Newsletter

What's in a Week - Vol. 58

A scorching week in LA, a busy week as Editor-in-Chief/Writer/Mom

Jendia Gammon

Sep 8, 2024 — 7 min read

Hot in the City

We can't stop talking about the weather around here. It's been an absolute nightmare week, with record-breaking heat. It made it to 108 degrees Friday where I'm at, and just a few miles away, Burbank reached 114. Awful stuff. Another few days, and then we return to "normal," thank goodness. I miss my brisk walks, and it's too hot for those right now.

No fan of summer am I! I'm an autumn-loving gal and I'm very ready for settling into the cooler months. But I've made the best of it, hunkering down, getting lots of work done; and thankfully--unlike last summer, in which a lot of stuff broke down all at the same time--we have working AC here. (The only problem is, it's a very weird AC system in this rental, and it's super loud, such that when it's really hot at night--it was in the 90s at night!--the thing comes off and on constantly, and it sounds like a turboprop. So my sleep is WRECKED.)

I've coped partly on social media with ridiculous memes. I really prefer Threads right now, as I'm able to connect more easily with writers and readers and folks in the publishing industry who have begun leaving Twitter/X. I also like Threads' seamless connection to Instagram, which I enjoy using in a different way.

Here are all my social links:

Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers Update

Our first Stars and Sabers Publishing book, the cross-genre anthology Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers, is nearly complete!

The story submission deadline was August 31, and I have begun arranging the book! This is a huge milestone. And it was very fast work, really, as I've had months to think about each story. Given the multiple genres represented in this anthology, the subsections leaned toward their own themes. This was great fun, and I already had practice with this sort of book arrangement with my own single-author story collection, The Shadow Galaxy (here's the Bookshop.org link).

We'll announce the final table of contents for Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers and the final roster of participating authors in the near future.

We're still crowdfunding publishing costs, and there are great reward tiers, from $5 on up, with acknowledgements in the books, book swag, and different formats of the book, among other great rewards, so do check that out here:

https://ko-fi.com/post/Publishing-Imprint-News-and-Opportunity-H2H2XH2SN

I'm also starting to line up the second anthology, and we'll start the process of short story submissions for that in in January. Some familiar names will be returning, alongside some fabulous new ones! This and future anthologies will be themed. Can't wait to share more in the new year!

More Stars and Sabers Publishing Book Deals!

Last week, we announced our first solo-author book deal for our publishing imprint, for Pedro Iniguez's collection, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories.

This week, we have TWO new book deals to report!

First up is P.A. Cornell and her novelette, Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl, a retro sci-fi noir romance! Read about P.A.'s book here:

And then, on the same day, we signed Eugen Bacon with her Sauúti science fiction and horror novella, The Nga’phandileh Whisperer! Read about Eugen's book here:

We may have more news to share soon!

This is all very exciting and satisfying work. I love each of these wonderfully unique books. I've also begun reaching out to cover artists, which is another fun process for me.

Please note: we are CLOSED to unsolicited submissions currently, and we will only open more broadly to literary agents in January 2025.

On the Screen

Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil in *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power*

We got TOM BOMBADIL on our screens, everyone! WE MADE IT! (Nerd alert.) Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has opened up the doors on a lot of Tolkien's Middle Earth lore, and Episode 4 was chock full of treats. I was completely charmed by the introduction of the enigmatic and eccentric Tom Bombadil, played by Rory Kinnear. We also got a look at some of the creatures of Middle Earth that we weren't shown in Peter Jackson's LotR films. We even heard a bit of the Quenya language! (Nerd alert x100.) Note that this show chiefly takes place in the Second Age, a few thousand years before Bilbo Baggins sets out on his adventures from the Shire in the Third Age. I've been geeking out over introductions to characters mentioned in the extensive appendices of Tolkien's books and his notes, and while it's been at times divergent from the timelines, there has been an especially Tolkien-esque shift this season, in my opinion. I'm having fun with the show.

On the Page

Currently, I'm rotating between different books and comic books while I'm stuck inside during the high heat. In my novel rotation: Johannes Cabal: the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard; Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo; The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard, and I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. As for comics, the latest Helen of Wyndhorn is magnificent, and I've picked up the Farscape 25th anniversary special.

I'm eagerly awaiting some new cookbooks, which I collect and use, and I'm very excited about Nigel Slater's newest one, A Thousand Feasts. As with everything he writes, Nigel offers more than just food: dreamlike prose, notes, memoirs, it's all there. If you've never tried out his cookbook-memoirs, I highly recommend each and every one. He's a magnificent writer, one of the best in any genre. His books make great gifts, too.

Writing Update

Life and art imitated each other this week in my upcoming sequel, The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel. In the book, the teens returned to high school during a heatwave (in an already scorched future society, which engages chiefly in Night Living). The timing really became one of those uncanny situations, as my own teens returned to school. I'm leaning more into the punk aspect of this Lunarpunk series of mine, as these kids come up against elders who don't appreciate their viewpoints. It's an unstable stew of teen angst and crushes, friction with teachers, high whimsy, mysteries, and simmering threats. In other words, welcome back to Glimmerbight! And if you've not visited, I highly recommend you do; my multi-award nominated The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern (written under my J. Dianne Dotson pen name) is perfect for Spooky Season. For teens to infinity.
Order rom Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, or your favorite bookseller.

The Week Ahead

The writing deadline for The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel, mentioned above, is January 1, and so I'll speed up the writing. I suspect edits are coming soon for my campy horror novel, Doomflower, so I'm keeping an eye on my inbox. I believe the contract for my dragon fantasy trilogy is arriving soon as well. I'm also tentatively sending out more agent queries to try to get representation. There are so many opportunities you can have with an agent (like TV/film options and work-for-hire, big 5 publishers, and more) that are hard or impossible to obtain without one.

I'm hoping to have more Stars and Sabers news to report as well. If you want to keep up with the imprint updates, do follow on social media. Lots of links here: