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Month: October 2017

Future Treasures: Ka by John Crowley

Future Treasures: Ka by John Crowley

Ka John Crowley-smallMatthew David Surridge says John Crowley’s World Fantasy Award-winning Little, Big is “the best post-Tolkien novel of the fantastic I’ve read,” and Mark Rigney calls it “among the best and most endearing fantasy novels ever written… If there’s another book I’ve encountered in my adult life that calls louder to be re-read, and which reveals an even richer experience on doing so, I cannot imagine what it is.” Crowley’s thirteenth novel Ka, a fable about the first crow in history with a name of his own, arrives in hardcover from Saga Press next week.

A Crow alone is no Crow.

Dar Oakley — the first Crow in all of history with a name of his own — was born two thousand years ago. When a man learns his language, Dar finally gets the chance to tell his story. He begins his tale as a young man, and how he went down to the human underworld and got hold of the immortality meant for humans, long before Julius Caesar came into the Celtic lands; how he sailed West to America with the Irish monks searching for the Paradise of the Saints; and how he continuously went down into the land of the dead and returned. Through his adventures in Ka, the realm of Crows, and around the world, he found secrets that could change the humans’ entire way of life — and now may be the time to finally reveal them.

Our previous coverage of John Crowley includes:

In Praise of Little, Big by Mark Rigney
John Crowley’s Aegypt Cycle, Books One and Two by Mark Rigney
The Deep

Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr will be published by Saga Press on October 24, 2017. It is 442 pages, priced at $28.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Melody Newcomb.

Goth Chick News: Mars Sneaks Bite Size Horror Into Our Trick-or-Treat Bags…

Goth Chick News: Mars Sneaks Bite Size Horror Into Our Trick-or-Treat Bags…

Mars Bite Sized Horror

Tricks for unsuspecting viewers and a delicious treat for us horror fans.

If you’ve watched various Fox networks over the past couple of weeks you may have been visited by strange and chilling advertising just in time for Halloween. Mars candy brands (M&Ms and Skittles to name a couple) have collaborated to give up-and-coming horror directors the opportunity to make disturbing short films — which have been running in their entirety during Fox commercial breaks.

Four “Bite Size Horror” flicks (they are all two minutes long) have rolled out so far. The one that’s gotten the most attention is Floor 9.5, presented by Skittles, written by Simon Allen and directed by Toby Meakins. (Allen and Meakins previously worked together on the Vimeo staff pick horror shorts Breathe and LOT254.) Floor 9.5 ran during a Yankees-Indians playoff game on FS1, and judging by the Twitter reactions, it clearly freaked people out.

Actually, it kind of freaked me out…

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ElizaBeth Gilligan, August 16, 1962 – October 9, 2017

ElizaBeth Gilligan, August 16, 1962 – October 9, 2017

Magic's Silken Snare-small The Silken Shroud-small Soverign-Silk-ElizaBeth-Gilligan-small

Back in 2002 I included ElizaBeth Gilligan’s third published story, “Iron Joan,” in Black Gate 3, and I was very pleased to do so. It was a terrific tale, about a proud princess who flees an abusive father, and builds a home in a tiny coastal village…. until the day her father comes looking for her. It was one of the most popular stories in the issue, and became the first BG story to make the preliminary Nebula ballot.

ElizaBeth’s first novel, Magic’s Silken Snare (DAW, 2003), was the first novel in the Silken Magic trilogy. The Silken Shroud (DAW, 2004) followed a year later, and the third, Sovereign Silk, finally arrived this past June. Locus called the opening novel “Excellent… alternate Renaissance Italy is the setting for this opulent tale of court intrigue and dark magics…. engaging characters in a well-realized world.”

ElizaBeth died of cancer on October 9, 2017. Her career spanned nearly three decades, beginning with the short story “Confessions of a Bimbette in Space” (Amazing Experiences, 1990). She wrote a regular column for Midnight Zoo in the 1990s, and was the secretary of SFWA from 2002 – 2003. More recently, she edited the anthology Alterna-Teas for Sky Warrior in 2016.

She was 55 years old. Read the complete story “Iron Joan” here.

New Treasures: The Bone Mother by David Demchuk

New Treasures: The Bone Mother by David Demchuk

The Bone Mother-smallI haven’t paid enough attention to Canadian publisher ChiZine recently. A significant oversight, as they do superb work. They focus on “Dark Genre Fiction,” both novels and collections, which they produce in exquisitely designed trade paperbacks. A fine recent example is David Demchuk’s debut The Bone Mother, the first horror novel to be nominated for one of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, the Scotiabank Giller Award. Publishers Weekly said “Demchuk gracefully pieces together a dark and shining mosaic of a story with unforgettable imagery and elegant, evocative prose. These stories read like beautiful and brutal nightmares, sharply disquieting, and are made all the more terrifying by the history in which they’re grounded.” Here’s the description.

Three neighboring villages on the Ukrainian/Romanian border are the final refuge for the last of the mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. Now, on the eve of the war that may eradicate their kind — and with the ruthless Night Police descending upon their sanctuary — they tell their stories and confront their destinies:

  • The Rusalka, the beautiful vengeful water spirit who lives in lakes and ponds and lures men and children to their deaths;
  • The Vovkulaka, who changes from her human form into that of a wolf and hides with her kind deep in the densest forests;
  • The Strigoi, a revenant who feasts on blood and twists the minds of those who love, serve and shelter him;
  • The Dvoynik, an apparition that impersonates its victim and draws him into a web of evil in order to free itself;
  • And the Bone Mother, a skeletal crone with iron teeth who lurks in her house in the heart of the woods, and cooks and eats those who fail her vexing challenges.

Eerie and unsettling like the best fairy tales, these incisor-sharp portraits of ghosts, witches, sirens, and seers — and the mortals who live at their side and in their thrall — will chill your marrow and tear at your heart.

The Bone Mother was published by ChiZine Publications on July 18, 2017. It is 300 pages, priced at $17.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 in digital format. Our previous ChiZine coverage is here.

Hit That Word Count! Reading The Fiction Factory by William Wallace Cook

Hit That Word Count! Reading The Fiction Factory by William Wallace Cook

Street_&_Smith_book_department_in_1906

Street & Smith was one of the many publishers Cook worked for.
This is their book department in 1906, at the height of Cook’s career.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been studying the careers of hyperprolific authors. No study of the field would be complete without looking at the life of William Wallace Cook. Around the turn of the last century his work was everywhere — as serialized novels in newspapers, as dime novels, and later in hardback books. We wrote everything from boy’s fiction to romance to mystery to science fiction.

His two most enduring books, however, and really the only two that are still read today, are both nonfiction. The first is Plotto, a plot outline device that allows you to link up various plot elements to create a virtually infinite variety of stories. It’s on my shelf but I have yet to try it. The other is The Fiction Factory, in which he describes his early years breaking into the writing business in the 1890s and his climb to steady success in the early years of the 20th century. Despite having been written more than a hundred years ago it remains useful and inspiring reading for any aspiring or professional author.

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October GigaNotoSaurus Features “To Us May Grace Be Given” by L.S. Johnson

October GigaNotoSaurus Features “To Us May Grace Be Given” by L.S. Johnson

GigiNotoSaurus

GigaNotoSaurus got my attention back in July with Daniel Ausema’s long Sword & Sorcery novelette “The Poetics of Defiance.” Here’s what Ausema said about the story at his website, Twigs and Brambles.

“The Poetics of Defiance” is one of the longer stories I’ve had published. It’s a fun one that I’m very proud of. It started with an idea to come up with the two most unlikely jobs for a traditional sword & sorcery story, and I came up with an alchemist (I’ve liked the idea of a traveling alchemist ever since I was into D&D back in high school) and a poet. It ended up straying from the S&S idea somewhat… I had a lot of fun with creating the snippets of poetry for the attack poet.

This month GigaNotoSaurus features a brand new 15,507-word Weird Western by L.S. Johnson, “To Us May Grace Be Given.” Here’s Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews.

October’s GigaNotoSaurus brings a sort of paranormal Western longer novelette, with a whiff of ash and the taste of blood and coming violence. It’s a storm of a story, sweeping through the life of the main character and leaving nothing untouched. It’s a piece that explores the vast frontier that the American West used to represent, the potential or at least the hope of renewal and forgiveness. And yet it was all built on murder, and exploitation, and blood, and the story paints this place as incredibly dark, perilous, and toxic. It’s a wonderful take on the setting and genre…

Read the story free here, and read Charles’ complete review here.

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The Funny and Frightening Tale of the Supernatural Demise of London: Magicals Anonymous by Kate Griffin

The Funny and Frightening Tale of the Supernatural Demise of London: Magicals Anonymous by Kate Griffin

Stray Souls Kate Griffin-small The Glass God Kate Griffin-small

Catherine Webb is an extraordinary young writer. Under her own name she’s published several popular YA novels, including four novels in the Carnegie Medal-nominated Horatio Lyle mystery series, featuring a scientist and occasional sleuth in Victorian London. She writes science fiction under the name Claire North, including the Campbell Award-winning The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014) and the World Fantasy Award nominee The Sudden Appearance of Hope (2016), among many others. And under the name Kate Griffin she writes fantasy for adults.

It’s her Kate Griffin novels that interest me most — especially her Magicals Anonymous novels about an apprentice shaman (and Community Support Officer for the Magically Inclined) in London. SciFi Now said the opening volume Stray Souls (2012) “Flawlessly balances horror and humor to… pull off a funny yet frightening read about the supernatural-induced demise of London.”

So far there has only been one sequel, The Glass God (2013), but I’m hopeful there will be more. Here’s the descriptions for both novels.

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A Tale Most Gruesome and Bonkers: Dark Ventures by T.C. Rypel

A Tale Most Gruesome and Bonkers: Dark Ventures by T.C. Rypel

oie_1743327PKGNf2XuAside from his own terrific swords & sorcery tales, the thing I’m most grateful to Joe Bonadonna for is hipping me to the Gonji stories of T.C. Rypel. For those unfamiliar with him, Gonji is a half Viking, half Japanese warrior, cast out of Japan and in search of his destiny across a monster- and sorcery-ravaged Europe. His epic struggle against malign magical powers are told in a series of five novels: Red Blade from the East (2012), The Soul Within the Steel (2013), Deathwind of Vedun (2013), Fortress of Lost Worlds (2014), and A Hungering of Wolves (2014). The novels (reviewed by me at the links) are dense works of remarkable storytelling, filled with deeply memorable characters and complex worldbuilding. Now, appearing for the first time, is a collection of shorter works called Dark Ventures (2017).

Before I start telling you about the book, let me be up front: I consider Ted Rypel a friend, and I was privileged to read a pre-publication version of the new book’s central novella, “Dark Venture.” Ted loved my description of the story so much he used it as a blurb on the back cover:

People will not know what hit them when they read “Dark Venture.” It’s one of the most exciting (and gruesomely bonkers) swords & sorcery stories I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

I meant those words when I first wrote them a couple of years ago, and I stand by them today.

Dark Ventures opens with the short story “Reflections in Ice.” It’s an expanded and revised version of the first chapter of the novel Fortress of Lost Worlds. In it, Gonji and his companions, having survived the events of the first three books, are making their way across the Pyrenees Mountains in response to a summons for their aid. Slowly they are being killed, stalked by unseen and supernatural hunters:

The ghostly army comes again the next night, and the next, pursuing when we flee, retreating when we advance. Two more men are savagely slain by unerring bowshot, despite all caution and hastily fashioned defensive shielding. To wheel and engage them is to encounter mocking laughter from that effulgent bank of nothingness they inhabit. To run or take a stand is to be subjected to more casual slaughter, as if we are mere game; more sudden chilling eruptions of screaming and gouting blood, under the assassins’ uncanny aim.

As his party is whittled down to fewer and fewer members, Gonji is forced higher and higher into the mountains in search of refuge, but finding only more horrors. “Reflections” is a dark tale that is suffused with a sense of impending death, and becomes increasingly despair-filled and claustrophobic with each step forward.

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The Poison Apple: The Lure of the Vampire, an Interview with Author Nancy Kilpatrick

The Poison Apple: The Lure of the Vampire, an Interview with Author Nancy Kilpatrick

Mummified-saint

Nancy Kilpatrick is an award-winning writer and editor. She has published 22 novels, 1 non-fiction book, over 220 short stories and 6 collections of her short fiction, comic books, a graphic novel, and she has edited 15 anthologies. Her work has been translated into 7 languages. Although not all vampire-themed, it’s all focused on the dark realm.

I noticed on your Amazon Author’s Page you did a non-fiction book about the Gothic movement.

I wrote one non-fiction book, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined. At the time I did that I was pretty much smack in the middle of the Goth world. The agent I had at the time approached me and said there was a publisher looking for a book on goth. When I contacted the publisher, he and I had a conversation, but he was looking for something with the slant of discouraging people from getting involved in the goth culture. This wasn’t what I wanted to write so my agent shopped it around, and there was a bit of a bidding war. Finally there was an editor at St. Martin’s Press who used to be into goth when he was younger, so he bought it, but unfortunately just at 9/11, which was a paralyzing time for the publishing industry.

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Future Treasures: Barbary Station by R. E. Stearns

Future Treasures: Barbary Station by R. E. Stearns

Barbary Station-smallPirates, space stations, and a killer A.I… these are the promising ingredients in R. E. Stearns’ debut SF novel Barbary Station, in which two engineers hijack a spaceship to join a band of space pirates — only to discover the pirates are hiding from a malevolent AI. To join the pirate crew, they first have to prove themselves by outwitting the AI… how hard can that be? Barbary Station arrives in hardcover from Saga Press on Halloween.

Adda and Iridian are newly minted engineers, but aren’t able to find any work in a solar system ruined by economic collapse after an interplanetary war. Desperate for employment, they hijack a colony ship and plan to join a famed pirate crew living in luxury at Barbary Station, an abandoned shipbreaking station in deep space.

But when they arrive there, nothing is as expected. The pirates aren’t living in luxury — they’re hiding in a makeshift base welded onto the station’s exterior hull. The artificial intelligence controlling the station’s security system has gone mad, trying to kill all station residents and shooting down any ship that attempts to leave — so there’s no way out.

Adda and Iridian have one chance to earn a place on the pirate crew: destroy the artificial intelligence. The last engineer who went up against the AI met an untimely end, and the pirates are taking bets on how the newcomers will die. But Adda and Iridian plan to beat the odds.

There’s a glorious future in piracy… if only they can survive long enough.

Barbary Station will be published by Saga Press on October 31, 2017. It is 448 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition.

See all our recent coverage of the best upcoming SF ans Fantasy here.