Keith DeCandido

New book by my friends Maggie Weber, aka Refashioned Hippie, and Amy Boulter! @refashionedhippie @chickswithficspodcast @illustrationwithamyrose

RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE! Time to pre-order RESISTANCE from Ian Randal Strock's Fantastic Books! RESISTANCE will be published as a charity anthology (profits of sales and pre-sales going to ACLU and Pro Publica). I've got a story in there! It's called "The Visitors," and uses characters seen in my novel "The Only Song Worth Singing" -- but in a very different, distant, future. Come get your Irish fae rock stars! 🇮🇪 But I'm also there alongside some amazing writers! Here's the full Table of contents, and the book comes out on May 26. Pre-order at the link now! TOC: Introduction by Ian Randal Strock Slow Burn in Alphabettown by Shariann Lewitt Horseman, Horseman, Horseman & Horseman, Attorneys at Law by Michael A Ventrella The Logs by David Brin A Snake in the Grass by Ec Ambrose The One Who Doesn’t Belong by Scott Edelman The Sultan’s Bath by Jean Marie Ward In Her Image by Michael A. Burstein Know Thyself Deathless by Keith R.A. DeCandido Suppose They Gave a Peace by Susan Schwartz The Visitors by Randee Dawn In Silver A by Cecilia Tan Black Market Magic by Hildy Silverman Overdue by Gail Martin The Stun Gun Cure by Ron Kaiser What Happened to Them by Samantha Katz Exit Stage Right by Daniel M. Kimmel The Prowl by Gregory Frost Wideload by Allen Steele & Ian Randal Strock Buy here ==> https://www.fantasticbooks.biz/product-page/resistance-edited-by-ian-randal-strock

I am shorn!

A joyous and happy 57th birthday to my brudda from anudda mudda, my fellow word scribbler, the mighty David Mack. We were first introduced more than 30 years ago by Glenn Hauman, and we've been through many adventures together, including standing by each other at our respective weddings, his to Kara Bain, mine to Wrenn Simms, collaborating on various projects, helping each other out when needed, celebrating various milestones together (such as our respective 50th birthdays seven years ago at Keens Steakhouse, along with several other 1969 babies, which is where the picture accompanying this post was taken), and doing everything from panels to wine-making to walking picket lines. He's one of the finest humans extant and I'm honored to call him one of my absolute best friends in the whole entire world. HAPPY BERFDAY, DAVE! @thedavidmack @glennhauman @wrennnyc @keenssteakhouse

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there! I've been lucky enough to have several mothers of various sorts in my life. There's my maternal grandmother, Ann Andreassi, who babysat me a lot during my first eight years on this Earth (when she lived nearby) and whom we used to go out and visit lots of times in the years afterward when she'd moved back to western Pennsylvania, at least until the dementia got too terrible in 2011, which was the last time I saw her alive. She died in 2016. There's my aunt Monica Andreassi, Grandma's other daughter, who also babysat me quite a bit, including during one summer I spent out in western PA with her, while she was pregnant with Laura Celeste, and with Grandma. Monica became a truly fantastic mom herself, to Laura, EK Andreassi, and Joe King. There's the Godmommy, my other aunt, Livia DeCandido, who has always been there to take care of me or help me or just talk to and babble about anything from music to television, and generally be wonderful and supportive. There's Mom-Like Product, Helga Borck, who has also always been there to take care of me, and to share wonderful meals with and to talk baseball or music or pretty much anything with, and also be wonderful and supportive. And finally, last but far from least, there's The Mom herself, GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido. She's always there to be The Mom, whether it's to feed me or edit my writing or talk me through things or to go to museums or to eat yummy food or to babble for ages on subjects ranging from the Yankees to karate to art to music to whatever all else, but especially about the writing life, since she is also a veteran of the publishing industry. You always hear about kids who rebel against their parents, or kids who have awful parents, or both. I'm fortunate in that I have been raised by fabulous people against whom I have never rebelled (well, not in any meaningful way, anyhow....) for very good reason. Whatever virtues I have as a person are due to being raised by (among others) these five amazing women. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! (Picture of The Mom and me in Central Park in 1971. I'm the one on the right.....) @girasoleazzurra

Coming soon to the Starter that Kicks: WICKED WESTERNS, the latest anthology from the New England Horror Writers. Edited by Trisha Wooldridge & David Boop, this will feature a mess of weird Westerns, including a new story by me featuring Calamity Jane (as well as Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter), "A Pile of Rocks with No Marker." Looking forward to this! More soon...... @trishawooldridge @davidboopdenverauthor @newenglandhorrorwriters

Gad, this was 30 years ago................................ In the spring of 1996, which was, somehow, exactly three decades ago, The Don't Quit Your Day Job Players played a concert at Lunacon (a convention that doesn't exist anymore) at the Rye Town Hilton (a hotel that also doesn't exist anymore). Left to right, we're Peter J. Heck on electric guitar, me on percussion, and the late great David M. Honigsberg on acoustic guitar. We were periodically joined by Alexandra Honigsberg on violin and viola and by Rik Cleary on bass and by Eric Raymond on flute. Alexandra and Rik later joined the band formally. Not long after this picture was taken, the three of us, along with Rik, Alexandra, and Nat Andreassi went into the studio to record our first album, TKB, which was released in the fall of '96 at Philcon. Thirty years. Damn...... @alexandrahonigsberg @leftydrummer13

Wicked Westerns TOC dropped yesterday! Congrats to all involved! 🤠 Wicked Westerns Edited by @trishawooldridge and @davidboopdenverauthor Art by @_ogmosis_ Stories from @christaqua @brennanlafaro @krad418 and many more! #horrorwestern #newengland #bookstagram #fictionbooks #anthologies

Then and now: me and @wrennnyc at @philconconvention in 2009 shortly after we started dating, and us last week at @delillospastryshop on our ninth wedding anniversary.

In 1998, at the wedding of Judy Goodman Rayner and Ed Rayner, Marina and I were at the same table as a bunch of people we knew, among them Ian and Kim and Puck, and also a book dealer named Kevin, who was dating a woman named Wrenn Simms. We all got along well, and had a grand old time, and then went our separate ways. In 2009, at Balticon, the late great Hugh Casey reintroduced the two of us. We had both broken up with the people we were at the wedding with AND been through an entire other relationship since then. She was three years out of parting ways with her husband Jeff, and I was one month out of my relationship with Terri ending. Wrenn and I hit it off pretty much instantly, and we found each other again later that night and sat on the staircase at the late lamented Hunt Valley Inn and just talked for hours. And we haven't shut up since. A year after that Balticon, she moved in with me, and one month shy of eight years after that re-meeting we got married. And now, seventeen years later, we're still together, still incredibly happy, still having adventures and enjoying life. I'm so glad we found each other again (aided and abetted by Hugh, of course) and so glad to have her as my partner and dear dear love. Wrenn turns 59 today, and we plan to celebrate by having lunch with family at one of our favorite pizza places (V & T Pizzeria Restaurant) then having fun at a Kentucky Derby party with some of our dearest friends. HAPPY BERFDAY, WRENN! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU! @wrennnyc @ianrandalstrock @thehughcasey @judy.g.rayner @marinarusalka2018 @balticon.convention @vt_pizzeria

I'm involved with this incredibly nifty forthcoming tabletop RPG, Noir 1933 -- a role-playing game where you play unheralded heroes of the 1930s. It'll be crowdfunding very soon. My own creation for this RPG is Nonna Grazia, an elderly woman on the lower east side of Manhattan who has a network of operatives in the area. If you're a member of that community and you need help, and have nowhere else to turn, Nonna Grazia will help you out. There is a price, but it will always be something you can actually afford.... There's a pre-launch page on the Starter that Kicks. Please check it out! https://bit.ly/4tUfpnh

Back in the mists of prehistory known as "the 90s," I was a young editor working for the late Byron Preiss, and I had to deal with several agents. One of the best of them was an associate agent for Spectrum Literary Agency named @luciennediver I always respected her work and how she advocated for her clients, but she was always sensible and understanding as to the position I was in as well. We became friends in fairly short order, as we shared many an interest, from nerdy things to music, and I was privileged to attend her wedding to @darkknight0667 in 1997, be there for the birth of their kid in 2000, and also attend the wedding of said kid in 2025. In 2003, when my writing career got to the point where I needed an agent, she was at the top of my list of who I wanted to represent me. She said yes, and has remained a superlative advocate for me and my career for all two-decades-plus since. When she moved from Spectrum to the Knight Agency, I followed her, because I wanted =her= for my agent, dadgummit. Today is Lucienne's birthday, and I just want to say publicly how much I appreciate your friendship, your agenting, and just your general wonderfulness. From being young punks in publishing in our 20s to being veterans in our field in our 50s, you've been a great friend, a great agent, a great wife and mother, and a great human. HAPPY BERFDAY! This is my favorite picture of the two of us, from @dragoncon in 2017 when we were having drinks. Somehow, that was nine years ago.