Page 6 of posts by: montsamu

The Hardest Part: Dario Ciriello on Black Easter

Posted on 2015-12-09 at 12:0 by montsamu

I've got a fairly decent-sized section of my "favorites" bookshelf dedicated to Dario Ciriello, who since 2009 has edited and published Panverse Publishing. His fantastic 2009 anthology Panverse One was a direct inspiration to starting Bull Spec, and after three outstanding volumes in that all-original-novella series (and another anthology, Eight Against Reality) and his best-selling memoir of a year living in Greece (Aegean Dream) he edited and published novels by Bonnie Randall, Doug Sharp, and T.L

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged dario ciriello

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, November 2015: Europe at Midnight, An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist, Trudi Canavan, Mira Grant, Emma Newman, and more

Posted on 2015-12-07 at 13:47 by montsamu

From the Other Side, November 2015 By Paul Kincaid

[Editor’s Note: From the Other Side is Paul Kincaid’s monthly column on books and news from the other side of the Atlantic.]

Earlier this year, when I was noting all the titles in the running for the various genre awards, I was particularly pleased that Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson appeared on three shortlists. Inexplicably, it didn’t win any of them, so I’m expecting the sequel, Europe at Midnight (Solaris), to do rather better.

I say “sequel

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged adam christopher, dave hutchinson, emma newman, mark hodder, mira grant, nick middleton, patrick ness, paul kincaid, trudi canavan

The Hardest Part: William Shunn on The Accidental Terrorist

Posted on 2015-11-23 at 20:27 by montsamu

In early 2009 when I started taking reading and writing seriously again, one of the first authors I "discovered" was William Shunn, whose Proper Manuscript Format for Fiction Writers is practically required reading, and who, along with his fellow Blue Heaven workshop/retreat authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Greg van Eekhout were active -- and welcoming! -- on Twitter, even to those writing umbrella duel fan-fiction inspired by their Electric Velocipede stories. Van Eekhout's Norse Code had yet to be released

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged accidentalterrorist, william shunn

November newsletter: Kelly Link, Bill Nye, and The Wheel of Time Companion; publishing news; Bull Spec Turns Six; and more

Posted on 2015-11-18 at 18:57 by montsamu

Vol 5 No 8. Wednesday, November 18, 2015: It's been a fantastic fall for events already, with HonorCon in Raleigh and Welcome to Night Vale in Chapel Hill, readings from Julia Elliott, A.G. Riddle, and Clay and Susan Griffith, and James Maxey continues to be a fantastic ambassador for all things speculative fiction in his many appearances as Piedmont Laureate.

And even coming off a fantastic weekend with both a star-studded NC Comicon and an absolutely fantastic event with Adam Christopher and Mur Lafferty

Posted in newsletter | Tagged john kessel, kelly link, kid shinobi, the wheel of time companion

Coming to Town: Adam Christopher for Made to Kill at Flyleaf Books, interviewed by Mur Lafferty

Posted on 2015-11-10 at 15:27 by montsamu

New Zealand-born British novelist Adam Christopher (Empire State, The Burning Dark, Seven Wonders, and Hang Wire) is making a rare US appearance at Chapel Hill's Flyleaf Books this Saturday [Facebook] to read from his forthcoming novel Made to Kill, which begins his new “L.A. Trilogy” from Tor Books: “Set in Hollywood 1965, Made to Kill is very much a noir mystery, except that the detective is a robot (with a heart of gold) and his Gal Friday is a supercomputer with a Lucille Bluth sensibility. The novel

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged adam christopher, flyleaf books, made to kill, mur lafferty

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, October 2015: British Fantasy Awards, David Mitchell's Slade House, Hal Duncan's Testament, Julia Knight's Swords and Scoundrels, and more

Posted on 2015-11-03 at 18:58 by montsamu

From the Other Side, October 2015 By Paul Kincaid

[Editor’s Note: From the Other Side is Paul Kincaid’s monthly column on books and news from the other side of the Atlantic.]

Good grief, it can’t be award season again already, can it? Apparently, it can. Or at least, we have had this year’s British Fantasy Convention, and with the convention come the British Fantasy Awards. An interesting selection this year, not least because there are so many women among the winners. These include the Robert Holdstock

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged david mitchell, frances hardinge, hal duncan, julia knight, paul kincaid

Coming to Town: Marko Kloos, author of the Frontlines series, for HonorCon at the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown

Posted on 2015-10-30 at 14:6 by montsamu

Marko Kloos is the author of the Frontlines series of military science fiction. Born and raised in Germany, Kloos has has been a soldier, a bookseller, a freight dock worker, a tech support drone, and a corporate IT administrator. A graduate of the Viable Paradise SF/F Writers' Workshop, he now lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children. Their compound, Castle Frostbite, is patrolled by a roving pack of dachshunds, colorfully illustrated as "a team of awesome space-merc dachshund outlaw heroes

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged frontlines, honorcon, marko kloos

Coming to Town: Taylor Anderson, author of The Destroyermen series, for HonorCon at the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown

Posted on 2015-10-30 at 6:0 by montsamu

Texas author Taylor Anderson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Destroyermen series. A gunmaker and forensic ballistic archaeologist, Taylor has been a technical and dialogue consultant for movies and documentaries, and an award-winning member of the National Historical Honor Society and of the United States Field Artillery Association. He has a master’s degree in history and has taught that subject at Tarleton State University.

The Destroyermen series, beginning in 2008 with Into the Storm, c

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged honorcon, taylor anderson, the destroyermen

The Hardest Part: Delilah S. Dawson (writing as Lila Bowen) on Wake of Vultures

Posted on 2015-10-28 at 19:9 by montsamu

I recently had the chance to play chauffer for Georgia author Delilah S. Dawson, in town for appearances both at the SFWA Southeast Reading Series and the SIBA trade show. I learned many things. Dawson: knows her D&D editions; is as fascinated as anyone would be by a display of bizarre medical texts and archaic medical apparatus; has an appreciation of American transcendentalism; will totally impulse buy and eat Frankenstein candies of unknown provenance; and she had a really, really, really intriguing book

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged delilah s dawson, lila bowen, wake of vultures

Coming to Town: Julia Elliott for The New and Improved Romie Futch, at Quail Ridge Books and The Regulator Bookshop

Posted on 2015-10-22 at 18:34 by montsamu

South Carolina author Julia Elliott's remarkable collection The Wilds was one of the best books of 2014. I absolutely loved it: Levitating old church ladies warning their granddaughters against hellfire; Exoskeleton-assisted escapes from nursing homes; The dogpocalypse; Every story a miniature world we get to step into for a little while. With her new book The New and Improved Romie Futch, we get a story we get to step into for novel length, complete with taxidermy and cybernetics and biotechnology and a

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged julia elliott, quail ridge books, the regulator bookshop