✒ Editor’s Note
Welcome back, Talestack Readers!
And Happy December to all!
This can be a busy time of year, with plenty of things to do, see, and draw your attention. But no matter what your holiday season looks like, I hope you’re leaving plenty of room in your winter days (or summer, for our southern hemisphere friends) for good fiction reads! In this issue we’ve got plenty of new projects (some of them seasonal!), milestones to celebrate, and ways to connect.
There’s always a little something for everyone!
As always, please hype each other up in the comments. Go visit, explore, give virtual high-fives, and let your colleagues know that you’re with them.
Have a fantastic week, and happy writing!
S.E. Reid
Editor of Talestack NewsTALESTACK NEWS is a FREE-TO-READ publication!
Please support us by liking, commenting, sharing, and restacking. Any monetary support is appreciated, but not necessary.
📣 Announcements!
Finished Projects:
Michael P. Marpaung has finished his NaNoWriMo project, along with his final log about the process! You can read about his whole 2023 NaNoWriMo journey here.
Nick Mazmanian is finishing up his multi-part saga about workmen Vartan and Hector as they handle the bizarre and fantastic requests of the tenants in The Sunset Apartments. “Even mad scientists need a leaky sink fixed, and they’re the ones to fix it!” Catch up on all of the episodes before it wraps up this week!
New Projects:
The Chronicler is about to launch a new project called Off on a Tangent, where she’ll be spotlighting and recommending Substack fiction! For more about this generous and exciting new initiative, click here.
Michael Scott Shappe of Caffeine & Opinions is beginning to serialize a science fiction novel he’s been working on since NaNoWriMo 2021 as a section of his newsletter. Check out Things Fall Apart here!
Caleb Taylor of Wishbone Poetry is publishing a serial Christmas story—completely in the form of epic poetry— called The North Pole Epic. Only a handful of chapters have been posted so far, so get started with the epic Prologue here!
Birgitte Rasine of The Cacao Muse is launching the first annual Cacao Muse Holiday Tour, featuring delectable pairings of great artisan chocolate with newsletters crafted by great writers. (Think Advent calendar, but for the writerly community!) From Birgitte: “We have a delicious line-up of publications on food, culture, history, travel, technology, mindfulness, fiction and the craft of writing, and more. Yes, you can have your chocolate and read it too...”
William F. Edwards of The Warthog Report will be posting a new short story on Wednesday called The Final Mantra. Stay tuned!
James Dietz is starting to post audio versions of his fantastical serial tale, To Kill A Queen’s Dragon. Listen to Chapter One here!
Macy Lu of Macy Sees The World has recently started posting a multi-part historical fiction tale called Sparrow Bones, about a girl's life during the Great Chinese Famine. Part One and Two are available to read, and Part Three is coming soon!
Awards:
Meg Oolders of Stock Fiction has just won a 2023 Watty Award for her YA book, See Dot Smile! A hearty Talestack Congratulations, Meg!!
Milestones & Wins:
Kim H. has had another story accepted for publication! Her memoir, Nebula, will be published next spring in the Academy of the Heart and Mind. Congrats, Kim!
Brooke Tiedt of Stories Shape Us will be self-publishing the first book in a new adult urban fantasy series, titled Imprinted, early next year! From Brooke: “Vampires, fae, the lifting of the veil to see reality as it really is - trying to save one kidnapped sister leads to the discovery of a plot much larger than a simple disappearance.”
📝 Submissions Bulletin
Erica Drayton is turning her famous 50-word collaborations into an opportunity for writers to win comped fiction! Through the end of 2023, anyone who participates in the Free Writing Fridays challenge to write 50 words that accompany Erica’s will get a 3-month comp, and the winner of her choosing each week will get a full-year comp! Click here for more details.
Coming early 2024: look out for the second Gibberish Writing Competition by Scoot! Following on the first one’s success this summer, Scoot is ready to run this contest for a new group of competitors. From Scoot: “Exact date TBD, but I fully intend to begin the second competition before the end of Q1 2024. There will be some changes from the last competition, so keep on the look-out for another announcement as I get my act together for this.”
The Wicked Writing Contest team over at Macabre Monday (which includes Jeff Kinnard and Maribel) will be announcing December’s theme today! Take a look and prepare your most ghoulish tales…if you dare!
🫱🏻🫲🏾 Connection Corner
From December 1st to December 31st, John Coon is donating 50% of the royalties from the sales of all his published books, as well as 50% of net revenue from new paid subscriptions to the Strange New Worlds Substack, The Indie Life Substack, and/or John’s official Patreon page to the Best Friends Animal Society, a charity devoted to helping homeless cats and dogs find their forever homes. Read more here about how you can help!
Fiction writer Scoot is hanging out his shingle as a voice actor and audiobook reader! His official announcement for this is not yet live, so get on his docket early if you’re interested! Click here for rates and more information and reach out via email to hire: substackscoot@gmail.com
lex (she/they) and Macey recently posted calls for Substack-based book clubs! If you know of any, or want to put something together, reach out on Notes or have a chat in the comments below!
Got something you want us to publish? Have any questions, comments, or feedback? Send it all to:
talestack.editor@gmail.com
Thank you for finding my morsel of good news in the Notes soup this week, S.E.!!! And for sharing it here!!!
Thank you so much for the shout out!