Whew -- just finished writing up a list of the copy-edits to my Doorways novel, and I'm not saying how many typos I had, but let's just agree it was a bunch. Damn. I'm embarrassed at how many times I used the same word in the same sentence or adjacent sentence, or how many times I had a character's words "catch in his throat" or had their face grow hot. My favorite was "sudden sandals" instead of "sodden sandals."

But I digress. What I'm really here to tell you about is the release of the Paper Cities anthology from Senses Five Press.



This book contains 21 "urban fantasy" stories from a pile of talented writers, and somehow my story slipped in there too. Urban fantasy is a pretty fast-and-loose term for stories taking place in a city, with some sort of weird or speculative twist to them.

My story, "Painting Haiti," is set in Raleigh, just a few years ago, when the government of Haiti was in turmoil once more. My main character, Claudia, is from Haiti but living and working in America, sending money to what's left of her family back home. And then something bad starts happening to the people she knows in downtown Raleigh.

Big big thanks to editor Kathy Sedia for working with me on the story and getting it into its final form, and big thanks too to publisher Matt Kressel at Senses Five Press. Hope ya like it!

Here's the complete line-up of writers: Forrest Aguirre, Barth Anderson, Steve Berman, Darin Bradley, Stephanie Campisi, Hal Duncan, Mike Jasper, Vylar Kaftan, Jay Lake, Paul Meloy, Richard Parks, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Jenn Reese, David Schwartz, Cat Sparks, Anna Tambour, Mark Teppo, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg van Eekhout, and Kaaron Warren.

Check out the Paper Cities site for a Table of Contents and a slew of wonderful reviews.

P.S. This is no April Fool's joke. :) Later!