Blog

Amazon Jumped the Gun!

March 11, 2022

Amazon jumped the launch and started selling paperbacks a couple days ago. Kindle and other Ingram outlets are still holding to March 17th pre-orders.

It has worked out to our benefit as Robyn Huss and other authors were moved into the top 100s in two categories: Science Fiction anthologies and Fantasy anthologies. We got close on Mystery anthologies as well.

Stephen Johnson

February 15, 2022
Author Spotlight: Stephen Johnson, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, Voices in my Head.
After I retired from the Navy, I began writing mainly 100 word drabble stories. “Voices in my Head” was my first official “long” short story. The main character had his origins in a 100 word drabble that I finished over a year ago and could not get out of my head.
I am finishing my first novella that will have several horror episodes and each tale will be based out of Memphis. The first episode of the series, Terror Tales from the Bluff City, is, “The Deal with Madame Marguerite”, and will be coming out in January.

Kevin A. Davis

February 15, 2022
Author Spotlight: Kevin A. Davis, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, A New Shifter in the Hood.
Wanted an urban fantasy piece which took some time with character and setting, as the title implies. It won an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest.
Want a free urban fantasy ebook by Kevin A. Davis?
Get it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/lasx0yv2sr

Michele Stuart

February 15, 2022
Author Spotlight: Michele Stuart, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Tough Love.
Tough Love was written for First Line Journal, though the first line has now been slightly altered.
It now has the distinction of being both my first story to receive a personal rejection and my first professional fiction sale.

Tracy L. Snyder

February 15, 2022
Tracy L. Snyder, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Mystery of the Somerton Man.
The Somerton Man is a story based on a real unsolved murder mystery. On May 18th of 2021, the remains of a murder victim were exhumed from a grave in Australia. The name engraved on the tombstone was The Unknown Man. This murder victim had been found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide in 1948, just a few years after the end of World War II. The labels had been cut out of the man’s clothes, and all identifying information removed from his pockets. There was also a cryptic message in Farsi that had been left in his pocket. The words were “Tamam Shud,” which means “it is finished,” or “the end.” People have speculated on the man’s identity for seventy years. This exhumation was an attempt to retrieve enough DNA to finally put a name to his story.
As I read the news article, a thought occurred to me. What if no one had been able to identify this man because he had an extra-terrestrial origin? What if he was an alien?
The Somerton Man is a melding of the well known facts of the case with a fanciful explanation involving the intervention of an alien race in the affairs of man. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Rosemary Williams

February 15, 2022
Author Spotlight: Rosemary Williams, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, The Ghost of House Grey.
Many of my stories have murky origins, and this one is stranger than most. The main character, Sephie, originally formed from a Lone Gunmen fanfic that never existed outside of my brain. So when I needed a story for this anthology, I pulled her out of the darkest corner of my neurons, dusted her off, and shoved her into the same world as another pair of short stories I’ve written for the JordanCon anthology. Surprisingly, it worked, and I’m toying with the idea of expanding her story into a novel series. I’m still pretty new as a published author, but I have projects in the works.

AJ Skelly

February 15, 2022
AJ Skelly, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, A Basilisk and a Bite.
Inspired by several of family members who are color blind, AJ Skelly thought it would be cool to write a story in which that was seen as an advantage. She’s written several “Magik Prep” stories (several are in other anthologies) and thought it would be fun to use that somehow in a fantasy setting.”

Mark Beard

February 15, 2022
Author Spotlight: Mark Beard, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, Fear of Monsters.
I enjoy writing stories that take place in the wilds, with characters outside their zones of comfort but I flipped this concept for my Hidden Villains story entitled Fear of Monsters to, instead, make the characters themselves embodiment of savagery and unpredictability. You can find my debut heroic fantasy series, The Jeweler of Tirravon, on Amazon or on my author website, https://www.lanthanor.com/ .

Katharine Reid

February 15, 2022
Katharine Reid, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Horatio.
Katharine’s inspiration for her story came from a custom TTRPG she used to GM for a group of friends. In order to give the NPCs more depth, she started writing stories about what was happening between player interactions. This is one of those stories that came out of it.

Clint Hall

February 15, 2022
Clint Hall, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, The Demons in the Stars.
This is a bit strange given the setting and circumstances, but The Demons in the Stars is a very personal story for me about the tensions between our priorities, our aspirations, and our need for a sense of purpose. It’s the type of story that will probably be interpreted differently from one reader to another.