Talestack News - ISSUE 29
[July 15th - August 5th]
✒ Editor’s Note
Welcome back, Talestack Readers!
[New around here? Check out our FAQ page!]
Welcome to August, a season of in-betweens!
August is a special month here at Talestack HQ. It’s summer’s final stretch, a great excuse to catch up on reading, and the Editor’s birthday month (shh!). But aside from that, there’s lots of activity brewing community-wide and a FULL issue of word-wonderful goodness to explore!
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 News
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📣 Announcements!
Finished Projects:
- ’s Deep South mystery novella, The Ties That Bind, has just concluded. This story “follows Lee Blackwell as he investigates the disappearance of a young girl named Dove. His checkered past haunts him as he tries to do the right thing. Will it be enough to save the girl? Will it be enough to save himself?” Start with Part One here!
- ’s latest superhero serial, 2.17 Seconds Into Never, has concluded its 13-episode run with an epilogue and is now complete! Synopsis: “In 2.17 Seconds into Never, Meg Atomic is lost in the swirling vortices of time! Her family attempts a rescue but can they find her before she runs afoul of history’s many innumerable perils, or worse, changes history itself?” All chapters are free to read, including the prior serial to which this is a sequel, Quarks of the Heart. Readers can find the first episode on the Edison City Index!
- ’s middle-grade science fiction novel, The Light Brigade, will conclude on August 12th. From Alice: “Come find out if Will and the rest of the Light Brigade can save their middle school from the shadowy New Moon Group before all their classmates collapse from collecting acorns for a cartoon squirrel.” Jump into Chapter One!
- ’s science fiction novel inspired by The Tempest, called Oceanus, has just concluded. Synopsis: “Gripped by an inescapable pull of gravity, the SS Demeter floats helplessly in orbit around a newly discovered earth-like planet. The crew have vanished leaving all but one man behind. Survivors on the planet find themselves separated and forced to face the substance of their own dreams and nightmares. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched. Oceanus tells a classic story of betrayal, forgiveness, love and deception.” Get started here!
New Projects:
- is launching a very cool project in mid-August, and he would love to invite you along for the ride! From Hampton: “I am the sole teacher for the inaugural creative writing class at a small private middle school in Texas, where I also teach English. Most of my students have never had any creative writing instruction, and will be very new to the forms of poetry, fiction, drama, and creative non-fiction. In preparation for the class, I started a Substack newsletter, primarily for parents and students to see their finished work out in the world. It would be great to see a few other readers join the ranks and subscribe to the newsletter, if only to support young writers (6th-8th grade) on their journey. We will publish the work of three students per week, so there will be a lot to support!” Subscribe to support this awesome initiative!
- has just launched a new fiction podcast called Magical Manifestations: Meditative Stories for the Buzzing Mind. Each episode features fantasy fiction-based stories with guided meditation. Check out Episode One here!
The first four chapters of
’s new thriller novel, Crybaby, are now available to read for free. Excerpt: “The first time the thief had seen the elephant, he had coveted it supremely, like a gimlet-eyed rat discovering a fresh trash heap that would feed it for years. The cunning thief was new in the village and disguised as a beggar to scope out opportunities to burgle and rob by violent intimidation. His entire life had been lived around the giant creatures, and it had never occurred to him to want one, but he felt it suddenly and sharply.” Jump in to Chapter One here!- has recently launched Fallout, “a novel about a teenager, a protest camp, and a movement that changed her world.” Eleanor writes in the novel’s introduction: “‘Dirty Lesbians’. That was the headline of Greenham Common when I was a child, in the press, around the kitchen table and in my mind. A bunch of unwashed, braless, annoying women protesting about men getting on with it. It stayed with me, became an outrage as I grew, and one summer, turned into a novel. […] I thought I knew about Greenham until I began the research. I knew it wasn’t just a story of dirty lesbians washing up at an RAF base in Berkshire in the 1980’s, a women only camp that put men’s backs up, but I was not prepared for stories of heroism, stoicism, comedy, music and art.” Get started with the Introduction here!
- would like to announce the official launch of collective serial project Stardust Press today! From Keyon: “We will be launching a new serial every Monday in August, starting with Relic (my own), followed by 's The Song of E'a, 's The Exham Project, and 's Hiraeth. We'll also be doing our first short story showcase near the end of the month (with a call for submissions preceding it on August 9th).”
- will be starting The Devil At The Door, a gothic horror novel set in Victorian Liverpool, on August 11th. Subscribe to A Work of Fiction and stay tuned!
- will be launching his serialized young adult speculative fiction saga, called The Worldshift Chronicles: Monday, starting today! Synopsis: “Magic returns to a post-apocalyptic world through a gunfighter-for-hire, who reluctantly embraces her inner sorceress when she discovers she’s one of seven prophesied children who might bring salvation - or extinction - to the human race.” Chapters will drop every Monday; audio versions will also be available. The first four books in the saga have already been completed, and several chapters of the first book will be offered for free. Paid subscribers will be given unlimited access to all seven books, including hard copy editions as well as exclusive bonus chapters.
Milestones & Wins:
- (Kim Hayes) has had TWO pieces of short fiction accepted for publication! The first, called My Back Rooms, will be published by Pulp Literature Magazine later this year and is Kim’s first paid story. The second, called The Curious Drone, will be published by Epater this summer. Congratulations, Kim!!
Autofiction writer
would like to highlight two recent projects: a poem called Time Machine, and a revisit to his notebooks, called Fragments.
📚 The Bookshelf
(Titles listed in order of release date.)
- ’s collection of intimate, historical fiction short stories, Echoes of Hearth and Hall, is now available for purchase as an ebook through Gumroad! You can also learn more about the collection at Holly’s post here. Release Date: 7/22/24
- ‘s mermaid fantasy romance novella, Deep Curse, is now available for purchase through Amazon! Release Date: 7/23/24
- ’s first illustrated novel, a special edition of gaslamp romantasy The Secrets We Save, is now available to support on Kickstarter! This edition features original watercolor illustrations and exclusive arty perks by Kel. Release Date: TBD
❤ Shout-Outs
- would like to shout out ! From Cole: “I had the opportunity to do a beta read on her novel Remembrance, and it was absolutely fantastic. The character development was stellar and the plot had me turning the digital pages as fast as I could read them.” Read the first five chapters of Remembrance for free!
- would like to shout out and their Morning Menagerie prompts. Patricia says: “It's the perfect blend of arts & crafts and writing. 😁”
🫱🏻🫲🏾 Connection Corner
- ’s newly-launched community initiative, Top in Fiction, celebrates its fourth edition today! The initiative seeks to highlight quality fiction and ONLY fiction, so writers or readers of any fiction genre are welcome to subscribe and join in. Recommendations for submission are accepted during weekly Friday meet-ups.
Got something you want us to publish? Have any questions, comments, or feedback? Send it all to:
talestack.editor@gmail.com
Thank you for continuing this effort to highlight all the many ways that fiction writers are reaching the broader community of readers! It's so great and empowering and motivating to see for someone like me who can often feel like I'm on a road alone...
Thank you so much for compiling this! I love Talestack News and look forward to each issue. It's one of the best ways to keep abreast of what is happening in the fiction community here...my beloved neighbors!