NEWS

THE MYSTERIOUS WOMEN BUNDLE

The Mysterious Women Bundle - Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Our entire lives have been thrown into chaos this past month—worldwide, which is something new. As far as history shows us, the world has never before done the same thing at the same time. Yay, us, I guess. Although I kinda hoped that if we were going to unite, it would be for world peace.

Anyway, what's getting me through the tough days is fiction. And more than that, it seems, stories about crime are getting me through. Which makes sense when you think about it. The entire mystery genre is about putting order on chaos.

So when I can't handle the extreme chaos in the world right now, I go to the genre that orders chaos. I go in search of solutions, order, something known.

Because I'm doing that, I figure you might want to as well. So I put some of my favorite female authors together into this StoryBundle. All of us write about crime, but we do it in different ways.

Christy Fifield writes about female spies in World War II. I love her tagline: Before they were mothers and grandmothers, the women of the Greatest Generation were many things. Including spies. It makes me think twice about the little old ladies in my orbit.

In fact, no one should discount any of the female protagonists in this StoryBundle. Two of them are officers of the law. Juliet Nordeen's Modesta Quinn works for the county sheriff's department in Washington State, and Rachel Amphlett's Kay Hunter works as a detective sergeant in the UK, but they face similar challenges. Annie Reed and J.F. Penn give us actual detectives, working tough cases.

Kris Nelscott (okay, that's me) puts together a trio of women without investigative experience who need to solve some murders the police are ignoring. Katie Pressa gives us a pregnant lawyer who is more than a match for the man hired to protect a women's clinic after several bomb threats.

We also have two short story anthologies, and one collection, all featuring strong women solving mysteries and crimes. Fiction River Presents: Mysterious Women includes mysteries by such greats as Kate Wilhelm and Julie Hyzy. Dayle A. Dermatis includes her highly acclaimed short stories, some of which have made best-of anthologies. Love Among The Thorns gives us a necessary touch of gothic to round out the bundle.

Two of our books—Dayle's and Fiction River Presents: Mysterious Women—are exclusive to the bundle. In other words, you can't get them anywhere else.

As you pick up copies for yourself, I also urge you to give a few dollars to our charity, Able Gamers.

Now that most of us have unwillingly spent weeks inside, unable to socialize, we have a sense of what many disabled folks contend with each and every day. Able Gamers helps them participate in online games by providing equipment tailored toward their needs. Sometimes the online community is the only community available to people who are housebound (as many of you learned this year). Dreams are important for all of us, as is being social, so please, if you decide to purchase this bundle, add a donation to AbleGamers.

So put a little order on the chaos that is all our lives at the moment. Escape into some good crime fiction.

Enjoy! – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you're feeling generous), you'll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

  • Paper Bullets by Annie Reed
  • New Year's Shenanigans by Juliet Nordeen
  • A Gentleman of the Old School by Katie Pressa
  • Fiction River Presents: Mysterious Women edited by Gwyneth Gibby (StoryBundle Exclusive!)

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus six more books, for a total of ten!

  • The Spy Girl Files by Christy Fifield
  • Deviance by J.F. Penn
  • Scared to Death by Rachel Amphlett
  • Protectors by Kris Nelscott
  • Love Among the Thorns by Lyn Worthen
  • Voice Carry by Dayle A. Dermatis (StoryBundle Exclusive!)

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi) for all books!

It's also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

  • Get quality reads: We've chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
  • Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that's fine! You'll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
  • Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there's nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
  • Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to AbleGamers!
  • Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you'll get the bonus books!

StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook. For press inquiries, please email press@storybundle.com.