If you weren’t with us at Philcon this weekend, today is your first chance to get a copy of Daniel M. Kimmel’s fantastic new novel, A Talent to Amuse. It’s a funny, fantastical, romantic look at the concepts of creation and inspiration.
What happens when a struggling writer falls in love with an unemployed Muse? Only the Fates know…
Writers have spent centuries praising and cursing the Muses, as their artistic talents have waxed and waned. But it’s a rare writer indeed who can attract not only the attention of a Muse, but her love, too.
Meet Sherman Biberman, a fair-to-middlin’ writer who actually meets his Muse in the park. You thought there were only nine? Where have you been? Sherman and Komikós (the Muse of Humorous Genre Fiction) are parting ways, but Komikós knows another, out-of-work Muse, who just might be good for Sherman, and vice versa.
That begins Sherman’s relationship with Vinteokaséta, the erstwhile Muse of Blockbuster Video stores. She’s currently unemployed, and looking for some inspiration herself.
Hugo Award-finalist, Skylark Award winner, and Cable Center Book Award winner Daniel M. Kimmel showcases his wide range of writing talents in A Talent to Amuse, introducing us to Muses greater and lesser, offering tales in myriad genres, and topping it all with heaping dollops of the humor and pathos that has made him such a beloved writer.
The book is available hardcover, trade paperback, and electronic formats, in all the usual outlets.
It’s another science fiction convention weekend, this time with an over-stuffed Saturday! This weekend, I’ll be at the Doubletree in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for Philcon.
As always, you can find me in the Dealers’ Room, open Friday, 4:00–7:00 pm; Saturday 10:00 am–6:00 pm; and Sunday 10:00 am–3:00 pm.
You can also find me on programming:
Saturday at 12:00N in Plaza 3: “Meet More Editors!” with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Michael D. Pederson, Alex Shvartsman, and Ann Stolinsky
Saturday at 3:00PM in Plaza 4: “How Do I Get Publishers to Notice Me?” with Aaron Rosenberg, Neil Clarke, and Michael A. Ventrella
Saturday from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the Con Suite: book launch party for Daniel M. Kimmel’s A Talent to Amuse, as well as Dragonwell Publishing’s new book by Bernie Mojzes.
Saturday at 8:00PM in the Grand Ballroom: I’ll be emceeing the Masquerade.
Sunday at 11:00AM in Plaza 3: “Assembling an Anthology” with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Neil Clarke, Alex Shvartsman, and Michael A. Ventrella
If you read that schedule closely, you’ll notice I have to be in the dealers’ room and the con suite and the masquerade Saturday afternoon/evening, probably all three at the same time, so I don’t really know where I’ll be: setting up for the launch party in the con suite before 6:00; closing the table in the dealers’ room at 6:00; and preparing for the masquerade before 8:00. You, however, as an attendee, will be able to do all three with no overlap.
Dan’s book, A Talent to Amuse, is a wonderful romantasy. In it, a professional writer is looking for the inspiration to take his writing to the next level. He meets an out-of-work Muse, who is looking for some inspiration of her own. And together, they may find something even more.
In the crush of book publication day, I’ve neglected to tell you I’ll be at Capclave this weekend, in Rockville, Maryland.
As is usual at these conventions, I’ll be spending a lot of time in the Dealers’ Room, at the Fantastic Books table. The room will be open Friday, 3–6pm; Saturday, 10am–6pm; and Sunday, 10am–2pm. Additionally, I’ll be participating in the mass signing event Saturday from 7 to 9pm.
I’ll also be on programming, so you can seek me out at the following:
Friday, 8pm in Washington Theater: “Turning Points in Alternate Histories” with J.L. Gribble, Elektra Hammond, Bjorn Hasseler, and Walter H. Hunt.
Friday, 10pm in Washington Theater: “The Eye of Argon” with Ide Hennessy, Michael A. Ventrella, and Jean Marie Ward.
Saturday, 9:30pm in Adams: I’ll be doing an author reading. Will it be fiction? Will I talk about punctuation? Come to the reading and tell me!
Sunday, 12n in Washington Theater: “Small Press of Self-Publishing or Big Press” with Shahid Mahmud, Mike McPhail, Nathan W. Toronto, and Michael A. Ventrella.
Sunday, 1pm in Jackson: “Ask Me Anything—Publishers” with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Joshua Palmatier, and Nathan W. Toronto.
Fantastic Books is thrilled to be publishing a major new fantasy novel by first-time novelist Ron Kaiser, who Paul Witcover calls “a bold new voice in epic fantasy.” Mystralhaven is the tale of Baz, the Mossbringer, who may be able to save humanity, if only she can figure out her own powers before she is enslaved or killed.
Sebsastien de Castell (author of the Greatcoats and Spellsinger series) says the book blends “classic epic fantasy adventure with modern themes,” and that it “is a fast-paced, emotionally charged tale of magic, duty and the complex nature of heroism. Ron Kaiser’s fearless protagonist discovers not only the burden of destiny but the difficult balance between fighting exploitation and believing in redemption.”
Can she figure out what she is in time to save humanity?
The coming of Baz, the Mossbringer, has been foretold: she has powers far beyond those of even the most gifted around her. And had her mother lived, she certainly would have been able to guide Baz through her dawning awareness of her abilities.
But even if Baz learns how to control and use those powers, it may not be enough to save the monks who want to use her, the Borderforges who want to enslave her, or the people who fear her. Can she trust Rendwyll—who is more sand than person—to guide her into her new awareness? With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, can she afford not to?
“This thrilling hero’s quest is a pulse-pounding journey. Ron Kaiser’s epic novel had me thoroughly gripped, from start to finish.” —David Yoo, author of The Choke Artist and The Detention Club
“Artful prose, strong characterization and a freewheeling imagination lights up this fascinating tale. This one is in the top echelon of modern fantasy.” —Bram Stoker Award-winner John Shirley, author of A Sorcerer of Atlantis
Next weekend (not this weekend), May 23–26, I’ll be at Balticon in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. As usual, I’ll be spending a lot of time in the dealers’ room (specifically: Friday 2–7pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am–7pm, and Monday 10am–2pm). But this year, I have a serious request: I’m currently experiencing a severe case of tendinitis (my doctor called me an over-achiever: I’ve got tennis elbow AND golfer’s elbow, simultaneously, in my left arm [the last round of golf I played was three years ago, and I haven’t played tennis in more than a decade]). As a result, I’m going to have trouble lifting the boxes of books, so if I can find a willing volunteer or two to help me unload the car and get the stuff to the dealers’ room on Friday, and/or to truck it back to and reload the car on Monday, I’d be grateful. Thank you.
And if you’re looking for me on panels, seek me out:
Friday at 8:30pm in Mount Washington: “When Writing Advice is Rong” with Scott H. Andrews, Joshua Bilmes, Dan Jolley, and Mark Painter.
Saturday at 11:30am in Gibson: “Traditional Publishing Scares Me: How to Traditionally Publish Your Book” with Joshua Bilmes, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Sydney Olivia, and Brie Tart.
Sunday at 10:00am in Federal Hill: “Ducks and How to Make Them Pay” with Martin Berman-Gorvine, Flappy, Kelly Pierce, and Naomi S.
Sunday at 2:30pm in Mount Washington: “Jews In Space: Jewish SF On and Off The Page” with Martin Berman-Gorvine, Randee Dawn, and Alex Shvartsman.
Sunday at 8:30pm in Mount Washington: “Eye of Argon Reading” with A.L. Kaplan, Mary G. Thompson, and Jean Marie Ward.
Monday at 11:30am in St. George: “Short Fire Readings” with Scott Edelman, Miguel O. Mitchell, Mark Painter, and Andrija “Andy” Popovic.
Outsiders. Rebels. Free-Thinkers. Who doesn’t love an underdog? Deep inside, most of us identify with those who are a little—or a lot—different. Those who choose their own path, or for whom fate chooses for them. Sometime in our lives, we’ve felt like we didn’t quite fit in.
This doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Forging your own way builds strength, and makes for a damn good story!
Our authors have taken the outcasts and woven masterful tales of triumph despite adversity. In these times of turmoil, we all need a reminder that such difficulties can be overcome. Check out the Outcasts bundle, which I hope you will enjoy as much as I have. At the least you will get three amazing books for a steal, Amaskan’s Blood by Raven Oak, The Favored by Morgan Bolt, and Three Chords of Chaos by James Chambers. At most, you’ll score not just the three base books plus eleven bonus titles, but two bonus-bonus books thanks to Alma Alexander’s radically awesome reenvisioning of shapeshifters and her generous inclusion of her Were Chronicles Omnibus, which includes the full trilogy Random, Wolf, and Shifter
The Outcasts bundle runs for three weeks only. This is a great deal, and a great way to pick up a batch of books for those times that you need an escape from real-world issues—or just feel the urge to root for your new favorite underdogs! —Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Curator
For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of three books in .epub format—WORLDWIDE.
AMASKAN’S BLOOD by Raven Oak
THE FAVORED by Morgan J. Bolt
THREE CHORDS OF CHAOS by James Chambers
If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all three of the regular books, plus 11 more books, for a total of 14!
SKYFARER by Joseph Brassey
FOR THE GOOD OF THE REALM by Nancy Jane Moore
WARDEN FALL by Jennifer M. Eaton
FRANKENSTEIN: MONSTERS OF THE ABYSS by John L. French and Patrick Thomas
PHOENIX PRECINCT by Keith R.A. DeCandido
YETI LEFT HOME by Aaron Rosenberg
ETERNAL WANDERINGS by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
ESPRIT DE CORPSE by Ef Deal
RAGS by Ty Drago
THE SILVER SHIP AND THE SEA by Brenda Cooper
THE WERE CHRONICLES by Alma Alexander
This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get a DRM-free .epub for all books!
It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards—which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle—and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.
Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.
Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
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Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!
Late last night, I learned that Barry N. Malzberg had died. Born July 24, 1939, he was a writer and editor. His daughter, Erika, wrote: “My dad passed away this evening, around 4:30pm. My sister had been with him for a few hours and I was just getting back after having visited with my mother. He took his last breath almost the moment I arrived. It was very, very peaceful and we are so grateful.”
His fiction was ground-breaking and seemingly everywhere moments after he started publishing (his first science fiction story, “We’re Coming Through the Window,” was published in the August 1967 issue of Galaxy), but I’ll probably remember him more for his non-fiction: his essays on science fiction, literature, and the people in the field, which was his stock-in-trade for the last couple of decades.
I remember Barry as a fixture at the science fiction conventions I attended when I first got into the field, but I never really got to know him: there were too many bright and shiny new things and people clamoring for my attention for me to seek out the austere, somewhat foreboding looking fellow he was. Now, reading the reminiscences of so many of my friends, I’m realizing just how much I missed out by not getting to know him better. Rather than trying to recapitulate them, I commend to you posts on Facebook by John Kessel (https://www.facebook.com/john.kessel3), Adam-Troy Castro (https://www.facebook.com/adamtroycastro), and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (https://www.facebook.com/kristinekathrynrusch). I’m sure there will be more in the coming days.
He was nominated for a dozen Hugo and Nebula Awards, and his novel Beyond Apollo won the inaugural John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1973. His nonfiction works won two Locus Awards: The Engines of the Night (1983), and Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium (2008), and I was pleased and honored to publish his third volume, The Bend at the End of the Road (2018).
I’ve just learned of the death of Thomas King, Jr., who wrote as several dozen books as T. Jackson King, on December 3, at the age of 76. In his last post on Facebook, dated November 24, he wrote:
Sorry for the delay on AI SURVIVAL [his planned next novel]. 2024 has been traumatic for me. Wife divorced me. Coping with Diabetes and Asthma. Now diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure! Still hanging in there. Planning to write on the novel come Jan. 1, 2025. Thanks for being loyal readers! Tom. FYI, Readers can contact me via email. Or visit my Facebook page for T. Jackson King. Tom.
His YA novel, Little Brother’s World, was one of the first original books I accepted for Fantastic Books. In 2014, we launched his novel The Memory Singer at Balticon, which is when I met him in real life (whence the attached picture; apparently I didn’t get a picture of the two of us together). I think that convention was the only time we were physically in the same space together, but he seemed to relish life, taking great joy from whatever he was doing. And his tales of his life beyond the walls of the convention hotel seemed to reflect that, too.
He was much more than just a science fiction writer, but it’s probably easiest to let him tell that story (this is his biography from his web site, https://www.tjacksonking.com/):
T. Jackson King (Tom) is a professional archaeologist and journalist. He writes hard science fiction, anthropological sci-fi, dark fantasy/horror and contemporary fantasy/magic realism—but that didn’t happen until he was 38.
Before then, college years spent in Paris and in Tokyo led Tom into antiwar activism, hanging out with some Japanese hippies and learning how often governments lie to their citizens. The latter lesson led him and a college buddy to publish the Shinjuku Sutra English language underground tabloid in Japan in 1967. That was followed by helping shut down the University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus in 1968 and a bus trip to Washington, D.C., for the Second March on Washington where thousands demanded an end to the Vietnam War.
Temporary sanity returned when Tom worked in a radiocarbon lab at UC Riverside and earned an MA degree in Archaeology from UCLA. His interests in ancient history, ancient cultures and journalism got him several government agency jobs that paid the bills, led him to roam the raw landscape of the Western United States, and helped him and his wife Leslee raise three kids.
A funny thing happened on the way to normality. By the time he was 38 and doing federal arky work in Colorado, Tom’s first novel Star Traders was a stage play in his head that wouldn’t go away. So he wrote it down. It got rejected. His next novel was published as Retread Shop (Warner Books, 1988). It was off to the writing races and Tom’s many voyages of imaginative discovery have led to 24 published novels, a book of poetry, and a conviction that when Humans reach the stars, we will find them crowded with space-going Aliens. We will be the New Kids On The Block! This theme appears in much of Tom’s short fiction and novel writing.
Tom lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and hangs with a group of smart and tolerant Westerners. Divorce has taught him to smile a lot and to work at being a Nice Guy. Still, he is pretty weird. Has been since fourth grade when he began reading sci-fi. Since then, he and Authority have rarely been in agreement.
Fantastic Books is pleased to bring the Future Boston series back into print.
First appearing in 1994, this four-book cycle tells the history of New England’s most populous city from 1990 to 2100. In those years, Boston is slowly sinking into the sea. The citizens of Boston plan a revolution against the governments of Earth. Alien races occupy the city and must decide if the human race deserves full galactic citizenship—or total destruction.
The mosaic novel Future Boston is the sweeping saga of a handful of dreamers—artists and scientists, scufflers and survivors, revolutionaries and thieves—who dream of a new society as their ancestors did before them. From slums to Brahmin boardrooms, Future Boston is a rich mosaic of history and human drama, as real as the great metropolis that inspired it. It features the work of Jon Burrowes, Alexander Jablokov, Geoffrey Landis, Resa Nelson, Steven Popkes, David Alexander Smith, and Sarah Smith.
Publishers Weekly called it “Adventure-filled… a wealth of evocative detail.… The real star is a painstakingly constructed future Boston,” while Locus said “Future Boston is more than the sum of its parts—and its parts are very good.”
Following Future Boston is Jon Burrowes’ novel Vubré the Great, in which a space ship breaks down, and the aliens check into little old Motel-o Earth-o to see if they can find a new conduction bolt for their night-drive. And the next thing you know, alien technology and ideas are erasing the cultures of Earth forever.
In David Alexander Smith’s In the Cube, private detective Beverly O’Meara is paired with Akktry, a small, sharp-clawed animal that has an inhuman affinity with the past and an ability to recreate the history of any place or person from the remains of the present. They’re on the trail of Diana Sherwood, the missing daughter of the most powerful—and hated—woman in sinking Boston. Unfortunately, that trail leads straight into the Basement, the oldest, lowest, most dangerous part of Boston. The part below sea level. The part you can down in…
Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author James Patrick Kelly said “In the Cube is David Alexander Smith’s best book.… Not only do his humans live and breathe, but he has drawn some of the strangest and most convincing aliens you’ll ever meet.”
Rounding out the series is Steven Popkes’ Slow Lightning, in which Ira and Gray find an egg on an abandoned ferryboat. It’s wrinkled, with smears of red and yellow, and bigger than a basketball. They’re not sure why it’s there, only that it must have been left there on purpose.
Science fiction Grand Master Poul Anderson said “Slow Lightning does a remarkable job of conveying the sheer strangeness of the universe and the future.”
Future Boston Edited by David Alexander Smith ISBN: 978-1-5154-5823-4 $17.99, 328 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook
Vubré the Great by Jon Burrowes ISBN: 978-1-5154-5824-1 $16.99, 256 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook
In the Cube by David Alexander Smith ISBN: 978-1-5154-5825-8 $16.99, 242 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook
Slow Lightning by Steven Popkes ISBN: 978-1-5154-8526-1 $12.99, 124 pages, trade paperback; $6.99 ebook
The Future Boston series—and all Fantastic Books books—are distributed via Ingram. Review copies are available upon request.
Author Michael A. Ventrella introduced the world of Fortannis in his well-received comic fantasy adventure series following the exploits of Terin Ostler. Now Editor Michael A. Ventrella opens the doors to the kingdom by inviting other authors to play in Fortannis, and the result is the wonderful new anthology Tales of Fortannis.
Some of the stories are simply amusing, some tragic, and others heartwarming. Taken together, they give us a picture of a living, immense world which can cover the span of human (and biata, dwarf, elf, ogre, and goblin…) endeavor and passion.
Contributing authors: Derek Beebe, Susan Bianculli, Dominic Bowers-Mason, W. Adam Clarke, Jon Cory, Tera Fulbright, Jesse Grabowski, Christine L. Hardy, Henry “The Mad” Hart, Jesse Hendrix, Miles Lizak, Mark Mensch, Bernie Mojzes, Beth Patterson, Sarah Stegall, and Mike Strauss.
“A wild and weird collection of fantasy stories that present some of the freshest writing around. Derring-do with a great sense of fun. Highly recommended.” —New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry
“You don’t need to know the background material to enjoy the range of stories from the talespinners assembled here. It has plenty of adventures that end with a twist that leave you shaking your head in pleased surprise.” —Jody Lynn Nye, author of Dragon’s Deal
Tales of Fortannis edited by Michael A. Ventrella $15.99, trade paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-5154-5829-6 $5.99 ebook
Tales of Fortannis—and all Fantastic Books publications—are distributed through Ingram, and available through all major online retailers and specialty sf shops via direct order from the publisher. And don’t miss the previous four books: Terin Ostler and the Arch Enemies (ISBN: 978-1-5154-2417-8), Terin Ostler and the War of the Words (ISBN: 978-1-5154-2418-5), Terin Ostler and the Axes of Evil (ISBN: 978-1-5154-4776-4), and Terin Ostler and the Zombie King (and Other Stories) (ISBN: 978-1-5154-4781-8). Review copies are available upon request.
Ian Randal Strock 