2016: The Year in Review

Our triumphs of 2016

Here at Local Hero Press, we are always striving to move forward. Some years, like 2015, we release a tremendous amount of new material. In 2016, we didn’t release nearly as much, but we’d like to think it was a successful year nonetheless. Let’s look at some of the high points.

• A story we published in our 2015 anthology Caped was nominated for an Aurora Award. Although Stephen Kotowych’s “Super Frenemies” did not win, we still think it’s a great tale.
• We released two new books in the ever-expanding Just Cause Universe: Tusks is the middle book of the “New York Trilogy,” telling the story of Mustang Sally in her role as commander of Just Cause New York. The Neighborhood Watch is our first middle-grade novel featuring characters destined to become the next generation of superheroes. The Neighborhood Watch has been one of our strongest releases to date. It’s clear the world is hungry for more stories about these young heroes. We’re going to oblige, and planning is already underway for the next book about them.
• Local Hero Press attended several cons this year, all of which turned out extremely well for us. We returned to GalaxyFest, StarFest, MileHiCon, and the Fort Collins Comic Con, and attended Myths and Legends Con for the first time. Our intent is to attend all five of these cons next year, and quite possibly one or two more. We will also be doing more panels at upcoming cons, so be sure to watch for those as well.
• A road trip to Kansas City culminated in a first-ever meeting of all the minds behind Local Hero Press as Ian Thomas Healy, Allison M. Dickson, and Alicia Howie all found themselves in the same place at the same time and enjoyed a beverage or six together.
• We introduced the Local Hero Press Dark imprint for our Mature Readers titles, and to that end acquired two novels from Allison M. Dickson: Strings, and its as-yet-unreleased sequel, Moon Gone Dark. Watch for these coming in 2017!
• We are exploring translation options, with Just Cause now available in Spanish and a Portuguese translation on the way.
• And finally, we have entered the Age of the Audiobook with Just Cause as our first release and many more to come.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2017, but that’s a post for another time. For now, we’re going to sit back on our laurels–at least briefly–and relax. Have a happy and safe new year from all of us at Local Hero Press!