The Business of Publication

Tue 23 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on The Business of Publication | Posted by: Gavin

Today we’re celebrating the launch of Robert Freeman Wexler’s new novel, The Silverberg Business!

He and Jeffrey Ford will be at Two Dollar Radio HQ tonight and then he heads out on the road to Cincinnati, Austin, Houston, and Chicago. It’s a hell of a time to tour, fingers crossed everyone masks up.

Thank you to those who pre-ordered the book! They were mailed out last week by the fine people at Book Moon and the Consortium warehouse.

Robert’s been writing more about the genesis of this weird gem on his site.


Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular

Mon 22 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular | Posted by: Gavin

Write here, write now, Write Columbus.

I wish I were going to be at Two Dollar Radio HQ tomorrow night for Robert Freeman Wexler and Jeffrey Ford’s event (Aug. 23, 8 p.m.) where Robert will launch his new novel, The Silverberg Business, and Jeff will read from Big Dark Hole. An aside here, having been to many readings by Jeff over the years he is just as likely to pull out a sheaf of papers and read from something he has finished that day.

Tomorrow is the first night of Robert’s Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular. If you get to go, do post photos and tag us on twitter — or even BKMN on instagram.


DRM-free Ghosts

Thu 18 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on DRM-free Ghosts | Posted by: Gavin

I saw a poll on twitter yesterday asking when the Halloween season starts* and the answer is obviously right now with this Ghosts & Apparitions Storybundle where they have 4 books for $5 or all 10 books for $25 (you can pay more [or less] — and then the authors get more! [or less]) including Mary Rickert’s World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson award finalist collection You Have Never Been Here. Readers can also choose to donate a portion of their proceeds to Girls Write Now and Mighty Writers.

Get (or gift) your bundle here.

* Some say October 31.
Some say October 1.
Some say mid-September.
Some say it never goes away.


Heads up NY & NJ

Tue 16 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Heads up NY & NJ | Posted by: Gavin

The Adventurists cover -This week Richard Butner is traveling up from his home in Raleigh, NC, for a couple of New York City area readings:

Wednesday, Aug 17, 7 p.m. KGB Fantastic Fiction, KGB Bar, NY
Richard reads with our good friend Veronica Schanoes whose collection Burning Girls is now out in paperback

Thursday, Aug 18, 7 p.m. Little City Books, Hoboken, NJ

The most recent reviews for Richard’s debut collection The Adventurists are from Lyndsie Manusos on Book Riot:

“Richard Butner’s work explores the weird, uncanny corners of everyday life — from a theater kid who becomes the queen, to a tree who talks to just one person, to Death’s Fool, who you really shouldn’t ignore.”

and from rather legendary printer, papermaker, publisher, & poet John Dancy-Jones on his Raleigh Rambles site:

“Richard Butner’s new collection of SF stories is a wonderful look at his long-established but back-burner career as a writer of speculative fiction. Richard is beloved by many in Raleighwood for his quirky and often endearing local theatre roles, his championing of local music and its venues, and (among the cognoscenti) his loyalty to Modernist architecture. This review is overtly from the perspective of a Raleigh native who enjoys the many local references in these stories and the bits and pieces of RB rendered in the protagonists.”

Richard, as the reference to the theatre roles above attests to, is a good reader and I hope you’ll attend these events if you can!


Reconstruction is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee!

Mon 8 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Reconstruction is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee! | Posted by: Gavin

Reconstruction coverWe are delighted to see Alaya Dawn Johnson’s collection Reconstruction: Stories is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee! Alaya probably does not need any introduction to readers here. She is a fabulous writer whose work we have long admired — as does Janelle Monáe who asked Alaya to be one of the co-writers in her fiction debut, The Memory Librarian.

Reconstruction has ten stories and to give you some idea of the range, here are a couple of stories, A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i and A Song to Greet the Sun, you can read online and an excerpt from the outstanding title story on Tor.com.


Hallucinatory, Dreamlike, Gritty and Naturalistic

Wed 3 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Hallucinatory, Dreamlike, Gritty and Naturalistic | Posted by: Gavin

In the new issue of Locus Gary K. Wolfe reviews Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Silverberg Business who calls it “deeply weird” and goes on to say:

“It’s one of the mostly deeply weird novels I’ve read in some time, at times hallucinatory and dreamlike, at other times gritty and naturalistic. We’ve heard a lot in the past several years about genre-blending or ‘‘cross-genre’’ fiction, but Wexler starts out by combining two genres that seldom come up in these discussions: the western and the hard-boiled private eye mystery.”


Fixed!

Fri 29 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Fixed! | Posted by: Gavin

Aaaaand after Paypal broke our old buy buttons Michael has fixed them: please, go try them here and see!

 


Paypal?

Thu 28 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Paypal? | Posted by: Gavin

Received an email today that said Paypal wasn’t working on this site, oops. It was working on Tuesday and my Paypal account is still working out fine. This is not the time for me to switch payment processors so I’ll look into it. Especially as we have a new book and a new issue of the zine both dropping sooooon.

This link does seem to say it all — what are the basic parameters the Paypal buttons are suddenly lacking? Wish me luck! (Or, send cash or order Small Beer books here.)

Another question from the floor: will there be a Small Beer sale this summer? Between me being mostly out of action and us changing websites at Book Moon next month the answer is no. Autumn sale? Who knows! I lie here on this couch and think who can think that far ahead?

ETA Friday: Friday update: the subscription page works. Double hmm.

ETA: Wondering if this is because Paypal wants me to add the Pay Later option which is hard coded into their new buttons — and I don’t want to add that. Hmm.

Paypal buttons

Gah, all my old saved buttons are inaccessible/gone. Whee. This link below leads to the apology, oops, no access page . . .

paypal buttonsSorry


Top 10 21st-Century Fantasy Novels

Tue 26 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Top 10 21st-Century Fantasy Novels | Posted by: Gavin

A Stranger in Olondria cover - Brian Attebury’s new book Fantasy: How It Works comes out from Oxford University Press in October and in the run up to the publication date he wrote up a Top 10 21st-century Fantasy Novels for the Guardian. I’ve read seven books on the list — I should just complete it! — and was very happy to see Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria on the list:

5. A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (2013)
In this gorgeously written tour of a complex secondary world, Samatar explores ghosts, culture clashes and the effect of written language on a purely oral culture, while also providing engaging characters and a rousing adventure story. The imagined world of the fiction reflects Samatar’s own immersion in multiple cultures as the daughter of a Somali immigrant and a scholar of Arabic literatures with teaching experience in Sudan and Egypt.


Backlist To The Future: Short Story-Style

Fri 22 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Backlist To The Future: Short Story-Style | Posted by: Gavin

Should you be a short story kick this weekend, Book Riot’s SFF Yeah’s podcast has you covered:

Jenn discusses two favorite speculative short story collections.

Tender by Sofia Samatar

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker

We are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

Follow the podcast via RSS here, Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here.
The show can also be found on Stitcher.

Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea cover - click to view full size Tender cover - click to view full size

 


The Silverberg Business OHTX Tour

Thu 21 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on The Silverberg Business OHTX Tour | Posted by: Gavin

We just got a review of this book that called it something like weird and great and, really, aren’t they all, the books? Otherwise, what is the point? Well, I like many nonweird books, but of the ones I want to publish, a touch, a smidgeon, a skullwhat? is always welcome.

Robert is going to some of our fave indie bookstores and I hope if you’re near you can go, bring friends, be surprised! Also, Jon Langford, cover artist and legendary musician, is, amazingly!, opening for him at the Book Cellar which is way beyond my bingo card hopes for this life, yay!


Congratulations World Fantasy Award finalists!

Wed 20 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Congratulations World Fantasy Award finalists! | Posted by: Gavin

Congratulations to all of the World Fantasy Award finalists and especially to:

Isabel Yap for her collection Never Have I Ever
and her novella “A Canticle for Lost Girls”

Jeffrey Ford for his collection Big Dark Hole

Sarah Pinsker for her story “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” — originally published in Uncanny and collected in her 2023 collection Lost Places

The news came in just too late to put in the forthcoming late issue of LCRW which might even be mailed out this month, that part is out of my hands.

Anyway, congratulations to all the finalists, what fun!


Susan Stinson on NEPM

Wed 13 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Susan Stinson on NEPM | Posted by: Gavin

Every summer our local NPR station, NEPM, does a series on local authors with new books out and this summer one of the writers they are highlighting is Susan Stinson for the first ebook edition of her novel Venus of Chalk:

Northampton’s Susan Stinson wants to add ‘fat lesbian home economist’ to canon of literature themes

Stinson’s new e-book, “Venus of Chalk,” adds a new twist to the classic road-trip novel.

Listen here.


21 today

Fri 1 Jul 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on 21 today | Posted by: Gavin

Apparently we published Ray Vukcevich’s collection Meet Me in the Moon Room 21 years ago today! (Eh, what a year.) Kelly and I were living in Brooklyn and if memory serves* we had a ticker tape parade, handed out exploding comets and moon suits to thousands of readers who danced with us all the way along Atlantic Avenue, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and up to Central Park where the lucky few discovered their suits were real-ish and floated off, I think to the moon. The west coast celebrations, which began in Ray’s hometown of Eugene, were reportedly wilder.

Read: Whisper · No Comet · Mom’s Little Friends

It’s another of those books like Carol Emshwiller’s Carmen Dog which I always find is weirder in its own way than I expect every time I go back to it. Every writer is unique but Ray really writes his own way through things.

And! I’m delighted to say that we just came across copies of the book so it’s available now again from here or Book Moon & so on and so forth for the first time in a couple of years.

The book was one of two we published that year, our first publishing season, woah! — the other book was Kelly’s first collection.

21 years ago in our apartment — very glad that Pathway were doing the actual shipping of books to bookstores and libraries — I had yet to do any royalty statements. Today I’ll start on Jan-Jun 2022 statements and, thanks to readers of the print and ebook editions, I’ll be sending Ray a check: thanks, all!

If you only click one link today and only read one spooky story, read this one: Whisper.

* Wellll


Ladies of Horror

Thu 30 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Ladies of Horror | Posted by: Gavin

Yay! Congratulations Isabel Yap and Hailey Piper whose collections Never Have I Ever and Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy were jointly awarded the 2021 Ladies of Horror Award for Best Collection.


Locus Reading & Panel

Wed 22 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | Comments Off on Locus Reading & Panel | Posted by: Gavin

As part of the Locus awards readings and celebration, Kelly will do a zoom reading on Thursday June 23 with Michael Swanwick and be on a panel on Connie Willis and Gary K. Wolfe on Saturday, June 25:

Thursday, June 23 – 4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. ET – Reading: Kelly Link and Michael Swanwick

Saturday, June 25 – 2 p.m. PDT/5 p.m. ET – DONUT SALON: In Conversation: Kelly Link, Connie Willis, and Gary K. Wolfe (bring your own donuts!)

Jeff Ford and Sarah Pinsker are two of the many readers and panellists. Should be fun. I’ve lifted the post from the Locus site so check here for updates.

Event links at Locus Awards Online 2022 will become live at their scheduled time. Here’s the full list of events from Locus:

LOCUS AWARDS SCHEDULE

Wednesday, June 22  –
4:00 p.m. PDT–  Reading: José Pablo Iriarte and Nnedi Okorafor
5:00 p.m. PDT–  Reading: Nalo Hopkinson and Catherynne M. Valente
6:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Fran Wilde
Thursday, June 23  –
4:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Kelly Link and Michael Swanwick
5:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Suzanne Palmer and Wole Talabi
6:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Jeffrey Ford and Angela Slatter
Friday, June 24 –
4:00 p.m PDT – Reading: Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Cat Rambo
5:00 p.m PDT – Reading: John Wiswell and Connie Willis
6:00 p.m PDT – Online Hangout with Connie Willis and Locus folks
Saturday, June 25 –
10:00 a.m. PDT – PANEL: “Hauntings & Histories” with Akemi Dawn Bowman, TJ Klune, Darcie Little Badger, Sam J. Miller
11:00 p.m. PDT – PANEL: “Power Dynamics in New Worlds” with Daniel Abraham, C.L. Clark, Fonda Lee, Sarah Pinsker
12:00 p.m. PDT – PANEL: “Writing Rules and How to Break Them” with Charlie Jane Anders, Charles Payseur, Sheree Renée Thomas, A.C. Wise
2:00 p.m. PDT – DONUT SALON: In Conversation: Kelly Link, Connie Willis, and Gary K. Wolfe
(bring your own donuts!)
3:00 p.m. PDT – LOCUS AWARDS CEREMONY with MC Connie Willis

 

*Memberships include a set digital subscription to the magazine, from our February 2022 issue (our Year-in-Review issue with Recommended Reading List and Poll and Survey) to August 2022 (with the Locus Awards photo coverage and writeup) and everything in between. Member subscription is non-transferable and does not affect or extend existing subscriptions.

Connie Willis
MC Connie Willis

Locus Supports Inclusivity! Thinking of attending? Please do. We encourage people of color, women, people with disabilities, older people, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to attend. We welcome people of any gender identity or expression, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age, size, nationality, religion, culture, education level, and self-identification. Locus associate editor Arley Sorg will serve as our PoC/LGBTQQIA Ombudsman.  Feel free to reach out to him in advance at locus@locusmag.com subject: Arley Ombudsman. Our Code of Conduct is available here: Locus Science Fiction Foundation Code of Conduct.


Not so shoddy

Tue 21 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Not so shoddy | Posted by: Gavin

In preparation for the next issue of LCRW — we’re working on it, but, I’m a little slower than ever — we’ve read most submissions up to about a month ago. Responses, even to stories that are embarrassingly old which I have moved again and again into the maybe stack have either gone out by mail or email.

Reading for the next issue begins when this issue is out, if not before. Turns out reading subs (slowly, meh) on a hammock is one thing I can do these days.

I also tidied up the LCRW subscription page for the first time in a while. Got rid of an html table which was beginning* to look a bit too shoddy.** At some point a proper update is needed but thanks in the meantime to everyone who has ever subscribed through that page. I’ve tested the new version and all the links should work.

Now to the fun part: getting some more chocolate bars in!

* as of 2014 or so
** these yarns (cough) aren’t shoddy, they’re top notch!


Such a punch!

Mon 20 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Such a punch! | Posted by: Gavin

This week on on Book Riot’s Under the Radar SFF podcast Jenn and Sharifah discuss many interesting books (including Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel) and other things including a review of Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Reconstruction: Stories.

Alaya was recently chosen to co-write the first story in Janelle Monáe’s New York Times bestselling first book The Memory Librarian.

I enjoyed he podcast so much I used the voice memo app on my phone and then the dictation app on my laptop to make this lightly edited transcript. It’s definitely not 100% accurate as I was looking to capture the description of this book I love more than keep it to 100% of what was said. You can listen to the full episode or subscribe here:

Alaya Dawn Johnson is a writer whose career I have been happily following for some times now. This collection is such a punch. From the opening story right on through it is putting you on notice. You’re gonna go some places here and you’re not gonna be able to look away. It’s an amazing collection.
The title story is the last story in the collection and the longest  in the collection. It takes place during the end of the Civil War in the United States. You’re following a black woman who is a laundress, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, and now following a regiment of black soldiers. It’s really good. That character, Sally, is so justifiably angry but one of the through lines of the story is a breakdown of the different kinds of anger and what they do to you and why you cling to them and how they affect you and how you move through the world through these different forms of anger. It’s so insightful and perceptive and so visceral and present.
The first story is such a punch. It’s called “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii” and it imagines a world — sort of our time — in which vampires are in charge and have enslaved humanity and put them in camps and are breeding them as a food supply and our main character is an overseer who is a human working for the vampires. So it’s about coercion and collaboration, what does it mean to survive? What does it mean to try to carve out enough power to do the good that you can while knowing that you are perpetuating harm? It’s so intense. It’s beautifully written.
The stories are not easy and I think they’re not supposed to be. I think Johnson is doing so much in here. There’s a huge range of what speculative elements she’s using between the stories and the tones shift and the settings shift. Each story is very different. They are so good. She is such good short story writer — she’s also an excellent novelist — but you really feel the power of her short fiction in this collection. And there’s a really interesting author note at the end.


Adventurists and Businesses on the Road

Fri 17 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Adventurists and Businesses on the Road | Posted by: Gavin

We’re busy with Robert Freeman Wexler setting up readings for his forthcoming novel The Silverberg Business as well as with Richard Butner setting up a couple of NYC area events for The Adventurists.

So far for the very strange historical Texas business book, there are two readings set up — the first at $2 Radio HQ, oh, how I’d love to get there with none other than short story superstar Jeffrey Ford, and ah, now there are 3! A Jo-Beth Cincinnati reading was just finalized. There should be a Chicago reading coming and then, of course, given the Texan nature of the business at hand, events in Austin, Houston, and maybe Galveston. More TK, as I am wont to say.

Aug. 23, 8 p.m. Two Dollar Radio HQ, Columbus, OH — with Jeffrey Ford
Aug. 27, 8 p.m. The Emporium, Yellow Springs, OH
Aug. 29, 7 p.m. Joseph-Beth,  Cincinnati, OH — in conversation with Rebecca Kuder

Richard Butner is leaving North Carolina — but only temporarily! — and will be in NYC at the fabled KGB Bar for the fantastic fiction series with a friend, New York city native, and excellent writer, Veronica Schanoes, and the second over the water (but not very far) in Hoboken, at the outstanding indie bookstore, Little City Books:

Aug 17, 7 p.m. Richard Butner & Veronica Schanoes, KGB Fantastic Fiction, KGB Bar, NYC
Aug 18, 7 p.m. Little City Books, Hoboken, NJ

The Adventurists cover - click to view full size The Silverberg Business cover - click to view full size


6 Months in a Leaky Boat

Wed 15 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 6 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

This is a 3-month follow up my March post:

I’m writing from my couch where I’ve been laid up since mid-December with something — most likely post-viral fatigue. In the first week of December I had a small cold(?) and had multiple negative Covid results.

which was a 3-month update on me succumbing to some kind of post-viral something last December. The stunning accuracy of my self-diagnosis is the same as it was then.

Now it’s early summer and as I was then, I’m writing this lying flat on our couch. I can lie around and do a little bit of work but I can’t lift a box of books (ha ha ha. No chance) or do most of the things I’d usually do. I walk around very slowly. My max is about about 200 yards and then I regret having walked so far as going back takes twice as long. If I do anything physical or a lively phone or zoom call that will be me flat on the couch for 2-3 hours (or, worst case: 2-3 days, ugh) doing nothing. I haven’t worked at Book Moon — or the Small Beer office — since December and do I miss it.

I’m taking more vitamins and supplements than I ever have. Do they work? Don’t know. I’ll try just about anything now. Talked to my doc today who’s referring me to a post-COVID clinic in Boston — after previous cardio, rheumatology, and neuro referrals.

Small Beer: we’ve slowed down on publishing — Ayize’s 4th and final Liminal novel, Heroes of an Unknown World, was too much for me this month. It’s needs more energy behind it so we moved it to February. (Don’t ask me why as it’s not us, but the ebook is onsale at a certain website for $1.99.) We’re at the contract stage with a few more 2023/2024 titles and I’m working — even slower than usual — on the new LCRW.

I have no idea of my prognosis. Maybe this is middle age for me or maybe this is long covid. If it’s the latter (I am 2 x vaxxed, 2 x boosted), good golly, wear a mask.

ETA: thank you for lovely emails, comments, support. I would be completely pancaked out on the floor but for Kelly’s patience, love, and advocacy — please spare her a thought as I lie here, yes, on the damn couch.

 


Ladies of Horror Fiction Award Nominees

Fri 10 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Ladies of Horror Fiction Award Nominees | Posted by: Gavin

Frightfully happy to see Isabel Yap’s Never Have I Ever on the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award Nominee list for Best Collection and her story “Syringe” from her collection on the Best Short Fiction list. Congratulations to all the nominees!
Never Have I Ever cover - click to view full size


Never Have I Ever Again

Tue 24 May 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Never Have I Ever Again | Posted by: Gavin

Never Have I Ever coverI’m delighted to report that the second printing of Isabel Yap’s debut collection Never Have I Ever is now starting to wend its way back to bookshops. The book came out last February and has found a very happy readership, no doubt helped by it being a NYPL Best Books for Adults and on both the Locus and Crawford Award shortlists.

It turns out last year I sent eleven books back for reprints — one of those numbers that makes it more obvious why I felt so busy even though we only published six new titles: 4 short story collections and 2 Elizabeth Hand mystery novels in paperback. Even though it takes 2-3 times as long now to get a reprint as it did a year or two ago, running out of books is the best problem to have!

Anyway, here’s to our second reprint of the year — and I’m sending another book back this week and another back next week — may this reprint be the first of many for Never Have I Ever.

Want some more about the book?

  • Here’s Isabel Yap interviewed by Megan Kakimoto at Full Stop.
  • The Washington Post said the book: “overflows with life and magic, and if you are not familiar with the vibrant literary scene in the Philippines, let this serve as a worthy introduction.”
  • And in their starred review Booklist ended by calling it “A joy to read.”
  • You can also read some dark and fabulous stories: Good Girls, Milagroso, Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez?
  • & that fabulous cover illustration? That’s “Serpent’s Bride” by Alexa Sharpe.
  • And here’s Isabel’s site.

Signed Sofia Samatar Books

Mon 9 May 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Signed Sofia Samatar Books | Posted by: Gavin

I wasn’t there so I can’t give the 100% accurate count of books or anything, but Sofia Samatar stopped by Book Moon on Saturday and signed copies her books. Use these links to order signed copies: A Stranger in Olondria, Tender, and The Winged Histories.

Her new book, The White Mosque, comes out in October from Catapult


Celebrating Spirits Abroad Winning the Ray Bradbury Prize

Wed 4 May 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Celebrating Spirits Abroad Winning the Ray Bradbury Prize | Posted by: Gavin

Spirits Abroad coverI went to look up the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize and discovered that there are at least 3 awards with Ray Bradbury’s name on them. Only fitting as he made so many readers happy with his fantastic stories.

Anyway, we’re very happy that Zen Cho’s delightful collection of stories, Spirits Abroad — which was already a Crawford Award winner in its first Buku Fixi edition — received the LA Times Book Prize/Ray Bradbury Prize at this year’s LA Times Festival of Books.

We have a limited number of bookplates signed by Zen to go with copies at Book Moon.


Get Lost — and enjoy it

Thu 28 Apr 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Get Lost — and enjoy it | Posted by: Gavin

We started this week with the news that Zen Cho’s collection Spirits Abroad had received the Ray Bradbury Prize at the LA Times Book Awards and we’re ending it with news that is perhaps equally exciting: on March 21, 2023, we are going to publish Sarah Pinsker’s second collection, Lost Places.

Since Sarah’s first collection, Philip K. Dick Award winner Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, came out, she has published 2 novels, A Song for the New Day and We Are Satellites, and has written enough short stories for this new collection, including a fabulous story that hasn’t been published elsewhere. What a treat!

It’s already up online at Greedy Reads, bn.com, etc., and some places even have the stand-in title but that’ll get replaced with the actual title soon.

Read more about the book and see the cover here.


Susan Stinson and Alison Bechdel celebrate the first ebook of Venus in Chalk

Wed 20 Apr 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Susan Stinson and Alison Bechdel celebrate the first ebook of Venus in Chalk | Posted by: Gavin

Please join us at at 7 p.m. on as we host superstar Alison Bechdel in zoom conversation with Northampton’s own Susan Stinson as they celebrate the first ebook publication of Susan’s novel Venus of Chalk.

Alison Bechdel is the author of many fantastic graphic novels including most recently The Secret To Superhuman Strength — Susan and Alison have known and read each other for years and Alison had this to say about Venus of Chalk:

“This neatly-stitched tale of a latter-day home economist’s ‘glaring departures from sensible living’ is a religious experience. Under Susan Stinson’s microscopic needlework, the fabric of the phenomenal world shimmers with sublime beauty. A can of baking soda, a traffic pylon, a city bus—these things will never look the same again. Stinson lavishes the same minute reverence on her human subjects, discovering rich, sacramental meaning in their most banal small talk. This book unravels what you think you know about women and men, the freakish and the normal, shame and salvation—then mends it anew into a most surprising story.”
— Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

There is no print edition of Venus of Chalk but if you’d like signed copies of Susan’s novels, Martha Moody and Spider in a Tree, or her chapbook, Belly Songs — please order here and add your request in the comments, thank you!

*Register here*

 

poster for event


First Trade Review for Heroes

Fri 15 Apr 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on First Trade Review for Heroes | Posted by: Gavin

Heroes of an Unknown World coverAnd it is such a good review! It comes from Publishers Weekly and I could pick out just about any line and put it on a shirt.

We’ve been working with Ayize on these books for the last 10 years and I can’t wait for this final book to come out. Ayize is so skilled at writing knock out action science fiction which also threads together the story of a found family, who are definitely not perfect, but who have their eyes on the prize: a life which is more than just survival for everyone, not just the fortunate/terrible few.

Here’s that first review:

Therapist and theologian Jama-Everett takes his group of Black superheroes from 1970s London to contemporary Morocco in the fascinating and action-packed final Liminal novel (after The Liminal War). Liminals possess supernatural powers, among them central figure Taggert’s ability to manipulate DNA to harm and heal; his adopted daughter Prentis’s empathy with animals; and wind spirit A.C.’s power over the elements. Taggert and his seven major allies must finally defeat the beautiful but monstrous Alters, who work to drive all of humanity to lemming-like suicide by creating a physically and spiritually depressed new world. In breathlessly paced adventures told from ever-shifting perspectives, Jama-Everett celebrates the power of family, community, and music to unite peoples and combat entropy, using dramatic flashbacks to illustrate the salvific power of self-sacrifice for a greater good. His fictionalization of the role psychedelics (here “manna,” the food of the gods) can play in mental health and clear conviction that writing can heal those whom mainstream culture has ignored add depth to the rip-roaring action. Series fans and new readers alike are sure to be drawn in.


Local Boy Makes Good

Fri 25 Mar 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Local Boy Makes Good | Posted by: Gavin

Richard Butner has been localized in the Raleigh area for some years — you can see pictures of him there and even in some other places here — although it’s our local paper here in Western Mass., the Daily Hampshire Gazette, that has a great review of The Adventurists today:

an excellent new collection of short stories . . . Butner, who lives in North Carolina, livens his writing with wry humor and moments of absurdity and surrealism, but his stories also explore the fraying of friendships and the sense of loss that the passage of time can bring.

What also anchors the 16 stories in the collection is Butner’s crisp, understated prose, a style that lets him quickly segue from straightforward descriptions of everyday life to off-kilter narratives.

I recommend the book, mais oui, and also subscribing to your local paper if possible!


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