When Aaron Rosenberg, Paul Kupperberg, and I conceived ReDeus–our world if all of the gods from all of the pantheons suddenly returned and demanded worship once more–some years back, we initially thought it would be a fun playground for the three of us to explore, telling stories that we’d hope would find an audience. Last year, we decided to invite our friends to come play with us, resulting in ReDeus: Divine Tales, an anthology of eleven stories that debuted at Shore Leave, marking Crazy 8 Press’ first anniversary.

We had so much fun with that, and got such excellent response from readers in person and online, we decided to do more. In fact, coming this year there will be two more collections. First up is ReDeus: Beyond Borders, a collection of tales exploring how the gods settle back in around the world.. We’ll see some returning characters from the first book and some very familiar gods, but our writers have also chosen to explore some nooks and crannies about life within the first two decades after the gods of myth have all returned. Everything has not necessarily turned out for the best, especially in some lands, nor is it all bad as we will discover. And with so many gods vying for worship, there’s some interesting jockeying going on, for lands and for people. It’s a vastly different world the gods have discovered and while some embrace the new technologies, others find it abhorrent. That in itself makes life among the mortals complicated, an ever-changing struggle to live and provide for the families.

Returning to ReDeus are the recently Nebula-nominated Lawrence M. Schoen, Scott Pearson, Steve Wilson, Dave Galanter, Phil Giunta, William Leisner, and Allyn Gibson. Joining us for the first time are Kelly Meding, Janna Silverstein, David McDonald, Steve Lyons, and our fellow Latchkeys author Lorraine Anderson. Aaron, Paul, and I will all have stories in this as well.

We also just got in the cover, from the talented Lorraine Schleter, and display it here for the first time. Cool, huh?

The book will debut at Balticon in late May and several of us will be on hand to sell copies and chat it up. Of course, it will be available as an e-book for the Kindle and the NOOK as well.