Kristine Kathryn Rusch

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

At the moment he produces novels in several major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang, and the Mary Jo Assassin series.

His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.

The Year of the Cat: A Cat of Space and Time by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

Cats often live in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Anyone who knows cats knows they bend time and defy gravity.

They walk through life seeming not to care about day-to-day events around them, and yet in the blink of an eye, they sense danger as if they see into the future.

Cat people also know their cats observe their human slaves for space aliens. We don't mind, really. Of course, most cats, like nature, abhor a vacuum, so no technology for cats past a good can opener.

This volume focuses on cats in space and time and includes two helpful poems for those who still wonder about their cats' occupations.

Includes:
"Ten Ways to Know if Your Cat is a Space Alien" by Geoffrey A. Landis
"The Goddess Particle" by Daemon Crowe
"All Cats are Gray" by Andre Norton
"The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith
"Nefertiti's Tenth Life" by Mary A. Turzillo
"Chimera" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"The Frayed Edges of the World" by Annie Reed
"Surfing the Swale" by Lisa Silverthorne
"Cat in a Hole" by Dean Wesley Smith
"More Ways to Tell if Your Cat is a Space Alien" by Mary A. Turzillo

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Introduction

A CAT OF SPACE AND TIME

Cats have a natural home in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Most of the cats I have lived with seemed, at times, to be able to bend time. At other times they seemed to be able to defy gravity.

They are creatures that just walk through life seemingly without caring about normal events around them, and yet they can sense danger as if they have the ability to see into the future.

Of course, most are afraid of vacuum cleaners, so their reach into the science fiction world does not extend that often to technology. Just space and time.

So, in this volume, that is the focus of the eight stories and the two bonus poems about cats and space as well.

Here are titles of the twelve volumes of cat stories we are putting together.

-— Book One

A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

-— Book Two

A CAT OF PERFECT TASTE

-— Book Three

A CAT OF DISDAINFUL LOOKS

-— Book Four

A CAT OF STRANGE LANDS

-— Book Five

A CAT OF COZY SITUATIONS

-— Book Six

A CAT OF SPACE AND TIME

-— Book Seven

A CAT OF HEROIC HEART

-— Book Eight

A CAT OF ROVING NATURE

-— Book Nine

A CAT OF ARTISTIC SENSIBILITIES

-— Book Ten

A CAT OF FANTASTIC WHIMS

-— Book Eleven

A CAT OF FERAL INSTINCTS

-— Book Twelve

A CAT OF ROMANTIC SOUL

In the earlier volumes we had a few stories of cats in situations that involved space and time, often time. But for this volume, every story centers around the time and space and science fiction element in regard to cats.

We also added two poems from two of the best working poets in all of the science fiction and fantasy fields of literature. And both love cats.

We hope you enjoy this adventure into time and space, directed as much as possible, by the cats involved.

Dean Wesley Smith

Las Vegas, Nevada