1, 2, 3?

Wed 25 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

  1. The Storybundle: 8 short story collections including Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See and Elizabeth Hand’s Errantry.
  2. The Chemical Wedding Kickstarter!
  3. At 2 pm EST . . . And please consider adding Franciscan Children’s under the Choose Your Own Charity, we thank you very much!


PW Star for The Winged Histories

Tue 24 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

The Winged Histories cover - click to view full sizeI was very happy to see The Winged Histories receive its second starred review, this one from Publishers Weekly. Here’s a snippet:

“Perpetually and pleasantly startling and unexpected. Her prose is by turns sharp and sumptuous, and always perfectly controlled. Samatar’s writing strongly recalls Guy Gavriel Kay’s fantasy, which reads like historical fiction, but there are strains here too of Jane Austen and something wilder.”

(BTW, we have signed copies from AWP if you’d like one.)

The timing of this review is fortuitous as this coming weekend Sofia is one of the three guests of honor at WisCon 40. I don’t know which Wiscon was my first — I think I will ask Kelly who has a better memory and will confirm that, no, I was not at the first one despite being the average seven year old reader of all things who would have enjoyed it. But I have many happy memories from going to many of them over the years, and a few crap memories, too, but c’est la vie, yes? The harassment policies are stronger now and I am more likely to speak up for myself in a way I did not in the past. Ach, youth. I wonder if in 20 years time I will look back at me now and still say, Ach, youth? (Hey, if the world has not flooded by then, sure.)

One of the things I have long loved about WisCon is the self selection of the attendees. Pretty much anyone who wanders into a convention tagged feminist science fiction has done some serious thinking about the state of the world — and whether we agreed or not, I’ve been to many panels (and parties, and conversations sitting on the floor of the hallway) where the conversations about where humanity is and where it is going are second to none.

I also love the speeches (wow!), the consuite (who knows when a snack is needed?), the Tiptree dessert sale (best reason ever to eat a plate or two of desserts), the opening night at Room of One’s Own, State Street restaurants, the art show and the auction — I have a few things from the auction that are still prize possessions. And of course, I love the book room, but, hey, that would not be a surprise. There are so many good publishers and bookstores. For the past half dozen years our friend David Schwartz has run the Small Beer tables, and he’s at it again this year. If you’re there, say hi. Hi, Dave!

I am sorry to miss it this year. Maybe next? I had a great time last year — although I ran a lackluster party which did not hold a candle to previous parties, sorry attendees! Sometimes the energy is there, sometimes you flip the switch and nothing happens. Eek. Besides, this decade the Floomp is the one and only place to be. How do I know? I saw photos from last year while I was babysitting. (The childcare at WisCon is topnotch and much appreciated.)

I will miss friends, strangers, seeing Sofia and Nalo feted, wandering around the farmer’s market, escaping to Michelangelo’s and attending a reading there anyway, and so many more things. It will be a fun, fast weekend, filled with the possibilities of bending the future into better shape and I hope everyone there has a grand time.


Small Beer Podcast 22: John Crowley & Jedediah Berry & The Chemical Wedding

Mon 23 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Episode 22: In which Jedediah Berry and John Crowley discuss John’s new edition of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae. The book is illustrated throughout by carpentrix-artist  Theo Fadel, and designed by Jacob McMurray.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe to the Small Beer podcast using  iTunes or the service of your choice:

rss feed


Storybundle!

Mon 23 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

All coversThe Story Collection Storybundle is live May 11 through June 2. There are 8 DRM-free short story collection ebooks including three exclusive to this bundle. Check them out:

What I Didn’t See: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler
The collection won the World Fantasy Award and the title story won the Nebula. Fowler is the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, a New York Times Bestseller made into a film, and won the 2013 PEN/Faulkner for We are all completely beside ourselves.

The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories by Walter Jon Williams
Two stories in this collection won the Nebula Award. Williams was a Philip K Dick Award Finalist and placed numerous times for the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

Strange Ladies: 7 Stories by Lisa Mason
The collection received five stars from the San Francisco Review of Books. Mason’s books have been finalists for the Philip K Dick Award Finalist and New York Times Notable Books. Her OMNI story, “Tomorrow’s Child,” sold outright to Universal Studios.

Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner
The collection is an ebook exclusive for Storybundle! It includes forty-one stories, and has an Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler. Shiner’s work has been a finalist for the Philip K Dick Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award.

Wild Things by C. C. Finlay
The collection is a second ebook exclusive for Storybundle and has a new Afterword. A multi-award-nominated author, Finlay is the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Errantry: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand
Hand has won the World Fantasy Award four times, the Nebula twice, the Shirley Jackson twice, and the Mythopoetic Award. Her books have been both New York Times and Washington Post Notable Books.

Women Up to No Good by Pat Murphy
Two stories in the collection were nominated for the Nebula. Murphy won the Nebula twice, the World Fantasy, and the Philip K Dick Award.

6 Stories by Kathe Koja
A third Storybundle exclusive collection! Koja, author of Skin and Under the Poppy, won the Bram Stoker Award and was a Philip K Dick Award Finalist.

Pay what you want for three books; pay more than $12 ($23? $42? $1,099?) and get all 8 — plus donate a percentage to the Science Fiction Writers of America.

The Story Collection Storybundle will run only from May 11 through June 2, 2016. When it’s gone, it’s gone!

All Covers Large


Notorious

Wed 18 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Posted by: Gavin

One of these days I will sit back with a huge bowl of popcorn, a beer, and a huge grin and watch the premiere of Ayize Jama-Everett’s Liminal books on TV or at the movies. No solid news yet, but one day it will come and I will be bouncing up and down about it. In the meantime listen to Lilliam Rivera’s interview with Ayize — and the great music — on Radio Sombra.

Ayize read part of his final Liminal novel at the AWP conference in LA last month and he sang part of the song “Notorious” — which is on the episode by Turbulence but Ayize also mentions the version by Nãnci and Phoebe, listen to that one here — I love Nãnci and Phoebe’s Cypher Cycles song, too: they’re outside, it’s cold, people are going by, no matter, the singing and beatboxing is great.

A little international news: the French translation of A Stranger in Olondria has been nominated for the Prix Imaginales. Fingers crossed we will have more international news on Sofia’s books soon, too.

And a couple of fave author have new novels coming out:

Lydia Millet, whose final novel in her Dissenters series we will publish early in 2017, has a new novel Sweet Lamb of Heaven, which the New York Times and everyone loves.

And Elizabeth Hand has a new novel, Hard Light, out which continues the story (begun in Generation Loss) of Cass Neary. Here’s Megan Abbot on it:

“Nerve-jangling and addictive, Elizabeth Hand’s Hard Light offers up a signature Cass Neary tale of moral ambivalence, keen betrayal and a dark lushness that leaps off the page. And with the best subscription boxes in her dangerous curiosity, her ruthless art of survival―Hand has created an anti-hero for the ages. We’d follow her anywhere, into any glittery abyss, and do.”

and a trailer:

HARD LIGHT by Elizabeth Hand/Book Trailer from Phish Chiang on Vimeo.


Kickstarter: The First Day

Tue 10 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Wow, what a day!

It was just before Easter Sunday, and I was sitting at my table. I’d said my prayers, talking a long time as usual with my Maker and thinking about some of the great mysteries the Father of Lights had revealed to me. Now I was ready to make and to bake –

Instead of “a small, perfect unleavened wafer” as Christian Rosencreutz was going to do before someone tapped him on the shoulder, I baked some banana chocolate chip muffins. (Reviews at breakfast this morning were uniformly strong.) Nearly a hundred backers stepped up and backed the book and overnight backers kept appearing. Now the Kickstarter has broken $10,000, 1/5 of the way to making this book happen.

Besides “The First Day” — the Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover — and a couple of the limited editions, these rewards have proven popular:

  • The First Day plus: MFB Cards, the book plus a limited edition set of Magic for Beginners Playing Cards with illustrations by Shelley Jackson
  • The First Day plus: LCRW ebooks — the book plus 22 LCRW DRM-free ebooks in the format of your choice: pdf, epub, or mobi
  • The First Day plus: Endless Things — the book plus a first edition hardcover of Crowley’s Endless Things, signed with personal inscription by author.

We added a few more of each, although with some of the rewards (T-shirts, limited edition books), once they’re gone, they’re gone.

In between there were other things to do, kid had to be gotten from school, meals eaten — although I worked through a scheduled lunch with a friend, sorry Julie!, so rearranged it for today. Today there were other things, always things, and soon the kid will be out of school again and then there’s an appointment later. Hmm!

Thank you if you’ve backed it. If not: I hope you’ll consider it or spread the word. We have some nice bonuses planned!

kickstarter-logo-light


WisCon, Readercon

Tue 10 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

This week I’m shipping out books to lovely Madison, Wisconsin, for WisCon — and some freebies, check those tables! — where the most excellent Dave Schwartz will once again be tabling for Small Beer — yay! I wish we were going as it’s one of my favorite places/theoretical spaces (plus Vientiane restaurant, sniff) but with a kid in school — even though the kidtrack/child care is fab — we’re not going to make it. I know it will be a many splendored thing.

I’m also looking to see if I can find someone to table for us at Readercon as we are going to be out of town (dammit!). Anyone who likes moving 20 kg/30 lb boxes of books, sitting at a table for many hours (well, if you put it that way!) and chatting to people and selling books, send me an email!

We are going to World Fantasy in Texas where Kelly is interviewing Karen Joy Fowler — I recommend her blog. Then there’s Worldcon: a couple of years back I optimistically bought memberships. Will we get there? I’d love to, but I’m not sure. Anyone need memberships for two adults and one kid?


Kickstarter!

Mon 9 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Here we go!

You may or may not know that for a while we’ve been working on publishing a fabulous edition of a book originally published in 1616: THE CHEMICAL WEDDING by CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUTZ, A Romance in Eight Days By Johann Valentin Andreae in a new version by John Crowley.

The important news is that you can now order the hardcover on

kickstarter-logo-light

There are many reward levels available — some expensive, some not, some goofy, some unique. What you most need to know is: we’re offering The Chemical Wedding in four states: an ebook, and three hardcover editions — the only hardcover editions of this book that we will ever produce. For ease of finding, the reward levels are titled The First Day, The Second Day, and The Third Day. All the hardcover editions come with the DRM-free ebook edition.

Whether you choose to back the project or not, please help share the news of the launch and help make this idea of a beautiful book a reality. If there’s anything we can send along that might help with that, please drop me a line.

Click the image below to see a full size version of Jacob McMurray’s case design:

And here is our Kickstarter video, made by Jedediah Berry:


Victor LaValle says

Fri 6 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

“Jeffrey Ford can pull off any kind of story he damn well pleases. I was sure of that before I even reached the end of this excellent collection. By the end he’d accomplished more than I would’ve imagined possible. A Brief History of Hell offers genuinely disturbing moments but it also veers into high comedy. There’s bits of myth and history, heartbreak and profound insights. I’ve been a fan of Ford’s for years. Every new book he publishes is a reason to celebrate.”
— Victor LaValle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom


The Series Finale!

Thu 5 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Did you read Laura Lippman’s review in the The New York Times Book Review of Lydia Millet’s new novel Sweet Lamb of Heaven?

It is Anna’s voice — cool, intelligent, passionate, contradictory — that makes this novel so affecting. I resisted it initially because I was overwhelmed by my sense of dislocation, my uncertainty about where we were headed. But how I missed it when it was gone, how I yearned for it to speak to me again.

Every one of Lydia’s books fascinates in a different way. I can’t wait to read this one. A sense of dislocation? Are you a human living on this planet? Check. (I realize that not everyone here will check that box.)

All of which to say we’ve been working with Lydia on The Bodies of the Ancients, the third and final novel of her Dissenters series (following The Fires Beneath the Sea and The Shimmers in The Night), and I’m happy to tell you it is about ready to go. We have the (matching!) cover in from Sharon McGill and it is off to the proofreader soon.

Have you ever wondered how sometimes it comes down to some kids against the big baddie? The Sykes kids — Cara and her two brothers, Max, older and only half present at best, and Jax, younger and maybe many kinds of genius — think about that all the time. But their Mom, who ahs many surprises of her own, is back home and she’s going to lay out what’s happening and why. If she has time before it all goes wrong.

Here’s the start:

It was June again on Cape Cod and the summer crowds were trickling back in. The beaches wouldn’t be mobbed till July, but families from Boston were already starting to flock to the roadside seafood restaurants. From behind the smudged and scratched-up pane of the school-bus window, Jax gazed at them. They were willing to waiting long periods of time for a table; some of the grownups looked at their phones and a few ran around after their kids, but most of them did nothing much other than stare out into space, baking in sun and breathing exhaust fumes. All for the sake of eating a fried fish sandwich.
Jax shook his head.
Maybe they were hollows, he said to himself. Maybe they were mindless zombies waiting to be consumed by flame.

It is going to be great to have the whole series out. Summer days on Cape Cod . . . but with more neanderthals and maybe even aliens!

The Fires Beneath the Sea cover The Shimmers in The Night cover - click to view full size The Bodies of the Ancients cover - click to view full size


Grendel

Wed 4 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

I’ve probably posted this before but who does not need 18 minute epics about Grendel?

In my early teen years in the West Coast of Scotland this song was just a myth that we kids in physics had read about but never heard. We loved 2 minutes 45 seconds as much as anyone. We loved challenge, we loved louder, faster, more complicated. Three minutes? Seven? Take us away for longer, please. Please.

As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere
Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgar’s hall so clear
He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify
His claws will drip with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky

Then you try to place the killer’s blade in my hand
You call for justice and distort the truth
Well I’ve had enough of all your pretty pretty speeches
Receive your punishment
Expose your throats to my righteous claws
And let the blood flow, and [let the blood flow], flow, flow, flow.


Or maybe not this week

Wed 4 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Surprise. Oops. More later on other things.


This Week

Mon 2 May 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Will be interesting!