Holiday Deadlines 2018

Thu 15 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., shipping news | Comments Off on Holiday Deadlines 2018 | Posted by: Gavin

Boom! Holiday Shipping Deadlines! Our office will be closed from December 21 – January 2, 2019. It is unlikely we will ship over that period. Weightless Books is there for you: 24/7/365.

tl;dr order now

Here are the last order dates for Small Beer Press — which, in case you’re thinking about waiting until the last minute to order some Vandana Shivas are about the same as every other biz in the USA. Dates for international shipping are also here.

All orders include free first class (LCRW) or media mail (books) shipping in the USA.

But: Media Mail parcels are the last to go on trucks. If the truck is full, Media Mail does not go out until the next truck. And if that one’s full, too, . . . you get the idea. So, if you’d like to guarantee pre-holiday arrival, please add Priority Mail:

Domestic Mail Class/Product	Deadline
Media Mail (estimate, not guaranteed)	Dec. 14
First Class Mail (LCRW only)	Dec. 20
Priority Mail	Dec. 20
Priority Mail Express	Dec. 22

Order a book today!

Just like to read a book, don’t care about a ding or two?

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A Star Sooner

Thu 15 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Sarah Pinsker, starred review | Comments Off on A Star Sooner | Posted by: Gavin

The first trade review is in for Sarah Pinsker’s debut short story collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea and it is a star from Publishers Weekly! Next year’s going to be all Sarah, all the time: her debut novel Song for a New Day comes out later in the year from Ace. What fun! For the moment, here’s the review:

This beautiful, complex debut collection assembles some of Nebula winner Pinsker’s best stories into a twisting journey that is by turns wild, melancholic, and unsettling. In the opening story, an injured farmer adjusts to living with a cybernetic arm that thinks it is a stretch of road in Colorado. “In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind” tells the story of a woman piecing together her husband’s enigmatic past after a stroke leaves him speechless. “No Lonely Seafarer” pits a stablehand against a pair of sirens as he attempts to save his town from its restless sailors. In all of Pinsker’s tales, humans grapple with their relationships to technology, the supernatural, and one another. Some, such as Ms. Clay in “Wind Will Rove,” are trying to navigate the space between technology as preservation and technology as destruction. Others, such as Kima in “Remembery Day,” rely on technology to live their lives. The stories are enhanced by a diverse cast of LGBTQ and nonwhite characters. Pinsker’s captivating compendium reveals stories that are as delightful and surprising to pore through as they are introspective and elegiac.

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Andy Duncan, An Agent of Utopia

Wed 14 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Andy Duncan | Comments Off on Andy Duncan, An Agent of Utopia | Posted by: Gavin

A year or so ago when I scheduled the release date of An Agent of Utopia I didn’t realize it would coincide with one of the most stressful days of the year but now that the mid-term elections are mostly done (ha), here’s something I’ve been looking forward to writing on the release of Andy Duncan’s second North American/third collection:

Andy Duncan is one of those people in the background helping everyone along. He’s the hardest working man in show business! He’s a great teacher. He’s lively on social media and at conventions and conferences. He has been a local news reporter, written for trucking magazines, and has a fun book on Alabama Curiosities. Should you get a chance to hear him read you should take it as he is a fabulous storyteller. One year at the World Fantasy Awards everyone sang him a song. How many people has that happened to? One.

Enough chat? Listen to Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe chat with Andy on Episode 340(!) of the Coode Street Podcast.

Andy Duncan is not, he’ll happily admit, the fastest writer in the world and for a couple of years I kind of thought this book might be the one that got away. 

In March 2012 Kelly was the Guest of Honor at the ICFA conference in Florida and she and I chatted to Andy and Sydney and had a grand old time. (Sydney/ICFA arranged for babysitting so that I could go to the banquet: now that’s looking after people with kids in tow!) A few days later Andy messaged me on Facebook — perhaps the worst way (involving words) that I can be contacted; I’d be happy if FB disappeared completely — and mentions Beluthahatchie and Other Stories is out of print and maybe we could talk . . . so I emailed him and with a click and a zoom, eighteen months fly by and we have a signed contract. 

Eighteen months? I’m slow with contracts (I have to find time to stop and think about every word), but eighteen months is far longer than most of our contracts. Who can say why. Weren’t we all filled with joy and delight all through 2012, 2013, and 2014? Hmm. So at last it was signed, a check delivered, and I added the book to our schedule. Then . . . I pushed it back, and back, and eventually I moved it to the theoretical category until one happy day in August 2016 while we were visiting family in Scotland Andy emailed the title story and with that, suddenly, the book was done. 

An Agent of Utopia is a wide-ranging collection and, as Matthew Keeley notes in his Tor.com review, “The title story of the new collection is, oddly enough, perhaps the least characteristic in the collection.” He goes on to say “An Agent of Utopia must rank as one of this year’s best collections. It’s on bookstore shelves now and deserves to be on your shelves soon” a lovely sentiment I agree with. If you can’t get Andy Duncan to come and spin a dozen tales just for you, pick up the book instead.

Read a story:

Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse
Slow as a Bullet
Close Encounters

 

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Air Logic on Edelweiss + Updated Cover

Tue 13 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Art, Laurie J. Marks | Comments Off on Air Logic on Edelweiss + Updated Cover | Posted by: Gavin

Laurie J. Marks’s final Elemental Logic novel will be going out to reviewers by the end of the month — reviewers who like electronic versions can go right now this very instant directly to Edelweiss.

And: Here’s Kathleen Jennings’s near-final cover for Air Logic. This series just knocks me over every time I go back to it. If it’s new to you, you have a huge immersive compulsively readable story to dig into. As Delia Sherman says,

The ebooks of the first 3 books are available now and the reprint dates (at last!) for the first two books, Fire Logic and Earth Logic, are below.

Reviewers, booksellers, librarians, lend me your ears! We are going to make a fuss about this series and this book!

Book 1 Fire Logic — January 22, 2019 — Edelweiss

Book 2 Earth Logic — February 19, 2019 — Edelweiss

Book 3 Water Logic — Edelweiss

Book 4 Air Logic —June 2019 — Edelweiss

And, fingers crossed, Laurie will be at WisCon to launch it!

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Vote? Vote!

Tue 6 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Vote? Vote! | Posted by: Gavin

Hey readers in the USA, please go out and vote today!

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World Fantasy 2018

Fri 2 Nov 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Cons | Comments Off on World Fantasy 2018 | Posted by: Gavin

Down in Baltimore the 2018 World Fantasy Convention is in full swing this weekend and I’m delighted to say that more than a handful of Small Beer authors and their books are there. Chris Logan Edwards of Tigereyes Books has the following titles in stock (along with all the other goodies that he carries!) and many of those authors will be stopping by to sign:

Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters
John Crowley, The Chemical Wedding
Andy Duncan, An Agent of Utopia
Jeffrey Ford, A Natural History of Hell
Eileen Gunn, Questionable Practices
Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees and The River Bank
Christopher Rowe, Telling the Map
Delia Sherman, Young Woman in a Garden

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Read Moonkids

Tue 30 Oct 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis | Comments Off on Read Moonkids | Posted by: Gavin

by Abbey Mei Otis. Now online at The Offing:

No denying it, though. Moonkids, they’re kind of stubby.
On account of them growing up on the moon. Your muscles
learn differently in moon gravity. Your bones form light like
a bird’s. Used to not even be possible to make the transition,
you’d touch down into earthpull and collapse like fast-melting
candles. Too many fractures for all the king’s horses and all the
king’s men. Way, way too many for Earth doctors to deal with.
(Earth doctors are known for not giving a shit.) Now, though,
they’ve got ways around it. They’ve got operations and stuff.
Every moonkid’s got incision scars in the same places.
Colleen likes that her friend Tesla works for Suzo too. Tesla
got promoted to assistant manager a couple weeks ago, because
she’s so bomb with the business side of things. Encouragement
is good for Tesla. The people side of things, she has more trouble
with.

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Startlingly Original and Deeply Familiar

Mon 8 Oct 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., John Schoffstall | Comments Off on Startlingly Original and Deeply Familiar | Posted by: Gavin

I slept through most of Saturday due to having a cold, yay! Would I have slept the day away if it wasn’t the weekend, who knows? I could be a good bot and go to work and ship stuff out and infect everyone. But the question was moot, so sleep it was. Phew.

Sunday brought a relief from the cold and — ignoring for a moment the stupidity of the fools in charge — something good to read: the New York Times, which included a fantastic review by Amal El-Mohtar of John Schoffstall’s debut novel Half-Witch. Although if I’m honest, as per usual I read the business section first (I recommend the interview with Eileen Fisher) and the review section — where you owe it to yourself and this world to read Emma Gonzalez’s advice.

Later I found the review of John’s novel and took this photo with flowers that had been sent to Kelly in the background:

“John Schoffstall’s Half-Witch is one of those books that are simultaneously so startlingly original and deeply familiar I can’t quite believe they’re debuts. . . . Half-Witch is a marvel of storytelling, balancing humor, terror and grace. Lizbet is so earnestly good, in a way that I think has fallen out of fashion but that I loved reading. She and Strix are a perfect double act, and the shape and texture of the friendship they build is a joy to discover. . . . This is a book of crossing and mixing, of mashing and counter-mashing, with surprise and wonder the result. The ending suggests a sequel, which I hope comes about; the book’s last act is full of revelations (as it were) about the especially strange nature of Lizbet’s world that I’m keen to see Schoffstall develop and explore. But Half-Witch is also fully satisfying in and of itself.”
— Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

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MacWhat?

Thu 4 Oct 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Link: MacFound

Kelly Link!

<Keanu Reeves voice>Woah. </Keanu Reeves voice>

Um. ZOMG. Sale?

ETA: Yes, we did throw in an extra book to that order, thanks again!

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An Afternoon in Hanover, NH

Wed 3 Oct 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Award Season, Juan Martinez | Comments Off on An Afternoon in Hanover, NH | Posted by: Gavin

On Monday I drove up to New Hampshire to attend a panel and reception with the winners of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award:

In the category of debut speculative fiction, the award goes to Best Worst American, by Juan Martinez (Small Beer Press, 2017). The co-winners of the inaugural prize in the open category are Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications, 2016), and On the Edge of Gone, by Corinne Duyvis (Amulet/Abrams, 2016).

I’d never been to the town of Hanover before and it seemed lovely and absolutely full of students. The panel and reception were held in the Filene Auditorium, which, of course, was in the basement. NYT bestseller and author of the recent hit The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley, the principle award judge for the award this year, was the chair of the panel (bad pre-panel pictures below, sorry!) and she had some fine questions for Martinez (who was brought in from Chicago) and Duyvis (who came in from Amsterdam) — Lavie Tidhar was travel-delayed as he came in from London and arrived in time for the reception.

After the panel, everyone enjoyed the buffet as the winners signed books and chatted with attendees, who included students, faculty, a local science fiction book club, and more. Besides being flown in and put up in a local hotel, the winners all received a check for $5,000 and a physical award — which maybe the university or one of the winners will post a picture of. All in all, it was a lovely first celebration and fingers crossed I’ll go up again in years to come.

ETA: Read more in The Dartmouth.

 

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2nd Star for Terra Nullius

Fri 28 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman, starred review | Comments Off on 2nd Star for Terra Nullius | Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted to see that Claire G. Coleman’s debut Terra Nullius has received its second starred review, this one from Library Journal! I saw it on Barnes & Noble, so go there to read the whole thing:

“Demonstrates Coleman’s promise as a creative storyteller. VERDICT Highly recommended.”
—Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

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An Agent of Utopia gets a PW Star!

Mon 24 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Andy Duncan, starred review | Comments Off on An Agent of Utopia gets a PW Star! | Posted by: Gavin

Following the first pre-pub trade review for Andy Duncan’s An Agent of Utopia (“Stories that borrow from American folklore, history, and a plethora of literary sources to forge fantasy worlds that are intimately familiar. . . . A rare book that blends fun with fury and tomfoolery with social consciousness.” — Kirkus) here’s the second . . . and it’s a star from Publishers Weekly!

Zany and kaleidoscopic, the 12 stories in Duncan’s third collection draw on Southern traditions of tall tales and span time periods, continents, and the realm of human imagination to create an intricate new mythology of figures from history, literature, and American folklore. . . .  This is a raucous, fantastical treat. (Nov.)

Read the full review here.

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There Is No Nobody’s Land

Thu 20 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman | Comments Off on There Is No Nobody’s Land | Posted by: Gavin

A year ago on September 7th I queried Hachette Australia about North American rights to Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius. I’d read Veronica Sullivan’s review in the Guardian and was immediately intrigued. Intrigued doesn’t quite catch the level of my curiosity, though. When I was a kid one of my favorite novels was John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids — which happily for me is in print from our friends at the New York Review Books — a post apocalyptic story of a kid who realizes that his differences puts him in danger. The Guardian review reminded me of The Chrysalids and when I looked for a US edition of Terra Nullius I was frustrated, then delighted, to find it did not yet exist.

When I reached out to Hachette Australia they first emailed then mailed me the book, the latter took some time thanks to Massachusetts being quite far from Australia, and on October 27th I made an offer on North American rights. By November 3rd negotiations were concluded and we were a go to publish. In the intervening eleven months we’ve sent review copies hither and yon throughout the US (and a few to Canada).

Terra Nullius starts with a kid, Jacky, running, and never stops. It is a page turner that will resonate uncomfortably for many readers in postcolonial countries and I believe it will be yet another in the many steps needed in the ongoing discussions of land ownership, land use, reparations, owning, belonging, home, &c. in North America the way it has in Australia.

When the book came out in Australia, Claire was featured at many book festivals and interviewed a lot. I’ve listened to most of these (links copied from her website, thanks, Claire!) and recommend leaving a tab open and listening to a few. Besides being a great writer, she is a live spark and well worth listening to:

Home Truths: Telling Australian Stories. Recoded at Sydney Writers festival, on ABC iView.

Radio National the Hub on Books Great Debate – Write What You Know on ABC Radio National.

I had a great chat with Andrew Pople on Final Draft, 2ser Sydney, you can hear it here.

The second episode of The Meanjin Podcast has me talking to Jonathan Green.

I spoke to Jonathan Green about Australia, the White Invaders and who the real nomads are on Blueprint for Living.

I spoke to Beverley Wang for It’s Not a Race Season 2 Episode 2 – For Us Happy Endings Feel Dishonest.

Panel at Melbourne Writers Festival 2017, facilitated by Adelle Walsh, featuring Samantha Shannon, Sami Shah, Garth Nix and Me – Reality and Fantasy (Youtube)

Rhianna Patrick interviewed some authors, including me, at Genrecon for her podcast.

The Wire – Reframing Australia’s History of Invasion. My interview with Bonnie Parker.

I was on ABC Brisbane on the 4th of July 2017 talking about my book and what inspired me to write it for NAIDOC weekhttp://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/evenings/evenings/8657932. I am on at about 1 hour and 29 minutes in.

Hear me talk about Aboriginal literature, family history and the frontier wars on Brisbane Murri Radiohttp://www.989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/claire-coleman/

I was interviewed by Triple J breakfast, it’s somewhere in this podcast: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/media/s4497391.htm

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Malaprop’s and Moon Palace

Wed 19 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, Nathan Ballingrud, readings | Comments Off on Malaprop’s and Moon Palace | Posted by: Gavin

Do you live in Asheville or Minneapolis and just read Gary K. Wolfe’s review column and were wondering what Abbey Mei Otis’s stories sounded like? Good news pour vous! We’ve just added two more readings for Abbey Mei Otis in those very towns! The first is on Sunday, September 30 at 3 pm in the afternoon, where Abbey will be in conversation with Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters.

Sun., 9/30, 3 p.m. In conversation with Nathan Ballingrud
Malaprop’s
55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC
828-254-6734

And the second reading is at Moon Palace (yes, the store that just added LCRW!), where Abbey will read with Anya Johanna DeNiro:

10/23, 7 p.m.
Moon Palace Books
3032 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis MN  55406
612.454.0455

Recent Reviews

“Otis actually belongs with writers like Kelly Link, who freely borrow genre materials to construct elegant literary fictions far more about character than spectacle. . . . As odd as these worlds are, they are populated by sharply drawn characters we come to care about through Otis’ luminescent prose.” — Gary K. Wolfe, Chicago Tribune

“Otis doesn’t use science fiction to lift the veil of the familiar and peer at what’s beneath. Instead, with great shrewdness and courage and originality, she reveals that the veil was itself an illusion, and the familiar a construct of anything but.” — Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, IGMS

“Dreamy but with an intense physicality that belies the violence behind the longing.”— Everdeen Mason, Washington Post Book World

“It’s a collection that will keep your heart half in your throat and half in your toes, and I recommend it.” — Tor.com

“In these stories, yes, there are aliens, robots, sex dungeons, chicken puppets, ghosts, and blobs of unknown origin and nature. But there is also tenderness and the absence of it. There is prose that delights. There are plastic people, and people not sure if they can bleed. What these stories do best is sci-fi. What these stories do best is love. And if you need to distinguish between the two, then Abbey Mei Otis is here to deny you. For if barriers between what is ‘science fiction’ and what is ‘literature’ haven’t already broken down, then this collection is Abbey Mei Otis burying a glowing-neon hammer into that tired beige wall.”— Columbia Journal

“Many of the stories share an emphasis on physicality and embodiment, whether it be bodies distorted by alien environments or artifacts or people thrown into their own bodies through suffering at other, human hands. . . . highly recommended for anyone interested in weird fiction, sf, or just a breathtaking reading experience.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Abbey Mei Otis’s stories are incandescently dark, if you can imagine such a thing (but maybe only she can). Full of danger and strangeness, but written in carbonated and astounding prose that is all her own, these stories create worlds and will make you contemplate (and worry about) our own.” — Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck & Other Stories

“These are amazing, electric stories—you can feel the live wire sizzling in them from the first sentence, and you know you’re about to take a wild, unforgettable trip. Abbey Mei Otis is my favorite kind of writer: her worlds are uniquely strange yet eerily relatable, and she knows how to make you laugh and weep at the same time.” — Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“Abbey Mei Otis deposits the reader in bargain bin worlds remaindered from the near futures of the more fortunate, worlds filled with space junk and toxic glitter, gel candy and gutted elk. These are stories for the many, for lovers and mourners, for those who want to split their minds from their bodies and those who know how to merge their organs in a single skin. In Alien Virus Love Disaster, language itself is in phase change. This book is a volatile, dangerous gift.” — Joanna Ruocco, author of Dan

“After I read this book, I woke up with bumpy, reddish growths along my spine. They burst, releasing marvels: aliens, robots, prefab houses, vinyl, chainlink, styrofoam, star stuff, tales from the edge of eviction, so many new worlds. Alien Virus Love Disaster is a super-intelligent infection. Let Abbey Mei Otis give you some lumps.” — Sofia Samatar, author of Tender

“Abbey Mei Otis speaks for a generation of people with fractured futures and complicated hopes. It is a collection about right now.” — Maureen F. McHugh, author of After the Apocalypse

“The aliens have already arrived in ‘Blood Blood.’ Abbey Mei Otis has them visiting in a way we’ve seldom seen before in genre science-fiction: Not as hunters, conquerors or even ambassadors, but as wildlife observers. . . . As brilliant as this cosmos and narrative is, Otis also manages to supply rich characterizations. It’s a concept sci-fi piece that tries something new and succeeds on every level.” —Matt Funk, Full Stop

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Karen Joy Fowler @ Smith College

Mon 10 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Karen Joy Fowler | Comments Off on Karen Joy Fowler @ Smith College | Posted by: Gavin

Last week Karen Joy Fowler was in town (so we have signed copies of What I Didn’t See) to read at Smith College as her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was this year’s First Year Experience Smith Reads choice.

She was joined on stage by Ruth Ozeki and they chatted and Ruth asked questions the students had emailed her. After the reading there was a rush as attendees lined up to get their books signed. I was delighted to take this panoramic shot of the line as a reminder of the enthusiasm of readers for this author and her book — click to enbiggen:

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One More Week to Terra Nullius

Tue 4 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman | Comments Off on One More Week to Terra Nullius | Posted by: Gavin

We had a slight printer error and while I sort that out with them Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius will be delayed a little. Some initial copies have gone out so you may find it in stores and the ebook is available (DRM-free as ever from Weightless) in all the usual places.

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Not Like Anything I’ve Recently Read

Tue 28 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., CLRW, LCRW, Reviews, WCLW, WHAT, WLCR | Comments Off on Not Like Anything I’ve Recently Read | Posted by: Gavin

Rich Horton included a couple of stories from this spring’s LCRW 37 in a recent short fiction roundup in Locus and since the reviews are now online I’ve reprinted them here because the stories are excellent and should be widely read. As I went to find Maria Romasco Moore’s twitter ID to tag her in the review I saw on her website that besides her fantastically titled forthcoming chapbook from Rose Metal Press, Ghostographs, this summer she sold her debut novel, congratulations, Maria!

Someone on twitter recently asked if we publish novellas and I answered that we sometimes do in LCRW — although if asked in person I usually add something to indicate that  a novella has to be as good as as 2-3 short stories. James Sallis’s “Dayenu” is. Last night I was looking at one of Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Bests Science Fiction and I very selfishly missed him again thinking that this was a story he would have enjoyed. It’s funny how much one person’s reading can influence so many others. Ach. Anyway, here are the reviews:

“Dying Light” by Maria Romasco Moore (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, March) is a strong story set on a starship carrying passengers in suspended animation, heading to a newly colonized world. The passengers live in “the light”, a virtual environment, to keep them mentally sharp. The narrator, Ruth, is worried about her wife, Mag, who has become self-destructive – an odd thing in the “light”, where one can do what they want to their virtual bodies without necessarily affecting their “real” body. The real problem is Ruth and Mag’s relationship, which the story foregrounds. It’s well enough executed, but what intrigued me was the backgrounded SFnal aspects – the “light” and how it works, the hints about the state of Earth society and how that affects the colony’s prospects. Neat stuff, even if I’m not quite sure I read it the way the writer intended.

Even better is a remarkable long story by James Sallis, “Dayenu“. It opens with the narrator doing an unspecified but apparently criminal job, and then fleeing the house he was squatting in, and meeting an old contact for a new identity. Seems like a crime story – and Sallis is primarily a crime novelist – but details of unfamiliarity mount, from the pervasive surveillance, to a changed geography, to the realiza­tion that the rehab stint the narrator mentioned right at the start was a rather more extensive rehab than we might have thought. Memories of wartime service are detailed, and two partners in particular – a woman named Fran or Molly, a man named Merrit Li. Page by page the story seems odder, and the destination less expected. The prose is a pleasure, too – with desolate rhythms and striking images. Quite a work, and not like anything I’ve recently read.

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Author exposes Scuppernong to ‘Alien Virus’

Mon 20 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis | Comments Off on Author exposes Scuppernong to ‘Alien Virus’ | Posted by: Gavin

Not our title, but a little irresistible: Ian McDowell reviews AVLD and interviews Abbey Mei Otis in NC’s YES! Weekly — obviously I am going to love any paper with an exclamation mark in the title —  Author exposes Scuppernong to ‘Alien Virus’.

If you’d rather listen to an interview, T. Hetzel interviewed Abbey for WCBN’s Living Writer series.

Also, Columbia Journal: “What these stories do best is sci-fi. What these stories do best is love. And if you need to distinguish between the two, then Abbey Mei Otis is here to deny you.”

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Whee!

Tue 14 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, readings, tour | Comments Off on Whee! | Posted by: Gavin

And off it goes! Today we are publishing a fantastic first book of stories, Alien Virus Love Disaster by Abbey Mei Otis. This book tore into our hearts and then knocked our heads off. This is contemporary fiction through an sf&f lens. Things drop out the sky, there are aliens, there are crappy jobs, there are families doing what it takes to not lose the family house. Booklist gave it a starred review (you can read that here), Everdeen Mason liked it (as per the Washington Post Book World), and Brit Mandelo just reviewed it (“It’s a collection that will keep your heart half in your throat and half in your toes, and I recommend it”) yesterday on Tor.com.

At AWP this March Abbey was part of a huge group reading with Juan Martinez and a number of Black Ocean and Third Man Books poets and writers at a bar in Tampa, FL, and she was amazing. Being a young and enthusiastic author Abbey is on tour starting tonight. Later in autumn she’ll be reading at Malaprop’s and then — if all goes well — Moon Palace in Minneapolis. Don’t miss her!

You can read 3 stories now:

The title story — as recommended by Dan Chaon — on Electric Lit’s Recommended Reading.
“Blood, Blood” on Strange Horizons.
“Sweetheart” on Tor.com.
Prefer print? Read “Rich People” in the new issue of Tin House.

So here’s your chance to catch an author at the start of it all. Get ye to a bookstore and see Abbey Mei Otis’s August 2018 Debut Tour

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Terra Nullius gets a Reading Group Guide

Mon 13 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman, Reading Group Guide | Comments Off on Terra Nullius gets a Reading Group Guide | Posted by: Gavin

Not recommended until you’ve read it, but once you have read Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius and you really want to talk about it, we have you covered: you can come back here and download the Terra Nullius Reading Group Guide (0 downloads).

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Washington Post Says

Fri 3 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis | Comments Off on Washington Post Says | Posted by: Gavin

This weekend, following quickly on the heels of the starred Booklist review, Everdeen Mason gives Abbey Mei Otis’s debut Alien Virus Love Disaster a standout review in the Washington Post Book World:

Abbey Mei Otis is an exciting voice in contemporary science fiction. Her new book “Alien Virus Love Disaster” (Small Beer) is a short-story collection that explores those left behind in typical sweeping science fiction adventures — the children, discarded robots, school dropouts and blue-collar workers with the misfortune of being near something toxic. A stand-out story is “Moonkids,” about young humans from the moon who find themselves living and working on a beach town on Earth after being expelled from lunar society. Humans born on the moon end up becoming physically changed from the atmosphere, and if they fail a high-stakes exam, they are returned to Earth with nothing to do but be gawked at by normal people. Like many of Otis’s stories, it’s dreamy but with an intense physicality that belies the violence behind the longing.

The book comes out on the 14th and Abbey will be reading at the following five fantastic indie bookstores:

Tue., 8/14, 7 p.m.
Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
216.321.2665

Wed. 8/15 7:30 p.m.
Two Dollar Radio HQ
1124 Parsons Ave., Columbus, OH 43206
614-725-1505

Thu 8/16/18, 7 p.m.
Literati Bookstore
124 E Washington, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734.585.5567

Tues. 8/21/18, 7 p.m.
Scuppernong Books
304 S. Elm St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Wed. 8/22/18 7 p.m.
Flyleaf Books
752 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Chapel Hill, NC 27514

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Up to Saving God?

Thu 2 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., John Schoffstall, Reviews | Comments Off on Up to Saving God? | Posted by: Gavin

Half-Witch by John Schoffstall, our latest title from Big Mouth House receives a lovely review by Colleen Mondor in the new issue if Locus.

There is something deeply satisfying about a traditional fantasy with plucky protagonists, nefarious villains, hungry goblins, tricky witches, and a dangerous and difficult quest. In John Schofstall’s Half-Witch, everything you expect to find is present, plus a lot of unlikely twists and turns that make this adventure a classic read. . . . As they continue their quest, Lisbet and Strix become the very definition of plucky, and it is hard not cheer them on. They are charming characters who overcome all sorts of fantastical obstacles and forge a powerful friendship.”

There’s more, including the note about saving God but you’ll have to get Locus to read that. In the meantime, pick up a copy of Half-Witch while you can still get a first edition hardcover . . . !

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PW Star!

Mon 30 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman, starred review | Comments Off on PW Star! | Posted by: Gavin

Sliding in here from sunny yet muggy San Diego to share my delight that Claire G. Coleman’s forthcoming debut novel Terra Nullius has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly:

“Coleman stuns with this imaginative, astounding debut about colonization. . . . Coleman universalizes the experiences of invaded indigenous populations in a way that has seldom been achieved. Artfully combining elements of literary, historical, and speculative fiction, this allegorical novel is surprising and unforgettable.”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Read the full review here and follow the author on twitter here.

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Last Invisible Valley Event!

Fri 27 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Last Invisible Valley Event! | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow evening at 7 p. m. at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Austin Woerner will conclude his successful and fun US tour celebrating the publication of his translation of Su Wei’s first novel, The Invisible Valley.

After this event Austin will be returning to teach at Duke Kunshan University in Shanghai and won’t be back here for a bit so don’t miss this chance to hear more about the ins and outs of translating this huge, immersive perfect summer read!

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About Air Logic

Fri 27 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on About Air Logic | Posted by: Gavin

And we’ve just added a little bit of actual description about Air Logic . . .

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Tender a WFA Finalist!

Thu 26 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Awards, Sofia Samatar | Comments Off on Tender a WFA Finalist! | Posted by: Gavin

I am delighted to see that among all the happy finalists for this year’s World Fantasy Awards is Sofia Samatar’s debut collection Tender. 

If you’re curious and would like to read a few of the stories from this wide-ranging collection, here are just a few:

How to Get Back to the Forest

An Account of the Land of Witches

Meet Me in Iram

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Read, Share, Eat Better Sandwiches

Wed 25 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Read, Share, Eat Better Sandwiches | Posted by: Gavin

Today in celebration of LCRW38 going out into the world — which includes the latest iteration of Nicole Kimberling’s cooking column, “Comfort Food” — we’re putting one of my favorite columns by Nicole online, How to Seduce a Vegetarian from LCRW 29.

It’s not that I’m looking to seduce any vegetarians, vegans, or anyone else, rather it has some top tips for making your sandwiches better, a subject very close to my heart. Enjoy!

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A Breathtaking Reading Experience

Tue 24 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, starred review | Comments Off on A Breathtaking Reading Experience | Posted by: Gavin

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