Happy August

As probably everyone knows there’s a bit of a heat wave going on. (It’s almost funny when the news reports, “unexpected” heat waves. The trajectory of climate change has been clear for over twenty years. It both is and isn’t “rocket science.”) I was lucky enough to spend a lovely couple of weeks in Green, Green Ireland. Land of rainbows, druid ruins, kelp filled seas and hedgehogs.​I even saw a pipefish in the shallow kelpy waters of the rocky south coast. It’s always magic to see one. Pipefish look like straight-bodied seahorses with tiny mouths. The name is derived from the peculiar form of the snout, which is like a long tube.Even more magical was the hedgehog that took a nap on my shoes one night. I have always had a fascination with these spikey, adorable insectivores. I was afraid it might be cold, so I (carefully) moved it beneath the heater and cooked it some egg and chicken breast.
We also saw some rare red deer, prostrated ourselves on druid stones, and scratched the ever-eager belly of Higgins the terrier across the way
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In two weeks, we plan another trip into the English countryside where we’ll be caring for a dog with separation anxiety and nine free roaming cats! We use trusted Housesitters.com to find sitters for our pets and we are now also acting as sitters!
 And onto publication news: Because our Poetic Criminal Collective of Addison, Flores, Goyan, King & Wong, are lucky enough to have some press coming out about our first book, An Illegal Feast,
I was forced to compile a list of the year’s publications. I am sharing it with you. PLEASE CHECK OUT THE FREE READS AND LINKS TO BOOKS, and MAYBE EVEN BUY ONE OR TWO.

My Novel, Gods & Monsters,” was released after a year’s serialization on MetaStellar.com. (The novel is also available on Spotify and YouTube.)Gods and Monsters is on the Nebula recommended reading list and some other not-to-be -mentioned, but nonetheless really exciting lists.

I began “E.E. King reads,” author reading Gods & Monsters as well as short stories on Spotify. Click my name in the blue link and listen for free The audible “Gods & Monsters,” will be out soon, and I will have FREE AUDIO CODES for ya’ll! The book is read and beautifully acted by Missy Lane who does different voices for each of the many characters.

My short story, “The Great Unconformity,” Published in Black Cat Weekly is on the Nebula recommended reading list for short fiction.

FREE READS“Snow Cat” and “Hark the Four Tushinski Sing,” were released on Short Edition.com. You will find three other of my stories there as wall.​“The Virgin of Santos de la Tierra,” will be in The Best of MetaStellar Year Four in September 2025 (Originally in Compelling Science Fiction and The Best of Compelling Science Fiction 2017.)

Long Lost Friends,” with Andrea Goyan continues to interview writers, editors, artists, and interesting people on the MetaStellar YouTube channel.

 “MetaStellar Story time,” featuring science fiction read by Andrea Goyan and and E.E. King 
and of course:​

AN ILLEGAL FEAST is served – with a helping of side eye, and a nice Chianti.  LOS ANGELES/TUCSON/BARCELONA – It’s been said too many cooks spoil the broth, but that’s exactly the way “An Illegal Feast” is made.
This delicious collection of poetry is concocted by five diverse women writers, hailing from many different artistic disciplines and locales, to become AddisonFloresGoyan, King and Wong – each poet adds their individual spice to the boiling poetry pot via email.
No Zoom, just words in an email responding to a prompt devised by the founder of this women-only collective. 
Novelist E.E.King, who handpicked the participants in 2023, serves as the chef de cuisine. It is King who makes the mirepoix by taking the best of the yummy word morsels from each of her fellow poets, and then chops, blends, folds, kneads, pulverizes, even butchers until – voila, “An Illegal Feast.” 
Available in paperback. Forty-three poems in 78 delectable pages, with interior carnivore art by E.E. King herself, who is also an acclaimed commissioned muralist and painter.​​
King’s chosen collaborators – Linda D. AddisonAndrea GoyanConsuelo G. Flores, and Elizabeth Wong – are accomplished multi-disciplinary writers in other genres. Flores and Wong are playwrights; Goyan writes speculative short fiction. Neither Flores, Goyan or had written poetry professionally before saying yes to E.E. King’s brainchild.

 “We think of Evie as a magpie weaver. Evie takes the shiny objects from our writings like a magpie,” Elizabeth Wong said. “I never thought I’d write poetry, ever. It’s like being condemned to instant poverty. But I now understand the nucleic power of this art form. I thank Evie for seeing the potential poet in me.” 
Among the four, the most experienced poet, Linda D. Addison, is a five-time recipient of The Bram Stoker Award. “I love writing poetry using different forms, and I have read E.E. King’s poetry before, so I felt comfortable trying this unique concept… Then E.E. weaved our poetry into new music, creating stories/images that were breath-taking…an Illegal Feast is a magical meal that your mind has never tasted, never read and won’t forget!”The Criminally Poetic Gang

In September I start rehearsal for Hand to God with the BLUEBOOK Theater. 
I play the incredibly juicy role of Marjory. 
If you’re in or near Barcelona in November please come see me.

I was also honored to be asked to write a blurb for Sinister Societies,” ​This collection by Mercedes M. Yardley, Tom Deady, Sarah Read, Errick Nunnally, Cindy O’Quinn, and Michael Burke, six of today’s best horror writers, with a (literal) killer introduction by John Skipp, will keep you up all night and infest your dreams with darkness, but also with love and hope.
The stories are beautifully written and completely different. The only similarities are powerful female heroes and an empathy for other species, real and imagined.
Please follow the links in this letter to free reads – write a comment! Or actual books – buy one! All money goes directly to cat food and distilled water for carnivorous plants.

Thank you for reading. And now the section you’ve all been waiting for!
WEIRD CATALONIAN CUSTOMS:  La Festa de Sant Medir

This annual festival on March 3 in the Gràcia neighborhood ( where I live) is Barcelona’s sweetest festival. Sixty tons – SIXTY TONS- of boiled sweets are thrown by horse riders to the eager children that line the streets. 
As legend has it, this sweet parade started in 1828 when baker Josep Vidal i Ganés fell ill and vowed to make an annual pilgrimage to Sant Medir chapel if God cured him.
He recovered, and every year afterwards he would beat a drum and throw beans to announce his pilgrimage. I might have nightmares about this and wake up with my ears stuffed with kidney beans and lentils up my nose.
Today, the beans have been replaced with sweets. Maybe Saint Medir also the saint of tooth decay.​
Stay cool,
best to all,
E.E. King

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