Recent Publications and Promo Stuff
Someday, I’ll feel like I am no longer playing catch-up from the move. Today is not that day.
I’m doing such much-belated updating on my Bibliography page. In particular, the sections for short stories, interviews, guest blogs, and podcasts. The poetry section needs many new entries and will be done soon.
Short Stories
“Apocalypse Playlist” (reprint), The Big Book of Cyberpunk
“Birds of London,” Abyss & Apex
“Monsters of the Places Between,” Stupefying Stories #24
“Believe Nothing Said by Clouds,” Stupefying Stories Showcase
Interview
6 Books with Beth Cato at Nerds of a Feather
eSpec Books interviews Beth Cato, contributor to Other Aether: Tales of Global Steampunk
Guest Blogs
Scalzi’s Big Idea: A Thousand Recipes for Revenge
My Favorite Bit from A Thousand Recipes for Revenge
Podcasts
H. P. Lovecast Podcast – Ep 22 – Tom Starita and Beth Cato
Russ’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster Ep #97– The Writer’s Chair: How to Build Magic Systems in Genre Fiction featuring AARON ROSENBERG, BETH CATO and SHERRI COOK WOOSLEY
“Headspace” reprint, CatsCast (only subscribers have access to full content)
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Read MoreOUT TODAY: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grieving, Loss and Healing
I’ve had stories in almost 20 Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies, and I’m starting off 2022 with another publication! Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grieving, Loss and Healing is guaranteed to be a cathartic tear jerker (though their regular cat books can do that to me, too). My story is “Joy Amidst the Sorrow.” It’s about the emotional turmoil I endured as my grandma died in 2018. I wasn’t able to travel home to be with my family, which delivered a painful edge to my grief, but I found a small measure of comfort by writing about her character–love for the Muppets and all–for her memorial.
You can buy the book everywhere that books are sold.
Grandma would be very happy to be memorialized even more through this book. Here’s one of her most beloved songs, one that addresses this very subject of loss and comfort.
West Valley View piece on my newest Chicken Soup for the Soul story
My local paper the West Valley View did a story about my nonfiction tale in the new release Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Cats. Read that here!
Out today: Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Cats
Hooray for release day! Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Cats is out now, and it features my story “A Letter to Bubba’s First Family.” It’s about our ginger trickster, Finn, who went by the name Bubba in his previous life. His previous family loved him a lot and they were heartbroken to leave him at the shelter. (Included in his adoption was a tall cat tree and his beloved plush green snake–a snake that he still loves and cuddles with after two years with us, as shown in this picture.) This story is a letter to his old family, and I really, really hope they see it and take comfort in that we love and adore him.
This book can be bought wherever books are sold, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
We adopted Finn–and our cats Luke and Kylo–at Sun Cities 4 Paws, an all-cat shelter on the west side of Phoenix. Like many charities, they are struggling right now. If you live in the area and need a cat, please check them out. They have cats of all ages in their shelter and have some available at a local PetSmart, too. They take donations of cat supplies or cash. Their thrift shop is a major source of income, too, so if you’re in the area, drop off donations or shop there.
Read MoreForthcoming anthologies to preorder
This is a rough time for the publishing industry and authors, period. Many bookstores are closed or operating in different ways. New releases are not getting much attention. Readers have other priorities for their time and money. Authors are struggling to focus, promote, and write. The actual publishing process is in a bad way, with warehouses closed because of sickness and paper imports from China greatly curtailed.
I want to highlight four forthcoming anthologies that have preorder links available. If you can’t budget to buy new books, you can always request your local library to carry them. And always, reviews on places like Amazon and Goodreads are a huge help.
First up, on May 26th, Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas is released by Tyche Books. PIRATE CATS. This is an anthology all about PIRATE CATS. How awesome is that?! A release day party will be held on Facebook. Find out about that here and participate in the event for a chance to win door prizes.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Cats will be released in print and ebook on July 7th, 2020. (Release was pushed back a month.) I’ve had stories in a lot of Chicken Soup cat books, but this will be my first story about my ‘new’ cats–with this one all about my brilliant ginger trickster, Finn.
Also out on July 7th: The Book of Dragons will be a beautiful, fully-illustrated (by Rovina Cai!) hardcover release from Harper Voyager, edited by Jonathan Strahan. I’ve already read it in galley form, and let me tell you the blunt truth: this is one of the most solid anthologies released in recent years. It includes my first solicited poem, “Make Me a Dragon.” I wrote it while very angry. I am betting a lot of people will relate to the mood.
On October 20th, Titan Books will release the Escape Pod Science Fiction Anthology. The table of contents for this book blows me away. I’m still stupefied that I was invited to take part. My story is very much a signature Beth Cato kind of thing, science fiction with a dose of fantasy plus a cantankerous felizard (that’s part feline, part lizard) that threatens to steal the show.
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Read MoreNew Publication Flood!
Publishing is weird. Stories and poems get accepted and could be published a week later or the next year. It seems like once or twice a year, weird timing kicks in and a whole bunch of things end up published at the same time. This is one of those times.
New stories:
– “The Wind Knows All” in Nature (plus, a blog post on the story behind the story)
– nonfiction “The Advent of New Holiday Traditions” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas [Amazon affiliate link]
Poetry:
– “Old Coyote” in Eye to the Telescope Issue 34: Tricksters
– three poems in Daikaijuzine: “A Purring Cat is a Time Machine,” “Dollar Store Monsters,” and “Drought and Dryad”
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