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Sunday I spent a couple of hours talking to my oldest friend. She is exactly three months younger than I am and we’ve been like sisters our whole lives. We live on opposite coasts, so our main communication these days is very long phone conversations a few times a year.

Sunday, after catching up on life and family, old friends and books, we ended up talking about writing. Our fathers were English professors, so maybe it was natural that we both loved reading books and writing from the time we were little. We wrote stories and poems and plays, performed some of them, too. Because it was fun.

Mina went on to get an MA in English and teach professional writing for many years. I ran off to the theater, filmmaking, and journalism. Neither one of us writing fiction. Every ten years or so I’d painfully crank out a short story. Stash it in the proverbial drawer and go back to real life.

But if you work at WMG for Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith—among all the other wonderful writers who contribute to Fiction River and Pulphouse and participate in workshops—the joy of writing fiction kind of sneaks up on you, slips its little hand in yours and asks you to come out and play.

So I did. And do. For fun.

Kris blogged about her youthful writing adventures last week, and it rang a bell for me. Of course, she and Dean do much more than write for fun. Among other things, they have written a whole series of books on the profession of writing, the WMG Writer’s Guides, and Kris has a magnum opus called The Freelancer’s Survival Guide. Countless people have turned to these books for guidance. And now, just in time for Kris’s Spring Writing Storybundle, we are publishing her latest, Writing With Chronic Illness.

Here’s the description:

In this WMG Writer’s Guide, award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch offers words of wisdom for writers who suffer from chronic illnesses and who want to keep working, to improve their craft and spread their creative wings.

A long-time sufferer herself, Rusch reports from the trenches. She tells us her own struggle with health issues and how they challenge her. But none of it actually derailed her career; she worked out ways to keep writing, and in the process became an international bestselling author with hundreds of books in print.

Rusch helps writers customize a plan of action based on the writer’s individual experience. She shows how to increase productivity by developing a positive, and realistic, outlook.

Importantly, Rusch points the way to reclaim the joy of writing, and celebrate success.

The bundle has LOTS more in it, too. Look out for it on Thursday; it includes Dean’s lecture on Carving out Time for Your Writing, Kevin J. Anderson’s The Million Dollar Writing Series Boxed Set, and Mark Leslie Lefebvre’s Killing it on Kobo, and six more wonderful books of information and advice for writers.

And now you see why I mentioned the importance of joy. Even if Dean and Kris didn’t talk, write, and lecture about joy often, anyone paying attention would surely detect that the enjoyment of writing is at the heart of what they do and why they do it. And I’m here to tell you it’s infectious.

My friend Mina said I had inspired her to have some fun writing, too. Maybe we can trade some stories before the next time we talk…see? Infectious.

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I love spies. I have since I was a kid. In the mid-1960s I loved equally the blunt and brainy Harriet the Spy and the coolly calculating John Drake, hero of the TV show Secret Agent (Danger Man in the UK). The person I really wished to emulate, though, was Emma Peel. And I tried. I found somewhere a pair of soft ankle-high, zip-up leather boots with rubber soles that I could pad around in to watch and listen without being heard.

But these spies were just the tip of the iceberg for me. I read every book by Alastair MacLean I could get my hands on: The Black Shrike, Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra. Graham Greene, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum and the classic spies of the Cold War era were meat and drink to me.

And then there was John le Carré.

One balmy summer’s evening in my twenties I sat down under an open window to read Smiley’s People. From six o’clock until eleven I didn’t look up,I was so deep in the treacherous world of George Smiley. The next day I found out there had been a fatal motorcycle accident in front of our house, not twenty feet from where I sat under the open window. I’d heard nothing: crash, police, ambulance—nothing.

Such is the power of the spy story for me.

Imagine my delight when Kristine Kathryn Rusch put together the latest Fiction River Special Edition, and it was called Spies. Did I wait until it was published to read these stories? Of course not! The delectable thing about this anthology for a spy fan like me is that every kind of spy story is here. It’s like a tray of all my favorite foods.

There is always a war going on, of some kind or other. Wars against slavery, racism, greed, power grabs, the Cold War, techno-wars, even a species war. And spies fight in those wars, sometimes with outright violence, but mostly with their brains and, yes, their hearts.

Here’s hoping that as my fellow espionage lovers consume this volume of choice morsels—some of them bitter—no vehicles crash outside your windows to disturb you. Or not.

Speaking of great stories, we at WMG want to send our hearty congratulations to Diana Deverell whose story “Mercy Find Me” from Fiction River: Justice, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, has been chosen as a finalist for a Derringer Award. It is the poignant story of a woman who comes to terms with both retribution and mercy, as well as her own failings. Diana says the story came straight from her heart. It sure touched mine.

Pick up Justice, available as an ebook or paperback, read Diana’s story—and then keep reading!

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By Gwyneth Gibby, guest blog.

Spring has sprung! Allyson’s daffodils, ready to burst into bloom a week ago, now bob gently in the breeze with all their sunny yellow glory.

Mine, on the other hand, although right next door and planted on the same weekend, are still just thinking about it. Flowers have minds of their own, just like cats do, and there’s no point trying to rush them. My mom, whose favorite flowers were daffodils, used to go out to her garden and tell them, “It is your duty to grow!” And they did.

I just hint to them from time to time, “My, aren’t those nice yellow daffs next door lovely!” To which mine mumble, “We’re pink, so back off.” The creative process must take its course…

Which it has here at WMG. We think spring means romance. Magical fragrant evenings, sweet birdsong, softness in the air with the bite of winter gone like a half-remembered dream. April in Paris may not be on the agenda for everyone, but we have the next-best thing: Kristine Grayson’s new omnibus from the Fates Universe, The Charming Trilogy, Vol.1.

Sit yourself down in your favorite reading chair, next to an open window perhaps, settle in and read three romantic novels, back to back, from the fairy-tale land of charming princes, sleeping beauties, and the bumpy and sometimes hilarious road to happily-ever-after endings. Utterly Charming, Thoroughly Kissed, and Completely Smitten will thoroughly and completely charm you with hours of reading bliss.

Critics and readers love these books. Here’s a sample of their comments:

“Grayson uses smooth prose and humorous, human characters to create a delightful, breezy tale perfect for anyone who truly enjoys happy endings.”

Publishers Weekly

“A snappy, fast-paced read that is indeed utterly charming.”

Debbie Macomber

“A sweet love story makes this a perfect beach read for hopeless romantics.”

Publisher’s Weekly

“Sleeping Beauty, Prince Charming, Snow White, and Grumpy all populate this magical tale.  I was thoroughly charmed by Ms. Grayson’s imaginative story.”

Rendezvous Magazine

“Thoroughly Kissed is a thoroughly charming fairy tale. So suspend disbelief and enjoy. This book is fun!”

The Romance Reader

This is the first of four omnibuses of Grayson’s work coming up this spring, one each month. Keep particular lookout for a brand new Grayson novel in the Fates Universe, Hidden Charm, coming in June.

For those with a taste for more intrigue, also out this week is Fiction River Special Edition: Spies. The award-winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch chose these fifteen stories that range from satire to brutal realism, all from the secret world of espionage.

In her introduction to the volume, Kris writes:

What links these stories, besides their wide variety of spies and spying, is their willingness to look at the world in all its messiness. The stories don’t flinch from the effect that secrets have on those keeping them (or those who are victims of them).

The other thing that links the stories is their entertainment value. Even as I reread them, I couldn’t put them down. Even when I knew what was going to happen. The writing is compelling, the characters more so, and the situations memorable.

The writers in this volume outdid themselves.

Happy reading, but remember to come up for air and stroll through the sweet flowery air of spring.

The daffodils my husband planted this winter are just about ready to pop open and reveal their buttery yellow heads, and I must tell you, I’m more than ready for spring this year.

Part of the reason is the new crop of book projects we’ll be releasing. I already told you about the Grayson news last week (to read that blog, click here), and now I have two new Storybundles to tell you about—and one of them includes our first Fiction River Presents release of the year!

Dean Wesley Smith has curated a space opera Storybundle that launches Wednesday and has three WMG products: Dean’s Star Rain: A Seeders Universe Novel, The Runabout: A Diving Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and that new Fiction River Presents volume I told you about called Among the Stars.

Here’s the synopsis:

Editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch reaches for the stars with this latest volume of Fiction River Presents. With stories that take the reader from pulse-pounding terror and utter darkness to sheer joy and wish fulfillment, this volume runs the gamut of the space opera genre. So, get ready for a wonderful journey and see why Adventures Fantastic says: “If you haven’t checked out Fiction River yet, you should. There’s something for everyone.”

Table of Contents
“Get Inside” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“Sole Survivor” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Mooring Buoy” by Jamie McNabb
“Schrodinger’s Bar” by Kim May
“Upon_A_Starship.png” by Brigid Collins
“Jelly’s Heroes” by Louisa Swann
“Dreams of A Moon” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Charlie Company” by JC Andrijeski
“H-Hour” by Steven Mohan, Jr.

The book will release about the same time as the Storybundle, this Wednesday, and you’ll have your choice to buy it as a standalone or the bundle. Check back here on Wednesday for buy links. (Shop Now!)

Subscribers of Fiction River Presents will receive Among the Stars automatically. To learn more about subscriptions, click here.

But if you’re looking for something to buy now, and you’re a fan of epic fantasy, Kevin J. Anderson has curated a bundle that includes not one but two of Kris’ Fey books: The Sacrifice: Book One of the Fey and The Changeling: Book Two of the Fey.

Called the Truly Epic Fantasy Storybundle, you can get the two Fey books as well as thirteen other books for $15. Click here to learn more.

So, what are you waiting for? You’ve got a lot of reading to do.

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