I find cities endlessly fascinating. And who doesn’t, really ? Whether you choose to live in the city for its vibrant energy, or shun cities as being chaotic, congested, and even dangerous, there’s no denying that when you concentrate a whole lot of people into one location, there’s bound to be a whole lot of fascinating stuff going on.

I’ll never forget my first time visiting Boston (I rode in on the train with my Dad and brother Scott, on the day Robert Kennedy was assassinated), Washington, D.C. (with my Uncle Wally), Los Angeles (with my Aunt Barbara). And then when I started to travel abroad, there were Seoul, South Korea, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Each city with its own character, its own allure.

And these are the qualities I’ve sought to bring to the fictitious cities in which I’ve set much of my writing. The infernal metropolis Oblivion, in LETTERS FROM HADES, and of course my far-future milieu  of PUNKTOWN.

A Kickstarter is underway for a very intriguing project; an anthology called WINTER IN THE CITY. It’s the brainchild of R. B. Wood, with Marty Halpern set to edit the anthology, and a bunch of very impressive names have expressed interest in contributing short stories – including Pat Cadigan, Harry Turtledove, Kevin J. Anderson, Tim Pratt, Mike Resnick, Paul Di Filippo…the list goes on like that.

Here’s how the book is described:

“Noisy, crowded, ever in motion, the City is an unrecognized character in Urban Fantasy. Much more than just a setting, the City is the ever-present constant companion to the characters in the genre. Sometimes antagonist, sometime protagonist, the city surrounds and engulfs a good Urban Fantasy yarn.

Winter in the City: A Collection of Urban Fantasy Tales will be a celebration of stories that take place in different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter.”

Sounds like something you’d want to read? I know it’s right up my city alley.

So check out the Kickstarter page for this worthy project, won’t you?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rbwoodwriter/winter-in-the-city-a-collection-of-urban-fantasy-t