October 27, 2023 • 27 mins
Amy, Stacy, and EJ are here to guide you monster lovers to one of the cheapest, easiest, and most fun ways to expand your list of favorite authors. If you haven't gotten into Anthologies, you must hear us talk about them.
This episode ends on a cliffhanger! This is just episode 1 of 4 because we will talk about our favorite former anthology stories that have become standalone books.
That's right. What starts as a story sketch in one anthology can become your next shelf trophy.
Music is called "Undead Bride" by Pagefire https://soundcloud.com/nerdymetalhead202/undead-bride
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
EJ (00:03):
Welcome back everyone to Tales from the Orc Den.
We're going a little bitdifferent.
For the next couple of episodes.
There's just been so manyinteresting things the three of
us have been talking about onDiscord, and we're finally
bringing our listeners in on theinteresting goodness.
Yes.
Today we're going to starttalking about anthologies, and
(00:27):
I'm going to lead a discussionjust to lay the groundwork.
What the hell are anthologies?
Why you, as definitely a monsterfucker out there, should be
reading anthologies.
And yeah, and we're also goingto be talking about some of our
favorite stories from thoseanthologies that you can get now
(00:47):
because they're standalonebooks.
Stacy (00:50):
And most of the time they've been extended,
EJ (00:52):
which is even better.
Yaaas.
So I'm going to start with areally basic question.
I'm going to ask it to both youyou, Amy, and Stacy.
So what are the primary benefitsfor indie authors to contribute
to anthologies?
And like why should an indieauthor join an anthology?
Amy (01:13):
Can I actually define what an anthology is versus say a
story of collection, acollection of stories?
EJ (01:18):
Ooh, that's a good question.
That's great.
Another reason why I would loveto stream this one day.
Stacy (01:25):
No.
EJ (01:26):
avatars.
Stacy (01:29):
With avatars.
Okay.
Yes.
I'll make sure to wear mysluttiest lingerie when we do.
Avatars
Amy (01:34):
is fine.
But anyways.
So the difference between ananthology and a collection, a
story collection is basically ananthology is a collection of
short stories that have beenwritten by multiple different
authors, whereas a storycollection is usually all
written by one author.
Sometimes the term anthology isused interchangeably between the
(01:57):
two, but really anthologies arefor multiple authors versus
story collection.
This is, this has to do withlibrary stuff because story
collections tend to be shelvedwithin the fiction section,
whereas anthologies are innonfiction because you have
EJ (02:12):
multiple authors
Stacy (02:14):
there.
Really?
Even if it's a fictionalanthology?
Correct.
EJ (02:19):
Fascinating.
That's weird.
I like to think that one daywe're going to get more indie
authors, including spicy indieauthors, in more libraries.
So this is relevant, hopefully,for the future.
Indeed.
Amy (02:34):
Anyways, going on to the primary benefits for author, for
especially indie authors whocontribute to anthologies I
think, For up and comingauthors, it's a great way to get
paired with better known authorsto where people who are familiar
with those better known authorswill, of course, buy the
(02:54):
anthologies for them.
But then also, oh, I'll try someof these authors here, too, and
see how I like their writingstyle.
I might find an author that Ilike,
Stacy (03:04):
which is actually what happened.
Sure.
I bought the book.
I may as well sample the
EJ (03:08):
offerings.
Amy (03:09):
It is pretty much in what would you call it, not a pooh.
EJ (03:13):
I
Stacy (03:14):
it's like An appetizer?
A sampler?
Yeah, it is an appetizer.
It is,
Amy (03:17):
yeah.
What, it is, it's a collectionof appetizers for you to sample
to
EJ (03:21):
see what you like.
It one of those chocolate boxeswith the variety of little
truffles and such, of I knowthat I love.
The coconut, but I've nevertried cherry nougat, I'm like,
I'm throwing out some likerandom stuff.
Yeah, probably terrible
Stacy (03:40):
examples, but you know what I think.
I like the coconut, but you'reasking Keith to cherry
EJ (03:44):
nougat, gross.
No, I absolutely agree.
I think if an author, if you asan author can get in there, get
into a good anthology fit.
You don't just network withother readers of your niche.
You also get to engage withtheir readers.
Probably they're engaged readerstoo, because I feel like still
(04:06):
in some ways anthologies,they're not something that new
people new to the Indie scenequite see, especially because
most anthologies are going to belimited run.
That's a big reason why a lot ofauthors will publish these
standalones.
Later.
And so you only come across themwhen they are actively out for a
(04:28):
couple of months, and they goaway.
And I think that's, I think onceyou get that good fit, you get
their engaged readers Who knowwhat they're about, they know
that they like this genre, theyknow that they like these
authors, they probably now likeyou too, and now you have these
engaged readers as well.
Hi, I'm an engaged reader.
This is one of the reasons why Iknow I get to build up my
(04:52):
favorite author list everysingle time I read an anthology.
Same.
Hell yeah.
Amy (04:59):
I live for that.
I live for finding new authorsand also picking out the stories
that I love most fromanthologies.
EJ (05:07):
Absolutely.
I think another frankly nicething is you get paid to do this
too.
This is in some ways, if you canget an anthology on I feel like
financially it's a lot moresustainable than doing like a
free book giveaway or BookBub asawesome as those tools are to
promote yourself, at least inthis situation.
(05:27):
The industry standard in indies,it seems, thankfully, is that
you get paid.
Everyone gets paid for thestories that they get published,
and you get to retain thoserights.
So later on, especially if younoticed, hey, people who read
this anthology, they seem toreally like my story.
You should use that as anopportunity then to publish that
(05:50):
baby later on as a standalone.
And
Stacy (05:54):
the other thing that's cool is that a lot of times the
anthologies are for a specificcause oh, that's, like I know
the pets in space, anthologydoes stuff for rescues and
shelters.
I know they did one fairly.
Recently, they've done one for acouple of them for Ukraine when
that whole thing started.
And then I don't remember whatthe, I know the month yeah.
(06:17):
One for Maui.
I know that the monsters of loveis for something, but I can't
remember
EJ (06:21):
what it is.
Monsters and loved one.
That's for Maui.
I believe.
I want to
Stacy (06:25):
say that.
Are they just doing because thefirst, cause we're on what,
number four for the monsters?
You're right.
They've
EJ (06:30):
been doing them.
They keep on stacking them up.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Stacy (06:35):
I'm not gonna say no.
I know one through three werefor other things.
Yeah.
I think four for Maui, Stacey.
I think you're right.
I think you're right, yeah,because that's the merman, or
creatures from the ocean one.
S.
J.
Sanders has a really good storyon that.
But the other thing.
That's cool about it, too, is,they've done stuff for Gay
Pride, because Indie is whereyou can find stuff like LGBTQ
(07:00):
romance, you can find polyamory,you can find non binary.
In fact, the book I'm gonna talkabout later has a, it's a human
female with a non binary alien.
And the other thing that I likeabout it is that it's not
segregated.
It would be If this was back inthe days of having to go to
Waldenbooks or Barnes and Nobleto get your book fix, A, you
(07:21):
wouldn't be able to find LGBTQplus romance.
It just wouldn't be there.
But everything would be like sosegregated that it would have
its own little section and you'dthink, okay I'm not LGBTQ.
So there's no reason for me toeven look in this section.
And you could be missing out onlike your next favorite author.
Whereas with the Indieanthologies, it's yeah, you
(07:42):
could have a gay couple in thisone.
You could have a straight couplein this one.
You could have, it basically,it's like a true sampler,
basically, where you get to tryeverything and see what's to
your taste versus you get to trythe sampler of things that we
think will be to your tastesversus you actually trying a
broad cross section, if thatmakes
EJ (08:02):
sense.
I think you're really touchingon why it's a good idea for you
all as readers.
To actively search out and buyanthologies, you're for real.
Yeah, a good anthology is goingto have that mix of authors that
you probably already know ofyour S.
J.
Sanders, your C.
(08:23):
M.
Neskosta's.
Yeah.
Honey Philip Bunch of, yeah.
Leo,
Stacy (08:29):
I think Ru Ruby Dixon's done a couple of them because I
know that she just recentlyreleased the story that she
wrote for one of the, oh, thethe queer love,
EJ (08:38):
Anthologies.
Stacy (08:39):
So one, the, she's shy,
EJ (08:41):
I think it's called.
Yeah.
When she's shy and.
You, then you're going to findsome really cool stuff.
I know there are some queerromances that I would have
thought I mostly identify asstraight.
It's probably not my space.
But if a queer romance alreadyhappens to be an anthology that
I'm already reading, yeah, let'stry it out.
What have we got to lose?
I'll do a twirl.
Yeah.
And besides, it's all They tendto be on the shorter side.
(09:04):
So you got a short story, youget a taste, you don't have to
eat a whole meal.
And if you don't
like
Stacy (09:10):
it, it'll be over soon.
It's fine.
Yeah.
EJ (09:13):
And if y'all do like it, then you can get the whole meal.
and the price point's kind offreaking awesome.
'cause those anthologies tend tocost as much as a one book, but
you get so much more out of it.
Stacy (09:24):
Or a lot of times too.
Another reason to keep your eyesopen though, is a lot of them
will do, if you pre-order,you'll get it for 99 cents.
Oh yeah.
Or 2 99.
But then if you don't, it goesback up to 5 99 or something
like that if you get it on, Ithink 7
Amy (09:35):
99 is the biggest I've seen for an anthology.
But then again, They're huge
Stacy (09:40):
books.
Yeah, they're giant.
You're getting a thousand pluspages,
EJ (09:44):
Yeah, you're getting like a proper volume of stories.
Yes, for
Stacy (09:50):
real.
And one thing that I've noticedthat people are doing now, which
I really appreciate, which Theydidn't do back when Monsters in
Love 1 was released, and I'mglad that it seems to be
catching on now, is that at thebeginning of each story, they'll
give you the basic, this is malefemale, this is male female,
with sword crossing, this ispolyamory, this is this is that,
and I like that because for me Idon't reverse harem, and it's
(10:12):
nothing against reverse harem,it's just not my flavor.
And so it's nice if I'm, lookingat something and it says, Oh
this is going to be a reverseharem with multiple partners.
Then I'm like, okay, it's notfor me.
So I might come back and read itlater if I'm feeling in the
mood, or I can just give it amiss because I really fucking
hate it when I get invested in astory.
And then it goes in a directionthat I didn't like.
And that.
(10:33):
I wasn't warned.
So I feel like somebody tried topull the rug out
EJ (10:36):
from underneath me.
Yep.
No, that makes sense.
I agree.
Amy (10:40):
I do think that content warnings and trigger warnings.
Stacy (10:43):
Yes.
And that too is also catchingon, which I also appreciate.
Amy (10:46):
They're being used a lot more nowadays, which I find is a
benefit.
Because you're, the readers arebeing made aware right from the
get go what they're in for, sothey can either skip it or,
return, if it is a novel orwhatever, they can return it and
eh, this really isn't perfect.
Stacy (11:05):
But the other thing,
Amy (11:06):
with regards to the shortness of it, that's also a
benefit to the author becausethey don't have to invest as
much time as they would incomposing an entire novel.
A short story, they do vary insize in these like I said
though, the volumes vary insize, they are huge.
And you've got ten authors.
In a 900 page e book, it'sroughly, each of them gets
(11:28):
roughly 90 to 100 pages,sometimes some
Stacy (11:31):
will write fewer, sometimes some will write more.
Yeah, because I know that I'veread some where it's holy shit,
that was like 120 pages, onething I will say to piggyback on
the trigger warning thing, athing that I've seen more and
more artists lean into, and Iwish they wouldn't, is when
they'll say, for a complete listof trigger warnings, check my
webpage.
And if they
(11:52):
don't,
Amy (11:52):
I'm not gonna do that.
I don't
Stacy (11:54):
like
Amy (11:54):
that.
Please don't make
Stacy (11:56):
people do the extra steps.
Because the simple truth of thematter is, I'm not going to.
EJ (12:00):
It's just a couple of bytes, y'all.
It's a couple
Stacy (12:02):
to.
That's the long and the short ofit, is I'm not going to go, you
want me to read your book, soI'm not going to go out of my
way to do additional homework.
To read your book, which I mayor may not enjoy.
EJ (12:14):
Yeah, the ones who especially truly need trigger
warnings.
I happen to not need triggerwarnings as much as other folks.
I usually don't either,honestly.
So it's really no big deal forme to just but I like having
them there for other readersbecause I'm not the only one
reading these books.
There are some people whodesperately need those trigger
warnings.
(12:35):
And I'm over here happy to belike, yeah, accommodate the shit
out of them.
It's not that big of a
Stacy (12:40):
deal.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's just it.
It's if this is like somebodywho like, okay, I'm just going
to do a super duper broad.
Example let's say I'm a personwho's gotten out of an abusive
relationship, right?
And I need, and maybe readingromance is like my comfort read.
And I find something that seemsinteresting.
And the author hasn't explainedtheir trigger warnings
(13:02):
exceptionally well.
And then I go in, and it turnsout the book is very similar to
the situation that I just gotmyself out of.
That's a dick move.
When all it takes is for you togo, Hey, heads up, this is a
dark romance.
Or, hey, heads up, there's,there's talk of, maybe they're
the, one of the main charactersis sexually assaulted, maybe
there's talk of a miscarriagethere's a lot of shit, or even
(13:25):
pet death if you're gonna killan animal in a book, fuckin warn
me.
Yes,
Amy (13:28):
please warn, so that way I'm
EJ (13:30):
prepared.
Stacy (13:31):
It's the same, right?
I don't, and so it's just, it'sthat kind of shit.
And I really like, too a lot ofauthors are really great about
it where they'll be like,mention of past sexual abuse
does not happen to the characteron page.
And so it's nice because forpeople who do have these more
extreme triggers, essentially,it's nice for them to know they
can weight it and decide, isthis worth me weighting in or is
(13:54):
maybe it just for the best thatI give this one a miss.
And so the whole go to mywebpage to check it out just
means you're dicking yourself
EJ (14:01):
out of readers, basically.
Yeah, it's a pity.
I'm sure it comes out of a goodplace, but I would recommend it.
Oh, sure.
Pivot.
Don't worry about boring us.
save the pithiness for yourplot, not the
Stacy (14:15):
warnings.
Exactly, right?
Be verbose in your warnings, infact.
Yes.
Anybody who's going to getpissed at you because you take
the time.
To actually put thought intoyour warnings isn't somebody you
want as a reader anyway.
Yeah, seriously.
If they're going to bitch aboutwarnings, they're going to bitch
about something else too.
You know it.
EJ (14:33):
Exactly, and it's going to be stupid stuff anyway.
Yeah, we'll get into that inanother episode.
Seriously.
I'm actually, I'd like to touchon the lit Amy, you had
mentioned the story collectionsversus anthologies.
Before we move on, I want totalk about those a little bit
(14:53):
more.
I'm curious about your two, bothyour thoughts on why an author
would do a story collectionversus an anthology.
Because I'm under the impressionstory collections are more of a
established author thing, you'vegot a bunch of these popular
authors that are coming togetherthey're doing a similar world
(15:16):
thing, a similar trope thing.
Like right now I'm reading abunch of orc stories, where it's
all orcs, and it's all thearrange like marriage of
convenience trope.
Gotcha.
I want to know what book seriesthat is BTW.
And it's Monster Brides and Icame into it because Tracy
(15:37):
Lauren is has a book in it, andI liked her Tamed by the Troll
book, and like the rest of herPerished Woods series, and there
was a secondary character in itnamed Aaron, who is an orc, and
I wanted to know what the hellhappened to him.
And so I went down a rabbit holebecause she featured his story
(15:58):
in this story collection.
And I was like, ah, to hell withit.
I'm going to see what otherstories I like from this series.
So I just bought them all.
And now I've been going throughall of them.
Happy Orktober Day.
I think I've read I think I'veread a
Stacy (16:13):
couple of these.
I'm
EJ (16:14):
pretty sure I read Owned by the Ork by Raina Marks.
Oh, maybe not though.
This is saying childhood
Stacy (16:22):
sweetheart.
I
EJ (16:23):
think I'm getting this confused with something else.
I love that there's otherconnections between them.
I've come across at least twobooks in that series that have
at least two of them have curlyhaired redheads.
For the female main characterand there are 2 other books that
(16:44):
have a female main character,whose name is Violet.
Oh, that's cute.
I love it.
I'm like, I don't think you alldid this on purpose.
I suspect not anyway, but Idon't hate it.
I think this is hilarious.
Yeah,
Stacy (16:59):
I, I think,
Amy (17:01):
when it comes to the collections of short stories by
the same author.
Oftentimes, I wanna say thatthey're usually tales that take
place in this, in a similarworld
Stacy (17:11):
or realm,
EJ (17:12):
right?
There's the Monster Ball series,which I suspect if there's any
readers who are like familiarwith what the hell we're talking
about when we say storycollection, it's probably going
to be like that monster regencyseries
Stacy (17:24):
Oh
Amy (17:25):
like with the Monsters Ball, that's.
Again, multiple authors writingfor this, within the same world.
Stacy (17:34):
Yeah, that's just a shared universe.
That's not a story collection.
But a short story collection
Amy (17:38):
is actually written all by the same author.
Ryan Reiby.
Stacy (17:41):
Sorry.
Or Stephen King.
Yeah.
Ah, yeah.
Stephen King releases themanytime he does Four Past
Midnight, or Different Seasons,or All Dark, No Stars.
Those are all Stephen King shortstory compilations.
EJ (17:56):
Oh.
Leon Riley.
I know she, she's done a shortstory collection that's all in
one book.
Yeah.
Those, she does call it ananthology one, which is
interesting.
Yeah.
That wasn't interesting that she
Stacy (18:09):
Difference terms.
Amy (18:10):
Yeah.
Like I said, it's usedinterchangeably.
The term anthology is usedinterchangeably, but.
In the library world, heranthology of just her stories
would be in the fiction section,not in the
EJ (18:25):
nonfiction.
Absolutely.
Fascinating.
Stacy (18:29):
L.
V.
Lane, I know, released
EJ (18:31):
a little story collection with the last
Stacy (18:34):
big Stuff Your Kindle Day, where it was...
like three or four of her shortstories all gathered together.
Amy (18:41):
Yeah, usually they are also shorter like the collection of
short stories is shorter, likeyou'll get like maybe four,
three or four stories or maybe
Stacy (18:50):
six or something like that.
Unless it's Stephen King andthen you'll get 18.
We're not
Amy (18:55):
talking about
Stacy (18:58):
I just don't want somebody to go and look at a
Stephen King short and be like,I was lying to you.
I'm just like, you clearly neverread Stephen King before.
EJ (19:08):
I'm trying to think, would there be a proper word for then
those series of stories thatare, they're clearly shared,
they're definitely on Amazon,you can see they are advertised
as a series, but they havecompletely different authors.
I'm trying
Stacy (19:21):
to say that?
Shared universe.
Shared universe.
Shared universe.
Yeah.
Interesting.
EJ (19:28):
Okay.
Okay.
Interesting.
I obviously I don't hate it.
I absolutely love it.
I think it's very clever.
Actually the working alone outthere.
Yeah.
And you get to have them longerthan anthologies because
everyone is telling themseparately.
Anyway, yeah, from what Iunderstand that's a big reason
(19:50):
why anthologies tend to belimited runs when they're.
Sold all in one missive becauseyou have to have one person
who's like handling all thefinances.
And if you have them do thatindefinitely, it's insane.
Yeah, that's not sustainable.
So actually, I think it's betterthat they've hacked it in a way
to be like, Oh, no, these arelimited edition.
And then, you get a wee tasteand then you get to have a big
(20:13):
meal if you like it a whole lot.
Stacy (20:15):
And I love that it's smart for the, it's smart for
the writer too, because it'slike, it's basically win like
they don't indefinitely loserights to their story.
Like I think technically yousurrender your rights for a year
or something like that.
EJ (20:25):
Yeah.
It's temporary.
Stacy (20:28):
Exactly.
You get the rights back and thenthe story is yours to do
whatever the hell you want withit.
Which is, whereas, before inthe, before self publishing,
like the what's the word I'mlooking for?
The taboo on that before thatwas.
What, everybody finally got thefuck over it.
Cause back in the day if youself published something that
was the kiss of death.
It didn't matter if you hadwritten Harry Potter, nobody's
(20:49):
gonna finally touch you.
Create space?
What?
Exactly.
Like back in the days of causelike I used to buy like, like
romance like, oh, a Christmasromance anthology or something
like that.
And it was like there'd be likethe seeds of these really
fucking great ideas and thennothing would ever come of it
because publishers own thefucking rights to the short
(21:10):
story that you wrote.
Indefinitely.
Yeah.
And so because of that therereally wasn't incentive to put
work into a shared universe.
Can you imagine trying to do ashared universe shit thing with
Fuckin Simon and Schuster, orPenguin.
Jesus.
Oh God.
They get in their
EJ (21:24):
own ways.
Yes, because they want to makethose, they want to make bang.
Stacy (21:28):
Exactly, they don't give a flying fuck if it's, about the
well being of the author, thewell being of the writers, or
the readers, that all they givea fuck
EJ (21:35):
about is their bottom line, and now they've fucked
themselves when it comes to DRMstuff, and they deserved it.
They deserved it.
And
Stacy (21:41):
I giggle every time I hear of a, some Monolith and
publishing going tits up.
Yeah.
There's the stock.
Donate.
I need to
EJ (21:51):
look
Amy (21:51):
and see who published Wolfsbane and Mistletoe because
that's one of my first examplesof one, an anthology, and two,
monster romance anthology.
Granted, I'm sure most of thewerewolves were shifted into
their human forms or whatever.
But it
Stacy (22:08):
still counts.
Oh yeah, that's interesting.
I don't think I've had that.
I don't think I read that.
I have Stardust and Mistletoe,which I'm gonna guess is in the
same group, and that one,because that one was
specifically alien romance.
I don't know,
Amy (22:22):
because they had that one, and then they also had a vampire
collection honeymoon somethingor other.
I don't know.
But, honestly, the Wolfsbane andMistletoe was, it had some
really fascinating stories init.
Including one that had BlackPeter, of all
Stacy (22:40):
people.
Oh,
EJ (22:41):
cool.
Really?
Yes.
I wonder how one might takeBlack Peter and possibly make
him sexy when there's so muchweird pieces of shit.
Amy (22:50):
No, he wasn't, he was not the protagonist.
Oh, thank you so much.
And
Stacy (22:55):
he was trying to tempt the werewolf into being bad.
I love how
EJ (22:59):
there's so much about Scandinavian culture that me as
an American, I'm like, wow, howprogressive! And then I remember
Black Peters from
Stacy (23:06):
there and I'm like, oh oh shit! Never mind, we're gonna
walk that back.
EJ (23:12):
We're all human at the day after all.
Yes,
Stacy (23:16):
we are.
I'm not judging anybody onsomething that their ancestors
did 800 years
EJ (23:19):
ago.
But I will judge you forcontinuing it.
Yeah,
Stacy (23:23):
that is a hundred percent, yes.
Yes.
Oh man.
But don't get me wrong, I'm notcriticizing that they made
Krampus Hot, Krampus is hot atthe end.
EJ (23:31):
That is true.
With the exception
Stacy (23:33):
of never mind.
Oh, fair enough.
What, are you talking about the
Amy (23:36):
movie?
No, I'm talking no, I'm talkingabout a short story that I could
not read because.
The content warning is this istotally out of my wheelhouse.
Thank you so much.
I'm glad people are
Stacy (23:46):
enjoying it.
EJ (23:47):
Content warning is doing their job.
Stacy (23:50):
Text me the title.
I want to know if I read it.
Oh, I'm sure you have.
Probably.
I
EJ (23:55):
am a pervert.
Stacy (23:56):
actually, one of these anthologies is the reason why I
read my first the idea of a wolfshifter who's the the hero in it
was, in fact, I think it mighthave been in Stardust and
Mistletoe, or Starlight andMistletoe, where a human woman
somehow gets pulled into thisalternative reality where, and
it's the world where these wolfhumanoids live, and.
(24:20):
And at first I was is thisbestiality?
And then I was like, no, he'ssentient, it's fine.
If he's sentient, I don't give ashit if he looks just like a
coconut crab.
If he's sentient, it's notbestiality.
Don't tempt me there.
But then it turned into thiswhole thing where they, then
they get pulled into thisalternate land where it's always
Christmas.
Okay! Oh wow.
(24:41):
And the reason why Krampus didit is because he was looking for
a bride, and then the maincharacter is just I'm happy with
him, and she goes, but my auntis like Christmas crazy and
single, and so Krampus ends upmarrying her aunt, and then they
all live in the Christmascastle, and it's really, it was
actually, it was super fuckingas I'm reading it, because I was
fairly new to monster fucking,or at least, you Identifying as
(25:04):
a monster fucker, and so as I'mreading it, I'm just like, this
is so fucking weird, but Ifucking love it.
EJ (25:11):
I love the idea of someone's Christmas crazy aunt finding her
true love through this clearlyover engineered plot.
There's something really sweetabout this.
I'm like,
Stacy (25:22):
I can be someone's Christmas crazy aunt.
Come on, man.
Or hook me up with the spirit ofHalloween I'm Halloween crazy.
We can make this work.
We can do this.
I'm someone's aunt, I'm single.
Woo
EJ (25:35):
Oh
Stacy (25:36):
goodness.
But at the same time, likethere's no way in hell indie
publishing that ever would'vehappened with indie publishing
EJ (25:40):
Or traditional publishing.
Yeah.
Traditional publishing.
Yeah.
It's no way in,
Stacy (25:45):
although
Amy (25:45):
I wanna say they're getting a bit more open, at least the
small, I wanna say the thesubsidiaries of.
Big publishers are willing totake more chances like You've
got Kimberly Lemming's needmishaps getting published
through orbit, which is
Stacy (26:01):
a Yeah, but they're only doing it because it's a survival
mechanism.
They wouldn't have done thiswithout their hand
EJ (26:07):
being forced.
For sure.
For sure.
And, but that's fine.
Whatever.
I, as long as our author getsher money, I'm cool with it.
Stacy (26:15):
Same.
But I also don't want thosemotherfuckers to own the rights
to her stories either.
Amy (26:19):
I don't want that either, but...
There is production in works,hopefully, for either a TV
series or a film.
I'm not sure.
I'm hoping for a TV seriesbecause then we have a lot more
EJ (26:30):
time for a lot more fun, frankly.
Yeah, pretty much.
I don't know.
I'm skeptical.
yeah, So clearly we have ourfavorites and so I, I have asked
us all to prepare today a weebit of a book report of sorts.
And then I have discussionquestions so we can dive into
our favorites.
So rather than obsess, over asingular author with a singular
(26:53):
series like we usually do, whichis still fun and we totally
will.
Probably come back, especiallybecause as we record, I have a
copy of The Fall of the Orc, andso we're going to have to record
on that eventually.
But for now, we're going to betalking about these standalones.
Welcome back everyone to Tales from the Orc Den.
We're going a little bitdifferent.
For the next couple of episodes.
There's just been so manyinteresting things the three of
us have been talking about onDiscord, and we're finally
bringing our listeners in on theinteresting goodness.
Yes.
Today we're going to starttalking about anthologies, and
(00:27):
I'm going to lead a discussionjust to lay the groundwork.
What the hell are anthologies?
Why you, as definitely a monsterfucker out there, should be
reading anthologies.
And yeah, and we're also goingto be talking about some of our
favorite stories from thoseanthologies that you can get now
(00:47):
because they're standalonebooks.
Stacy (00:50):
And most of the time they've been extended,
EJ (00:52):
which is even better.
Yaaas.
So I'm going to start with areally basic question.
I'm going to ask it to both youyou, Amy, and Stacy.
So what are the primary benefitsfor indie authors to contribute
to anthologies?
And like why should an indieauthor join an anthology?
Amy (01:13):
Can I actually define what an anthology is versus say a
story of collection, acollection of stories?
EJ (01:18):
Ooh, that's a good question.
That's great.
Another reason why I would loveto stream this one day.
Stacy (01:25):
No.
EJ (01:26):
avatars.
Stacy (01:29):
With avatars.
Okay.
Yes.
I'll make sure to wear mysluttiest lingerie when we do.
Avatars
Amy (01:34):
is fine.
But anyways.
So the difference between ananthology and a collection, a
story collection is basically ananthology is a collection of
short stories that have beenwritten by multiple different
authors, whereas a storycollection is usually all
written by one author.
Sometimes the term anthology isused interchangeably between the
(01:57):
two, but really anthologies arefor multiple authors versus
story collection.
This is, this has to do withlibrary stuff because story
collections tend to be shelvedwithin the fiction section,
whereas anthologies are innonfiction because you have
EJ (02:12):
multiple authors
Stacy (02:14):
there.
Really?
Even if it's a fictionalanthology?
Correct.
EJ (02:19):
Fascinating.
That's weird.
I like to think that one daywe're going to get more indie
authors, including spicy indieauthors, in more libraries.
So this is relevant, hopefully,for the future.
Indeed.
Amy (02:34):
Anyways, going on to the primary benefits for author, for
especially indie authors whocontribute to anthologies I
think, For up and comingauthors, it's a great way to get
paired with better known authorsto where people who are familiar
with those better known authorswill, of course, buy the
(02:54):
anthologies for them.
But then also, oh, I'll try someof these authors here, too, and
see how I like their writingstyle.
I might find an author that Ilike,
Stacy (03:04):
which is actually what happened.
Sure.
I bought the book.
I may as well sample the
EJ (03:08):
offerings.
Amy (03:09):
It is pretty much in what would you call it, not a pooh.
EJ (03:13):
I
Stacy (03:14):
it's like An appetizer?
A sampler?
Yeah, it is an appetizer.
It is,
Amy (03:17):
yeah.
What, it is, it's a collectionof appetizers for you to sample
to
EJ (03:21):
see what you like.
It one of those chocolate boxeswith the variety of little
truffles and such, of I knowthat I love.
The coconut, but I've nevertried cherry nougat, I'm like,
I'm throwing out some likerandom stuff.
Yeah, probably terrible
Stacy (03:40):
examples, but you know what I think.
I like the coconut, but you'reasking Keith to cherry
EJ (03:44):
nougat, gross.
No, I absolutely agree.
I think if an author, if you asan author can get in there, get
into a good anthology fit.
You don't just network withother readers of your niche.
You also get to engage withtheir readers.
Probably they're engaged readerstoo, because I feel like still
(04:06):
in some ways anthologies,they're not something that new
people new to the Indie scenequite see, especially because
most anthologies are going to belimited run.
That's a big reason why a lot ofauthors will publish these
standalones.
Later.
And so you only come across themwhen they are actively out for a
(04:28):
couple of months, and they goaway.
And I think that's, I think onceyou get that good fit, you get
their engaged readers Who knowwhat they're about, they know
that they like this genre, theyknow that they like these
authors, they probably now likeyou too, and now you have these
engaged readers as well.
Hi, I'm an engaged reader.
This is one of the reasons why Iknow I get to build up my
(04:52):
favorite author list everysingle time I read an anthology.
Same.
Hell yeah.
Amy (04:59):
I live for that.
I live for finding new authorsand also picking out the stories
that I love most fromanthologies.
EJ (05:07):
Absolutely.
I think another frankly nicething is you get paid to do this
too.
This is in some ways, if you canget an anthology on I feel like
financially it's a lot moresustainable than doing like a
free book giveaway or BookBub asawesome as those tools are to
promote yourself, at least inthis situation.
(05:27):
The industry standard in indies,it seems, thankfully, is that
you get paid.
Everyone gets paid for thestories that they get published,
and you get to retain thoserights.
So later on, especially if younoticed, hey, people who read
this anthology, they seem toreally like my story.
You should use that as anopportunity then to publish that
(05:50):
baby later on as a standalone.
And
Stacy (05:54):
the other thing that's cool is that a lot of times the
anthologies are for a specificcause oh, that's, like I know
the pets in space, anthologydoes stuff for rescues and
shelters.
I know they did one fairly.
Recently, they've done one for acouple of them for Ukraine when
that whole thing started.
And then I don't remember whatthe, I know the month yeah.
(06:17):
One for Maui.
I know that the monsters of loveis for something, but I can't
remember
EJ (06:21):
what it is.
Monsters and loved one.
That's for Maui.
I believe.
I want to
Stacy (06:25):
say that.
Are they just doing because thefirst, cause we're on what,
number four for the monsters?
You're right.
They've
EJ (06:30):
been doing them.
They keep on stacking them up.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Stacy (06:35):
I'm not gonna say no.
I know one through three werefor other things.
Yeah.
I think four for Maui, Stacey.
I think you're right.
I think you're right, yeah,because that's the merman, or
creatures from the ocean one.
S.
J.
Sanders has a really good storyon that.
But the other thing.
That's cool about it, too, is,they've done stuff for Gay
Pride, because Indie is whereyou can find stuff like LGBTQ
(07:00):
romance, you can find polyamory,you can find non binary.
In fact, the book I'm gonna talkabout later has a, it's a human
female with a non binary alien.
And the other thing that I likeabout it is that it's not
segregated.
It would be If this was back inthe days of having to go to
Waldenbooks or Barnes and Nobleto get your book fix, A, you
(07:21):
wouldn't be able to find LGBTQplus romance.
It just wouldn't be there.
But everything would be like sosegregated that it would have
its own little section and you'dthink, okay I'm not LGBTQ.
So there's no reason for me toeven look in this section.
And you could be missing out onlike your next favorite author.
Whereas with the Indieanthologies, it's yeah, you
(07:42):
could have a gay couple in thisone.
You could have a straight couplein this one.
You could have, it basically,it's like a true sampler,
basically, where you get to tryeverything and see what's to
your taste versus you get to trythe sampler of things that we
think will be to your tastesversus you actually trying a
broad cross section, if thatmakes
EJ (08:02):
sense.
I think you're really touchingon why it's a good idea for you
all as readers.
To actively search out and buyanthologies, you're for real.
Yeah, a good anthology is goingto have that mix of authors that
you probably already know ofyour S.
J.
Sanders, your C.
(08:23):
M.
Neskosta's.
Yeah.
Honey Philip Bunch of, yeah.
Leo,
Stacy (08:29):
I think Ru Ruby Dixon's done a couple of them because I
know that she just recentlyreleased the story that she
wrote for one of the, oh, thethe queer love,
EJ (08:38):
Anthologies.
Stacy (08:39):
So one, the, she's shy,
EJ (08:41):
I think it's called.
Yeah.
When she's shy and.
You, then you're going to findsome really cool stuff.
I know there are some queerromances that I would have
thought I mostly identify asstraight.
It's probably not my space.
But if a queer romance alreadyhappens to be an anthology that
I'm already reading, yeah, let'stry it out.
What have we got to lose?
I'll do a twirl.
Yeah.
And besides, it's all They tendto be on the shorter side.
(09:04):
So you got a short story, youget a taste, you don't have to
eat a whole meal.
And if you don't
like
Stacy (09:10):
it, it'll be over soon.
It's fine.
Yeah.
EJ (09:13):
And if y'all do like it, then you can get the whole meal.
and the price point's kind offreaking awesome.
'cause those anthologies tend tocost as much as a one book, but
you get so much more out of it.
Stacy (09:24):
Or a lot of times too.
Another reason to keep your eyesopen though, is a lot of them
will do, if you pre-order,you'll get it for 99 cents.
Oh yeah.
Or 2 99.
But then if you don't, it goesback up to 5 99 or something
like that if you get it on, Ithink 7
Amy (09:35):
99 is the biggest I've seen for an anthology.
But then again, They're huge
Stacy (09:40):
books.
Yeah, they're giant.
You're getting a thousand pluspages,
EJ (09:44):
Yeah, you're getting like a proper volume of stories.
Yes, for
Stacy (09:50):
real.
And one thing that I've noticedthat people are doing now, which
I really appreciate, which Theydidn't do back when Monsters in
Love 1 was released, and I'mglad that it seems to be
catching on now, is that at thebeginning of each story, they'll
give you the basic, this is malefemale, this is male female,
with sword crossing, this ispolyamory, this is this is that,
and I like that because for me Idon't reverse harem, and it's
(10:12):
nothing against reverse harem,it's just not my flavor.
And so it's nice if I'm, lookingat something and it says, Oh
this is going to be a reverseharem with multiple partners.
Then I'm like, okay, it's notfor me.
So I might come back and read itlater if I'm feeling in the
mood, or I can just give it amiss because I really fucking
hate it when I get invested in astory.
And then it goes in a directionthat I didn't like.
And that.
(10:33):
I wasn't warned.
So I feel like somebody tried topull the rug out
EJ (10:36):
from underneath me.
Yep.
No, that makes sense.
I agree.
Amy (10:40):
I do think that content warnings and trigger warnings.
Stacy (10:43):
Yes.
And that too is also catchingon, which I also appreciate.
Amy (10:46):
They're being used a lot more nowadays, which I find is a
benefit.
Because you're, the readers arebeing made aware right from the
get go what they're in for, sothey can either skip it or,
return, if it is a novel orwhatever, they can return it and
eh, this really isn't perfect.
Stacy (11:05):
But the other thing,
Amy (11:06):
with regards to the shortness of it, that's also a
benefit to the author becausethey don't have to invest as
much time as they would incomposing an entire novel.
A short story, they do vary insize in these like I said
though, the volumes vary insize, they are huge.
And you've got ten authors.
In a 900 page e book, it'sroughly, each of them gets
(11:28):
roughly 90 to 100 pages,sometimes some
Stacy (11:31):
will write fewer, sometimes some will write more.
Yeah, because I know that I'veread some where it's holy shit,
that was like 120 pages, onething I will say to piggyback on
the trigger warning thing, athing that I've seen more and
more artists lean into, and Iwish they wouldn't, is when
they'll say, for a complete listof trigger warnings, check my
webpage.
And if they
(11:52):
don't,
Amy (11:52):
I'm not gonna do that.
I don't
Stacy (11:54):
like
Amy (11:54):
that.
Please don't make
Stacy (11:56):
people do the extra steps.
Because the simple truth of thematter is, I'm not going to.
EJ (12:00):
It's just a couple of bytes, y'all.
It's a couple
Stacy (12:02):
to.
That's the long and the short ofit, is I'm not going to go, you
want me to read your book, soI'm not going to go out of my
way to do additional homework.
To read your book, which I mayor may not enjoy.
EJ (12:14):
Yeah, the ones who especially truly need trigger
warnings.
I happen to not need triggerwarnings as much as other folks.
I usually don't either,honestly.
So it's really no big deal forme to just but I like having
them there for other readersbecause I'm not the only one
reading these books.
There are some people whodesperately need those trigger
warnings.
(12:35):
And I'm over here happy to belike, yeah, accommodate the shit
out of them.
It's not that big of a
Stacy (12:40):
deal.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's just it.
It's if this is like somebodywho like, okay, I'm just going
to do a super duper broad.
Example let's say I'm a personwho's gotten out of an abusive
relationship, right?
And I need, and maybe readingromance is like my comfort read.
And I find something that seemsinteresting.
And the author hasn't explainedtheir trigger warnings
(13:02):
exceptionally well.
And then I go in, and it turnsout the book is very similar to
the situation that I just gotmyself out of.
That's a dick move.
When all it takes is for you togo, Hey, heads up, this is a
dark romance.
Or, hey, heads up, there's,there's talk of, maybe they're
the, one of the main charactersis sexually assaulted, maybe
there's talk of a miscarriagethere's a lot of shit, or even
(13:25):
pet death if you're gonna killan animal in a book, fuckin warn
me.
Yes,
Amy (13:28):
please warn, so that way I'm
EJ (13:30):
prepared.
Stacy (13:31):
It's the same, right?
I don't, and so it's just, it'sthat kind of shit.
And I really like, too a lot ofauthors are really great about
it where they'll be like,mention of past sexual abuse
does not happen to the characteron page.
And so it's nice because forpeople who do have these more
extreme triggers, essentially,it's nice for them to know they
can weight it and decide, isthis worth me weighting in or is
(13:54):
maybe it just for the best thatI give this one a miss.
And so the whole go to mywebpage to check it out just
means you're dicking yourself
EJ (14:01):
out of readers, basically.
Yeah, it's a pity.
I'm sure it comes out of a goodplace, but I would recommend it.
Oh, sure.
Pivot.
Don't worry about boring us.
save the pithiness for yourplot, not the
Stacy (14:15):
warnings.
Exactly, right?
Be verbose in your warnings, infact.
Yes.
Anybody who's going to getpissed at you because you take
the time.
To actually put thought intoyour warnings isn't somebody you
want as a reader anyway.
Yeah, seriously.
If they're going to bitch aboutwarnings, they're going to bitch
about something else too.
You know it.
EJ (14:33):
Exactly, and it's going to be stupid stuff anyway.
Yeah, we'll get into that inanother episode.
Seriously.
I'm actually, I'd like to touchon the lit Amy, you had
mentioned the story collectionsversus anthologies.
Before we move on, I want totalk about those a little bit
(14:53):
more.
I'm curious about your two, bothyour thoughts on why an author
would do a story collectionversus an anthology.
Because I'm under the impressionstory collections are more of a
established author thing, you'vegot a bunch of these popular
authors that are coming togetherthey're doing a similar world
(15:16):
thing, a similar trope thing.
Like right now I'm reading abunch of orc stories, where it's
all orcs, and it's all thearrange like marriage of
convenience trope.
Gotcha.
I want to know what book seriesthat is BTW.
And it's Monster Brides and Icame into it because Tracy
(15:37):
Lauren is has a book in it, andI liked her Tamed by the Troll
book, and like the rest of herPerished Woods series, and there
was a secondary character in itnamed Aaron, who is an orc, and
I wanted to know what the hellhappened to him.
And so I went down a rabbit holebecause she featured his story
(15:58):
in this story collection.
And I was like, ah, to hell withit.
I'm going to see what otherstories I like from this series.
So I just bought them all.
And now I've been going throughall of them.
Happy Orktober Day.
I think I've read I think I'veread a
Stacy (16:13):
couple of these.
I'm
EJ (16:14):
pretty sure I read Owned by the Ork by Raina Marks.
Oh, maybe not though.
This is saying childhood
Stacy (16:22):
sweetheart.
I
EJ (16:23):
think I'm getting this confused with something else.
I love that there's otherconnections between them.
I've come across at least twobooks in that series that have
at least two of them have curlyhaired redheads.
For the female main characterand there are 2 other books that
(16:44):
have a female main character,whose name is Violet.
Oh, that's cute.
I love it.
I'm like, I don't think you alldid this on purpose.
I suspect not anyway, but Idon't hate it.
I think this is hilarious.
Yeah,
Stacy (16:59):
I, I think,
Amy (17:01):
when it comes to the collections of short stories by
the same author.
Oftentimes, I wanna say thatthey're usually tales that take
place in this, in a similarworld
Stacy (17:11):
or realm,
EJ (17:12):
right?
There's the Monster Ball series,which I suspect if there's any
readers who are like familiarwith what the hell we're talking
about when we say storycollection, it's probably going
to be like that monster regencyseries
Stacy (17:24):
Oh
Amy (17:25):
like with the Monsters Ball, that's.
Again, multiple authors writingfor this, within the same world.
Stacy (17:34):
Yeah, that's just a shared universe.
That's not a story collection.
But a short story collection
Amy (17:38):
is actually written all by the same author.
Ryan Reiby.
Stacy (17:41):
Sorry.
Or Stephen King.
Yeah.
Ah, yeah.
Stephen King releases themanytime he does Four Past
Midnight, or Different Seasons,or All Dark, No Stars.
Those are all Stephen King shortstory compilations.
EJ (17:56):
Oh.
Leon Riley.
I know she, she's done a shortstory collection that's all in
one book.
Yeah.
Those, she does call it ananthology one, which is
interesting.
Yeah.
That wasn't interesting that she
Stacy (18:09):
Difference terms.
Amy (18:10):
Yeah.
Like I said, it's usedinterchangeably.
The term anthology is usedinterchangeably, but.
In the library world, heranthology of just her stories
would be in the fiction section,not in the
EJ (18:25):
nonfiction.
Absolutely.
Fascinating.
Stacy (18:29):
L.
V.
Lane, I know, released
EJ (18:31):
a little story collection with the last
Stacy (18:34):
big Stuff Your Kindle Day, where it was...
like three or four of her shortstories all gathered together.
Amy (18:41):
Yeah, usually they are also shorter like the collection of
short stories is shorter, likeyou'll get like maybe four,
three or four stories or maybe
Stacy (18:50):
six or something like that.
Unless it's Stephen King andthen you'll get 18.
We're not
Amy (18:55):
talking about
Stacy (18:58):
I just don't want somebody to go and look at a
Stephen King short and be like,I was lying to you.
I'm just like, you clearly neverread Stephen King before.
EJ (19:08):
I'm trying to think, would there be a proper word for then
those series of stories thatare, they're clearly shared,
they're definitely on Amazon,you can see they are advertised
as a series, but they havecompletely different authors.
I'm trying
Stacy (19:21):
to say that?
Shared universe.
Shared universe.
Shared universe.
Yeah.
Interesting.
EJ (19:28):
Okay.
Okay.
Interesting.
I obviously I don't hate it.
I absolutely love it.
I think it's very clever.
Actually the working alone outthere.
Yeah.
And you get to have them longerthan anthologies because
everyone is telling themseparately.
Anyway, yeah, from what Iunderstand that's a big reason
(19:50):
why anthologies tend to belimited runs when they're.
Sold all in one missive becauseyou have to have one person
who's like handling all thefinances.
And if you have them do thatindefinitely, it's insane.
Yeah, that's not sustainable.
So actually, I think it's betterthat they've hacked it in a way
to be like, Oh, no, these arelimited edition.
And then, you get a wee tasteand then you get to have a big
(20:13):
meal if you like it a whole lot.
Stacy (20:15):
And I love that it's smart for the, it's smart for
the writer too, because it'slike, it's basically win like
they don't indefinitely loserights to their story.
Like I think technically yousurrender your rights for a year
or something like that.
EJ (20:25):
Yeah.
It's temporary.
Stacy (20:28):
Exactly.
You get the rights back and thenthe story is yours to do
whatever the hell you want withit.
Which is, whereas, before inthe, before self publishing,
like the what's the word I'mlooking for?
The taboo on that before thatwas.
What, everybody finally got thefuck over it.
Cause back in the day if youself published something that
was the kiss of death.
It didn't matter if you hadwritten Harry Potter, nobody's
(20:49):
gonna finally touch you.
Create space?
What?
Exactly.
Like back in the days of causelike I used to buy like, like
romance like, oh, a Christmasromance anthology or something
like that.
And it was like there'd be likethe seeds of these really
fucking great ideas and thennothing would ever come of it
because publishers own thefucking rights to the short
(21:10):
story that you wrote.
Indefinitely.
Yeah.
And so because of that therereally wasn't incentive to put
work into a shared universe.
Can you imagine trying to do ashared universe shit thing with
Fuckin Simon and Schuster, orPenguin.
Jesus.
Oh God.
They get in their
EJ (21:24):
own ways.
Yes, because they want to makethose, they want to make bang.
Stacy (21:28):
Exactly, they don't give a flying fuck if it's, about the
well being of the author, thewell being of the writers, or
the readers, that all they givea fuck
EJ (21:35):
about is their bottom line, and now they've fucked
themselves when it comes to DRMstuff, and they deserved it.
They deserved it.
And
Stacy (21:41):
I giggle every time I hear of a, some Monolith and
publishing going tits up.
Yeah.
There's the stock.
Donate.
I need to
EJ (21:51):
look
Amy (21:51):
and see who published Wolfsbane and Mistletoe because
that's one of my first examplesof one, an anthology, and two,
monster romance anthology.
Granted, I'm sure most of thewerewolves were shifted into
their human forms or whatever.
But it
Stacy (22:08):
still counts.
Oh yeah, that's interesting.
I don't think I've had that.
I don't think I read that.
I have Stardust and Mistletoe,which I'm gonna guess is in the
same group, and that one,because that one was
specifically alien romance.
I don't know,
Amy (22:22):
because they had that one, and then they also had a vampire
collection honeymoon somethingor other.
I don't know.
But, honestly, the Wolfsbane andMistletoe was, it had some
really fascinating stories init.
Including one that had BlackPeter, of all
Stacy (22:40):
people.
Oh,
EJ (22:41):
cool.
Really?
Yes.
I wonder how one might takeBlack Peter and possibly make
him sexy when there's so muchweird pieces of shit.
Amy (22:50):
No, he wasn't, he was not the protagonist.
Oh, thank you so much.
And
Stacy (22:55):
he was trying to tempt the werewolf into being bad.
I love how
EJ (22:59):
there's so much about Scandinavian culture that me as
an American, I'm like, wow, howprogressive! And then I remember
Black Peters from
Stacy (23:06):
there and I'm like, oh oh shit! Never mind, we're gonna
walk that back.
EJ (23:12):
We're all human at the day after all.
Yes,
Stacy (23:16):
we are.
I'm not judging anybody onsomething that their ancestors
did 800 years
EJ (23:19):
ago.
But I will judge you forcontinuing it.
Yeah,
Stacy (23:23):
that is a hundred percent, yes.
Yes.
Oh man.
But don't get me wrong, I'm notcriticizing that they made
Krampus Hot, Krampus is hot atthe end.
EJ (23:31):
That is true.
With the exception
Stacy (23:33):
of never mind.
Oh, fair enough.
What, are you talking about the
Amy (23:36):
movie?
No, I'm talking no, I'm talkingabout a short story that I could
not read because.
The content warning is this istotally out of my wheelhouse.
Thank you so much.
I'm glad people are
Stacy (23:46):
enjoying it.
EJ (23:47):
Content warning is doing their job.
Stacy (23:50):
Text me the title.
I want to know if I read it.
Oh, I'm sure you have.
Probably.
I
EJ (23:55):
am a pervert.
Stacy (23:56):
actually, one of these anthologies is the reason why I
read my first the idea of a wolfshifter who's the the hero in it
was, in fact, I think it mighthave been in Stardust and
Mistletoe, or Starlight andMistletoe, where a human woman
somehow gets pulled into thisalternative reality where, and
it's the world where these wolfhumanoids live, and.
(24:20):
And at first I was is thisbestiality?
And then I was like, no, he'ssentient, it's fine.
If he's sentient, I don't give ashit if he looks just like a
coconut crab.
If he's sentient, it's notbestiality.
Don't tempt me there.
But then it turned into thiswhole thing where they, then
they get pulled into thisalternate land where it's always
Christmas.
Okay! Oh wow.
(24:41):
And the reason why Krampus didit is because he was looking for
a bride, and then the maincharacter is just I'm happy with
him, and she goes, but my auntis like Christmas crazy and
single, and so Krampus ends upmarrying her aunt, and then they
all live in the Christmascastle, and it's really, it was
actually, it was super fuckingas I'm reading it, because I was
fairly new to monster fucking,or at least, you Identifying as
(25:04):
a monster fucker, and so as I'mreading it, I'm just like, this
is so fucking weird, but Ifucking love it.
EJ (25:11):
I love the idea of someone's Christmas crazy aunt finding her
true love through this clearlyover engineered plot.
There's something really sweetabout this.
I'm like,
Stacy (25:22):
I can be someone's Christmas crazy aunt.
Come on, man.
Or hook me up with the spirit ofHalloween I'm Halloween crazy.
We can make this work.
We can do this.
I'm someone's aunt, I'm single.
Woo
EJ (25:35):
Oh
Stacy (25:36):
goodness.
But at the same time, likethere's no way in hell indie
publishing that ever would'vehappened with indie publishing
EJ (25:40):
Or traditional publishing.
Yeah.
Traditional publishing.
Yeah.
It's no way in,
Stacy (25:45):
although
Amy (25:45):
I wanna say they're getting a bit more open, at least the
small, I wanna say the thesubsidiaries of.
Big publishers are willing totake more chances like You've
got Kimberly Lemming's needmishaps getting published
through orbit, which is
Stacy (26:01):
a Yeah, but they're only doing it because it's a survival
mechanism.
They wouldn't have done thiswithout their hand
EJ (26:07):
being forced.
For sure.
For sure.
And, but that's fine.
Whatever.
I, as long as our author getsher money, I'm cool with it.
Stacy (26:15):
Same.
But I also don't want thosemotherfuckers to own the rights
to her stories either.
Amy (26:19):
I don't want that either, but...
There is production in works,hopefully, for either a TV
series or a film.
I'm not sure.
I'm hoping for a TV seriesbecause then we have a lot more
EJ (26:30):
time for a lot more fun, frankly.
Yeah, pretty much.
I don't know.
I'm skeptical.
yeah, So clearly we have ourfavorites and so I, I have asked
us all to prepare today a weebit of a book report of sorts.
And then I have discussionquestions so we can dive into
our favorites.
So rather than obsess, over asingular author with a singular
(26:53):
series like we usually do, whichis still fun and we totally
will.
Probably come back, especiallybecause as we record, I have a
copy of The Fall of the Orc, andso we're going to have to record
on that eventually.
But for now, we're going to betalking about these standalones.
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