Amid the flurry of life-related craziness, school worries, and language study, I have somehow still managed to find time for two things: videogames and publishing fiction. I’ve got two new ones for you today.

As of today you can find me in Pantheon’s new anthology Gaia: Shadow and Breath and the first issue of Despumation. Both are now available, but today I’m just going to tell you about the former, as Despumation‘s early initial release is not quite officially sanctioned as final. I’ll post an update when that goes live in a final, official context (but if you just can’t wait, feel free to order—everything should be good to go).

Gaia can be purchased either at CreateSpace or Amazon.com, though my publisher will get more if you buy through CreateSpace, since Amazon takes the larger cut. Does that matter? It sure does, because a portion of the proceeds will benefit The Nature Conservancy, so you can buy a little summer reading for yourself while feeling good about supporting some worthy people.

The story appearing in Gaia is the second mentioned in the store descriptions: “Casa de Perros”, a tale of dark urban fantasy with a horror twist that revolves around the all-too-real problems of dogfighting and gang violence. It’s featured alongside 10 other really cool stories by some great authors, including Richard Thomas, Dino Parenti, Jessica Meddows, and Kelby Losack. I’m also pretty fond of Sean Silleck’s “Love at the Dawn of the Elephant Apocalypse”. The book features a beautiful cover by Luke Spooner and a mess of equally cool illustrations in the interior.

The official post is over at Pantheon, which should tell you everything you need to know, and offers a 10% discount on a CreateSpace purchase using the discount code: CFAK5JBZ

More to follow on the Despumation story—which, for the curious, is entitled “Cradlesong”, and was written as a literary interpretation of Meshuggah’s soul-searing, tachycardia-inducing, genre-defining Bleed (listen at your own peril—you’ve been warned). It’s not a story for the faint of heart. Or the easily offended. Or probably pretty much anyone, really. But I wrote it, and Kriscinda Lee Everitt liked it, and we don’t care what you think.

…

Okay, so maybe we do. Just a little bit. While I can’t promise the story won’t offend you, I can reasonably promise that you won’t be bored.

So I guess that’s it for now. Thanks for all your continued support, which means the world to me, and I hope you’ll grab a copy of Gaia for yourself. It’s always great to show some love for the indie scene, and even better to spread the word when it’s all for a good cause! Will post more about Despumation‘s first issue soon, and also about the Solarcide anthology just as soon as I’ve got official word about that.