Kristine Kathryn Rusch

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

At the moment he produces novels in several major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang, and the Mary Jo Assassin series.

His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.

The Year of the Cat: A Cat of Fantastic Whims by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

Most cats pursue the business of their lives in ways both fantastic and whimsical.

In this entertaining volume of stories, cats perform as muses, inhabit fairy tales, consort with ghosts and zombies, and one cat even reigns as fantasy queen.

Enter the fantastic world of whimsical cats and enjoy!

Includes:

"Searching for the Familiar" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"Speechless in Seattle" by Lisa Silverthorne
"Queen of the Mouse Riders" by Annie Reed
"The Kingdom of Cats and Birds" by Geoffrey Landis
"Cat Leading the Way" by Dean Wesley Smith
"A Powerful Friend" by E. Nesbit
"Clyde and the Ghost Cat" by Jamie Ferguson
"Dead Fred" by Liz Pierce
"Un-Familiar" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Introduction

A CAT OF FANTASTIC WHIMS

Dean Wesley Smith

One of the most natural mixes in fiction is cats and fantasy. It seems that stories through the centuries about cats tend to lean toward the side of fantasy more than any other genre. In fact, I don't even think it's close.

So, of course, we had to have one of the twelve volumes of cat books with that theme.

Here are titles of the twelve volumes of cat stories we are putting together.

-— Book One

A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

-— Book Two

A CAT OF PERFECT TASTE

-— Book Three

A CAT OF DISDAINFUL LOOKS

-— Book Four

A CAT OF STRANGE LANDS

-— Book Five

A CAT OF COZY SITUATIONS

-— Book Six

A CAT OF SPACE AND TIME

-— Book Seven

A CAT OF HEROIC HEART

-— Book Eight

A CAT OF ROVING NATURE

-— Book Nine

A CAT OF ARTISTIC SENSIBILITIES

-— Book Ten

A CAT OF FANTASTIC WHIMS

-— Book Eleven

A CAT OF FERAL INSTINCTS

-— Book Twelve

A CAT OF ROMANTIC SOUL

In this fantastic group of stories, we have cats being muses, in fact three stories of that role that cats play. And we have cats in fairy tales, cats with ghosts, psychic cat with a zombie, and maybe even a cat as a fantasy queen.

And, of course, with these stories we didn't even scratch the surface of how cats play a part in fantasy in literature. Not even close.

Why is that? My guess is that every fantasy writer on the planet is owned by a cat. And cats must play a part, usually a leading part. Just the nature of cats.

Dean Wesley Smith
Las Vegas, Nevada