Buying, Making, Reviewing, Judging
Saturday, June 29, 2013
A very quiet week on the blog which means there may be "mass reviews" in the near future as I try to catch up. Oops.
First, a few new finds:
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women, edited by Marie O'Regan. I started reading up on this because, well, they're a competitor. Then I saw that it had folks like Kim Lakin-Smith and Gaie Sebold and Nina Allan and...
Now that I've got it in my hands, I'm even more excited - some of the 'vintage' contributions are amazing. Amelia Edwards and Mary Wilkins Freeman are especially fun to see - authors that I started reading while doing the research for Lost Souls. This is a really impressive anthology. (Darnit.)
The Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain. A+++ for the marketing campaign, down to creating an utterly plausible "new" imprint. Also A+++ for this review from Tor.com, which was about as intriguing a write-up as I've ever read. The book itself is also a work of art - absolutely beautifully produced. The conclusion is... well, it, just feels like someone at the publisher loves this book, and that kind of passion is pretty infectious. Looking forward to it. (Also had a chance to meet the author and get a couple bonkers inscriptions. Yay!)
Short Circuit by Colin Wedgelock. Thanks to James Smythe for turning me on to this one.
Something Wicked Volume 2, edited by Vianne Venter and Joe Vaz. Yup. Still my favourite magazine-turned-anthology-series. Delighted to see that the latest anthology is going ebook and wide distribution as well, as it looks like a gorgeous volume filled with great stuff.
Meanwhile, links and reviews and - hell, even an update on The Kitschies:
The Book of the Dead got announced - over on Tor.com! Plus, the vintage goodness that is Unearthed. The hardcover for this is going to be a thing of beauty. We set the bar pretty high with The Lowest Heaven, and we're working with the EES to make this one even more spectacular. Also? The stories are fantastic - it amazing to see how 19 different authors have interpreted a very specific theme: everything from gory horror to breath-taking romance to pulp adventure to coming of age tales to contemporary political commentary to... etc. etc.
More reviews for The Lowest Heaven! A really lovely nice one from this blogger (lesson learned from anthology editing: authors love it when reviews touch on every story, no matter how succinctly), plus a nice mention on the Geek Exchange (which actually happened in May, but the ego search didn't pick it up until now). The kind people at SFX gave it 4 stars (!) and a great write-up in the latest issue (#237, if you're in stores...). Apparently TLH proves that science fiction hasn't run out of ways to explore peoples dreams. (Whew.)
Because of the party at the National Maritime Museum, it feels like TLH has been out for a while - but really, only a hundred readers have copies. I'm excited to see what happens on Wednesday, when it launches fully, and the paperback and ebook hit shelves.
Getting very close to the end of The Folding Knife reread - Chapter 15 (of 17)! I've (knockonwood) made my deadline every week for the reread, which, compared to the slightly shameful irregularity of my Hard Case Crime rereads is basically just telling me what I already knew: deadlines work best when they come from other people. (Anne has helpfully volunteered to yell at me every Wednesday.)
A quick update on The Kitschies. We're supporting three events over August, September and October, as well as trying to host another panel in November. Details a-comin'. The books are coming in as well. We're way ahead of where we normally are at this point in the year, but it is hard to extrapolate what exactly that means in terms of final numbers. I'm not sure if we're getting more books or if we're getting the same number of books, but earlier. I suspect a combination of both. Regardless, the judges are being kept very busy. As always - publishers of all sizes, agents, authors - please contact us here.