AnthologyBuilder is having a 50% off sale until noon EST today.  That means it’s the perfect time for you to get my new anthology, Eric James Stone & Company, Volume II. (And if you don’t have Volume I, you can get both volumes for the price of one.)

Here’s the introduction:

Like the previous volume, this book contains stories by me and by some of the great authors who also happen to be friends of mine.

"Tabloid Reporter to the Stars" is by me.  I first submitted it to the Writers of the Future contest, but I got disqualified by winning with another story.  The original title was "The First Ambassador."

"The Box of Beautiful Things" is by Brian Dolton, whom I have never met in person, but I know him from the Hatrack River writers’ forum (and later from the Codex Writers.)  But my first direct communication with him was emailing him after reading this story to tell him how much I liked it.

"I’ll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said" is by Cat Rambo, whom I know through Codex.  We’ve met several times at conventions, and I’m never sure what color her hair is going to be.

"Taint of Treason" is one of mine. I originally wrote this as a craft writing exercise: show, don’t tell, dignity.

"The Adjoa Gambit" is by Rick Novy, another Codex writer.  I met him at the Nebula Awards in Phoenix a few years ago.  We share a love of puns and hard SF.

"Premature Emergence" is mine.  I wrote the first draft in 24 hours at the 2005 Writers of the Future workshop.

"Through the Obsidian Gates" is by Aliette de Bodard, a Codex writer living in France.  I got to meet her at a Writers of the Future workshop when she won.

"Accounting for Dragons" is mine. I wrote it at the Odyssey Workshop on the morning before we had the Odyssey Slam–where I had to read it aloud at a Barnes & Noble.  It holds the record as my quickest sale: Edmund Schubert, editor of IGMS, bought it about three hours after I sent it to him.

"The Sell Your Soul to the Devil Blues" is by Tom Pendergrass, a Codex writer I met at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop.  He used to work for the CIA.  (Don’t let him know I told you that.)

"Salt of Judas" is mine.  I wrote the first draft in 24 hours at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop.

"Rival of Mars" is by David Walton, a Codex writer I got to know because he had the title story in the final Phobos anthology along with one of my stories.  I don’t think we’ve ever actually met.

"Loophole" is by me.  It’s my only clearly Mormon story that has been published.

"The Big Ice" is by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold.  I know Ruth through Codex.  Jay is not on Codex, but I first met him and his Hawaiian shirts at the 2004 Writers of the Future workshop, and I’ve seen him various times since.  I occasionally respond to the blatant liberalism on his blog.

"The Six Billion Dollar Colon" is a story I wrote for a special anthology after Jay Lake was diagnosed with colon cancer.  (He’s okay now.)

"The Prophet of Flores" is by Ted Kosmatka, a Codex writer I finally met at WorldCon in Denver.

The final story, "The Ashes of His Fathers," is mine.

So why are you still here?  Go read the stories.


Continue reading at the original source →