Call for Submissions at Turtleduck Press

Last week I told you about a call for submissions from Turtleduck Press, and promised to tell you a little more later. Well, later is today!

Turtleduck Press began almost three years ago, when several writers (including yours truly) decided to band together and pool our strengths to start a science fiction and fantasy press. We knew we wanted to operate like a traditional publisher in that everything we published had to be:

• approved by one or more members
• edited by an experienced editor (that would be me — editing is how I make my living)
• formatted and designed to look professional
• advertised on our website and everywhere else we could get the word out

…so we’d be publishing works of quality and also look professional — both good ways to attract (and keep!) readers.

Turtleduck Press New Release — Captain’s Boy by KD Sarge

First of all, my heart goes out to the marathon runners in Boston and all those affected by the events there. It’s horrible to contemplate — so many personal triumphs turned to tragedy in an instant. I’m sending healing thoughts southward as I type.

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Having said that, I would be remiss in my duties as editor at Turtleduck Press if I delayed this announcement any longer. This month we have a new SF novel out: Captain’s Boy by KD Sarge.

Reading Recap: 2012

Time for a roundup of the past year of reading! I’m going to start out by sharing my favourite books of the year, then go into some geeky stats on my reading and buying habits in 2012. Hope it’s interesting, and/or helpful to those of you who, like me, are trying to make money in the industry. Please chime in!

Year in Review

Favourite Books of 2012

I’m perpetually behind in my reading. I don’t pretend to have a handle on “genre fiction in 2012″ or even “fantasy fiction for adults in 2012″. So I’m not even going to try for that. What I’m giving you instead is a very personal list of the books I liked best this year (never mind when they were published), and an explanation of why.

Anthology Announcement: Seasons Eternal

I’m excited to announce that Turtleduck Press is releasing a new anthology on December 1. Seasons Eternal is based on a shared premise: what if there were a world where the seasons stopped turning?

We opted to set very loose rules about the world to encourage variety among the stories, and variety we got in abundance. Each of the four authors has chosen a season and taken a different approach — science fiction, fantasy, or a little of both.

And the stories are…

Link: Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions

I’m under deadline at the moment, finishing up edits on the new anthology we’re putting out at Turtleduck Press (release date December 1!). So today’s post is just a quick one to point you to my blog post over there. Here’s a teaser:

Back in high school, I was a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, so I would dress up in uniform (gold, like Data) and go to get autographs from Star Trek actors and buy memorabilia. I have Wil Wheaton’s autograph from back when he was (in)famous for being Wesley Crusher and not for being an internet personality. (Side note: It’s very strange to see these actors becoming famous again for something completely different. Case in point: George Takei.)

Read the rest!

(Yes, I’m talking about books and media and fandom on a Wednesday. So sue me. )

 

Movie Discussion: Looper

Have you all seen Looper, the new Bruce Willis movie? (Also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of Inception and The Dark Knight Rises…a rather high percentage of the movies I’ve seen lately.) Let’s talk about it!

Before I get to the spoilers, here’s a capsule review: Smart SF action/drama, much better than it looks from the trailer. Makes a thorough exploration of its SFnal premise (time travel with very specific parameters). Best watched when you’re in the mood to be made to think. Don’t expect it to pass the Bechdel Test, though. If you liked 12 Monkeys, you’ll probably like Looper.

Here be spoilers…

Embassytown by China Miéville

What can I say about China Miéville’s Embassytown?

Miéville is not an easy author to read. His fantasy novels tend to be chock-full of really whacked-out worldbuilding, Lovecraftian monsters, and plots that don’t go the way they’re supposed to. (I’ve read several; my favourite of them is Perdido Street Station.) But with Embassytown he turns that sensibility to science fiction, and the result is something truly special.

(Note: No spoilers in the review, but there may be spoilers in comments.)

Books for a Mars Landing

So we’re on Mars again! I didn’t watch the feed from NASA, but I saw the amazing landing video (seriously, if you haven’t seen it, go look. I’ll wait) and have been avidly sucking up all the photos being posted on the mission’s website.

Looking at pictures we’ve taken on the surface of another planet always moves me to tears. I can’t believe we’re really out there, down there, sitting on dirt that is not of this world, looking up at another sky. It looks so much like Earth, and yet, with all that red rock and that faded orange sky, so unlike, so alien.

I’m a lapsed physics geek. For a while I wanted to go into astronomy, dreaming of working for NASA or SETI. Why? Science fiction, plain and simple. So today, I’m presenting a list of books inspired by our return to Mars.

(Honourable mentions, disqualified for being too obvious: War of the Worlds; Dune; the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.)

Genre-Bending: Just Barely Speculative Fiction

I’m fascinated by edge cases — genre-bending, cross-genre fiction, works that don’t fit neatly into categories. Today I’d like to talk about fiction that, for one reason or another, just barely qualifies as speculative fiction. Doesn’t mean it’s bad — often quite the opposite. It’s just doing something different.

First of all, I don’t mean literary fiction using genre tropes. That’s a whole ‘nother animal (one that I also enjoy). Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, for example, obviously uses the convention of time travel, but it doesn’t read like a genre work — it reads like women’s fiction or literary fiction, and it’s interested in the same sorts of ideas and themes. It’s using time travel to speak a non-genre language. Same for Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.

What I’m interested in today is the reverse. What happens when a book is “speaking” speculative fiction, but it doesn’t use much or any technology that we don’t have today, or employ magic, or use any settings in imaginary worlds?

Books to Help You Beat the Heat

Hot enough for you? I don’t know about you, but where I am, it’s been hot and sticky for weeks and doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon. Here are some reading suggestions for summer…

Beat the Heat

If you’re dreaming of a good snowstorm, these might help.

1. Rider at the Gate by C.J. Cherryh. Set on a snowy alien planet. Cherryh takes the well-worn concept of telepathic bonds between human and animal — and twists hard. The half-tamed nighthorses are intelligent and highly dangerous, but they and their riders are necessary for travel, because what’s out there in the wild and the cold is even worse. There’s also a sequel, Cloud’s Rider.