Great news! Today is the official launch of Beyond Big-G City, the third book in my contemporary fantasy/mythology series!! It’s an event years in the making, with lots of activity in the last couple of months. I haven’t been through a book release since 2016.

 

Before my time.

 

Mine, too. What took you so long?

 

Stuff happens, 9. In case you haven’t met them, 9, who comments in bold, is my inner nine-year-old; Lily, my inner fourteen-year-old, prefers italics.

 

I first submitted Beyond Big-G City to WolfSinger Publications in April, 2017. The first two books in the series were through WolfSinger, and I was surprised when I didn’t hear back from the editor for many months. Then I noticed something in one of her Facebook posts. She posed the question to her published authors: should she overlook a submission from a WolfSinger author that wasn’t formatted in accordance with submission guidelines? Of course not, I commented, throw it out!

More months passed and I still hadn’t heard from the editor about Beyond. The Aha! moment arrived at last. The careless WolfSinger author who’d sent an improperly formatted submission was me! I quickly pulled up the manuscript file to confirm that- -yes, it was a .doc document. WolfSinger, I remembered, only accepted submissions in Rich Text Format (rtf). I immediately reformatted the file and resubmitted. Early in 2018 Beyond Big-G City appeared on the submission status page at their website.

 

Early 2018? That’s almost three years ago!

 

True, Lily. WolfSinger is an independent micro-press and events in the editor and publisher’s life (one person) can slow the process from time to time. Health issues, extra “day” job challenges and natural disasters have played a role in the timing of WolfSinger releases since my first book, Small-g City, was accepted for publication on December 23, 2013.

 

Not to mention delays for submissions with the wrong format.

 

Yes. Well.

 

Beyond Big-G City returns to the City of Mount Olympus, home to behind-the-scenes corporation Olympus, Inc., in the year 2025. The corporation, founded by Zeus himself for the welfare of human mortals like you and me, is embarked on an all-department campaign to fight climate change. It’s not just for us, it’s for them (the Greek immortals), too. They were created to help humans; if the human race goes extinct, so do the gods.

 

So it’s one of those threat things?

Existential threat, 9.

 

 

Exactly. The immortals have personal problems, too- -economic, familial, romantic- –

 

Romantic problems everywhere you look!

 

Art imitates life, Lily.

 

When do I get to read it?

 

Good question, 9. If Beyond Big-G City were a movie, it would probably be rated PG-13.

 

But I’m 9 forever!

 

Well- –

 

You could read it out loud to the cats and pretend 9 can’t hear you.

 

This is getting complicated.

 

You read Rodham* out loud to them and didn’t bat an eye!

 

Yeah, and you just finished Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I didn’t get a lot of it, but it wasn’t upsetting or anything.

 

Okay, okay! When we get our own copy I’ll leave it out where you can find it, 9. But please don’t eat chocolate while you’re reading.

 

That reminds me, I need to order inventory copies for book events, when and if that type of public gathering is allowed. I’ll make sure to place some copies in the local book stores. Both Kindle and print versions are available right now online:

 

https://www.susandmatley.com/beyond-big-g-city/

 

To the reading public: If you and your friends would like to have a video call with the author (me!) for a reading from Beyond Big-G City, followed by Q & A, let’s talk!

 

https://www.susandmatley.com/contact/

If you, too, are a writer and are considering submitting your work to WolfSinger Publications, you’ll be glad to know that both .doc and .rtf formats are now accepted for submission. At the time of this writing, they are overstocked on submissions but plan to reopen October 1st, 2021:https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/Guidelines.html

Speaking of wolves, we’ll send you out with this happy clip:

 

Happy Holidays from the three of us. See you next week!

 

 

 

*Rodham is a novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, It imagines the life of Hillary Rodham in a world where she does not marry Bill Clinton.