The world works in mysterious ways.

Have you ever noticed that once you become aware of something, you start seeing it everywhere? Discover the meaning of a new word, and all of a sudden you’ll start reading it everywhere. It didn’t exist to you before, but now it seems it’s de rigueur. (Now, you’ll start seeing the word de rigueur everywhere .)

But sometimes, the coincidence is so unbelievable, it has to be karma, or fate, or, well, just a really big coincidence.

Take Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s novella The Tower. It was first published in Asimov’s in March 2010. And WMG Publishing just reprinted it in ebook form on Jan. 29 and in print form last week.

The Tower is an SF thriller that features the search for the remains of the “Princes in the Tower,” whom many accused King Richard III of murdering in the fifteenth century to secure the throne.

And the remains of Richard, himself, have been missing almost as long.

So, color us surprised, or at least “coincidenced,” when in between our release of the ebook and trade paperback, scientists announced they had discovered the remains of King Richard III (read the article here).

Now, you just can’t pay for that kind of topical promotion. And I’ll be honest, I don’t see that kind of thing happening very often. But it’s not the first time, either. For example, we reissued a short story called Jackie-O by Rusch in 2012 almost simultaneously (before, mind you, not after—that’s called contrived) with the late former first lady making her way into the news once again.

Can we count on that kind of promotion? Of course not. But it’s helpful to sales when it coincides. It also provides one more example of the way science fiction writers are often ahead of their times.

Of course, WMG also published Rusch’s The End of The World last week, as well. But don’t worry. Unless you’re an alien, you’re probably safe. Now, if we’d released it on Dec. 21, 2012, who knows… Perhaps we really could have altered history.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.