Remember my little book of short stories? I’ve set up a Goodreads giveaway for it! Five print books, which I will sign in purple (because I always sign in purple, because why not), and send to the five people Goodreads selects for me.
Let’s see if this widgety thing works, shall we?
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Survival Tactics
by Elizabeth Bonesteel
Giveaway ends November 23, 2021.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
The giveaway is open to folx in the US and Canada, and ends on November 23, 2021 (just before US Thanksgiving).
I wrote in detail about the stories in this book, but for those looking for a shorter summary:
This is an anthology of all my short fiction. Most of these are from the last four years; one, a wee flash piece, was written in 2013. Eight of these are reprints; two are new for this collection. Quick story blurbs for each:
“About Time” – Alone in a crowded city, a woman seeks the origins of a haunted clock connected to a captivating stranger.
“Factory Reset” – On a planet that should have been long abandoned, a salvage operator discovers an impossible ecosystem.
NEW: “The Haunting of Jessica Lockwood (A Central Corps Short)” – Charged with a crime against her government, a teenager finds her fate may not be as decided as she believes.
“Overlay” – A father undertakes a risky mission to rescue his revolutionary son.
“Single Point of Failure” – On an isolated mining outpost on Mercury, a woman dreams of suicide – and wakes to find other people dead.
“Unto Dust (A Central Corps Short)” – A father struggles to look after his children after the sudden death of his wife.
“Thinking Inside the Box” – Hoping to earn his freedom, a convicted murderer takes a job working with a dangerous alien artifact.
“Friends Like These” – Sometimes lawn care requires help. In the middle of the night. To remove stray corpses from the yard. You know how it goes.
“Govi (A Central Corps Short)” – A former soldier leads a rescue mission on a volatile ocean world.
NEW: “Birthdays at the End of Time” – An ancient starship prepares for one final mission.
I call them genre-spanning, but they’re really sub-genre spanning. One is paranormal romance, one is horror; three are Central Corps tie-in stories, and are thus space opera. The others range from straight-up SF adventure to mystery to technological utopia.
They were all great fun to write.
In addition to my little background blog post, I do have a content warnings page up. Please be aware there are spoilers there; my goal was to be as thorough as I could be. For those who don’t want to risk spoilers: the main thing is, there’s a lot about death in these stories. Sometimes it’s handled with humor, sometimes it’s mired in grief, but it’s present, shadowy or otherwise, everywhere.
Which is interesting, because I don’t feel like I write about death. I write about family, found and otherwise. I write about connections. I find myself exploring how – and why – we find ways not to be alone. When we do it for the wrong reasons, it can be incredibly self-destructive. But when it’s right? It can be a lifeline, that light that makes all the darkness suddenly worthwhile.
One last thing about the giveaway: it’s geographically restricted to the US and Canada. That’s a Goodreads restriction. My plan is to do another giveaway early next year that’ll be open worldwide. It won’t have the same reach – I don’t have any promotional tools that can give me anything close to the visibility Goodreads does – but it’ll also be or 5 signed copies, and I’ll send them to any country where I can legally mail them. Watch this space.
Lizmonster Writes 