Friday Five: Nightmare Creatures [Contest!]
Penguins Progress x Stocking Stuffer

The Weeks that Were

There's a lot happening right now, so starting with the ongoing (and time-limited) excitement:

The Pandemonium Stocking Stuffer was released on Friday. This holiday treat contains three new stories from Archie Black, Den Patrick and Oz Vance - comic fantasies packed with sex, violence and Tesla rifles. The adorable cover is by the amazing Sarah Anne Langton. Best of all? It is on sale for a whopping eighty-six pence

(Speaking of sales, did you know that Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse was still only £2.49?)

All that out of the way, let's take a trip down memory lane, and see what the past two weeks have brought...

The reviews:

If we seem like we're avoiding recent SF/F titles, it is because, well... we are. We're up to our knees in 2011 speculative & fantastic titles for The Kitschies, but we're trying to avoid talking about anything that's been submitted. In January, we'll be reviewing The Kitschies' shortlists, which will go a long way towards catching up. In the mean time, we hope you're enjoying our looks at vintage fiction and recent short stories.

Features and other fun:

  • Chatting with Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians (a 2009 Kitschies finalist) and The Magician King
  • A look at the genre titles included in A Thousand of the Best Novels (1919)
  • Over at The Girls' Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse, the Pandemonium authors contributed a two part entry to the "Ask the Experts" series. Part One features Lauren Beukes, Archie Black, Sarah Lotz and Lou Morgan. Part Two stars Chrys Balis, Kim Lakin-Smith and Sophia McDougall.
  • Jared also had the chance to talk about "Causing Pandemonium" for Tate Britain's Great British Art Debate.
  • We were interviewed by Charles Tan of The World SF Blog and revealed all sorts of scintillating trivia about hairdressers, The Kitschies and the difference between fantasy in the American and British markets.

Last but not least, Thursday, 8 December was The Kitschies' Steampunk Evening, the first in a series of loosely curated genre examinations (a fancy way of saying "themed events") brought to you by The Kitschies, Blackwell's and The Kraken Rum. The list of featured guests and their work can be found here and some great wrap-ups can be found here, here, here, herehere and here.

We're hashing out the details of the next event now, and the best way to keep on top of things is to keep reading, well, us. (And Like The Kitschies' Facebook page. That's helpful too.)

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