Surreal Florida Turns 1!
Let's celebrate with a giveaway
Can you believe it? This ugly little urchin of strangeness has survived an entire year! I was completely improvising when I started this (spoiler: still am), but I’ve been having fun doing it. After a year of inspirations, stories and experiments, I’m getting closer to my goal of reaching 1,000 subscribers. Thanks to everyone who subscribed, shared or messaged me to say you enjoyed reading something. I’ve been writing about Florida for 20 years and it never gets old, but this newsletter is the first time I’ve publicly shared work done purely for the fun of it.
Let’s keep it going, shall we? You can help me reach my 1,000-subscriber goal by recommending this newsletter. Let’s spread the word about wonderfully weird Florida things and fiction. Subscribers, share or refer this newsletter and get a friend (acquaintances and people you only moderately like still count) to sign up from that share, and you’ll be entered in my latest book bundle giveaway. Double or triple your referrals to gain multiple entries for yourself. Details of the books I’m giving away are below.
Well known for comic crime novels, Carl Hiaasen will take you on a South Florida trip and then some. His novel Bad Monkey has just been turned into a series streaming on Apple TV. Staring Vince Vaughn and a quirky cast of characters, including a kinky coroner, a voodoo queen and a monkey, of course, it’s on my watch list. And the novel will also be in this giveaway box.
I’m currently reading The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton, who is known for writing historical fiction involving South Florida and Cuba. Released in April this year, the novel is a gothic mystery that unravels between two timelines (1919 and 1941) at a glamorous waterfront estate in Miami. So far, I love it.
An older but excellent collection of Florida-themed short stories that will also be included in this giveaway is by Lauren Groff and appropriately titled Florida. I liked “Eyewall,” a story in which a woman is visited by ghosts from her past while riding out a hurricane. Some of the pieces in the collection had been previously published like “The Midnight Zone,” which was featured in the New Yorker.
The rules:
1. Must reside in continental United States and be 18 years of age or older as of 8/27/24 date
2. Contest will run from 8/27/24 to 9/13/24.
3. One winner selected on 9/14/24 will be notified at the email address they used to enter the contest within 5 days of selection. That winner will receive a copy of each of the following books: Bad Monkey; Florida; and The House on Biscayne Bay.
4. If the winner fails to claim their prize within 72 hours of notification, an alternate winner may be selected.
5. By entering the contest, you agree to receive a free newsletter featuring short fiction stories and related articles. By entering the giveaway, you also agree that this author (Brenna Cuba) may contact you by email with promotional material regarding her writing. All of which you can unsubscribe from after the first email.
6. By participating, you agree to these Rules, and you represent and warrant that you meet the eligibility requirements set forth herein. This giveaway is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws.
Now, all that is well and good, but since there can only be one winner, I want to make sure everyone has something strange and fascinatingly Florida to read in the meantime. If you simply must read something by a Florida writer immediately, check out “The Wildling Year” in the Aug. 5 issue of Strange Horizons by Jamie M. Boyd. For this mother, the only thing more frightening than her son turning into a bat is perhaps that he’s growing up and apart from her.
That’s it for now, but I have many other stories and secret histories of Florida to share with you in the coming months.