It's time for the new Zombies Need Brains Kickstarter theme reveal!  Below are the three new anthology themes that ZNB will be Kickstarting starting August 7th in our brand new Kickstarter.  As soon as the Kickstarter has reached its funding, ZNB will start an open call for submissions to fill the slots in the anthology not already covered by our anchor authors, so mark your calendar, pledge to the Kickstarter, help spread the word to bring it up to its goal, and then write a stunning story for the open call!  But you should start thinking of a solid idea and story concept right now.  The open call will only be from the funding date to the end of the year (December 31st, 2019), so there's not much time to come up with a good story, write it, revise it, polish it, and send it in.  So put on those thinking caps!

In the meantime, though, check out the themes and our solid batch of anchor authors for each!  And check out that stunning art done by Justin Adams of Varia Studios, which will be used for the cover art for APOCALYPTIC if the Kickstarter is successful.  AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR AUGUST 7th, when the Kickstarter will go live!

APOCALYPTIC:
Who doesn’t love a good apocalyptic story? They come in all kinds, from the straight up SF/horror of Stephen King’s superflu in “The Stand” and the zombie apocalypse in “The Walking Dead,” to the quieter, more reflective tales of loss and survival in “On the Beach” and “Childhood’s End.” Tales that feature people struggling through the end of the world--or fighting to survive in what remains--are always compelling. What better way for readers to safely explore the extremes of the human condition without actually having to fight off the ravening hordes themselves? For this anthology, we’ll be looking for unique takes on how the world ends, both during and after the apocalypse. So bring on your asteroids, your plagues, your solar flares! And ask yourself, would you survive the apocalypse? Would you even want to?  

Edited by S.C. Butler & Joshua Palmatier, APOCALYPTIC will contain approximately fourteen stories with an average length of 6,000 words each.  Anchor authors include: 

• Stephen Blackmoore, 
• James Enge, 
• Nancy Holzner, 
• Tanya Huff, 
• Violette Malan, 
• Seanan McGuire, and 
• S.M. Stirling

GALACTIC STEW:
Food is an essential part of life—not just for energy and exotic flavors, but as a unifier during social events, a focal point for establishing culture, and shared experience to put people at ease. In GALACTIC STEW, readers will sit down at the communal table and sup upon stories centered on food.  Whether it’s a tense treaty negotiation over a full course meal or a trap devised by the fae to chain you to their realm, these stories are certain to be delectable.  Come and savor these delicacies…and hope the taste doesn’t mask a deadly poison!

Edited by David B. Coe & Joshua Palmatier, GALACTIC STEW will contain approximately fourteen stories with an average length of 6,000 words each. Anchor authors include:

• Rod Belcher, 
• Andy Duncan, 
• Esther Friesner, 
• D.B. Jackson, 
• Howard Andrew Jones, 
• Gini Koch, and 
• Laura Resnick 

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK:
When NASA's Opportunity rover sent its last message from Mars--loosely translated by scientists as “my battery is low and it’s getting dark”--many of us paused in a shared moment of sadness and gratitude, aimed at a robot left alone on a faraway planet. That moment inspired this anthology. We want stories about technology that has operated long past its time, but we want to give these lost spirits new life, whether it be rescue, a new purpose, a new beginning, or a simple homecoming. What happens to the robots and rovers and AIs and more after their original purpose has faded? What is the next chapter of their story?

Edited by Crystal Sarakas & Joshua Palmatier, MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK will contain approximately fourteen stories with an average length of 6,000 words each.  Anchor authors include:

• Jacey Bedford, 
• Troy Carrol Bucher, 
• John Hartness, 
• Alethea Kontis, 
• Stephen Leigh, 
• Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, 
• Kari Sperring, and 
• Edward Willett

And there they are!  Also, don't forget to order your copies of our previous three SF&F anthologies--PORTALS, TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED, and ALTERNATE PEACE.  All three are now available in ebooks formats and trade paperbacks.

Release Day for PORTALS, TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED, and ALTERNATE PEACE!

Today is the day!  All three of the new Zombies Need Brains SF&F anthologies have been released into the wild in both ebook and trade paperback formats.  If you've been waiting, get out there and order!  If you preordered, get out there and read!  It's time to enjoy the fruits of the ZNB Team's labors for the past year:  NEW SF&F short stories!  Here's a reminder of each anthology and who's in it, along with links to get you reading.

PORTALS: What mysteries…or horrors…await you on the other side?

The lure of an open doorway is hard to resist. What lies beyond? Where will it take you—and how will you be transformed? Will it lead to paradise…or a living hell? You’ll never know, unless you have the courage to take that first step.

In this anthology you will find sixteen stories of portals to exotic destinations, whether it’s a doorway in the desert that appears out of thin air, a fairy ring of mushrooms in the backyard, a crack in the road, or a train headed straight to Hell. Science fiction and fantasy authors Nancy Holzner, Esther Friesner, Ian Tregillis, Jacey Bedford, John Linwood Grant, Kate Hall, Gini Koch, Violette Malan, Juliet Kemp, James Enge, Steven Harper, F. Brett Cox, Jaime Lee Moyer, Jason Palmatier, Andrija Popovic, and Patrick Hurley invite you to step through a host of doorways to other realities with infinite possibilities, some horrible, some comic, and some just plain weird.

So take my hand—not too tight!—and let’s journey into another world. The door is open. The portal awaits.

Kindle Ebook:  https://smile.amazon.com/Portals-Esther-Friesner-ebook/dp/B07RDQ9N16
Trade Paperback:  https://smile.amazon.com/Portals-Esther-Friesner/dp/1940709288

ALTERNATE PEACE:  Alternate histories. Alternate realities.

It’s said that every choice creates multiple timelines, each one exploring what could have happened if a different decision had been made. Most of these alternate histories stem from different outcomes to a pivotal battle, or to an assassination attempt, or to the ending or escalation of a war. All violent, all bloody, all brutal. But what about those choices made during peacetime, when there was no monumental, ongoing conflict? After all, everyone knows how significant the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can be, how far-reaching its effects can be felt.

In these pages you will find fifteen new branches of history written by some of today’s greatest science fiction and fantasy writers, including Elektra Hammond, Dale Cozort, Harry Turtledove, C.W. Briar, Rick Wilber, Juliet E. McKenna, Michael Robertson, Kat Otis, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Brian Hugenbruch, Stephen Leigh, Elizabeth Kite, Ian R. MacLeod, Mike Barretta, and Kari Sperring, all stemming from a peaceful divergence in our past. Join them as they wander down familiar paths…

…and then swerve down roads not taken.

Kindle Ebook:  https://smile.amazon.com/Alternate-Peace-Harry-Turtledove-ebook/dp/B07RL3KDY8/
Trade Paperback:  https://smile.amazon.com/Alternate-Peace-Harry-Turtledove/dp/1940709261/

TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED:  What does it mean to be “temporally deactivated?”

Experience a historical moment through the intervention of a time travel agency. Be trapped inside a time bubble—willingly—so that you can save the universe from Darkness over and over again. Step outside of time at the order of your queen in order to stop a traitor…or to keep an assassin from destroying the future. Or travel forward into the future in order to kill off timelines to save your son…or backwards to halt an accident to save your relationship.

Join fantasy and science fiction authors Ken Altabef, Alex Gideon, Stephen Leigh, D.B. Jackson, Faith Hunter, C.S. Friedman, Emily Randall, Gini Koch, Misty Massey, Rhondi Salsitz, Edmund R. Schubert, R.K. Nickel, Marie DesJardin, and Christine Lucas as they defy time and warp space in order to define what it means to be “temporally deactivated.” So get ready and hold on tight.

It’s time to step outside of time.

Kindle Ebook:  https://smile.amazon.com/Temporally-Deactivated-Faith-Hunter-ebook/dp/B07R6DJXXS
Trade Paperback:  https://smile.amazon.com/Temporally-Deactivated-Faith-Hunter/dp/1940709245

And of course you can always get the Kickstarter Editions at the ZNB online store:  https://squareup.com/market/zombies-need-brains-llc