Kathleen Jennings and Kij Johnson Redux

Wed 16 Apr 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Awards, Kathleen Jennings, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Kathleen Jennings’s Kindling: Stories has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award — “Australia’s premier speculative fiction award” — for Best Collection.

The cover for Kathleen’s next novel, Honeyeater, dropped and it is worth clicking on the link.

Also of note, Kathleen did the cover art and half-page pen-and-ink illustrations for Kij Johnson’s forthcoming RiverBank roleplaying game which is being crowdfunded right now on Backerkit and has more than doubled the original goal.

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1 Year of New Kij

Thu 24 Oct 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

It’s a dozen years since we published our first Kij Johnson collection, At the Mouth of the River of Bees, and I’m delighted to say that last month we received copies of the sixth printing.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Kij’s wide-ranging second collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending. At the start of this month, she was at the Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University in Topeka where she was quoted as saying, “Sometimes you’re reading for story and sometimes you’re reading for art,” which is an especially good thought to hold while reading the new book.

Also, Phoebe Cramer, Publishers Weekly’s SFF, horror, and romance reviews editor chose it for PW Picks, a newsletter whose “best feature is its most personal: each week, our reviews editors single out the titles they’re most passionate about and excited for you to read.”

The Privilege of the Happy Ending
Kij Johnson. Small Beer, $18 trade paper (302p) ISBN 978-1-61873-211-8
Formal experimentation and fairy tale elements are like catnip to me, so Johnson’s latest collection was hard to resist. Featuring squirrel ghosts, squid girls, and sphinxes, these wild speculative shorts take the form of classic fables, modern bestiaries, and riddles told by crows.

Besides Kij’s Patreon, if you’d like to keep up you can now subscribe to her newsletter.

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Kij Johnson at Constellation

Wed 3 Apr 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

There’s a new review of Kij Johnson’s collection The Privilege of the Happy Ending in Strange Horizons by M. L. Clark — the kind of review I’d love to just paste the whole thing in instead of excerpting a strong line. Anyway, if you’ve not read the book, go for it, and if you’ve read the book you might enjoy it as much as me.

Kij will be one of the Guests of Honor at Constellation in Lincoln, NE, in a couple of weeks. Set out now, arrive by April 19:

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Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List

Thu 1 Feb 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, Kij Johnson, Locus, Sarah Pinsker, year's bests| Posted by: Gavin

In 2023 we (only) published four books and I’m happy to see three of them are on the Locus Recommended Reading list. The one title missing is Ayize Jama-Everett’s series capper Heroes of an Unknown World—at least The Last Count of Monte Cristo, his great Afrofuturist graphic novel, is listed.

As ever, congratulations to everyone whose work made the list! Do I think more of the list makers should read LCRW? Well of course! How could they miss our monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semiannual, dammit, annual issue from last year? (I mean, maybe they all read it and didn’t enjoy any of the stories, but, come now, how likely is that?)

The three titles, which if you are reading this you may be familiar with, that did make the list are:

Kij Johnson, The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small, Medium, and Large Stories

Sarah Pinsker, Lost Places: Stories & the original story novelette first publisher there, “Science Facts!”

Anya Johanna DeNiro, OKPsyche

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Kij @ Prairie Lights Tomorrow

Wed 31 Jan 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Get your skates on: Kij Johnson reads from her new collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights in Iowa City — or just order a book and get it personalized there!

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Top 5 Bestsellers 2023

Tue 19 Dec 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, Bestsellers, Kij Johnson, Nathan Ballingrud, Sarah Pinsker, Sarah Rees Brennan| Posted by: Gavin

Here are our top 5 bestsellers so far this year by numbers shipped from our distributor:

1. Sarah Pinsker, Lost Places
   
2. Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters
3. Kij Johnson, The Privilege of the Happy Ending
4. Anya Johanna DeNiro, OKPsyche
5. Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands

In 2023 we published the Liminals series capper from Ayize Jama-Everett, Heroes from Another World. Ayize had an amazing year: he published 3 books (including a great Afrofuturistic graphic novel The Last Count of Monte Cristo) and put out a documentary, A Table of Our Own: “an extraordinary and thought-provoking documentary that delves into the rich tapestry of the African-American experience, exploring the intersection of psychedelic substance use, spirituality and the pursuit of social justice.”

We followed Ayize’s novel with Sarah Pinsker’s second collection which was included in Slate’s Best Books of the Year.

Then came Anya Johanna DeNiro’s OKPsyche — I think the review I enjoyed most was Jake Casella Brookins in Locus which started off, “I was completely unprepared for how powerful Anya Johanna DeNiro’s OKPsyche is” and leapt off into the kind of review that I alwayshope to read of a book I love.

Our final book of the year was Kij Johnson’s The Privilege of the Happy Ending. 10 years in the making, it’s a weird and wide-ranging collection and was recently reviewed in the Washington Post by Michael Dirda.

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Kij’s book on BookBrowse

Mon 6 Nov 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, Reviews| Posted by: Gavin

BookBrowse’s review of Kij Johnson’s The Privilege of the Happy Ending and their Beyond the Book article, Dream Interpretation are featured today in their “Top Picks.”

During the week or so that the book is featured, everyone can read the review and article in full. After that, only members can read in full, everyone else sees an abbreviated version, so clickity click!

Excerpt:

This collection of speculative stories feels like being in a vivid dream that you don’t want to wake up from. Kij Johnson’s imaginative narratives are utterly surreal and somewhat dark, yet laced with wit. Their language is highly literary, almost poetic, and draws the reader deeper into Johnson’s world.

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Kij @ World Fantasy

Thu 26 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., conventions, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

While we won’t be at World Fantasy, some of our books will be, and, even better, some of the authors: starting with one of the guests of honor, Kij Johnson. I just grabbed her schedule from this page so if you’re there, hope you will get to see some of this and maybe get a signed copy of her new new new book The Privilege of the Happy Ending.

Thursday
Reading; 4PM, Chicago A
Spotlight: Kij Johnson; 5PM, Empire A/B
Opening Ceremony; 8PM, Atlanta/New York
Work/Work Balance: Writing With A Day Job; 10PM, Empire A/B

Friday
Animals in Fiction; Noon, Empire A/B
The Mythology and Fantasy of the Fox; 4PM, Atlanta/New York

Saturday
Kaffeeklatsch; 1PM, Dragon’s Den
Stories Without Stories: Non-Narrative Fiction; 3PM, Empire A/B

Sunday
Ad Astra Presentation; 10AM, Chicago A

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New Book Day!

Tue 24 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

When we published our first book by Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees, an amazing wide-ranging collection of stories, I had no idea that eleven years later we’d be publishing our third: The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small/Medium/Large Stories. This time we accompanied the trade paperback with a small hardcover run to give people —and libraries — the choice. I’ve seen copies of At the Mouth read to death so I am sure some people will prefer the hardcover. One of the stories in that first book, Ponies, was reprinted in a text book so many, many readers had the rather staggering experience of that story. With luck some of those readers will be looking for more unexpected oddities and weirdness and the new book has all that and more. Looking forward to getting it out into the world and reading people’s reactions.

Kij launches the book tonight at 7 p.m. at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS, and will be one of the guests of honor later this week (10/26-29) at the World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City, MO.

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Local Paper Goodness

Fri 20 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Kij Johnson, Reviews| Posted by: Gavin

I was reading our local paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, at first breakfast with our kid (me: tea; toast: marmite; toast: peanut butter & banana) this morning & was delighted to see a review of Kij Johnson’s The Privilege of the Happy Ending — which Kij launches on Tuesday at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, and then next week, 10/26-29, she’ll be a Guest of Honor at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City, MO. I don’t know how Steve Pfarrer keeps up, he also wrote today’s above-the-fold story on Smith College Museum of Art’s new show, Sum of its Parts.

I was even more delighted when I followed the jump to read the rest of the review and found he had also reviewed Anya Johanna DeNiro’s “dreamlike, speculative novel” OKPsyche. I hope wherever you’re reading you have a decent local paper. If not, I highly recommend our paper which I finished reading when I went back for second breakfast with Kelly (porridge with miso and fresh tomato).

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Who Will Tell This Story?

Mon 16 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

An early story celebrating Kij Johnson’s new collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending, went up recently on the University of Kansas’s website: Fantastic fiction writer Kij Johnson can go home again, accompanied by a good photo of Kij on a scooter. If you want to keep up with Kij she is quite an active blogger and she also has a Patreon.

Here’s a snippet:

“Until the last three or four years, I would have said I don’t want to ever write about Iowa because it was boring. And yet here I am starting to write about Iowa. I can’t help it,” said the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning author and University of Kansas professor of English, who will be a guest of honor at the World Fantasy Convention Oct. 26-29 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Read more here.

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Twin Cities Book Fest

Thu 12 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, book festivals, Kij Johnson, readings| Posted by: Gavin

This weekend in Minnesota the Twin Cities are celebrating everything bookish with Rain Taxi’s annual Book Fest and you can catch both Anya Johanna DeNiro, author of OKPsyche, and Kij Johnson, author of The Privilege of the Happy Ending on a panel there on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Kij launches her book in 10 days time at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS, but Magers & Quinn should have some early copies tomorrow and both she and Anya will be available to sign their new books.

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Second Starred Review

Mon 28 Aug 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, starred review| Posted by: Gavin

Kij Johnson just put a line through an item on her bucket list: The Privilege of the Happy Ending has received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews — great news, especially following the first starred review the book received from Publishers Weekly.

After the great popularity of At the Mouth of the River of Bees, we’re changing things up a bit and splitting the run on this book so that we will have some hardcovers available.

Here’s an excerpt from the review or read the whole thing on Kirkus’s site.

★ “While the entries are uniformly excellent in pacing and prose, the standouts may be the collection’s opener and closer. ‘Tool-Using Mimics’ spins out a half-dozen explanations for a vintage photo of a young girl with tentacles that lead to piercing questions about how much we can know about the past, other species, and each other. The titular novella, which also won a World Fantasy Award, is a compelling fairy tale about a little orphan girl and her talking hen that poignantly interrogates the ways we determine which stories take center stage. A strange and glimmering jewel for any genre fiction collection.”

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Boundary-Pushing Wow

Fri 4 Aug 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, starred review| Posted by: Gavin

We just got the proofs from the printer for Kij Johnson’s forthcoming second collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small, Medium, and Large Stories. We’re going to do a short hardcover run along with the regular trade paper edition, so it was fun to design a jacket extending out from Sophia Uceda’s lovely cover art. Proofs are always a two-edged sword though as I hope not to find any errors as that would slow up production even as at the same time I hope I do find any remaining errors as it would be better to find them now rather than opening up the finished book and finding them. So, fingers crossed: no errors!

And, good news came in from Publishers Weekly — which I immediately shared with our distributor and international rights agents — the first trade review has come in and it’s a star:

The devastating title tale follows another young girl and her cherished talking hen as they barely escape a swarm of monsters who devour anything with flesh. Johnson’s keen eye for the mysteries of human nature shines as her characters experience love, loss, growth, and betrayal, all made delightfully strange. These boundary-pushing, magic-infused tales are sure to wow.

Read the whole review here.

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Privilege Hardcover

Tue 25 Jul 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., hardcover, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

While working on Kij Johnson’s The Privilege of the Happy Ending we bought a collection of vintage sf&f for Book Moon — here are a few, there are more pictures up there, too. We don’t buy much in the way of used books there anymore, which is a shame as I love them, but Easthampton really wanted a new bookshop which is a different kind of fun.

Anyway, while cleaning and pricing some of the old hardcovers I realized it would be fun to do a short hardcover run of Kij’s book along with the trade paperback so we are adding a small hardcover edition and we got to design a new jacket for the hardcover. When I took it to our distributor they liked the idea but pushed for a higher price for the hardcover to differentiate the books so the hardcover will be $34 and the trade paper $18. I am still always surprised by how expensive it is to make a Smyth sewn hardcover using 30% recycled paper so that is reflected in the price. The interiors of the hardcover, paperback, and ebooks are the same so the hardcovers are going to be for those who read their books very hard and need a hardcover to stand up to the force of that. Or maybe libraries and those who like a pretty hardcover. The paperback is 5.5″ x 8.5″ as many — or maybe most? — of our books are as I find that size very readable.

The hardcover should be out at the same time as the paperback, October 24, and Kij will be at World Fantasy and some more places when it comes out.

 

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NPR’s 2017 Great Reads: Tender & The River Bank

Tue 5 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, NPR, Sofia Samatar| Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted to see 2 of our 2017 titles on NPR’s endlessly entertaining Book Concierge Guide To 2017’s Great Reads:

Tender: Stories
by Sofia Samatar
Most of the 20 sumptuous tales in Sofia Samatar’s collection Tender take place on Earth – although not always the Earth we might recognize. Sprawling in subject from the supernatural power of names to the loneliness of a half-robot woman, Tender redefines the emotional power and literary heft that speculative fiction can convey. Where Samatar’s acclaimed fantasy novels exist in a strange, dreamlike world, her short stories daringly explore the overlap of familiarity and otherness.
— recommended by Jason Heller, book critic

The River Bank: A Sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows
by Kij Johnson

A beautiful, pitch-perfect sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, with characters original to Kij Johnson and spot illustrations by Kathleen Jennings, The River Bank is that species of fan fiction that unfolds new material from a beloved property with hardly a hint of a seam. Meandering with a river’s pace through musings on art, home and the end of summer, The River Bank is a more than worthy successor.
— recommended by Amal El-Mohtar, book critic

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“An Absolutely Delightful Book”

Wed 27 Sep 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathleen Jennings, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Michael Dirda is delighted by Kij Johnson’s The River Bank — as you can see in his new review just posted in the Washington Post:

“If you’re going to write a sequel to one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, you’ll need to be pitch perfect, hit all the right notes and, at its end, leave your reader shouting “Bravo!” Or in this case, “Brava!” and “Encore!” Kij Johnson has brought out an absolutely delightful book, as charming and funny and rereadable as Kenneth Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows” itself.”

Yay! There are a couple of Kathleen Jennings’s illustrations included in the review (they “add just the right extra magic”) and a comparison to Georgette Heyer. Not bad for a Wednesday morning!

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The Story Spilling Over

Thu 14 Sep 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathleen Jennings, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Occasionally I read a review of a book we’ve published and it makes me want to pick up the book and read it all over again. I just had that experience reading Amal El-Mohtar’s review of The River Bank on the NPR website. Amal begins her review writing about fan fiction and reading that made me wonder if fan fiction was labelled something else, would it be more acceptable to those who don’t like it? Much of the time fan fiction can pass me by but then Kij sent us a book that Amal accurately labels fan fiction and I love it. I love a book in conversation with another but sometimes, ach, you know how it is. There’s no one rule that describes even one reader’s preferences. I know a good book when I see it! Right? Sure.

Enough of me, here’s a part of Amal’s review. I urge you to read the whole thing:

I was never less than delighted with this book. From beginning to end, it thoroughly charmed and engaged me, speaking the native literary language of my childhood. Like a river, it is in places languid and broad, in others narrow and rushing, the story spilling over sharp rocks of incident before pooling in afternoon sunshine, smelling of lilies and mud. I loved the sweetness of its pace, which spoke of a deep, abiding love not so much for the source material’s specific contents as their tone: a wistful, enchanted melancholy that walks hand in hand with summer’s end.

There are passages here that I treasure, that take up the timbre of Kenneth Grahame’s voice to speak of new things that feel timeless: the joys and pains of being an author at work; the changeability of a summer’s day from possibility to exhaustion; the quiet loneliness of a home half-dwelt in, a home asleep until woken by occupation, activity, presence. Sentences like “an animal lives in the long now of the world.” So much of this book dwells deeply in that long now.

In addition to its many native felicities, the text is embellished by Kathleen Jennings’ beautiful incidental illustrations, grace notes sounded in E. H. Shepard’s mode with a line reminiscent of Beatrix Potter and a sensibility all Jennings’ own.

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Return to the River Bank

Tue 12 Sep 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathleen Jennings, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Today, five years or so after we published Kij Johnson’s collection At the Mouth of the River of Bees we are delighted to be publishing her new novel The River Bank.

The River Bank is a sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows and, given Kij’s recent stories such as “Ponies” and “Spar”) you would not be the only one surprised that Kij had chosen this as one of her next projects. For us, the first illustrator who came to mind was Kathleen Jennings. Her detailed lines and light sense of whimsy combined with her deep knowledge of illustration made her the perfect choice and we were quite enchanted when she started sending pencil sketches for chapter and incidental illustrations.

So today the book comes out in a lovely paper-over-boards hardcover — we’ve never done that before, what fun! — and ebook editions. People seem to love it as much as we do and as much as we’d hoped, especially once they have it in their hands. It’s very different from Kij’s other work but as ever her love of the natural world and for animals shines through.

If you’re in the Kansas City environs, Kij is launching the book at the Raven Book Store tonight (so you can order a signed copy if you’d like) and she has a few more readings planned:

Sept. 12, 7 p.m. Raven Book Store, 6 East Seventh St., Lawrence, KS
10/14, 1 p.m., Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore, Minneapolis, MN
11/2-5, World Fantasy Convention, San Antonio, TX
11/20, 7 p.m., Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, OR
11/21, 7 p.m., Elliot Bay Book Co., 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle, WA

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Tomorrow the green grass

Mon 11 Sep 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow there will be some amount of fuss over the new iPhone (does it come with a toaster?! Find our tomorrow!) meanwhile there will a much more relaxed portion of the populace who will be reading Kij Johnson’s new book The River Bank.

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The River Bank Goodreads Giveaway

Tue 5 Sep 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Free books, Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Quick: there are only 2 days left to win one of 8 advance copies of Kij Johnson’s forthcoming sequel to The Wind in the Willows, The River Bank.

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Kij Johnson on Tour

Mon 21 Aug 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Next month we’ll publish Kij Johnson’s new novel, The River Bank. It is quite the treat, a much-needed break from the contemporary world, with chapter and spot illustrations throughout by Kathleen Jennings. Should you be in one of these places, why not go see her read for yourself!

Sept. 12, 7 p.m. Raven Book Store, 6 East Seventh St., Lawrence, KS
10/14, 1 p.m., Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore, Minneapolis, MN
11/20, 7 p.m., Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, OR
11/21, Elliot Bay Bookshop, 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle, WA

And more dates may yet be added so keep an eye on this page.

Meanwhile School Library Journal gave it a lovely review culminating thusly:

“Johnson’s attention to world-building and characterization create an engaging read with modern appeal while maintaining the aesthetic of the original. It also works as a stand-alone for new readers, though references to events covered in the first book are sprinkled throughout. Black-and-white line spot art and full-page spreads add to the nostalgic feel.”

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Locus Says:

Mon 14 Aug 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Christopher Rowe, Kij Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan, Sofia Samatar| Posted by: Gavin

This month’s Locus includes reviews of a four-fingered handful of our books! As well as all the usual good stuff: interviews with John Scalzi and Justina Ireland; reviews by Faren Miller, Gardner Dozois, & more; the Locus Survey results, an SF in Finland report, Kameron Hurley’s column [“Did ‘Being a Writer’ Ever Mean. . . Just Writing?”], reports from the Locus Awards and Readercon; & obits (boo!). [Locus is available from Weightless and they’re having a subscription drive this month and there is a Patreon.]

Four-fingered handful? Hmm. Three books are reviewed by the one and only Gary K. Wolfe. The first is Christopher Rowe’s new collection Telling the Map:

“. . . it is no accident that Christopher Rowe dedicates his first story collection Telling the Map to fellow Kentuckians Terry Bisson and Jack Womack. It’s also no accident that Rowe, on the basis of no more than a couple of dozen stories over nearly 20 years (of which 10 are collected here), managed to gain a reputation as one of the most distinctive voices to emerge from this period. This is not only because he writes with lyricism and great precision of style, but because of his firm geographical grounding, which is reflected in all the stories here (as well as in his title), but is a key factor in several (‘Another Word for Map is Faith’, ‘The Voluntary State’, ‘The Border State’). This isn’t the geography of fake world-building, with all those Forbidden Zones and Misty Mountains, but rather the geography of locals who measure distances between towns in hours rather than miles, and who know which bridges you’ll need to cross to get there. It’s also a world in which agriculture and religion are daily behaviors rather than monolithic institutions. As weird as Tennessee gets in Rowe’s most famous story, ‘The Voluntary State’ (and that is very weird) it’s a Tennessee we can map onto the trails and highways that are there now.
“‘The Voluntary State’ and its longer prequel novella ‘The Border State’ (the latter original to this volume), take up well over half of Telling the Map, and together they portray a nanotech-driven non-urban future unlike any other in contemporary SF.”

Gary goes on to write of Sofia Samatar’s debut collection:

“Tender: Stories includes two excellent new pieces together with 18 reprints, and one of them, “Fallow”, is not only the longest story in the collection, but also her most complex and accomplished SF story to date. On the basis of her award-winning debut novel A Stranger in Olondria and its sequel The Winged Histories, Samatar’s reputation has been mostly that of a fantasist, and her most famous story, ‘‘Selkie Stories Are For Losers’’ (the lead selection here) seemed to confirm that reputation – although once Samatar establishes the parameters of her fantastic worlds, she works out both her plot details and cultural observations with the discipline of a seasoned SF writer and the psychological insight of a poet.”

and Kij Johnson’s forthcoming The River Bank:

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Humble Bundle: Super Nebula Author Showcase

Sat 13 May 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Carol Emshwiller, Howard Waldrop, Humble Bundle, John Kessel, Karen Joy Fowler, Kelly Link, Kij Johnson, Nancy Kress| Posted by: Gavin

Hey, stop the presses (except for the ones printing and reprinting our books!), spread the word, the Humble Bundle is back! This time it’s the Super Nebula Author Showcase presented by SFWA. What do these books have in common? They all include at least one Nebula Award winning story:

• For one single US dollar, you can get 8 DRM-free ebooks including Howard Waldrop’s Howard Who? (“The Ugly Chickens”) and Kelly Link’s Stranger Things Happen (“Louise’s Ghost”).
• For $8 or more and add another dozen books (8+12=20 ebooks for $8+!) including John Kessel’s The Baum Plan for Financial Independence (“Pride and Prometheus”).
• For $15 or more and add another ten books (20+10=30 ebooks for $15+!) including Nancy Kress’s Fountain of Age (“Fountain of Age”).
• For $20 or more and add another ten books (30+10=40 ebooks for $20+!) including Kij Johnson’s At the Mouth of the River of Bees (“The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” “Ponies,” & “Spar”), Carol Emshwiller’s Report to the Men’s Club (“Creature”), and Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See (“Always” & “What I Didn’t See”).

As with all Humble Bundles, readers choose where the money goes – between the publishers; SFWA (or a charity of your choice), and the Humble Bundle. I’m scheduling this to post on the weekend and by Friday afternoon over 5,000 people have already picked up the bundle. Thanks for reading and spreading the word if you can. Cheers!

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Con or Bust

Mon 24 Apr 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, Lydia Millet, Sarah Rees Brennan| Posted by: Gavin

If you’d like to get early copies of some of our books, bid now in the Con or Bust auction!

Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands (hardcover/ebook, August)

Lydia Millet, The Dissenters middle grade trilogy (hardcovers, out now)

Kij Johnson, The River Bank (hardcover/ebook, September)

You can see everything that’s been donated to the auction in the 2017 Auction Index (Google spreadsheet, opens in new window). I am off to check it out now myself!

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Manana

Mon 10 Apr 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Juan Martinez, Kij Johnson, Lydia Millet, Sofia Samatar, Ursula K. Le Guin| Posted by: Gavin

We publish Sofia Samatar’s collection Tender: Stories tomorrow. Many, many people are going to be very happy about this.

Also: next week there will be a giveaway for Lydia Millet’s final Dissenters novel, The Bodies of the Ancients, on Goodreads.

The above giveaway is for readers in the USA only due to mailing costs, but: right now readers worldwide can sign up to receive a free advance copy of Christopher Rowe’s forthcoming collection Telling the Map on LibraryThing.

Edelweiss users: this morning we posted Kij Johnson’s The River Bank.

Juan Martinez will be at 2 upcoming literary festivals: in Arkansas on April 29 and much closer to home at the Evanston Literary Festival on May 8, In Celebration of the Short Story with Christine Sneed at Bookends & Beginnings.

Did you hear that Ursula K. Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter is a finalist for the Hugo Award? How wonderful! I also really like Ursula’s new publicity photo by Rod Searcey.

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Boom! New Books for 2017

Wed 7 Dec 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Christopher Rowe, Kij Johnson, Laurie J. Marks, Sarah Rees Brennan, Sofia Samatar| Posted by: Gavin

Should democracy survive in this sometimes lovely country in 2017 we will publish these books:

1. Sofia Samatar, Tender: Stories
This is a ridiculously good book. Twenty stories including two new stories which — POP! there goes my mind.

2. Laurie J. Marks, Fire Logic and Earth Logic in paperback. The ebooks are out but these trade paperbacks coming out is us building toward publishing the fourth and final Elemental Logic novel, Air Logic.

3. Kij Johnson, The River Bank: A sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. Illustrated throughout by Kathleen Jennings.
A book that came to us out of the blue and a reminder that there can be joy in the world.

4. Christopher Rowe, Telling the Map: Stories
Sometimes you wait a long time and then a good thing happens. This book ranges out from now in Kentucky to who knows where or when. And: wow.

5. Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands: a novel
This is the funniest epic-not-epic fantasy you’ll read next year.

None of the covers are 100% final.

And, fingers crossed, there will be more books later in the year.

I owe an apology and a great debt of thanks to the authors for their immense patience as work slowed and stalled during and after this most recent election. Sorry. Putting out a new issue of LCRW helped with getting me back into doing things and not just calling senators and despairing.

I feel silly and melodramatic to be worried about democracy — not perhaps the best form of government, but the best I’ve seen yet — and to think that I and others can work to keep this country from becoming a militarized plutocracy/kleptocracy. This election that among others things was influenced by the Russian government…

Rep Schiff to @halliejackson: Trump “knows better” than to say Russia wasn’t involved in US election hacks. https://t.co/UhNDsAd07l

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) December 7, 2016

…(oh that that were a conspiracy theory), this convulsion away from liberalism and toward a much darker, narrower future is horrifying and must be fought.

For now, we will fight one book at a time.

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Bestsellers & Locus Rec Reading 2013

Mon 3 Feb 2014 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Angelica Gorodischer, Bestsellers, Elizabeth Hand, Howard Waldrop, Kij Johnson, Nathan Ballingrud, Sofia Samatar, Susan Stinson, Ted Chiang, Ursula K. Le Guin| Posted by: Gavin

Here are two different views of 2013 in SBP books. What will 2014 bring? Droughts! Witches! Yetis! More and more weird fun!

Congratulations to all the authors on the 2013 Locus recommended reading list. It’s always fun to peruse the list and see, for whatever reasons, what rose up and what didn’t. It’s especially nice to have links to all the online short stories and novellas and so on, thanks Mark et al!

In 2013, we published 2 Peter Dickinson reprints, one chapbook, and six new titles, and of those six, four titles are on the list:

1. Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
2. Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters: Stories
3. Angelica Gorodischer (trans. Amalia Gladhart), Trafalgar
4. Howard Waldrop, Horse of a Different Color: Stories

And you can go and vote in the Locus awards poll here. I have some reading to do before I vote. Votes for Small Beer authors and titles are always appreciated, thank you!

In sales, once again our celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantastic short stories were our best sellers for the year. However, if we split the two volumes into separate sales, Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others would climb a notch to #2. But! Counting them as one means we get another title into the top 5: Elizabeth Hand’s late 2012 collection Errantry: Strange Stories. We really should release more books at the start of the year, as those released at the end have much less chance of getting into the top 5.

According to Neilsen BookScan (i.e. not including bookfairs, our website, etc.), our top five bestsellers (excluding ebooks) for 2013 were:

1. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin
   Ursula K. Le Guin, The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin
2. Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
3. Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees
4. Susan Stinson, Spider in a Tree
5. Elizabeth Hand, Errantry: Strange Stories

Last year it was all short stories all the time, this year Susan Stinson’s historical novel Spider in a Tree jumped in (I’d have said sneaked in if it was #5, but since it’s at #4, that’s a jump!). Susan’s book is still getting great reviews, as with this from the Historical Novel Review which just came out this week:

“The book is billed as “a novel of the First Great Awakening,” and Stinson tries to do just that, presenting us with a host of viewpoints from colonists to slaves and even insects. She gives an honest imagining of everyday people caught up in extraordinary times, where ecstatic faith, town politics and human nature make contentious bedfellows. Although the novel was slow to pull me in, by the end I felt I had an intimate glance into the disparate lives of these 18th-century residents of Northampton, Massachusetts.”

As ever, thanks are due to the writers for writing their books, all the people who worked on the books with us, the great support we received from the independent bookstores all across the USA and Canada, and of course, the readers. We love these books and are so happy to find so many readers do, too: thank you!

    

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