as we were. Over the past few years, one of the staffers has stepped up to advocate for the preservation of the post, and Powell’s is going to install a new UV-protective plexi covering that will help keep the signatures fresh for future generations. If you look closely, you can see the ghostly shapes of previous signatures, now nearly lost in time.

But the signatures of our little gang are bright and shiny (and right next to Wesley Chu‘s autograph! What a great place to be!). I’ve been waiting to sign the column until I felt like “a real writer,” but with a lot of chocolate under my belt and in the presence of awesome fun friends like Tina Connolly (who hadn’t signed either, even though she has like four books out and a Nebula nomination and is basically my hero), Alex Renwick (who already signed the column like a total pro, because that’s how she rolls), and Tex, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Squee!

Photo by Arianne “Tex” Thompson, who rocks.

We just announced the preliminary line-up for Queers Destroy Horror!, the special issue of Nightmare Magazine that I’m guest editing. I’ve gotten to work with some pretty amazing writers (Caitlín R. Kiernan! Poppy Z. Brite! Favorite author who is still top-secret and cannot be named!!!!) and our editorial staff has been incredible.

For the announcement, visit the DestroySF website.

Wendy N. Wagner

You need a winter pick-me-up!

Northwesterners: It’s Orycon this weekend!

The Stars Are Right … for a reading!

SKINWALKERS now available as an audiobook!

Get your tentacles on! Here’s my schedule at HPLFF

The Destruction of Horror is imminent!

Dear Me at Age 12

New audio edition of “Rabbits”

The Powell’s Column

A sneak peek at Queers Destroy Horror!