Look at the pretty shiny. Those are my contributor copies of Dreaming of Djinn that arrived this morning. Edited by the brilliant Liz Grzyb and published by Ticonderoga Publications, this is an anthology of stories inspired by The Thousand and One Nights. Isobelle Carmody says of the book:
To open Dreaming Of Djinn is to open a jewel encrusted box full of exquisite and mouthwatering delicacies.
This sensuous and truly mouthwatering collection melding the modern and the ancient with the strangeness of speculative fiction, is a treasure trove of originality and exotic magic.
It will ravish your senses as it transports you to a world of flying carpets, powerful ifrits, exotic foods and above all, dancing as deadly as it is beautiful.
Sounds pretty sweet, right? It features my story, On a Crooked Leg Lightly. I would highly recommend this book, and not only because I’m in it. There are 18 stories in all, from a wide variety of authors:
18 stories by:
- Marilag Angway “Shadow Dancer”
- Cherith Baldry “The Green Rose”
- Alan Baxter “On A Crooked Leg Lightly”
- Jenny Blackford “The Quiet Realm of the Dark Queen”
- Jetse de Vries “Djinni Djinni Dream Dream”
- Thoraiya Dyer “The Saint George Hotel”
- Joshua Gage “The Dancer of Smoke”
- Richard Harland “The Tale of the Arrow Girl”
- Faith Mudge “The Oblivion Box”
- Havva Murat “Harmony Thicket and the Persian Shoes”
- Charlotte Nash “Parvaz”
- Anthony Panegyres “Oleander: An Ottoman Tale”
- Dan Rabarts “Silver, Sharp as Silk”
- Angela Rega “The Belly Dancing Crimes of Ms Sahara Desserts”
- Jenny Schwartz “The Pearl Flower Harvest”
- Barb Siples “The Sultan’s Debt”
- Pia Van Ravestein “Street Dancer”
- DC White “A Dash of Djinn and Tonic”
.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough, I can announce today that my story, Tiny Lives, originally published at the end of last year in 
I got this today, my contributor’s copy of Urban Occult from 
Check out that beautiful cover art, revealed yesterday by Ticonderoga Publications for the new Arabian Nights inspired anthology Dreaming of Djinn, edxited by Liz Grzyb. I am never disappointed with the cover art from Ticonderoga, and they’ve excelled themselves once again. I’m especially pleased as I have a story in this book, due out around April. People are always talking about not judging a book by its cover and, ironically, that applies to pretty much everything except books. It’s right to not judge people by their appearance, for example, or the quality of a home by the building it’s in. But people do, quite rightly, judge books by their covers. That’s what covers are for. They’re the first port of call for a prospective buyer. If the cover looks good, they’ll pick up the book and read the back cover blurb. If that grabs them, they’ll maybe thumb through a page or two. Then they’ll buy the book. If they’re buying on recommendation anyway, the cover is less important, but bad covers still do put people off.
Look at this beautiful tome. It’s the Bloodstones anthology from Ticonderoga Publications, edited by the awesomely talented Amanda Pillar. You can tell she’s awesomely talented because she picked one of my stories to be in this book. And all the others, of course. Bloodstones is an anthology of short fiction using unusual creatures, myths and legends in dark, urban fantasy settings. And let’s be honest, that kind of brief is right up my flagpole. My story is called Cephalopoda Obsessia and it’s my little cephalopod overlord homage. I won’t say any more than that.
As if 
