get liminal!

Tue 27 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on get liminal! | Posted by: Gavin

Annalee Newitz reviews Ayize Jama-Everett’s debut novel and if you read the review you’ll see why we had to publish the book:

The Liminal People“You’ll be sucked into a fast-paced story about superpowered people struggling for control of the underground cultures they inhabit…. The novel is a damn good read. It’s a smart actioner that will entertain you while also enticing you to think about matters beyond the physical realm.”
—Annalee Newitz, io9

Read the first three chapters.


No more holiday shipping

Fri 16 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on No more holiday shipping | Posted by: Gavin

UPDATED: Please note we will not shipping books from our office until December 30. (Ebooks always available? Mais oui!)

In the meantime, one of our lovely local bookstores, Broadside, has all our books in stock and we very much encourage you to shop there!

The post office reminds us that the end of year celebrations are approaching. The sun is sinking in the northern hemisphere and we must eat, drink, and be merry for if we are bury ourselves deep in winter’s cold the sun may leave and never come back.

So set off some firecrackers, dig up the turnips, unleash the sun captured in the corn, the wine, the spirits, and have at the winter until it cracks wide open and spring comes charging in.

Should your winter fancy turn to books, please note we do not guarantee holiday shipping after these post office-provided dates. (Apart from ebooks.)

USA

Free Media Mail shipping: December 1, 2011

APO/FPO/DPO AE: December 9, 2011

Priority Mail: December 16, 2011

Express Mail: December 16, 2011

Canada

1st class mail: December 1, 2011

Priority Mail: December 11, 2011

Africa

December 1, 2011

Rest of the World

December 9, 2011

Thank you!

UPDATED: Our office will be closed from 4 PM EST on December 16 through to December 29. We will be open December 30 then closed over the new year and open again, fresh-eyed and energetic on Monday January 2, 2012.


Interview + Under the Poppy

Thu 15 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Interview + Under the Poppy | Posted by: Gavin

The TakerA couple of months ago at a book event in Stockbridge we were lucky enough to meet Alma Katsu, author of one of those everyone-is-talking-about-it books, The Taker.

Alma was really lovely and it turns out had read some of our books. She recently decided to do some interviews about different aspects of the publishing world and sent us a few questions for her expertly titled blog, Endpaper Notes.

The interview is here and she also has a copy of Kathe Koja’s Under the Poppy to give away to commenters.

Big Mouth asks for typos!

Tue 13 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Big Mouth asks for typos! | Posted by: Gavin

I hate this part! But it must needs be done. Next spring we’re publishing paperbacks of two of our Big Mouth House titles and we would love to hear from anyone who has spotted a typo. (You can send in typos you find in any of our books anytime. It makes me wince, but, better to know about them than not, right? Right. Argh!)

Here are the books we’re working on and would love to here hear from you about:

Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden. This is a book with legs! So happy that people love this book. The paperback will be a few dollars cheaper but should have all the art and so on from the hardcover.

Lydia Millet, The Fires Beneath the Sea. The first edition is pretty much sold out—that Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 listing certainly helped! The paperback will include the first chapter of the follow up, The Shimmers in the Night, which comes out in July.


Next week (+ giveaway)

Fri 9 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | 14 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

We have a new episode of Who Is Amazon Trying To Stomp Out of Business/Subsume/Buy Out This Week. Then we will keel over in shock, shock I tells you when we discover that the $34-billion WalMart-wannabe has disclosed its teeth to the public once again. You should see what they’re like behind closed doors. Not pretty. They’ve hired some great people, they’re going to buy some great books for their publishing arm, but, man, those people are, um, not nice.

Besides that, we have a new installment of Julie Day’s excellent Small Beer Podcast. This one features two stories from Three Messages and a Warning as well as actual and real beer from our new fave beer store, TruBeer, in Easthampton.

Want to preview the anthology? You can read two stories here.

We’ll also have office copies of at least one of our January books (yes, they were December, they slipped, darn it!), Ayize Jama-Everett’s The Liminal People. We will have giveaways for that, so be ready to define liminal.

In fact, we’ll send a free galley to the first five commenters (US/Canada only, sorry) on this post who post comments either on people or liminality(!).

Remember the holiday shipping deadlines—and how they don’t apply to our ebooks!

And: we will be posting some new books. Preorders welcome! We love preorders! We send them out asap so that you get the book long before it reaches the distribution system. Go, baby, go.

What else? Next week we will be trying to finish up a lot of work before 2011 goes quietly into the night. You never know, might get it done!


Can’t argue with this

Tue 6 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Can’t argue with this | Posted by: Gavin

After the Apocalypse is “The absolute most perfect thing for those post-apocalyptic fiction fans and zombie lovers on your list” says the Cleve Scene.


The things we do to books

Thu 1 Dec 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

And interns! Occasionally the returns we get from our distributor (books that have been shipped to stores, back to the distro, and back to our office) are in such bad condition that we can’t even give them away. (We mail returned copies in good condition out to various groups—including the OWS library!—and sell there here.) How do they get that way? Who knows?! (Not sure I want to know.)

We had this box of nearly destroyed books which was beginning to spill over and I decided that instead of just tearing off the covers and recycling the innards (which our lovely town will do) we’d tear up the short story collections and anthologies and include the individual stories with orders. I am hoping that those who receive them enjoy the single stories more than they’re horrified to receive them—tearing the books up has been all too much for at least one intern and the task had to handed over to someone with a stronger constitution!

So now we’re getting rid of another box of books, spreading the word about good stories, and some of us are getting a most unexpected touch of exercise . . . tearing up books!


Under the Poppy wins the Gaylactic Spectrum Award!

Mon 28 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Under the Poppy wins the Gaylactic Spectrum Award! | Posted by: Gavin

Under the Poppy cover - click to view full sizePossibly the best news we’ll get this week? We are delighted to see that Kathe Koja’s novel Under the Poppy is the recipient of the 2011 Best Novel Gaylactic Spectrum Award!

Note: the ebook is 50% off until Dec. 1.

Here’s the Gaylactic Spectrum Award 2011 handout with the shortlist and what the judges had to say about the book:

If Charles Dickens had written an alternate reality novel about war, love, sex, death and very strange puppets you would have this year’s Gaylactic Spectrum Award winner, Under the Poppy, an amazing novel by Kathe Koja. The novel offers a rich, evocative alternate reality that is close but not quite our world, an exploration of the demimonde of the theatre and the brothel, and the tale of two lovers, Rupert and Istvan, and their tortured relationship.

Decca and Rupert own The Poppy, a brothel with a reputation for the unique and sometimes bizarre. At the core of the story is a love triangle: Decca loves Rupert but Rupert is deeply in love with Decca’s brother Istvan, a puppeteer whose marionettes know more than a thing or two about decadence. The story is set against the backdrop of war and turmoil in one of the Victorian era’s most sophisticated cities. Rupert and Istvan try to escape from the seedy underworld into high society only to find themselves embroiled in another complicated relationship. Like actors in a play or marionettes, their fate seems to be determined by others who hold the power and strings.

Under the Poppy breaks a lot of rules: point-of-view shifts, convoluted mysterious plots full of violence and decadence, relationships that run the gamut from accepted to beyond forbidden, and witty graphic language. In Koja’s skillful hands, the novel engages the reader from the start, provides a way to taste and smell the world through brilliantly-crafted prose, and presents a heart-wrenching romance. A mature love story that doesn’t flinch from revealing the truth about life in the demi-monde, Under the Poppy is well worth the read


Victorian opulence

Mon 28 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

A Guest Post from Kathe Koja:

An evening of Victorian opulence with an air of genteel decay: it was Under the Poppy‘s natural terrain, and we staged the second of our on-the-road performances at District VII Detroit last Saturday evening. “Love Is a Puppet” finds Istvan closer to his destination if no closer to his goal, and in desirous company, with a young man who calls himself “Gabriel the Angel.” Our audience watched from the curtained, secluded “backroom,” they watched from the stairway above . . .

Writing these shows and their scripts—episodes not found in the novel itself, but not hard to imagine: how many nights must Istvan have spent alone, on the long road back to Rupert?—and extending the story that way, is a new way of seeing that story, as well as a great pleasure for me as a writer. And then engaging in the ongoing act of collaboration, planning the show with my co-producer, Julanne Jacobs, watching the actors give gesture and breadth—and breath!—to the words, embody them, literally—watching the audience react, laugh, flinch and gasp—oh BOY, that is fun. The intersection of the fictional and the real becomes so vivid and acute, you can practically smell the lamp oil and brandy, the reek of the mud outside . . . And aided, on this night, by the raw brick of the warehouse, the scent of the river, the very old streets just past the doors; Detroit is a city that dates to the 1700s, after all. And with our audience dressed in Victorian finery, too, it was as if the story was doubled, and the event doubly theatrical. And amazing.

So the road continues; the journey continues, on the page as on the stage. THE MERCURY WALTZ, sequel to UNDER THE POPPY, will be published in 2013, wherein Istvan and Rupert operate their own theatre, the Mercury, a nucleus of subtle insurrections and the passions and rivalries that play-acting always seems to arouse, aided by two very different acolytes, Haden St.-Mary and Frédéric Blum, and a remarkably ferocious young lady named Tilde. And our next Poppy performance will take place early in 2012, in a venue that might seem surprising . . . The puppets lead, the story goes on, and we make our own fun in the dark.


Ebook sale: 50% off!

Fri 25 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Ebook sale: 50% off! | Posted by: Gavin

We’re having an ebook sale! Here’s the why of it and here’s the what:

Small = 50% off all Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House titles!

WELCOME = 25% off ANYTHING!

Engines = 50% off Livia Llewellyn’s Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors

Enter the coupon exactly as above once you’ve filled your cart and you will receive your lovely discount!

The Freedom Maze After the Apocalypse A Slepyng Hound to Wake Paradise Tales

The Monkey’s Wedding and Other StoriesRedemption in IndigoMeeksWhat I Didn’t See and Other StoriesStories of Your Life and OthersThe Fires Beneath the SeaUnder the Poppy


Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu 24 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

Astronaut melts humans


Plaid Friday

Wed 23 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Plaid Friday | Posted by: Gavin

What with holiday shipping deadlines approaching and all the fuss about Friday, I wanted to put in a word for a fun thing the folks at the Odyssey Books in South Hadley told us about when we did our Steampunk! event there a couple of weeks ago. Apparently this Friday is being relabeled from Black Friday to Plaid Friday!

What?

“Plaid Friday celebrates the diversity and creativity of independent businesses. Plaid Friday is the fun and enjoyable alternative to the big box store “Black Friday”, and is designed to promote both local and independently owned businesses during the holidays.”

And what are Odyssey Books doing?

“This year Pioneer Valley Local First members are volunteering a portion of their sales to CISA’s Emergency Farm Fund that offers loans to local farmers affected by Hurricane Irene.”

I always recommend going to an indie store—if possible—for your books. We have links to Powell’s on our site and our book pages have links to the Broadside Bookstore here in Northampton. Last year they came to us with the idea of having a Small Beer Press section in their store where we could keep all our titles, including all the backlist, in front of readers: how awesome is that?

Why do we bother fighting the tide of huge big box stores and online behemoths? Because they’re intent on being everything to everyone and shutting down all other voices.

“Really?”

I think so, yes. They’d like us to buy one of their machines and then read, listen, and watch everything we want on it. And of course buy everything (from books to washing machines) using it. Just jack me into the mainframe now, thanks.

Every time each of us buys anything we have a choice. Sometimes that’s too much to think about. Sometimes it’s worth thinking about once and making a decision. We print all our books in the US—or occasionally Canada—on 30% post-consumer recycled paper using one of a few smaller printing firms, often C-M Books or Thomson-Shore. It was an easy decision to print domestically as we can’t be sure of the treatment the workers receive nor the environmental standards the companies are kept to abroad. Also, if we want to keep decent jobs available here, it seems worth printing books here.

This Saturday in our hometown, Northampton, was “Bag Day”—a surprisingly fun event where the town distributes a paper shopping bag in the local newspaper (shout out to the Daily Hampshire Gazette*!) and then just about every store in town gives you 20% off one item (or many items . . .). The streets were heaving, there were even more street musicians than usual, people were out doing public art, there was street food, it’s great fun as well as getting people in to shop at the local stores and keep the downtown vibrant.

Sure, we all shop at bigger stores and shops in other towns but I buy books at Broadside so that in five years time they will still be there. It’s selfish as much as altruistic. (Broadside also have a frequent buyer card which gives you a 10% discount on everything.)

I hope you’ll consider doing the same. Thanks for your time.

* Any local reader want a free subscription? I have one available!


Small Beer Podcast 4: Benjamin Parzybok’s Couch

Thu 17 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | Comments Off on Small Beer Podcast 4: Benjamin Parzybok’s Couch | Posted by: Julie

Couch cover - click to view full sizeFiction. We love it. And this week’s Small Beer podcast is over thirty minutes of nothing but imagined words.

Benjamin Parzybok’s Couch is damned funny. Well, his novel Couch is anyway.

To celebrate the release of the audiobook version of Couch, we’re running an excerpt in this week’s podcast. Don’t worry. Though we hope you’ll love it as we do and want to hear more, this section of the novel was actually published as a stand-alone story in the journal Eleven Eleven. In fact, while I was editing this podcast, my family gathered around my computer to listen in. Yes, sometimes it can be strange days at the Day-Davidson household.

Ben and his wife, the artist Laura Moulton, are both quite fascinating people. You can check out Ben’s various art projects at ideacog.net. Laura is behind the amazing streetbooks.org — a bicycle-powered mobile library in Portland, Oregon, serving people who live outside.

Episode 4: An excerpt from Benjamin Parzybok’s novel Couch.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download


The audiobook is available for purchase at iambik.com.

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

rss feed


11/11/11

Fri 11 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on 11/11/11 | Posted by: Gavin


Small Beer Podcast 3: Michael J. DeLuca, Head Brewer and CTO

Thu 10 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Julie

I’m thrilled to be back from wilds of Western Connecticut where I was billeted after the recent Nor’easter. Small Beer headquarters feels like a book-filled Shangri-La. I can’t believe I’ve returned.

In Episode Three of our Small Beer podcast, Michael J. DeLuca and I talk about yarrow-infused beer, medieval brewing, his fiction and why Small Beer’s ebook portal, Weightless Books, is a bibliophile’s dream. Not content to leave it at that, in part two of the podcast Michael reads “The Hour of the Fireflies” by Karen Chacek. It’s part of our upcoming Three Messages and a Warning anthology and I don’t know how you couldn’t love it. It comes out in December.

Episode 3: Michael J. DeLuca, Head Brewer and CTO along with Julie Day and Three Messages and a Warning.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Oh, and if you’d like, go listen to Michael’s story, “The Eater,” on Pseudopod.

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

rss feed


Monday afternoon listening

Mon 7 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Monday afternoon listening | Posted by: Gavin

Couch CoverLook, a new audiobook! We love Ben Parzybok’s novel Couch and are very happy that it’s now available in audio. You can listen to a sample here:

Listen to first chapter

and we will have a sample coming up at some point soon in our podcast, too.

We’re working with Iambik on a bunch of audio books so look for more of these announcements in upcoming months.


Maureen McHugh in PW’s Top 10!

Fri 4 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

After the Apocalypse coverMaureen F. McHugh’s second collection After the Apocalypse is one of PW‘s Top Ten books of the year! The book has two starred reviews and her first collection was a Story Prize finalist. McHugh shares the Top 10 with Jeffrey Eugenides, Ann Patchett, Tina Fey, Chistopher Hitchens, et al.

There will now be a small dance of joy!

You can get a taste of the book here: “The Naturalist.”


No power, no feast, no podcast!

Wed 2 Nov 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

Wow, did we get snowed under. The early snowstorm here in New England means that Julie is off doing sekrit real (saving the) world work for peeps without power which means we won’t have a podcast this week. Besides, we’re not even sure if the power will be on at the office tomorrow!

That also means all orders are a bit delayed—including pre-orders of The Freedom Maze, which should have shipped out Monday. My apologies!

It’s been pretty incredible here over the last few days and we know a lot of people without power. But everyone really is hanging together.

If all goes well, Kelly and I and Cassandra Clare will be reading and signing from Steampunk! tomorrow night at the Odyssey Bookstore in South Hadley:

Thursday, Nov. 3, 7 PM
The Odyssey Bookshop
9 College St.
S. Hadley, MA 01075

The Odyssey, one of our excellent local indie bookstores, never charges for kids’ events, so the reading & Q&A will be open to anyone who would like to attend. However, they do require that attendees purchase Steampunk! from them in order to get into the signing line. The good news is that you can bring as many other books from home as you like to have signed but you do need to purchase the new book from the bookstore.

Also! While supplies last they will be giving a free YA ARC to attendees in Steampunk attire.


We’re Preparing Our Electronic Feast

Fri 28 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , | Comments Off on We’re Preparing Our Electronic Feast | Posted by: Julie

Next week Mike, Gavin and I will be hosting the very first Small Beer Press, multi-state, chili-beer tasting, and it’s all going to be captured on audio for episode 4 of the Small Beer podcast.

The fabulous Tru Beer here in Easthampton donated a few bottles of  Left Hand Brewing’s Fade to Black Pepper Porter.  It’s brewed with Serrano, Chipolte and Ancho chili peppers. I, personally, am more than a little afraid.  Let’s be honest here; I’m terrified.

To go with the beer, I’m also picking up some Day of the Dead bread from Bread Euphoria. Love your local businesses is our motto here at Small Beer Press. And, really, how could we not when they create bread people with folded arms and little raisin eyes?

All this and some fine Mexican fiction. Episode 4 is going to be fantastic. With luck, we’ll have pictures to post along with the podcast.


Small Beer Podcast 2: In Which Julie Reads a Story by J. M. McDermott

Thu 27 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Comments Off on Small Beer Podcast 2: In Which Julie Reads a Story by J. M. McDermott | Posted by: Julie

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet No. 26Who doesn’t love Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet? I shipped issue number twenty-six on my very first day here at Small Beer. In honor of that moment, and of all the damn good fiction inside, this week’s podcast is a story taken from that issue, “Death’s Shed” by J.M. McDermott.

Episode 2: Death’s Shed by J.M. McDermott as read by Julie Day of Small Beer Press.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tune back in next week as Mike DeLuca and Julie Day discuss Weightless Books, Mexican speculative fiction and Mike’s home-brewing techniques. The week after that: beer!

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

rss feed


Maureen F. McHugh & David Moles in conversation

Wed 26 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

After the Apocalypse cover - click to view full sizeThis week we’re very proud to publish Maureen F. McHugh’s second collection of short stories, After the Apocalypse.

To celebrate, we asked another of our favorite writers, David Moles, to interview Maureen. The two of them sat down recently in LA and then sent us the results of their chat:

David Moles: So, we’re sitting here in sunny Culver City—

Maureen McHugh: Sunny Culver City. In my little apartment, which I love.

Where should we start? I think we should talk about the book.

Probably.

At some point.

Let me see, I’ve got a copy—hold on.

Oh, that’s gorgeous.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

That’s really nice.

It’s a thin book, it’s thinner than Mothers and Other Monsters. I think it’s got about the same number of stories, but a couple of the stories were much longer in Mothers and Other Monsters.

So how did this come about?

Read more


If it’s Tuesday we must have that promised interview . . .

Wed 26 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on If it’s Tuesday we must have that promised interview . . . | Posted by: Gavin

Except it’s Wednesday, and the promised interview never ran. What happened?

Er, I completely forgot we had a trip to Boston planned for Tuesday. So off we went early in the AM and back we came late in the PM. And, oops, forgot to post the interview. So, it will be up RSN. Which I have learned from Sarah Smith means Real Soon Now.


Buy local

Wed 26 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Buy local | Posted by: Gavin

No, really. We’re hearing and reading about a number of bookshops that need people to think about where they put their buying monies if they’re going to be around for more than the next year or so.

If you want to be able to stop in and browse in your local bookshop—or go out and do some bookstore tourism—then put your money into a local bookstore. The gaping maws of the big boxes will still be there online or outside of town no matter what you do. All I’m asking is that if you order books online or in person, think local.

We sell our books through every channel: some of them I’m happier about dealing with than others. (If we took our books our of some channels there are some readers who would never hear about them at all. Darn it.) We link to Powell’s (a big indie) and the Broadside Bookshop—a local indie who approached us with the idea of showcasing our books so now you can get every single title we have in print, including all our backlist, there. You can even get your ebooks there. Yeah!


Monday: chilly fingers

Mon 24 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Hmm. The heat is out at our office. Our shabby chic building—the Paragon Arts in Easthampton—has 2 furnaces. One for the 1st and 2nd floor. That one is working. The one for the 3rd floor, where, we, so sensibly are, is not. Boo hoo!

At least the electricity—and therefore the kettle—is working.

Anyway, tomorrow, when the furnace guy comes back and fixes things we’ll be celebrating publication of Maureen McHugh’s new book After the Apocalypse by posting an interview Maureen did with one of our fave writers, David Moles.

Did you see the New York Times this weekend? No? Well the best bit was this. A review by Dana Jennings of three short story collections:

PARADISE TALES
By Geoff Ryman
313 pages. Small Beer Press. $16.

TWO WORLDS AND IN BETWEEN
The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume 1)
576 pages. Subterranean Press. $38.

THE BIBLE REPAIRMAN AND OTHER STORIES
By Tim Powers
170 pages. Tachyon Publications. $14.95.

Almost lovely enough to warm these little fingers!


Small Beer Podcast 1: Delia Sherman and The Freedom Maze

Thu 20 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Julie

Delia Sherman is a woman very close to our hearts here at Small Beer Press. To launch our latest podcasting venture, we decided to chat with Delia about her latest book, The Freedom Maze, her Southern roots and the stubborn nature of dreams.

Episode 1: Delia Sherman Discusses Her Latest Book, The Freedom Maze with Julie Day of Small Beer Press.

Oh, and if  the excerpt Delia reads catches your fancy, and we think it will, you can preorder The Freedom Maze right here on the Small Beer site.

This is the first in a two or three month podcasting series.  Tune back in as we discuss everything from yarrow-flavored beer to Mexican speculative fiction.

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

rss feed


We go to Boston!

Fri 14 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on We go to Boston! | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow—god willing and the creek don’t rise—Kelly and I will be at the Boston Book Fair. We have a booth (#12) and will have copies of our new yet-to-be released collection: Maureen F. McHugh’s After the Apocalypse. The  fair runs 10-6 and at 11 a.m., we’ll be off for this:

Steampunk!
11:00am Boston Public Library Rabb Auditorium 700 Boylston Street

Is it a literary genre, an aesthetic style, or a way of life? It may be all of the above! Join Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, co-editors of the new Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, as well as Spiderwick Chronicles co-author Holly Black and steampunk creator Allison DeBlasio (aka Mrs. Grymm) for a discussion of all things steampunk, from goggles to gyrocopters. Wear a costume and you may win a prize or get to see the session while seated on stage. Moderated by Maya Escobar, Teen Librarian at the Cambridge Public Library.

Also attending the book fair: Karen Russell, Kate Beaton (read Kelly’s interview with her here), Francis Moore Lappe, Chris “Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop” Raschka, and, lo, the many more.

Also attending: Drawn & Quarterly, NYRB, Melville House, Godine, NESFA, Zephyr, Barefoot—or, 75 publishers and other groups of interest!

And: you can see Kelly’s panel from last year’s Book Fest (with Maria Tatar, Kate Bernheimer, and Kathryn Davis) here.


Temporary podcast starting soon

Thu 13 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Ooh! Julie Day, who came to us through the excellent offices of Jim Kelly and the Stonecoast MFA program, will be doing a podcast here for the next few weeks. Topics will be widespread!

Julie has lined up interviews with Elizabeth Hand, Michael J. DeLuca, Delia Sherman, and maybe a few others and there will be readings by them and a few others, too.

If you have questions, post them here. The podcast will be subscribable from here and (after the first one is up) on iTunes.


Delia’s doing readings

Thu 13 Oct 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Delia’s doing readings | Posted by: Gavin

ETA: ARC giveaway!

Tonight(!) she’s on a panel as part of that fascinating Big Read series of events in New York City. Then, when The Freedom Maze comes out she has two readings arranged (and more TK we hope in Massachusetts):

Sunday, Nov. 13, 1 p.m — Multi-author reading
Books of Wonder, 18 W. 18th St., New York, NY
Delia Sherman, Tamora Pierce, John Connolly, and Rae Carson, read at the storied Books of Wonder.

Thursday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m. Young Adult Author Event
Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119
Readings and Discussion with Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Wisdom’s Kiss) and Delia Sherman (The Freedom Maze).

Set in the same world as her fantasy Princess Ben, Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Wisdom’s Kiss offers a tale of adventure, plotting, angst, and romance, presented through documentary evidence — the journals of Princess Wisdom and her betrothed’s mother, Duchess Wilhelmina; the letters of the Queen Mother and the swordsman’s apprentice (but not to each other); memoirs of the swordsman and the orphaned seer Trudy; encyclopedia entries; even scenes from a play!

Delia Sherman’s The Freedom Maze takes a more serious tone. Slated to spend the summer on her family’s sugar plantation in Louisiana, 13-year-old Sophie wishes for a storybook adventure and is sent back in time by 100 years. In Sophie’s own 1960, there is no question of who is black and who is white. It has never occurred to her that in 1860, tanned and barefoot, she might be taken for a slave . . .


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