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Category: Cornerstone Content

This is a predominantly dark gray image, featuring a drawing of an astronaut with wings against a dark sky with a yellow crescent moon. The words say “Starbase DemiCon: A New World. Des Moines Holiday Inn Northwest, 4800 Merle Hay Rd.
Demicon 34

Demicon 34

By Jan S. Gephardt It’s that time of year again: getting ready for “con” season, and specifically for DemiCon 34. Repeated blizzard events over several recent years have discouraged us from attending Capricon in February. This means DemiCon, an annual, early-May convention in Des Moines, Iowa, has become our “new normal” first science fiction convention of the summer season. But for DemiCon 34, things will be a bit different from our usual. Some of the changes were planned, others not….

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3D-looking mockups of “Deep Ellum Duet” as both an ebook on a tablet and a slender trade paperback. Cover art © 2022 by Chaz Kemp.
Introducing Deep Ellum Duet

Introducing Deep Ellum Duet

By Jan S. Gephardt I’ve spent the last several days preparing a new book for its presale launch. Deep Ellum Duet is the answer to a lot of requests we’ve had since we published my sister G. S. Norwood’s first novelette in 2019. People want to buy them from a variety of booksellers, and many would prefer to buy a paperback. But until now, Deep Ellum Pawn and Deep Ellum Blues were only available individually on Kindle. There were several…

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A Bone to Pick by Jan S. Gephardt
Almost There

Almost There

By Jan S. Gephardt To quote Red Leader Garven Dreis, we’re almost there! In this case, I mean we’re almost to the point where A Bone to Pick is available and ready to read. Almost. We’re close enough that I can at last announce a presale offer on Amazon, in both the US and the UK. I’m also almost to the point where Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) are ready to go out as review copies. I’ll send them to my…

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The covers of “What’s Bred in the Bone” and “A Bone to Pick,” by Jan S. Gephardt.
Writing “A Bone to Pick”

Writing “A Bone to Pick”

By Jan S. Gephardt After I finished What’s Bred in the Bone and published it in 2019, I thought writing A Bone to Pick would be lots easier than writing the first book in the Trilogy. After all, I had an outline. I had scenes, cut from the first novel, all ready to go into the second one. It was partly written already! I should easily have it ready to go by 2020. A year, maybe 18 months, tops, because…

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This illustration shows many diverse ages, races, and cultures.
Politics on Rana Station

Politics on Rana Station

In last week’s post I promised to talk about politics on Rana Station this week. As I said in that post, I built the Station’s system on ideas garnered from decades of teaching, studying history, and observing our contemporary society. Those experiences inspired the guiding question, What kind of environment would allow ALL of my students to reach their full potential? I’ve spent most of my career teaching both urban and rural students from lower-income areas. I knew our current…

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Header image made from Deep Ellum Blues cover
Deep Ellum Blues releases today

Deep Ellum Blues releases today

If you’ve been watching for the day when Deep Ellum Blues releases, you’re in luck. After about a month in “presale” mode, it’s live and available today! In case you’ve been away for a while and missed our earlier posts, Deep Ellum Blues is G. S. Norwood’s second story in the “Deep Ellum Stores” collection. Visit the book’s detail page on our website for a book description and links to Mudcat’s Setlists. What is Deep Ellum Blues about? Perhaps our…

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Deborah Crombie interviews G. S. Norwood about her new story, “Deep Ellum Blues.”
Urban Fantasy: Let’s Get to the Root

Urban Fantasy: Let’s Get to the Root

Deborah Crombie interviews G. S. Norwood Bestselling mystery writer Deborah Crombie loves to get to the root of an intriguing puzzle. A long-time friend and critique partner of G. S. Norwood, she watched Norwood’s new novelette, Deep Ellum Blues, take shape over many weeks. Now she has some questions. G.’s Writing Roots Debs: Have you always wanted to write? Your late husband (Warren C. Norwood) was a wonderful writer. Were you drawn to him because you wanted to write, or…

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A German Shepherd places its paws on a computer keyboard in a police station office. The meme reads, "Saw bad man, bit same. End of Report."
Rethinking policing for Rana Station

Rethinking policing for Rana Station

by Jan S. Gephardt Rethinking policing has always been an important part of my world-building  for the futuristic world of my science fiction novels. Recent protests and calls to abolish or defund the police have given me fresh material to work with. But they haven’t changed my plans for the series. Balancing reality and fiction One of the joys of speculative fiction is that you get to make up your own world. That makes it possible to explore all sorts of thought experiments. How would this or that work out, if this or…

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Detail from the cover painting by Lucy A. Synk
It’s a book!

It’s a book!

We’ve teased you about The Other Side of Fear for the past couple of weeks–first with a front cover reveal, and then with a sample from Chapter one. Today Weird Sisters Publishing is proud to announce the arrival (sort of) of Jan S. Gephardt’s new book, The Other Side of Fear! It’s now available in the Kindle Store. Other outlets may still “processing” it. But we can give you more glimpses. What’s it about, anyway? First, here’s the official book…

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All four of the Texas Pack
The Texas Pack

The Texas Pack

By G. S. Norwood Here at Weird Sisters we love dogs. We thought our readers might like a glimpse of the characters that make up The Texas Pack who lives with me. Yes, author Jan S. Gephardt spent several years researching canine cognition before she wrote What’s Bred in the Bone. As readers of her blog know, animal cognition is an emerging field of study. Every day we learn new things about how dogs and other animals experience and process…

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