Untethered Realms is accepting short story submissions for Fantasy in Bloom

 

Untethered Realms is seeking short fantasy stories (3,000 to 10,000 words) with the theme of spring.

Fantasy in Bloom will feature several speculative fiction authors, including some of our UR authors. It's the first anthology in the Seasons of Untethered Realms series.

You can be a first time author or a veteran. We welcome all kinds of fantasy. While we cannot pay any participating writers, the anthology is a wonderful way to get exposure. Our previous series, Elements of Untethered Realms, does well in that regard.

There is no deadline. We will close when we are full.

If you are accepted, you will receive an invitation to write stories for upcoming anthologies in the Seasons series. Along with this spring edition, we will have summer, autumn, and winter with different themes like sci-fi, paranormal, and steampunk/cyberpunk/hopepunk/solarpunk.

Please submit your stories to Christine Rains at christinerains [dot] writer @ gmail [dot] com. Put Fantasy in Bloom Submission in the subject heading and attach the story to the email as a doc, docx, or rtf file. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. You can email us, leave a question here on the blog, or on our Facebook page.

#Fantasy Worth Reading: Tentacles and Teeth #BookReview

 
Tentacles and Teeth by Ariele Sieling starts off at a gripping, intense pace and doesn’t let up. Immensely enjoyable, I eagerly kept returning to this novel until I devoured the last page like a hungry Pok.

Something happened to the Earth we know. We don’t find out what, but the mystery made the story richer. The end of the world is ushered in by a plethora of monsters, referred to as gorgs.

There are lots of different kinds, and the surviving people are constantly fighting. Besides squaring off with the deadly monsters, Askari also battles some of the rules set by the elders. She doesn’t agree with them all and doesn’t always follow them.

This gets her punished and sent on a mission alone, a mission that will most likely kill her before she completes it. On her journey, we learn more about her and the changed Earth. She learns why some of the rules are wise, and decides she was right to question others.

This story is not lacking in monsters, action, and suspense. The characters were easy to identify with and root for. They were believable-flawed as well as strong. There were some twists and turns with the monster-action, which made this a fun and delightful read.

Good news! There are more books in this series! I would definitely recommend Teeth and Tentacles.

The apocalypse wasn’t what anyone expected–no rising flood waters, no zombies, no nuclear bombs. Instead, monsters. Their sudden invasion left the world in shatters, and now, decades later, all that’s left of human civilization are a few nomadic bands struggling to survive off the land.

Askari was born to this world, and lives, fights, and survives alongside the community that raised her. But when she breaks one too many of the community’s rules, her punishment is severe: leave.

Armed with her bow and blade, Askari sets off alone, guided only by a map and the promise that if she can find a book hidden in a nearby town, then she can return. But what can one person do alone in such a harsh, violent landscape? How will she survive?

 

In Other News

 

Watching or reading the news today can be absolutely depressing. These past few years have made me want to hide in a blanket fort and never come out. Yet as a writer, I do get inspired by happenings in our world. So I have turned to news about the strange and the awesome.

Could 2022 be the year aliens come to Earth? ( https://www.space.com/2022-turning-point-study-ufos-uap ) There was a rise in sightings last year. Keep an eye on the skies.

This might also be the year that fairies come out of hiding and put humans back on track in taking proper care of the planet. Along with UFOs, there has been more sightings of tiny winged creatures like this one supposedly caught on a doorbell camera. ( https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/watch-fairy-filmed-by-doorbell-camera/ )

With more people having cameras and satellites snapping pictures of remote places, there aren't many places Bigfoot can hide. Believers have been telling us all along that the creatures exist, and maybe this year we'll find out for certain. ( https://ocj.com/2022/02/searching-for-ohios-bigfoot/ )

Let's not forget about ghosts. In the past few years with so many people quarantined, incidents of ghost sightings have skyrocketed. Is this because people never noticed the paranormal activity before, or because some people are lonely? ( https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/im-engaged-ghost-im-inundated-26354750 )

Whether you're a skeptic or not, all these headlines in Other News does spark the imagination!