Current BooksCurrent Zine

• 

  The Poison Eaters & Other Stories

  Holly Black

  In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black “assures her place as a modern fantasy master.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• 

  A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010

  December 2009:

  Organize your writing schedule, track deadlines, and learn about grants, contests, and workshop programs. Deadlines are built right in, along with spotlights on writing markets and helpful online resources.

• 

  Interfictions 2

  Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak, Editors

  November 2009:

  21 original and innovative writers including Jeffrey Ford, Brian Francis Slattery, Nin Andrews, and M. Rickert, and more. Introduction by Henry Jenkins.

• 

  Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 24

  Gwenda Bond, Abby Denson, Alexander Lamb, J. W. M. Morgan & More.

Chuntering On and On

Making a book cover @ Orbit Wed 10 Mar 2010

Don’t know who sent me here but it’s great (although so tempting to slow down!):

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Thursday: freebies, signed books, etc. Tue 9 Mar 2010

This morning the Boston Globe includes our awesome event this Thursday at 6 at the Brookline Booksmith in their Three to See mini feature.
What’s not mentioned: there will be free stuff! Franciscan will provide the candy, there will be a tiny leetle bit of chocolate, and we will have Working Writer’s Daily Planners for all [...]

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SF Hall of Fame Tue 9 Mar 2010

I was honored to be one of the jury—along with George R.R. Martin, Frank Wu, Leslie Howle, Robin Wayne Bailey, Robert Silverberg, Brooks Peck, and Therese Littleton—for the Science Fiction Museum Hall of Fame inductees this winter. Just saw that Locus (post ganked wholesale below) says the Museum has now announced the inductees and you [...]

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Latest Eruption of Fiction Into the Universe

The Poison Eaters & Other Stories

9781931520638 · Big Mouth House

Pick your poison: Vampires, devils, werewolves, faeries, or . . . ? Find them all here in Holly Black’s amazing first collection.

Read a story now: “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown”

March 11th: Boston event with Kelly Link and Cassandra Clare.

* “Black’s first story collection assures her place as a modern fantasy master…. Sly humor, vivid characters, each word perfectly chosen: These stories deserve reading again and again.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. These stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and have been reprinted in many “Best of ” anthologies. The Poison Eaters is Holly Black’s much-anticipated first collection, and her ability to stare into the void—and to find humanity and humor there—will speak to young adult and adult readers alike.

“Black (the Good Neighbors series) proves equally adept at urban fantasy and more traditional fairy tales, and her stories often feature the edgy sexuality and angst that have become her trademarks.”
—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Holly Black’s books:

“Black’s series [is] considered to have kick-started the fairy trend in young adult fantasy.”
—NY Times Book Review

“Gritty, grim, and fabulous—Holly is a master of dark magic and dark reality!”
—Tamora Pierce (author of Bloodhound)

“Holly Black is the Real Thing: a gifted writer with a solid grounding in what matters. Her stories are dark and splendid blooms rising from roots sunk deep in myth and tradition.”
—Ellen Kushner (author of The Privilege of the Sword)

“Simply put, Holly Black is one of our best writers. Enchanting and edgy, yes, but it’s the big heart in her stories that brings me back to her writing, time and again. Reading a new book by Holly is like meeting up with an old friend. They might be a little messed up from the last time you saw them, they might have some serious drama going on in their lives, but the connection is immediate, and when they’re packing up to head off again, you don’t want to let them go.”
—Charles de Lint (author of The Blue Girl)

“Dark, edgy, beautifully written, and compulsively readable, this is sure to be a word-of-mouth hit with teens.”
—Booklist

“An unusually powerful YA contemporary fantasy, and an outstanding first novel.”
—Locus

“Debauchery, despair, deceit, and grisly death–what more could you ask from a fairy tale?”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Dark, edgy fantasy.”
—School Library Journal

Table of Contents

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
A Reversal of Fortune
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Night Market
The Dog King
Virgin
In Vodka Veritas
The Coat of Stars
Paper Cuts Scissors
Going Ironside
The Land of Heart’s Desire
The Poison Eaters

Holly Black is the author of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults) and two related novels, Valiant (Norton Award winner, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, CCBC Choices) and Ironside, as well as a new novel, White Cat. She and Tony DiTerlizzi created the best-selling Spiderwick Chronicles. She is working on a graphic novel series, The Good Neighbors, with artist Ted Naifeh. She and her husband, Theo, live in Massachusetts.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Black, Holly.
The poison eaters and other stories / Holly Black. — 1st ed.
v. cm.
Contents: The coldest girl in Coldtown — A reversal of fortune — The boy who cried wolf — The night market — The dog king — Virgin — In vodka veritas — The coat of stars — Paper cuts scissors — Going Ironside — The land of heart’s desire — The poison eaters.
ISBN 978-1-931520-63-8 (alk. paper)
1.  Children’s stories, American. [1. Fantasy. 2. Short stories.]  I. Title.
PZ7.B52878Po 2010
[Fic]–dc22

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