Wonder City Stories

What is Wonder City Stories?

Wonder City Stories is an ongoing serial that explores a richly-populated superhero comic book universe through the eyes of a group of compelling characters who aren't usually seen in comic books: women, elderly people, POCs, LGBTQI people, and more.

It's a universe where the equivalent of Superman is a short, round, middle-aged black woman, and its version of Captain America is a homeless, elderly veteran living out of her van. Where superpowers don't guarantee special treatment, money, or success, and where time continues to flow forward so that most people age and have to live with consequences, with no reboots or retcons.

Wonder City Stories is a cyberfunded creativity project. Cyberfunded creativity allows writers and other artistic creators to sell their goods directly to audiences online, and further allows people to support creators they admire, which encourages those creators to produce more of what their audience members enjoy.

The first two volumes of the web serial have been published as novels, and Wonder City Stories was a 2015 Lambda Literary Award finalist!


You can find links to buy them in paperback or electronic form at judemclaughlin.com.

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Getting Started in Wonder City

The Table of Contents
The Cast of Characters

Ways to Read WCS
Reviews of Wonder City Stories

Links to Online Serial Fiction and Webcomics

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How to Help Power Wonder City Stories

I started writing Wonder City Stories because I wanted to read comic-book-style stories with solid female characters, characters of color, and queer characters, and there weren't many around. I hope that these stories and characters help fill that gap for some of my readers, and provide entertainment for everyone who reads them.

However, the stories can't happen without refills of the brainjuice that powers them! So here's what I'd love to feed the power grid, so I can keep the writing going. If you do any of these things, you are encouraging me to write more.

1. Feedback! Comments to me, on Dreamwidth or personal email (jude DOT mclaughlin AT gmail DOT com) are greatly appreciated.
2. More readers! Please feel free to rec Wonder City Stories to anyone you think might enjoy it.
3. Reviews! Especially for the novel on Amazon, if possible. Honest ones: I hope that means they're pretty good, but definitely honest.
4. Vote for us at Top Web Fiction!
5. Link WCS on your blog or website!
6. Donate! This is cyber-funded creativity. I'm happy to accept tips.

7. Buy the novel!

And if you don't do any of that, please keep reading Wonder City Stories anyway. That's what it's for.

This post lists the Wonder City Stories in order.

Timeframes in the Wonder City universe:
Volume 1: September 2009 - New Year's Eve 2009
Volume 2: Xmas 2009 - Summer 2010
Volume 3: March 2012 - September 2012
Volume 4: April 2015 - ?

( Volume 1: Of Gods and Little Fishes )

( Volume 2: Deep Freeze )

( Volume 3: Trust No #1 )

( Volume 4: Whose Dreams Come True )

( Interludes )

( Compass Rose )

Sometimes it's hard to find good reading material online. Here's my small contribution to the filter and referral system!
( Read more... )

In celebration of Louisa May Alcott's birthday tomorrow, if you want to pick up a copy of either Wonder City Stories or Ephemera, use discount code 7NTY4Z54 for $2 off only in their respective Createspace stores (Wonder City Stories and Ephemera).

I'm not sure whether you can stack the discount to make one purchase, or if one has to purchase separately. Createspace isn't particularly clear about it. :)

Discounts will stay until this Friday, 12/2.

Let me know if the code doesn't work -- I'll work on a fix asap.

Hi, all!

A couple of things I'd like to draw your attention to:

1. DANGEROUS WOMEN is an anthology of queer women supervillain stories, and I have a Wonder City short story in it! Our Kickstarter is nearly funded, but we would love to hit our stretch goals, which include author bonuses and an audiobook!

2. EPHEMERA is, universe willing an' the crick don't rise, going to be available on OCTOBER 31.

I have a story in the upcoming anthology Dangerous Women! It's a Wonder City universe story, starring a couple of folks' favorite characters, and will fit into the novel timeline between Ephemera (COMING THIS MONTH) and the third novel (from the story arc currently titled "Trust No #1").

The Kickstarter launches this Saturday, so please consider supporting us and/or signal-boosting!

(Please? I even filmed video segments for the Kickstarter video... :) )

I am updating volume 3 to excise Angelica's "other job" (i.e., sex work) because, in my continuing education and attempts to be a cis ally, I (finally) realized that it was a harmful stereotype, as well as the relatively minor issue of not adding anything to the story.

When I publish volume 3 as a novel, it will be completely gone, and in the meantime, I am trying to make this version less problematic. If you happen to be reading (or rereading) volume 3 and stumble on a reference to her studio or other job, please please drop a comment to mark it so I can update it.

I apologize for not realizing and fixing this sooner.

Hi, all!

Things have continued hectic, and my writer's block has been thawing slowly. Still, I'm pleased to say that there has been some progress on new episodes for volume 4, even if not as much as I'd like.

I've been writing Wonder City Stories for SEVEN years now! WOOT.

I'll be doing a reading with some of my fellow Broad Universe members at Wiscon 40: 1 PM in Conference 2 on Saturday (alas, opposite Nalo Hopkinson's reading!).

My other two Wiscon panels are:
- Hequisitor, Shequisitor, Theyquisitor: The Queer Gaming Experience, 4 PM Friday, Conference 5
- Writing and Tabletop Role Playing Gaming: Intersections and Divergences, 4 PM Saturday, Conference 4

I will be attending the Lambda Literary Awards Gala on June 6 to see whether or not Wonder City wins its category. Keep your fingers crossed; I'm up against seven other finalists in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category!

I'm hoping that Ephemera will be ready to go by July. I've seen the gorgeous pencils for the cover, and am aching to see the completed version. :)

Lastly, I have posted a cleaned-up and edited version of "Truth, Lady Justice, and the American Way" for Kindle. Amazon reviews, if you're so inclined, would be fantastic!

Hi, all!

Today is my birthday: if you feel inclined toward it, more reviews at Amazon or GoodReads are always welcome gifts!

This winter has been a combination of travel, tons of freelancing, stupid colds, and writer's block. Wheeeeee! I'm slowly working on more episodes for volume 4, but it's going to be a bit longer before I've gotten the story hammered into the shape I want it to be. I'm hoping to start posting in mid-March.

In other news, my cover artist, the wondrous Alex Heberling, is going to be starting on the cover for the next book, Ephemera (volume #2) soon! I still plan to get that book out this summer -- whether that will be early summer (and in time for WisCon) or late summer remains to be seen. :}

Still, I'm part of the Broad Universe RapidFire Reading at WisCon this year, so if you'll be at WisCon, please include us in your panel/reading plans!

I'm going to haul my butt back into blogging on my author site too, so at least there's that to look forward to? And more volume 4. Hopefully as the weather evens out and improves, my writer's block will start to dissolve!

Hope you all are doing well, and I'll see you soon!

I'm going to take January to do some catch-up writing, since the holidays tapped my last buffer. In the meantime, I'll cross-post the short character overviews I'm doing over on my blog at here for your amusement. This is Megan as presented in the novel. :)

From Parapedia Staff:
We sent out short surveys to many characters in Wonder City Stories to see what information they might be willing to share. Our first survey came back from Megan Amazon!

Megan Pantariste Amazon

Birthdate: 30 November 1986

Height: 7'11.5"

Weight: None of anyone's business

Race: Biracial at least, your guess is as good as mine

Spandex name: FUCK NO

Sign: "No Trespassing"

Zodiac sign (put "Western" in there, you ethnocentric jerks): Sagittarius

Blood type: O negative (yes, ha ha, let's laugh at the universal donor who can't donate blood)

College degree: BA in Psychology from University of California, Berkeley

Paranormal powers:
- Strength: Class 6
- Invulnerability: Class 6

Other notes: Why am I doing this again?