I know. It surprised me too.

We had big plans for April and we plan to carry most of them out, even though we’re starting a little bit late. It’s National Poetry Month and Thai Heritage Month. The second was International Children’s Book Day, the 13th through the 19th is National Library Week (in the US, but I bet libraries in other countries would like to be appreciated too), the 23rd is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, where authors post free stories for people to read. Wretched creatures. (We’ll have some of those. ) And, big news for us, April is our second anniversary.

We’ll be offering a couple of free collections of poetry in the bookshop, and we hope you’ll ask for our ebooks and print books at your local library. We’re excited about being technopeasants, and will have a couple of stories for you then–we’ll try to list where others are offering free stories too (if you or someone you know is giving away free stories, drop us a note or comment and we’ll add you to the list!). And, for our anniversary, we’re going to give away one free book to every person who attends our chat on the third Thursday of the month, April 16th at 10pm EST US.  All you have to do to win a book is come and chat with our authors and editors. We’re not particularly formal, we are a little crazy, and the chats are always a lot of fun. Bump came out of a challenge in one chat to write a zombie love story. Joely Sue Burkhart actually succeeded, and it’s in the collection. Tim Mulcahy sort of succeeded, but he’s not really a romance kind of guy. He got the zombies (and the vampires, and the ghosts), though.

With apologies to Beham Sebold and Wenceslas Holler, I’ve made their wretched peasants a little more technological and wordy. Feel free, if you plan to support the technopeasants, to borrow either the image in the sidebar (which can be blown up to its full size by clicking on it) or the one above.

Coming up very soon, more anthologies. Bump in the Night is being reviewed by the authors for one final check before being released. Straying from the Path is awaiting some final art from the amazingly talented Anna Repp, and both Needles and Bones and Maiden Mother Crone are in typesetting.

Just to whet your appetite, Bump in the Night is almost 160,000 words of horror and dark fantasy, It’s introduced by Greg Fisher, the “horror genre genius” at my local library, and these are the contents:

Part 1
“Shepherd to the Wolves” by Connie Neil
“Bone China” by John Hornor Jacobs
“Accused” by Heather S. Ingemar
“Lydie” by Connie Neil
“The Beasts of Hal’ai Village” by Jason Bickerstaff
“Monday Night at the Vampire Lounge” by Tim Mulcahy

Part 2
“Broken Angel: A Zombie Love Story” by Joely Sue Burkhart
“Dead Woman Walking” by Heather S. Ingemar
“GhoulSpeak” by Quinn Zukas Belhorn
“Thursday Night at the Zombie Bordello” by Tim Mulcahy

Part 3
“Widow’s Walk” by Meredith Holmes
“Bien P’tit Gens” by Kathryn Magendie
“Sword of the Dead” by Berrien C. Henderson
“Hobbyhorse Hobbyhorse Where Have You Been?” by Skadi meic Beorh
“Junie’s Flowers” by Olga Zilberbourg
“Suburban Legend” by Eric R. Lowther
“Sister Night, Sister Moon” by Catherine Schaff-Stump
“Wednesday Night at the Haunted Inn” by Tim Mulcahy

Finally, in interesting April news around the web, Smart Bitches Trashy Books has provided a definition of Amazon Rank. To read why, go here.