For our last big group convention of the summer, we at Crazy 8 Press gathered for our annual pilgrimage to Shore Leave in Cockeysville, Maryland. As usual, it was a smashing success.
We launched our newest anthology — Love, Murder & Mayhem (which is on sale now and available here) — spoke or moderated a few dozen panels between us, hung out with fans, laughed it up with friends, and just had a great time.
But Crazy 8 Press also made a big announcement, one we’re thrilled to share with you now. When we started this author experiment there were, as the name suggests, eight of us. Due to some twists and turns, we pared down to five for a while, then ramped back up to seven.
Well…we thought it was time for us to live up to our name again and add an eighth member. So we did.
We are thrilled to announce that Mary Fan is now an official member of Crazy 8 Press!
Yep. There’s another inmate at the asylum.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mary, she writes science fiction and fantasy geared predominantly towards a YA audience and typically featuring a host of smart, creative, and ambitious female characters. She’s written several novels and contributed to various anthologies — including Love, Murder & Mayhem — and will soon be announcing her first book through Crazy 8 Press.
To learn more about Mary, here’s her website and various social media links where you can follow her adventures:
People always ask where writers get their ideas. They never understand the simple fact: we become writers because our brains are wired in such a way that the ideas come to us with such ferocity that we are compelled to write them down, and then ideally distribute them to as many people as possible with—ideally—our names accompanying them in as large letters as possible.
But sometimes the ideas don’t come. Especially, for me, when it comes to something very specific. In this case, it was for Russ Colchamiro’s new short story anthology for Crazy 8 Press, Love, Murder & Mayhem. The story was to have a science fiction setting and involve love and murder. I had thought about it, pondered it, but nothing was coming, maybe because writing science fiction isn’t really my strong suit. Fantasy, yes. Star Trek, of course. Superheroes, definitely. But an SF themed story just wasn’t singing to me.
And Kathleen said, “Sean and I came up with a story idea ages ago. But we never wrote it.” Sean is her brother.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We were joking about how it would be great to have someone sleep for us, because we had so much stuff to do,” she said. “And that kind of led us to the idea of what if you could? And that led to the idea of what if one of the sleepers discovers that one of his ‘brains’ was a murderer?”
Immediately my mind raced. “Oh my God, that’s perfect. Can I take that?”
“Sure,” she said.
And I did. And I wrote it. And I credited both Kath and her brother in the byline. Because sometimes you get your ideas from the people sitting right next to you.
So be sure to go out and buy Love, Murder & Mayhem so that you can read “Mortal Coil” plus a bunch of other great stories.
Peter David is a prolific author whose career, and continued popularity, spans nearly two decades. He has worked in every conceivable media: Television, film, books (fiction, non-fiction and audio), short stories, and comic books, and acquired followings in all of them. He is also a founding member of Crazy 8 Press.
In the literary field, Peter has had over a hundred novels published, including numerous appearances on the New York Times Bestsellers List. His novels include Artful, Sir Apropos of Nothing (A “fast, fun, heroic fantasy satire”—Publishers Weekly), Knight Life, Howling Mad, and the Psi-Man adventure series. He is the co-creator and author of the bestselling Star Trek: New Frontier series for Pocket Books, and has also written such Trek novels as Q-Squared, The Siege, Q-in-Law, Vendetta, I, Q (with John de Lancie), A Rock and a Hard Place, and Imzadi. He produced the three Babylon 5 Centauri Prime novels, and has also had his short fiction published in such collections as Shock Rock, Shock Rock II, and Otherwere, as well as Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Peter’s comic book resume includes an award-winning twelve year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such varied and popular titles as X-Factor, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Fallen Angel, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens, and many others. He has also written comic book related novels, such as The Hulk: What Savage Beast, and co-edited The Ultimate Hulk short story collection.
Peter is the co-creator, with popular science fiction icon Bill Mumy (of Lost in Space and Babylon 5 fame) of the Cable Ace Award-nominated science fiction series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. He has written several scripts for the Hugo Award winning TV series Babylon 5, and the sequel series, Crusade. He has also written several films for Full Moon Entertainment and co-produced two of them, including two installments in the popular Trancers series as well as the science fiction western spoof Oblivion, which won the Gold Award at the 1994 Houston International Film Festival for best Theatrical Feature Film, Fantasy/Horror category.
Peter’s awards and citations include: the Haxtur Award 1996 (Spain), Best Comic script; OZCon 1995 award (Australia), Favorite International Writer; Comic Buyers Guide 1995 Fan Awards, Favorite writer; Wizard Fan Award Winner 1993; Golden Duck Award for Young Adult Series (Starfleet Academy), 1994; UK Comic Art Award, 1993; Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, 1993, and the Julie Award in 2007. He lives in New York with his wife, Kathleen, and their daughter Caroline.
As part of our annual tradition, our Crazy 8 Press team of Aaron Rosenberg, Russ Colchamiro, Glenn Hauman, Peter, David, Robert Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman will descend on the Hunt Valley Inn for Shore Leave 39 from July 7-9, where we’ll be in full force (sans Paul Kupperberg, who is hiding out in the wilds of Connecticut concocting his next act of authorly mayhem).
Speaking of mayhem …
There wouldn’t be a Shore Leave without a Crazy 8 Press anthology, and we hope this year takes the cake! Debuting at the convention is this year’s anthology, Love, Murder & Mayhem, a collection of superhero, super villain, private eye, time travel travel, AI, dream surrogate, monster mash and DuckBob murder mysteries, with stories from not only the seven Crazy 8 Press members, but many of our friends, too, including attendees Hildy SIlverman, Kelly Meding, and Mary Fan,
The party starts with Meet the Pros at 10 p.m. on Friday with all the authors on hand to sign and sell books, shake hands, take selfies, and make madness. Hey. It’s what we do best.
Peter David, Bob Greenberger, and Mike Friedman at Shore Leave 38. Photo by Jen Snyder.
On Saturday and Sunday, our six attending members (and possibly a surprise or two!) can be found on numerous panels scattered across the schedule, and we’ll be on hand to together Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Derby Room for annual Crazy 8 Press panel. Six years ago at Shore Leave, a group of writers decided to write what they wanted and publish it themselves. What have they learned since? What’s coming next? And why must Glenn Hauman die?
The C8 team shows how NOT to settle disagreements at the York Emporium.
Immediately following at 4 p.m. is the first of two Crazy 8 Press Teen Workshops. Designed for younger writers, we take you through the process, with Aaron, Bob, and Mike discussing what goes into a good plot.
On Sunday at Noon, also in the Derby Room, Peter, Russ, and Glenn will talk about characterization.
And if that’s not enough Crazy 8 Press for you, we’ll be hanging out at the bar after the sessions close, instigating our next round of mayhem.
My pal Russ Colchamiro – one of my colleagues in Crazy 8 Press – is editing our summer anthology this year. It’s called Love, Murder & Mayhem, and his only requirement for us at the outset was that every story has all three components: love, murder, and mayhem.
He also mentioned that he could use a superhero story. And since I’m leaning in that direction anyway these days, I came up with one. About a whole team of superheroes, actually–a close-knit team that does all kinds of good in the world.
What in real life could I bring to such a story? Well, lately I’ve been thinking about the Beatles, an early influence on me. I remember how cool I felt back in the sixties listening to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” or “I Saw Her Standing There” or – God help me – “Norwegian Wood.”
If the Fab Four had stayed together, who knows what kind of music they could have made. But of course, they didn’t stay together–according to some sources because of John Lennon’s soulmate, Yoko Ono, who pulled him away from the other Beatles and ultimately broke up the group.
Hmm…what if someone like Yoko had been brought into the inner circle of a superhero team? What if…
Yeah. The story is called “The Responders”. It’s short and sweet, like a Paul McCartney ballad, and I hope you like it.
Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!
Michael Jan Friedman is the author of more than 70 books of fiction and non-fiction, about half of them set in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles, including the autobiography Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Ghost Hunting (written with SyFy’s Ghost Hunters), have appeared on The New York Times’ primary bestseller list. Mike has also worked in network and cable television, radio, magazine publishing, and comic books. He co-wrote the story for the acclaimed second-season Star Trek: Voyager episode “Resistance,” which guest-starred Joel Grey. Mike is a founder of Crazy 8 Press. Currently, he’s working on a sequel to the young adult fantasy I Am The Salamander, which he released in 2014,= and an original short story collection. His website is MichaelJanFriedman.net. As always, Mike advises readers that no matter how many Friedmans they know, he is probably not related to any of them.
Be gentle, dear reader, for it’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged. With a full time job and kids who need shuttling to and fro, I had to make the decision between writing actual stories or blogging … spoiler alert writing stories won. This brings me to the inspiration for my story “Super Mom’s Cookie Caper”, set to appear in the new Crazy 8 Press scifi anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem. I love superhero comics, movies, t-shirts, toothpaste, whatever it is I love ‘em, can’t get enough.
But sometimes I wonder: what happens when the earth or universe has a day or weeks off from being nearly destroyed by the latest super villain with a chip on their shoulder? There’s no way one guy, like Superman, could carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, thus the forming of the Justice League. So what happens when Superman has a day off? Does he have to clean up the cat poop out of litter? Do you think Lois gets mad when he forgets to put the cap on the toothpaste, yet again? Does Wonder Woman have to clean her own toilets? Does Black Widow worry about having to fight with the cable company for raising her rates again?
Yes, these are the things that go through my mind late at night and oh, crap, I forgot to put the pot roast in for tomorrow. I thought it would be interesting to explore the more human side of superheroes. Besides the Incredibles, the only superhero I can really think of having just a normal boring family life is Hawkeye aka Clint Barton. Some may argue he’s not a “real” superhero. But who’s the MVP here? The guy who got brainwashed by Loki then had to go home to his family without skipping a beat and take out the trash and coach his kids’ little league team or Tony Stark who has paid help to everything under the sun for him?
I think about this because as an engineer (that’s what pays the bills), and a female engineer in particular, your teachers, parents, mentors tell you how you get to build cool stuff, work in cool labs with cool technology, and see cool things. No one tells you in between all the cool stuff you still need to make dinners the kids will eat, make sure you don’t run out of toilet paper, and find a matching lid for your Tupperware containers … you know, basic adulting stuff.
This story was just my idea of how a superhero, who happens to be a mom, would handle life. She she’d have to have a lot of support from her partner, work, and co-workers to make it work. Sometimes the mom work would be a lot harder than the superhero work. And at the end of the day, many times she’d wonder if all the effort was worth it all, but when she saw that her work led to a bad guy being put away and ended the day with a hug from her kids she’d know that it was worth it.
Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!
Writing under the pen name Paige Daniels, Tina Closser is the author of Non-Compliance: The Sector and their sequels, Non-Compliance: The Transition and Non Compliance: Equilibrium, all through Krisell Ink. They are face paced science fiction, cyber punk tales with elements of humor and romance with a strong heroine. They explore different themes such as family, government control, and how one seemingly insignificant person can make a difference.
Listen: the moment you utter science fiction and love, murder, and mayhem all in the same breath, my brain immediately goes future-noir. And future-noir bubbles up in my mind as a cyberpunk detective story.
Great! A detective tries to solve a murder whose motives lie in love. But that’s a broad canvas, with all kinds of variables. So I thought about the love angle. Romance immediately came to mind, but I’d just seen a run of old films with the usual detective-dame dynamic, and to be completely honest, I’ve never tried romance—I haven’t had the guts. So I thought about other kinds of love, and the bonds of family came immediately to mind.
Another topic that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is artificial intelligence, and robots in general. A few years ago, a friend of mine helped put together an interactive installation that was all about the common cultural perceptions of robots and how humans are learning to respond to them, and the problems that arise from a dearth of empathy for things that can be dismissed as mere machines.
And that’s when things started to gel. What if the murder centered around the affection and respect shown by a human to an android? What if that human treated this android like family? And what if other members of the family were not at all happy with that?
There’s an approach in neurology that posits that all human emotions are just chemical reactions, just physics in action. If we take these emotions seriously, and if they are just complex and glorified electro-chemistry, then how are the perceptions and processes of complex artificial intelligences any different? Can they understand what it is to be loved? Can they love in return? Does guilt have any meaning for them, or does it exist at all? And if empathy from an android to a human can be written off as programming, can the same be said for empathy shown from one android to another, if mutual preservation protocols are not expressly written into their code?
My story for the Crazy 8 Press Love, Murder & Mayhem anthology, titled “A Matter of Principle”, is an exploration of the choices people make about things that can be said to be sapient and sentient, what happens when those choices clash, and what happens when these sentient and sapient things make choices about themselves.
Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!
Lois Spangler is a Mexican-American ex-pat currently living in the antipodes. Some of her stage works have been performed in New York City, and her short fiction has appeared in ReDeus: Native Lands, and will be appearing in works produced by Tiny Owl Workshop. When she’s not at her day job or tooling around doing narrative design research, she’s likely trading stabs and cuts with friends using centuries-old sword manuals, and occasionally translating bits of those manuals for folks to use.
For our last big group convention of the summer, we at Crazy 8 Press gathered for our annual pilgrimage to Shore Leave in Cockeysville, Maryland. As usual, it was a smashing success.
But Crazy 8 Press also made a big announcement, one we’re thrilled to share with you now. When we started this author experiment there were, as the name suggests, eight of us. Due to some twists and turns, we pared down to five for a while, then ramped back up to seven.
Yep. There’s another inmate at the asylum.
