✒ Editor’s Note
Welcome to the inaugural issue of TALESTACK NEWS!
It has been genuinely amazing to watch this project go from an idea I had one overcaffeinated afternoon, to—almost overnight—a community effort to bring the fiction world on Substack together! THANK YOU to everyone who has shared, restacked, and encouraged this new adventure along. I couldn’t do this without your support!
Please use the communal tools that Substack gives us—like the comment section and Notes—to hype each other up! Go visit, explore, give virtual high-fives, and let your colleagues know that you’re with them.
Because you never know…it could be YOUR wins that we all celebrate, next!
Have a fantastic week, and happy writing!
S.E. Reid
Editor of Talestack NewsP.S. Make sure you’re receiving our emails by checking your settings!
📣 Announcements!
Finished Projects:
Cameron Scott recently published the final component for her serial fiction project, The Great Fire, a project six months in the making! According to Cameron: “The Great Fire is a collection of stories that detail how a fire destroyed the city of Teron and cursed those who survived to forget everything that happened before it. Maya, the rightful Queen of Teron, collects details about the fire to try and work out how to make things right.”
In the wonderful world of fantasy kidlit, Alex Scott just completed his serial story, Faire Exchange! From the official synopsis: “Tsarina "Rina" Algruent—that's Lady Rina to you—is one of many children from the realm of Faerie sent to human schools as part of a new exchange program to restore relations with Earth. But when she joins Mrs. Horn's fifth grade class, Lady Rina quickly begins terrorizing her classmates with magical pranks. While other kids at other schools are enchanted with their new guests, Rina's behavior is so cursed it threatens to cause an interdimensional incident.”
New Projects:
Substack’s Cullen Bunn is one of several writers included in an anthology called The Good, The Bad, & The Uncanny; Cullen’s story is called The Disobedient Devil Dust-up at Copper Junction! Check it out on Kickstarter.
Matt Trask has just launched a new weekly serial project called The Calibray Job! This sci-fi/horror novella is “about a crew of misfits attempting to steal a mysterious object from an abandoned research facility.”
Sujan Sundareswaran has just launched a brand-new newsletter featuring causality as the core theme of his short fiction! Check out An Anthology of Causality.
S.E. Reid (The Editor) would like to announce the start of her serial magical realism novella, Ivy & Ixos, which will launch June 9th and run until the end of August. Find the synopsis and more details at the serial index page here!
Awards:
Season Two of the Lunar Awards has just announced its Short Story Winners: Congratulations to Winner Amy Letter and Honorable Mentions Olivia St. Lewis and ReddOscarWrites!
C. L. Polk’s novella—Even Though I Knew The End—won the Nebula Award for Best Novella this year! Find out more about Polk’s work at Commonplace Notes!
Milestones & Wins:
At the end of May, fiction writer Jimmy Doom hit his mark of publishing 1,000 daily short stories here on the platform—and still going! Go check out his work and read your fill of quality storytelling.
Phillip Carter received an Honorable Mention from Season One of the Lunar Awards for his short story Mycelial, in which a mycelial network consumes a human mind and discovers the concept of the self.
Alex S. Garcia has just finished the second novel in his Through The Stars, Darkly series, which he has already started to serialize on his Substack.
Fiction stacker Scoot was interviewed by Mark Dykeman on a wide range of personal and professional topics. Go check out Scoot “in his own words” HERE!
Fiction stacker Michael P. Marpaung had his first game review published at Catholic Game Reviews under the pen name Germanicus.
Fiction writer Birgitte Rasine was recently accepted into the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA)! Having completed a fantasy novel in 2016 called The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree, she is now working on her first science fiction novel, and is considering serializing it on Substack.
Fiction writer Erica Drayton had an article—called Writing in the Twilight Zone—published in the most recent issue of the prestigious The Writer magazine. (Note: The Writer doesn’t allow us to link to the story directly because it’s in the magazine’s current issue, but look for an updated link in a future post from us!)
📚 The Bookshelf
(Titles listed in order of release date.)
Sandbox Earth, a science fiction story serialized here by Scoot, is now available for purchase! Click here to find out more and get your own hardcover copy. Release Date: 5/29/23
Guild of Magic, an epic urban fantasy originally serialized here on Substack by Jon Auerbach, is now available for preorder! Click here to explore the many avenues to get your hands on a copy. Release Date: 6/20/23
The Blood Dancers, a sci-fi novel originally serialized on Substack by KE Wolfe (a collaborative project between e rathke—radicaledward—and Kyle Muntz) is now available for preorder on Amazon! ARCs are also available via Booksprout and Book Sirens. Release Date: 6/21/2023
Cold, Black & Infinite, the latest collection of chilling short stories by horror writer Todd Keisling, is now available for preorder on Cemetery Dance and Amazon! Release Date: 9/26/23
📝 Submissions Bulletin
Written Tales, a Substack-based literary magazine, is currently open for short story and poetry submissions through June 16th. The theme of their ninth volume is The Awakening; visit their page for submission guidelines and details!
❤ Shout-Outs
The Editor would like to congratulate Substack writers Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovannion their marriage at the end of May! All the happiness in the world to you both!
The Editor would like to shout-out Philip Jackson for being an early supporter of this publication, and for working hard on his serial thriller, Caretaker!
🫱🏻🫲🏾 Connection Corner
Sujan Sundareswaran is looking for critique partners for his ongoing serial, Project Fable! If interested, contact Sujan by tagging him on Notes.
William F. Edwards is seeking a critique partner for his serial project, Battles Beneath The Stars! From William, “It has rather unconventional formatting so any prospective critique partners should be sure to give it a glance before committing.” If interested, please contact William by email at: warthogreport@substack.com
Sara Dietz has a strong background in grammar/editing, and is offering her skills to give grammar-related feedback! Reach out by tagging her on Notes.
TALESTACK NEWS is a FREE-TO-READ publication!
Please support us by liking, commenting, sharing, and restacking. Any monetary support is appreciated, but not necessary.
Got something you want us to publish? Have any questions, comments, or feedback? Send it all to:
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Email Deadline: due to publication scheduling, messages received after noon PST on the Sunday prior to the current issue will be included in the following issue.
Wow. Fiction writers are setting the pace and raising the bar. Philosophy writers are {sigh} non-existent. And to the degree we might be, we’re not coordinated. Fiction writers! An inspiration for the rest of us.
Congrats on the launch. I look forward to interacting with more writers.