Life interfered with work a week or two back. As a result, I didn’t get a chance to tell y’all about a couple of new videos now available. Con-Tinual: The Con That Never Ends hosted two panel discussions with authors appearing in Jewish Futures. But two of our authors weren’t able to make it to those panel, so editor Michael A. Burstein interviewed them individually. All four videos are now available online, with links available in the book’s description on the linked page (scroll down to the first paragraph under “Publicity and Reviews”). If you’re a new author looking for inspiration, let me especially point you at Michael’s interview with Samantha Katz. And if you’re a long-time reader, writer, or fan, Michael’s interview with Jack Dann will definitely bring back some wonderful memories from way back when. And of course there are the panels, with Riv Begun, Nomi Burstein, Robert Greenberger, Susan Shwartz, Steven Silver (and Michael and me), and with Leah Cypess, Randee Dawn, Valerie Frankel, Jordan King-Lacroix, Barbara Krasnoff, SM Rosenberg, and Harry Turtledove. Check them all out!
anthology
GRP/FB’s Day of Seconds
Gray Rabbit Publications and Fantastic Books is starting the year off with a bang. And since today is the second of January, it’s a day of seconds: a second edition, a second novel, and a second anthology.
Today is the publication day for the second book in Carren Strock’s much-loved Coney Island Mysteries series. Start out with two frightened children, their missing mother, a kidnapped nurse, a murderous lawyer, and a stupid henchman. Put them all together, stir in a dose of streetsmart teenager, big-hearted candy store owner, dedicated detectives, and rehabilitated child taker, and you get Who’s Watching the Children? Join Carren Strock’s beloved Detectives Rothman and Cardello, along with clever Moses, to a Coney Island where car thefts, break-ins, and a dead body are the least of their concerns.
Today is also the publication day of the second edition of Sarah Totton’s collection Animythical Tales. Since we’re (finally) making the book available as an ebook, we decided to update the cover and make the interior far more readable for the print book. This “deftly written” (according to the Waterloo Region Record) collection of fantastical tales “speaks to one on an emotional level… Totton’s writing has depth and is multilayered, inviting the reader to explore the deeper meaning of the issues that she covers.” (according to BookPleasures.com). Tangent Online said simply “the writing… is exquisite, infusing the mundane with magic.… Even when set in what is ostensibly the ‘real’ world, Totton’s writing is gifted with this intangible but lovely quality of transformative fantasia that reminds one of a child’s imagination and perspective (both dark and light), lensed through an adult’s language.… This is a collection worth owning.”
And today, Fantastic Books and editor Michael A. Burstein are pleased to announce the writers’ guidelines—and the opening of the limited submission window—for our forthcoming anthology, Jewish Futures 2. The book will be a stand-alone sequel to our best-selling and much praised Jewish Futures, which was published (after a stunningly successful Kickstarter campaign) in August. At the moment, we’re planning to publish the book right around the Jewish New Year.
Good review of Jewish Futures
Sorry you haven’t heard from me recently; it’s been a busy month. There was the trip to South Carolina, four days at home, a week-long family cruise (from which I still haven’t gone through the pictures, though I intend to, in order to share some), the book-launch event in Massachusetts (I was there for three days), and now, finally, trying to get back up to speed.
In the midst of all that comes this wonderful review of Jewish Futures from the Elder of Ziyon blog:
“[M]any of these stories are good enough to be included in collections of the best SF of the year.… [Samantha] Katz is an enormously talented writer for a 16 year old high school student.… Leah Cypress’ ‘Frummer House’ is a laugh-out-loud funny story about smart homes that suddenly enforce a higher level of religiosity on their Jewish residents than they are comfortable with. It is so steeped in frumkeit that it has its own glossary so everyone else could understand it. For religious Jews who would get the references, the book is worth it for this story alone.… ‘Initial Engagement’ by Steven H. Silver uses a future world to help us understand our world [and] is the epitome of what SF should be.… The longest, and best, story in the collection is ‘Moon Melody’ by SM Rosenberg. It is outstanding in how it explores the moral issues of [the characters’ superpowers].… I would be surprised and disappointed if ‘Moon Melody’ is not included in the Best of the Year anthologies for 2023.… Altogether, it is a really good collection of stories, with a higher percentage of stories that I enjoy than most anthologies I have read. There have been other Jewish science fiction anthologies… but this is to my mind by far the best, the most professional, and the most Jewish of all of them.”
Busy day in publishing-land
It’s been a busy — but productive — day here in publishing land.
I woke up early, hoping to get a lot done. But looking back on the not-yet-complete day, there’s been even more accomplishment than I expected.
One of those accomplishments which I can talk about include finalizing and revealing the cover of the forthcoming anthology Jewish Futures, edited by Michael A. Burstein, with cover art by Eli Portman.
And then, following up on emails from two friends, and a slew of people looking to download a non-existent ebook, I was able to finalize and make available the ebook versions of Barry N. Malzberg’s essay collection The Bend at the End of the Road.
Beyond those, there was a bunch of not-yet-talking-about-it-publicly work that got done, and I also managed a little time for my own writing. So yes, it’s being a pretty good day.
Publishers Weekly on Jewish Futures
Publishers Weekly has reviewed the forthcoming Fantastic Books anthology Jewish Futures, saying, in part “[Editor Michael A.] Burstein brings together 16 appealing stories extrapolating Jewish themes into near- and far-future settings.… These stories open diverse and challenging vistas for sci-fi fans—Jewish and gentile alike.” See the full review at this link.
Asimov’s reviews Three Time Travelers Walk Into…
In his review in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, Peter Heck recommends Three Time Travelers Walk Into… (edited by Michael A. Ventrella, published by Fantastic Books in May), calling it “highly entertaining” and “thoroughly readable.” He also includes specific mentions of Gail Martin’s “The Mystic Lamb,” Peter David’s “A Christmas Prelude,” Jonathan Maberry’s “The Adventure of the Confounded Writer,” and says “one writer—no spoilers here—gives a younger version of himself a chance to alter history after meeting two of his mentors and the version of himself who has lived through our history—a tour de force of time-travel twists and turns.”
Electronic Eye of Argon
Due to some outrageous formatting in the printed book, there’s no way to produce a standard ebook of Fantastic Books’ The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventure of Grignr the Barbarian. But due to the popularity of the book — and the new Fantastic Books web site — I decided to offer a pdf version of the book. It’s available, as of five minutes ago, for download only from the site, at this link: https://www.fantasticbooks.biz/product-page/the-eye-of-argon-and-the-further-adventures-of-grignr-the-barbarian
Conspiracies and Cryptids
Multiminded Press Release:
Cryptids? Conspiracies?
Let me ask you a question:
What if it’s all true?
Hitch a ride with some straight-6 witches, with a motorcycle club, on a rocket to the moon… Show up on the back of a sea creature, carried by a bigfoot, in the thrall of a fairy, or maybe on the wings of the children of the night. However you get here, hurry.
Gray Rabbit Publications is pleased to present the first book published under Mutiminded, our newest imprint.
Conspiracies and Cryptids, Volume 1: Everything Is True was edited by Charles Barouch, Jerry Wang, and Sylvia Goldin, and features stories by B.J. Thrower, Eric Avedissian, Marcy Arlin, Robert Dawson, Holly Schofield, James Ryan, Charles Barouch, Greg Cox, and Ef Deal.
Conspiracies and Cryptids, Volume 1: Everything Is True
edited by Charles Barouch, Jerry Wang, and Sylvia Goldin
$13.99, 128 pages (trade paperback), ISBN: 978-1-5154-4796-2
Conspiracies and Cryptids—and all Gray Rabbit books—are distributed via Ingram, and available through all major online retailers and specialty sf shops via direct order from the publisher.
A new book that, I guess, doesn’t embarrass me
I’ve been going through gyrations over this one. At first, it was just a joke, I didn’t think we’d do much with it. Then I accepted it as just another book, but not one I was going to push. Then I was a bit embarrassed. But today, the copies arrived from the printer, and I went through it, and now I’m thinking I’m pretty proud of this one. It looks good, and does what it says it’s going to.
So instead of shunning the book (as perhaps the original tale should have been): I’m excited to trumpet from the balconies that Fantastic Books is publishing The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian! Official publication date is November 18, during Philcon, at which we will be performing the original story as a stage play.
And who is we? We’re the troupe that has been reading and performing the story at conventions throughout the northeast for several years. Ringmaster Michael A. Ventrella and wrangled seven other authors (plus the foreword, and wonderful new art by Monica Marier) into producing sequels, prequels, and oy-vey-quels to Jim Theis’ original “The Eye of Argon.”
Make sure to get your copy quickly, before we come to our sense and try to suppress the book!
Table of contents:
Foreword: The Eye of Argon and Associated Earnest Musings by Jody Lynn Nye
Introduction: We Can All Be Grignr; or: How to Appreciate Very Bad Writing by Michael A. Ventrella
Publisher’s Apology by Ian Randal Strock
The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis
Annotation by Ian Randal Strock
The Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian:
The Return of the Eye of Argon by Hildy Silverman
The Rat’s Tail by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Grignr and the Drignr by Peter Prellwitz
Grignr in the Land of Er-Urz by Ian Randal Strock
God Quest by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge
Grignr’s Swift Sword of Vengeance by Daniel M. Kimmel
Ouanna’s Rock by Jean Marie Ward
Grignr and the Tomb of Really Bad Evil by Michael A. Ventrella
About the Authors
Not one book, but two!
I’m back from Europe: it was fascinating and tiring and productive and long in a short period of time. Still haven’t had time to go through the 1,517 photos I took in Montenegro and Vienna, but I’ll get to it soon.
Instead, since I’ve been home, I’ve been hard at work catching up on missed deadlines. But one thing I didn’t miss was the Fantastic Books Kickstarter campaign for the anthology Jewish Futures. Somehow, without me ever expecting it, the campaign has surpassed its ultimate stretch goal, meaning that, instead of just one book, we’ll be producing two. We haven’t discussed what the title of the second volume will be, whether it will just be number 2, or if we’ll pick a completely different title. But whatever we call it, everyone who has backed the campaign (at the $5 level or more) will also be receiving a copy of that second book when it’s available (sometime after the first, which is still on schedule for July 2023 publication). And with 46 hours left to go in the campaign, there’s still time to tell people that, at whatever pledge level, you’re now getting two books for the price of one!
I’m just amazed at the number of people who have backed the campaign, who thought as highly of the project as we do. Thank you, all!
Ian Randal Strock 