Good Intentions: A DragonEye Novella for The Midnight Diner

I'm thrilled to announce that Good Intentions: A DragonEye Novella, will be published in serial in The NEW Midnight Diner.  (They are currently fundraising via indigogo, which I talked about on Monday.  If you are a fan of Christian spec-fic with a rough, realistic edge, please consider helping them out.  Like all fundraisers, there are prizes, including a chance to be a character in the novella.) 

Good Intentions is one of the serious DragonEye stories, dealing with murder, immigration issues, and racism of a different kind. 

The story opens when Guster Brody, an immigration officer, is found dead by his wife--an obvious suicide.  Or is it?  Guster is a faithful Catholic, and Sister Grace is convinced he would never commit such a terrible sin.  Mrs Brody insists that her husband was troubled.  Grace, however, is not alone in her suspicions.  Brody had helped several Faerie folk gain US citizenship or legal immigrant status, and one of his former clients approaches Vern and Grace with her suspicions.  The next morning, she's found dead.

While the police chalk that up to anti-Faerie gang activity, neither Grace nor Vern--nor the deceased woman's husband--are buying it.  As thier investigations get closer to the truth, the villain gets more desperate, sending a wight to possess Grace and even trying to blow up their car.  Who else must die before Vern and Grace discover the killer.

Hey, for $80, it could be you!

I'm so excited to write this story for The Midnight Diner.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing a serial again.  (My first one was World Gathering, which became Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem; and I have some others I've done as fundraisers that I plan to publish as novellas in the future.)  I also think The Midnight Diner will be a terrific quarterly magazine.   Please check out the fundraiser, and in 2014, check out the magazine itself.

The New Midnight Diner Coming Soon, and Will Feature a DragonEye story!

There's nothing quite as exciting to an author as being asked to do a story for a magazine.  I received that honor last month from Lincoln Crisler, new managing editor of The Midnight Diner. I've long been interested in contributing to their annual anthologies, but I never seemed to have a story ready for them, so needless to say, I'm thrilled.

I'm also thrilled to see The Midnight Diner opening for business on a more regular basis.  Here, you'll find some great stories in a Christian-friendly setting that aren't preachy or whitewashed.  Trust me, I know Lincoln:  the man loves realistic, rough-around the edges tales of people who struggle.

In order for them to launch under a new format (and pay their contributors, another joy!), they are having a fundraising campaign.  Lincoln gives the details below, but I have a special surprise as well...  See where it says "Become a character in the serial novella?"  That's a DragonEye story!  You will have the chance to be in a case with Vern and Sister Grace.  (One of two spots has already been claimed!)

Thursday, I'll tell you a little about the story, Good Intentions.  For now, please read what Lincoln has to say, and if you can spare even a dollar or two for a worthy cause, click the link and help out.

Kicking Off The NEW Midnight Diner Fundraiser!

Some of you may be aware that, as of a couple months ago, I became the Managing Editor of The Midnight Diner. Since 2007, The Diner has been released as an annual, print anthology of hardboiled genre fiction with a Christian slant. No restrictions on God, no restrictions on reality. If you're familiar with my CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY? anthology, it's pretty much the same take on spirituality as my take on superpowers--as gritty, realistic and non-bullcrap as you can get.

When I stepped into the Managing Editor's role, my first order of business was to help Editor-in-Chief Michelle Pendergrass turn the Diner into a paying market. To that end, we decided to make a couple of moves. One was to change the Diner's format from yearly print antho to digital quarterly, and to expand the types of creative efforts we'll encompass. The Diner will now have a poem, two short stories, an essay and a serial novella chapter in each issue, with the potential for an annual print collection at a later date. The other was to develop an operating budget--what it would cost to do the Diner right, for the first year.

In order to raise our first year operating budget, we've set up an Indiegogo fundraiser that will run until August 19th. We're not simply coming to you with our hands out, though. In exchange for the funding we need to pay some small expenses plus a decent chunk of change to our artists and authors, we're giving away some pretty good incentives.

• FREE Digital Back Issues of the Diner!
• Yearly Digital Subscriptions to the NEW Diner!
• Become a Character in our Year One Serial Novella!
• Edit/Critique of Your Own Written Work by our Editors!

So, check out the fundraiser here, and please consider donating and/or spreading the word to your networks. We have some great things planned, and we'd love for YOU to be a part of it!

Thanks!