• Maybe next April?
• Highlighted book of the week: Pocket Workshop
• Need a print or ebook formatted for publication?

Maybe next April?

Greetings! In the last post, we announced a forthcoming title from the prolific Cat Rambo, All the Pretty Little Mermaids. And we had every intention to get the title published! But life, as it were, got in the way, and we made the decision to delay it until (probably) next April, just in time for Norwescon in Seattle.

But that’s fine with us. We were feeling a bit rushed getting it out there, and this gives us more time to go through it with a finer toothed comb. Remember the gorgeous cover? Maybe you forgot—here it is again:

Created, of course, by the brilliant artist N.D. Rossignol (ndrossignol.com).

Pre-orders are still being taken, but will be delayed awhile. One thing we talked to Cat about is including more Tabat stories!

You can pre-order a copy here:

Pre-order All the Pretty Little Mermaids through Hydra House Books

If all goes well, we’ll have copies a little bit early at Norwescon!

Highlighted book of the week: Pocket Workshop

Pocket Workshop was created as a fundraiser for the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, Washington. 28 writers who taught at the workshop contributed 27 essays that illuminate the experiences of writing and living as professional writers. There are essays by Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel R. Delany, Vonda N. McIntyre, Karen Lord, Daryl Gregory, Stephen Graham Jones, and so many more.

This is a brilliant collection of essays that may not substitute for attending the workshop, but will offer many of the same insights to help you with your writing.

Makes a great holiday gift, too!

Buy Pocket Workshop at Hydra House Books

Need a book formatted?

One of the services Hydra House Books provides to both publishers and self-published authors is the formatting of your books. We’ve worked with dozens of authors on hundreds of books, and can help you get your print or ebook laid out and into publication format. We can also give you tons of helpful advice to get published!

For more information, visit:

Book Publication Services

Here’s a portfolio page that Tod’s been working on, displaying many of the books he’s worked on:

Custom Book Design

That’s all for now!

---

---

We’re back, baby!

Hydra House Books

Aug 05, 2025

In this newsletter:

• New book announcement!
• WorldCon! We’ll be there!
• Did you get your copy of Book 6 of Faerie Tales from the White Forest?
• Need a print or ebook formatted for publication?

Greetings and salutations! Wondering why you haven’t heard from us in awhile? Hydra House Books has been on hiatus the past couple of years. Since 2023, we’ve been hunkering down and working on a few personal projects of our own.

But we’re back! Hydra House Books has some new projects in the works, and the plan is to publish two books a year. (Maybe more, depending on the book.) The crystal ball is murky at the moment.

With that said, we are pleased to announce the publication of a new book! Read on, reader!

New book announcement!

We’re proud to announce a new collection of short speculative fiction by the prolific Cat Rambo, entitled All the Pretty Little Mermaids! Have a look at this gorgeous cover art!

The art was created by artist N.D. Rossignol. Isn’t it beautiful? You can find more of her work here:

www.ndrossignol.com

This is the third collection of fiction Hydra House has published, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Stories range from Alice in Wonderland, to ghost stories, to a rich woman who wants to be turned into a tree, with both science fiction and fantasy, and this collection includes a few stories from TwiceFar Station as well as one from the world of Tabat.

Preorders are now being taken here:

All the Pretty Little Mermaids

Note that your copy may not show up for some time.

We hoped to have copies in time for WorldCon, but alas, that was just too ambitious. However, if you’re a reviewer and you’re planning to be there, we’ll have some ARCs you can take with you. (In fact, if you’re a reviewer, contact Tod at tod@hydrahousebooks.com and he’ll send you an ebook ARC.)

WorldCon!

Speaking of WorldCon, we’ll BE THERE in Seattle! Are YOU going?? While we aren’t officially registered as a vendor, Hydra House will be selling books at the Fairwood Press table. So go find Patrick and you’ll find Hydra House Books’ books!

We’ll be on programming as well. Look through the guide to find both Tod McCoy (publisher) and Nikki Rossignol (N.D. Rossignol, artist) on panels and things. You’ll also find Nikki’s art in the art show.

Brigitta of the White Forest, Book Six

Did you know that the saga of Brigitta of the White Forest concluded with Book Six, Song from Afar? While we announced it when it was published, we thought it worth reminding you in case you missed it. This final installment was published during the COVID lockdown, and many things were glossed over during that time.

Here’s the setup:

After their battle with Croilus, Brigitta and her frends are weary and heartbroken. Croilus has stolen the Qeal egglet, destroyed the seafaerie village, and left Brigitta wondering what kind of hold he may still have on her.

In this final installment of the white Forest series, Brigitta, Jarlath, Minq, and the rest of their friends must race to the White Forest to find Narine’s Fire energy, which is safely hidden within Gola’s moonstone. Using all four of Narine’s energies, they can rescue the Qeal and stop Croilus from overpowering the Eternal Dragon and leaving the world in permanent chaos. But this is near impossible, because Gola is missing, the White Forest is under an impenetrable spell, and all the knowledge in the world will be available to Croilus once the Qeal hatches. Brigitta and her friends ahve only one shot to save everything and everyone. Will their elaborate plan work?

If you didn’t get a copy, you can still get one here:

Song from Afar

Or, get the 3-book Ominbus which contains Books 4, 5, and 6:

Omnibus, Books 4, 5, and 6

Need a book formatted?

One of the services Hydra House Books provides to both publishers and self-published authors is the formatting of your books. We’ve worked with dozens of authors on hundreds of books, and can help you get your print or ebook laid out and into publication format.

For more information, visit:

Book Publication Services

That’s it for now! See you at WorldCon!

We’ve got it! Our first review of Ex Marginalia is from Locus Magazine. And it’s a good one! Eugen M. Bacon calls it “a critically rewarding, introspective selection of essays that will conflict, startle, and reassure you.”

You can read the review in its entirety on the Locus website.

If you’d like a copy, you can get one at most online retailers.

At last! Hydra House Books is proud to release the finalized table of contents for Ex Marginalia, and we couldn’t be happier that all of these authors contributed their personal experiences of writing from the margins of speculative fiction to this work.

The authors and titles are:

Pre-orders are now being taken through Hydra House Books, and Ex Marginalia will soon be available through most online retailers. (And some brick-and-mortar bookstores!)

Publication date is February 21.

Thank you to all the authors who made this possible, and a big special thank you to the editor, Chinelo Onwualu, for all she’s done to make this anthology a reality!

We haven’t said much about Ex Marginalia because we’ve been heads down in getting it ready. But the big bit of news is that we’ve decided to release it on February 21, 2023, during Black History Month. We feel this is an important time (and an important month) to release this important work.

We’ve also finalized the table of contents, which we’ll post in a few days.

Preorders are now being taken!

Ex Marginalia

Hydra House Books is proud to reveal the cover art for our next release: Ex Marginalia!

This beautiful cover was created by award winning author and illustrator Ashe Samuels.

While speculative fiction is justly lauded for its progressive ideas and ideals, it has too often and for too long failed to include the voices of those who aren’t white or cis male. With the dawn of the 21st century, however, marginalized groups have challenged the genre’s status quo with renewed vigor—forging, reimagining, and expanding new paths—to take their rightful place in the field.

But the work is not done.

Edited by Chinelo Onwualu, Hydra House Books introduces Ex Marginalia, a collection of essays by writers from identities routinely excluded or ignored by the speculative fiction community. These voices are vital to the present and the future of the genre. And they cannot—will not—remain any longer in the margins.

Ex Marginalia will be published in Fall 2022 through all major book outlets.

Preorder a copy now, and we’ll send it to you when it’s published.

Or you can help support this project with a tax-deductible donation via the Carl Brandon Society.

• Donate $25 or more: Receive an eBook edition (ePub, Mobi, PDF).

• Donate $50 or more: Receive a softcover edition and the eBook (ePub, Mobi, PDF).

• Donate $100 or more: Receive a softcover edition and the eBook (ePub, Mobi, PDF), plus a softcover edition of Pocket Workshop.

• Donate $200 or more: Receive a limited edition hardcover, the eBook (ePub, Mobi, PDF), a softcover edition of Pocket Workshop, and a giclee print of the cover art.

• Donate $500 or more: Receive a limited edition hardcover, the softcover edition, and the eBook (ePub, Mobi, PDF) as well as a hardcover copy of Pocket Workshop, a giclee print of the Ex Marginalia cover art, plus your choice of one of the following signed, limited-edition hardcover books:
  • The upcoming untitled collection by Cat Rambo (scheduled release Fall 2022)
  • Near + Far, by Cat Rambo
  • Neither Here Nor There, by Cat Rambo
  • Godfall and Other Stories, by Sandra Odell
  • Welcome to the Bitch Bubble, by Lauren Dixon
  • Telling Tales, edited (and signed) by Ellen Datlow
  • The first five books of the Fairie Tales from the White Forest series, plus the sixth when it’s released (all signed by Danika Dinsmore)

Proceeds from the sale of Ex Marginalia will benefit the Carl Brandon Society.

Hydra House Books is proud to announce the upcoming release of Ex Marginalia, a new collection of personal essays by writers of marginalized backgrounds and identities about the art, craft, and lived experiences of writing speculative fiction, co-sponsored by the Carl Brandon Society and edited by award-nominated author and editor Chinelo Onwualu.

In 2021, Hydra House Books released Pocket Workshop: Essays on living as a writer just as many in the United States were gaining a renewed interest in issues of racism, anti-Black violence, and the systemic oppression of marginalized communities. While Pocket Workshop drew its authors from a diverse pool of professional writers, it didn’t push the boundaries or open new ground for justice and equality in publishing.

Ex Marginalia aims to be an active and deliberate space for the writers who are most often excluded and ignored—authors who cannot and shall not remain in the margins, whose voices are vital to the present and future of speculative fiction.

Planned contributors include:

Nisi Shawl

P. Djèlí Clark

Julia Rios

Millie Ho

Chikodili Emelumadu

Suyi Davis Okungbowa

Hannah Onoguwe

Malka Older

Ibtisam Azem

Carlos Hernandez

L.D. Lewis

Shawn Frazier

S.B. Divya

and others.

Cover design by Ashe Samuels.

To support this project, tax-deductible donations can be given via the Carl Brandon Society’s Ex Marginalia page. Donors may opt to receive complementary copies of Ex Marginalia as follows:

• $25 donation: Receive an eBook edition (ePub, Mobi, PDF)
• $50 donation: Receive a softcover edition and the eBook
• $500 or more: Receive a limited hardcover edition, the softcover edition, and the eBook.

Donations will be used to offset publication costs and ensure that contracted authors from BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA, disabled, and other marginalized communities will be paid professional rates.

The Carl Brandon Society will receive proceeds from sales of the book to support their mission of increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction.

Ex Marginalia will be released in the Fall of 2022, in trade paperback and ebook through most major online book retailers, and in a limited hardcover edition exclusively through the Hydra House Books website.

Hey there! FiyahCon is one of the best new conventions to come along in many years, and Hydra House Books is proud to be a part of it.

Through the end of September, Hydra House is offering a 20% discount on all book purchases (not just Pocket Workshop!) to FiyahCon members.

PLEASE NOTE: To get the 20% discount, you’ll have to go through our WooCommerce website! To get there, select this link:

Hydra House Books WooCommerce Store

Enter the code FIYAHCON21 to get the discount.

Proceeds from the sale of Pocket Workshop will go to the Clarion West Writers Workshop.

Huzzah! Thanks for attending FiyahCon! And thanks for supporting Clarion West!

Hydra House Books is happy to announce the release of the Pocket Workshop, a collection of twenty-eight essays by instructors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, the six-week in-residence science fiction, fantasy, and horror workshop in Seattle, Washington.

Edited by Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, this is not a “how to” book of writing speculative fiction. Rather, this collection is intended to expand your knowledge of writing from the perspective of professional writers.

Essays range from scene setting, exposition, writing while blocked, feeding your creative engine, your approach a writing career, finding your process, thickening the plot, and using voice, among many others.

Through Monday, November 30, order a copy through Hydra House Books at a discounted price.

A fundraiser for Clarion West, the Pocket Workshop will be published on February 9, 2021.

Order the Pocket Workshop here.

May 30, 2019

Hydra House Books has book news!!!

We are delighted to announce the acquisition of a collection of short speculative fiction by Lauren Dixon titled Welcome to the Bitch Bubble!

The collection will be comprised of stories both published and unpublished, including “Double Dutch,” “Floating Feathers, Red Wings and Wild,” “Sheela of the Good Shepherd,” “If You Can’t Take the Heat, Don’t Hire a Yeti,” and many others. Her fiction walks the line between the strange, the weird, and the humorous, often in unsettling ways.

Launch date is slated for early April 2020 through all major online retailers, and will be available in trade paperback, ebook, and limited edition hardcover formats.

Lauren Dixon knows how to shoot a rifle. She’s written lingerie catalogs for the Army, talks a lot about vaginas, and doesn’t eat animals unless they ask her to first. She’s worked as a gutter poet record store clerk, movie studio intern, pizza slinger, disaffected video store clerk, word nerd professor and counselor, gopher-extraordinaire for the Austin Film Society, and for Bill Hicks’ best friend. She’s also, basically, your garden variety cat whisperer.

She’s tried not to break into abandoned, derelict buildings and ruins since the age of seven, but can’t seem to help herself. Coincidentally, that’s when she started writing. Her work has appeared in Menacing Hedge, DIAGRAM, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, BookLifeNow, Scape, Extract(s), Oracle, Sojourn, INTER, Kadar Koli, and (R)evolve (Naropa). A Clarion West 2010 graduate, Dixon also edited the absurdist literary ‘zine Superficial Flesh. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Texas State University in San Marcos and a PhD in Humanities-Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas. She lives in complete and total sin with the writer Dallas Taylor in Seattle, Washington.