Everybody knows the movie “A Christmas Story.” My childhood was like that, only around Halloween. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, Franksville, population 250, with most of us living out in the country. My parents, my sister, and I lived in a house on Fancher Road, a curved old road that was bypassed when the straight County Highway H went through, cutting off Old Fancher Road like an oxbow in a river. All around Fancher Road and the highway were houses with my cousins, my second cousins, and farmers who had been there since just slightly before...
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Another Teaser, this time the introduction and background for all the wonderful stories in A FANTASTIC HOLIDAY SEASON.  These are some great stories to enjoy and to share. Amazing cover art, "St. Nicholas, Dragon-Sleigher" by Myles Pinkney.  Stories include: A Christmas Caroler—Kim Antieau Jukebox Gifts—Dean Wesley Smith Santa Claus Is Coming to Get You—Kevin J. Anderson Foreign Exchange—Nina Kiriki Hoffman The Wereyam—Kent Patterson Nutball Season—Kristine Kathryn Rusch These Halls—Kathy Oltion My Favorite Christmas—David Farland One Last Gift—Jerry Oltion Popcorn for Christmas—Debra Gray De Noux & O’Neil De Noux Christopher’s Crummy Christmas—Kristine Kathryn Rusch Dead Snow—Kent Patterson Inquiring Minds Want to...
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Even before WordFire Press became his publisher, I was a fan of Mike Baron's dark, edgy fiction. I accepted two of his stories for my BLOOD LITE anthology series. I read his ground-breaking comics work on NEXUS, THE PUNISHER, THE BADGER, DEADMAN, STAR WARS, THE FLASH, and others. He has won both the Inkpot and the Eisner Award, two of the highest honors in the comics field. Like me, he grew up in Wisconsin, and he also escaped.  And he also enjoys a good microbrew IPA. What's not to like? After reading his work, I wrote "Mike Baron is like...
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I just finished judging the eight finalist stories for the third quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest. I came home from my recent writing retreat in Breckenridge to find a stack of manuscripts waiting for me to read, and I worked my way through them, one or two per day. I've been a judge in the Contest since 1996, and I usually read the finalist stories one or two quarters each year. I don't know who the authors are, I don't even know which of my fellow judges are reading those particular stories. I have to say that...
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