Genre News

Got some more emails about things you may be interested in.

Phoenix Picks' free ebook for July is Joan Slonczewski's first Elysium Cycle novel, Daughter of Elysium.  According to my husband, she's a great hard SF author (one of the Elysium Cycle novels, Brain Plague, is sitting on a shelf near me waiting to be read).

The coupon code is 9991545 and will be good from July 2 through July 31. Links for downloading the book (as usual) from our online catalogue, http://www.PPickings.com

"The Pristine City of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited by 'immortals' who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.

Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium survive the corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless society?

And what of the consciousness of the self-aware nano-sentient servitors and their quest for vengeance?"

Sounds good, doesn't it?

July is Monster Movie Month at MonsterLibrarian.

July 1 will mark the beginning of Monster Movie Month at MonsterLibrarian.com. Monster Movie Month will celebrate the connections between books and movies in the horror genre. The site will offer lists of movies horror fiction lovers might enjoy, reviews, and suggestions for readers advisory and marketing horror in the library.  Our blog, Musings of the Monster Librarian, will cover related topics and offer guest posts, including a contribution from Becky Siegel Spratford, author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction.  Come visit to find out what the horror genre has to offer readers and libraries this July at MonsterLibrarian.com!

Visit the Monster Movie Month page at:
http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/monstermoviemonth.htm
and the Musings of the Monster Librarian blog:
http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/TheCirculationDesk/

If you're in the UK, this announcement by Angry Robot Books will be of interest to you:

As part of Independent Booksellers’ Week, award-winning SF & fantasy publisher Angry Robot have announced they are going to start giving away the digital version of each of their novels free with the physical paperback, in selected indie bookstores.

The Angry Robot Clonefiles, as they are whimsically calling them, will first be trialled with Mostly Books of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, starting Wednesday July 4th. Angry Robot will then be rolling out the scheme through other independent bookshops. Customers purchasing an Angry Robot novel will be emailed the digital version of the book in the format of their choice.

The Clonefiles programme was set up by Angry Robot’s UK Sales Manager Roland Briscoe and Mark Thornton of Mostly Books.

Independent bookshops wanting to join the Clonefiles promotion can contact Roland Briscoe at indie@angryrobotbooks.com.

Amazing Stories is doing a relaunch prelaunch issue, with several articles and a story becoming available as the month progresses.

You can find Volume 0, Number 1 here, and their facebook page here.  They'll be announcing the relaunch at  Comic Con in San Diego.

Speaking of which, if you're a US Citizen attending Comic Con and write fan fiction in one of the following settings: Star Wars®, The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, then Random House Audio has a contest you might be interested in.

At this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA, Random House Audio will be recreating an audiobook studio right on the convention floor--inviting authors of fan fiction to record a sample of their work for a chance to have their story recorded and released as a digital audiobook.

Aspiring authors (who must be legal residents of the U.S. and 18 years or older) can sign up for a time slot to record their five-minute sample during the convention, July 12-15 at the San Diego Convention Center. Random House Audio producers will listen to the entries (no mashups, please) and select one to be professionally recorded and mixed by Random House Audio for streaming at www.randomhouseaudio.com. The grand prize winner and five runner-ups will have clips from their stories featured on the Random House Audio weekly podcast.

Sessions will be available Thursday through Saturday, July 12-14, from 10am-12pm and 1pm to 4pm at the Random House Audio booth #1515. Registration for morning slots is open now through July 10 at www.randomhouseaudio.com, and afternoon slots will be available for same-day sign ups beginning at 9am the first day of the con on a first-come, first-served basis.

Don’t see your fandom included on the list above? Sunday, July 15 is Open Mic Day! Fans of other series will get their chance to record their stories as well from 11am to 3pm and enter to win a collection of audiobooks.

Even if you’re not a writer, be sure to stop by the Random House Audio booth (#1515) for exclusive Comic-Con giveaways, including buttons, posters, headphones and mini microphone recorders. 

Genre News

I've had some interesting notifications recently, which I thought I'd pass on.

First up, Angry Robot Books has opened their online bookstore, the Robot Trading Company, to other publishers (in ebook format, DRM free).  Currently those other publishers are Anarchy Books and Infinity Plus Books.

What we hope to do long-term is stock ebooks from as many genre fiction (and non-fiction) publishers as we possibly can. And we'll only be stocking genre-interest titles; no mainstream literary stuff, no chick-lit rom-coms, no home-gourmet cook books and definitely no z-list celebrity biogs. In short: we're aiming for an independent genre-only ebook webstore, run by genre fans, for genre fans.

They're asking for help spreading the word by:

1) Visiting www.robottradingcompany.com and browsing our catalogue to see what catches your eye or takes your fancy…
2) Signing up for the Robot Trading Company Mailing List, so we can keep you up-to-date with details of new releases, special offers, competitions and more.
3) Liking the Robot Trading Company on Facebook or following the Robot Trading Company Twitter Feed.
4) Telling your quality-genre-fiction-loving friends about us, too. 

In other news, Kelley Armstrong is releasing her first eSpecial in honour of publishing her final Otherworld book, Thirteen.  The eSpecial, available tomorrow for $1.99, includes two short stories, "Stalked" and "Off-Duty Angel", and an exclusive look at what's to come in Thirteen.  From the press release:

Most honeymoons are all strawberries and champagne, Elena Michaels and Clayton Danvers, two of the most powerful the world, a run-of-the-mill romantic retreat is out of the Stalked, Elena and Clay are the picture of a classic honeymoon when a non-pack werewolf appears on the scene, clearly tracking intention of letting him spoil their vacation, even if that means on his own. Originally part of an anthology of supernatural the perfect action-packed interlude for fans not quite ready to say goodbye to the two characters who started it all.

Off-Duty Angel is an original new story, exclusive to this eSpecial, that features dark witch,
half-demon, and afterlife angel Eve Levine. Desperate for entertainment while her lover, Kristof Nash, is detained in court, Eve stumbles upon a mission of her own—to trail a shaman that might prove useful in Kristof’s court case. Following her target is a breeze at first, but when he inadvertently steers Eve into a secret alternate dimension, she stumbles upon a far more enticing puzzle—one with a much greater danger lurking at the end. Packed with suspense and surprising twists, Off-Duty Angel reveals fascinating insight into a beloved character.

Finally, THE HUNTER AND THE HUNTED will leave readers with just a taste of what’s to come in Thirteen, with an exclusive excerpt from the grand finale. Once again, Kelley Armstrong reminds us all that even thirteen novels in the Otherworld just isn’t enough.

Genre News

Got some more and varied genre news for you. 

First up, I got an email today about a new social network:

PhutureNews.com, a new futuring portal featuring the news headlines of tomorrow today, was officially launched today by technology pioneer Matthew Mather in collaboration with some of the world's #1 best selling science fiction authors including Hugh Howey, Mainak Dhar, Peter Cawdron and many others including scientists and other futurists. The website is a collaborative, crowd-sourced predictor of the future using headlines that are added daily to the site by users. The project is an integral part of the launch of the new sci-fi series Phuture Dawn.

PhutureNews has proven popular in its pre-release, gathering hundreds of fans that have made predictions of everything from the likelihood of Justin Beiber being elected President of the United States to the date of commercial fusion reactors and contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Users are free to add their own future headlines to be voted on, and can sign up to a running tally of voting via Twitter or PhutureNews on Facebook. Any story getting more than 100 votes with 80% positive will be added to the official Phuture TimeLines that are built up collaboratively with site visitors.

I've been contacted by several authors, but Terrance Foxxe is the first one who has issued a free coupon for downloading his book that he wants shared.  I don't have time to read this at the moment, but maybe one of you will so...

In The Dreaming by Terrance Foxxe - Dark fantasy. A collection of short stories bridged together by a larger narrative.

Foxxe's unique novel offers a wide variety of stories to suit any tastes. From Native American legend to urban detective, plus vampires, barbarians, presidents, elves, and (walking talking) toys. Science fiction and horror sits alongside magic, hope and love.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/terrancefoxxe

www.smashwords.com/books/view/85403

The coupon code is: JP54R (and is not case sensitive).

Promotional price: $0.00

Expires: March 1, 2012

E. J. Dabel, author of Pantheons was interviewed by Journal Jabber.  If you like mythology (specifically Greek) then this may be of interest to you.

The plot synopsis is:

On the streets, they call fifteen year old orphan Isaiah Marshall the Indestructible Diamond. Isaiah is the leader of the Redrovers, a group of teenage misfits consisting of his friends Jeremy, Monty, and Pipsqueak, but when they trespass into Kaliber Academy to get even with the arrogant Jason Ollopa, they are in way over their heads.

Principal Webb enrolls them into the High School and Isaiah soon learns about the existence of the gods of the Ancient World. Because the gods have refused to fight the last War for fear of the Mysterious Dark, the Powers-that-Be have stripped them of their spiritual bodies and given them mortal, teenage forms.

Isaiah discovers he's not only a god, but that he's the child of the Greek goddess Metis, the son destined to overthrow his cruel and sadistic father Zeus, the Darkener of the Sky, and become the greatest god in all the Pantheons.

Isaiah is thrown into a world where the democratic Olympians, war-mongering Norse, Gothic Celts, firstborn Egyptians, the enlightened Hindu, the animal-like Aztecs, the martial artist Asians, the intelligent Babylonians, the great spirits of the Native American Indians, and the fierce Finnish will war against one another for the greatest of all prizes: the Dominion.

If you've got a manuscript ready for publication, you'll be happy to hear that Angry Robot Books is having another open door month.  The catch, they're only looking for epic fantasy and YA.  Here's their press release:

ANGRY ROBOT ANNOUNCES YET MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEBUT NOVELISTS

During April last year, Angry Robot Books temporarily suspended its usual submission policy to run its first Open Door Month; accepting unsolicited, un-agented manuscripts from would-be genre fiction authors.

The scheme was a huge success: nearly 1,000 submissions resulted in publishing contracts for three authors - Cassandra Rose Clarke, Lee Collins, and Lee Battersby - and the commissioning of at least six brand new novels for publication for the Angry Robot lists in 2012 and 2013.

Today, Angry Robot are announcing that Open Door will return, with a second phase running from April 16th - April 30th 2012. During this frantic fortnight the floodgates will once more be opened to admit brand new work by hopeful (and, of course, hugely talented) writers from across the globe.

This time around, the rules are slightly different. Angry Robot will only be considering submissions that meet the following genre criteria:

a) Epic Fantasy - ideally with a bit of an edge or the sort of left-field twist the Angry Robot audience has come to expect.

b) YA - any subject welcome, but must be science fiction or fantasy, and intended for a Young Adult audience, for potential publication via Angry Robot's new Strange Chemistry imprint.

More details can be found at http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor

Genre News

Sea Lion Books signs Patrick Rothfuss to reprint his adult picture book, illustrated by Nate Taylor, entitled: The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed.  From the press release:

THE ADVENTURES OF THE PRINCESS AND MR. WHIFFLE is an odd mix of dark classic storytelling, new age terror, and a macabre sense of wicked humor that leave the reader with three possible endings, each one being darker than the last, letting the reader decide how far they dare to go.

The final ending just might keep your teddy bear awake tonight, or at least start a stuffed animal rebellion. The reprint will include original bonus material and a Q&A with author Patrick Rothfuss.

ChiZine Publications offers free ebook version of trade paperbacks purchased through their website:

Since its founding, CZP has offered 30% off the cover price of trade paperbacks ordered directly from them. It has also been an advocate of the ebook format, performing its own in-house ebook creation and offering them via Amazon, Kobo, Wowio and other online sites. With the recent launch of its online shopping cart system, CZP has decided to bundle an ebook into the price of trade paperbacks.

When the purchase is complete, buyers will be directed to log into the website to download a ZIP file containing the ebook in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formats. The ebook and trade paperback bundles are only available via the CZP site.

This isn't genre news, but it is a fantastic article if you've got kids.  It's time to teach kids how to deal with bullies, and let them know that sometimes swearing is OK.  If you know someone who has (or may have and isn't telling you) a bully problem at school, do something about it.