2012 local and regional author holiday book buying guide

2012 local and regional author holiday book buying guide

Posted on 2012-10-27 at 17:53 by montsamu

Note: Welcome WPTF listeners! Some other things mentioned on the show: Teen Writing Contest and the Local Events Newsletter.

As was done in 2010 and 2011, here are collected the books and other related things from local and regional authors, artists, and other related creators since the last holiday gift-buying season. Note: as this is a first draft, there will be some additions and further explanations made, along with more links provided to buy the books from your local bookstores.

SEASONAL: (I can’t imaging having this category every year, but this year there is one specifically holiday-themed book.)

• Anthology: A Cosmic Christmas edited by Hank Davis (Baen, Nov 6), which includes stories by Mark L. Van Name ("Lobo, Actually") and the late Manly Wade Wellman ("On the Hills and Everywhere") [IndieBound | Goodreads]

YOUNG READERS:

• The Prince Who Fell from the Sky by John Claude Bemis (Random House, May 22), which is a wonderful story of talking, well-characterized animals (packs of wolves, dens of bears, and delightful, delightful rats) in a future, human-less Earth on which a boy has crash-landed, and of the mother bear who comes to protect him [IndieBound | Goodreads] (8 and up)
• The Death of Yorik Mortwell by Stephen Messer (Random House/Yearling, Sep 11) -- out last year in hardcover, this year an even more affordable paperback edition and still great-looking, Gris Grimly-illustrated story of the ghost of a boy and the manor house he finds himself haunting [IndieBound | Goodreads] (8 and up)
• Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck by A.J. Hartley (Razorbill, Nov 21) -- book two in bestselling Charlotte author Hartley's first series for young readers, after 2011's Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact which was released in paperback in September -- "Eleven-year-old Darwen Arkwright's life changed forever when he first set foot in Silbrica, the wondrous and magical world beyond the mirror." [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Enchanted (Woodcutter Series, #1) by Alethea Kontis (Harcourt Children's, May 8) -- "It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true."
• Also: check out some of the GRAPHIC NOVELS and COMICS below, including Princeless, Dragonbreath, and A Wrinkle in Time

YOUNG ADULT:

• Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved #3) by Cate Tiernan (Hachette/Poppy, Nov 6, 2012) -- hardcover and ebook -- book #2 came out in hardcover and audiobook in January, and a paperback edition was released in October [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• The Suburban Strange by Nathan Kotecki (Houghton Mifflin, Oct 2) -- hardcover -- Durham author's first novel, with another chance on Nov. 12 at The Regulator Bookshop to hear him read and have him sign and personalize a copy -- "A supernatural coming of age novel--the first book in a dynamic and dramatic new series--about the shy Celia Balaustine and a mysterious group of misfits at her new high school, Suburban High" [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• A Million Suns by Beth Revis (Razorbill, January 2012) -- book two in rural NC author Revis' Across the Universe sf series after Across the Universe [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Invisible Sun (Black Hole Sun, #2) by David Macinnis Gill (Greenwillow, Mar 27) -- book two after 2010's Black Hole Sun in Wilmington-area author Gill's series for teens set on a post-apocalyptic Mars being re-colonized by Earth
• Also: check out The Kingmakers by Clay and Susan Griffith, under FANTASY below

FANTASY:

• Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron (Candlemark & Gleam, Dec 2011) -- "Just when Maddie Angler thinks she's over the death of her longtime boyfriend, Alvin, she discovers that he's not only alive, but he may just be part god. And a killer. Now it's up to her to unite Eight Worlds she didn't even know existed in the first place, before chaos reigns." [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Greatshadow and Hush by James Maxey (Solaris, Jan and June 2012) -- As much as I focus on telling people how fun these books are -- crazy powers, an elevator pitch of "Pirates of the Caribbean meets X-Men meets Dragonhunter" -- I also have to highlight how much creativity is at work here, along with some good, hard looks at love, death, belief, and truth [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• When We Were Executioners by JM McDermott (Night Shade Books, February 2012) -- book two of McDermott's Dogsland Trilogy after 2011's Never Knew Another [IndieBound] -- paperback
• The Dread by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit, Jan 31) -- Martin's 6th book set in her Winter Kingdoms setting, after the four-book Chronicles of the Necromancer and 2011's The Sworn [IndieBound] -- paperback, ebook, and audiobook
• The Kingmakers by Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr, Sep 2012) -- concluding book in the Vampire Empire trilogy (The Greyfriar, The Rift Walker) which is a swashbuckling mashup of alternate history, vampires, Steampunk, and fantasy [IndieBound | Goodreads] -- book one, The Greyfriar, this year was released in digital audio download and audio CD by NC-based Buzzy Multimedia, read by James Marsters ("Spike" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• A Wild Epidemic of Magic by Michael Jasper (July 2012) -- book 2 in Wake Forest author Jasper's Contagious Magic series after A Sudden Outbreak of Magic which is itself due out in digital audio download from Audible and iTunes any day now [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Shadows Before the Sun (Charlie Madigan #4) by Kelly Gay (Pocket, July 31) -- the continuing urban fantasy adventures of Detective Charlie Madigan
• All Spell Breaks Loose (Raine Benares, #6) by Lisa Shearin (Ace, May 29) -- the continuing fantasy adventures of Raine Benares
• Raven Cursed (Jane Yellowrock, #4) , Have Stakes, Will Travel (Jane Yellowrock, #4.5), and Death's Rival (Jane Yellowrock, #5) by Faith Hunter (Roc) -- "Jane Yellowrock is a shapeshifting skinwalker you don’t want to cross—especially if you’re one of the undead…"
• Thieftaker (Thieftaker Chronicles, #1) by D.B. Jackson (Tor, July 3) -- David B. Coe's new pen name for an historical fantasy series set in Boston 1765
• Lost Things: The Order of the Air by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham (Crossroad Press, May) -- "In 1929 archeologists began draining Lake Nemi in search of the mysterious ships that have been glimpsed beneath its waters since the reign of Claudius. What they awakened had been drowned for two thousand years. For a very good reason."
• The Way of the Sword and Gun by Stuart Jaffe (January 11) -- Book 2 of Jaffe's Malja Chronicles, "Xena meets Mad Max in this Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy series."
• Update: Extracted (Book 1 of The Pioneers Saga) by William Stadler (Oct 20) -- Raleigh author Stadler is set to release book two of this series on Dec 12, and book three early next year [Kindle]

SCIENCE FICTION:

• Stellarnet Rebel and Stellarnet Prince by J.L. Hilton (Carina Press, January and November) -- a medium future sf combining elements of video games, blogging, aliens, and indeed well done sex scenes [Goodreads] in ebook and digital audio download from Audible and iTunes
• No Going Back by Mark L. Van Name (Baen, May) -- Van Name's latest in his Jon & Lobo series, with the last two books in particular being quite powerfully written adventure sf and each perfect jumping-in places [IndieBound | Goodreads] hardcover, ebook, and digital audio download (the entire series is now available in digital audio download from Audible and iTunes)
• Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen, Feb 7) -- local author Daniel returns to sf with a new space opera/adventure, "For alien Commander Arid Ricimer there was no going home. His species was winning the war with Earth, but the civilization he had fought for was gone, destroyed from within by ideologues and bureaucrats. So he does the only thing that makes sense to a person of integrity—he attempts to defect to Earth with his officers and an entire spaceship, a vessel that mounts a superweapon of almost unimaginable power."
• CassaFire by Alex J. Cavanaugh (Dancing Lemur Press, Feb 28) -- book two in this NC author's space adventure series after 2010's CassaStar -- [IndieBound | Goodreads] in paperback and ebook (Kobo, Nook, Kindle)
• Exogene and Chimera by TC McCarthy (Orbit, February and August) -- books two and three in South Carolina author McCarthy's near future military sf Subterrene War series, after 2011's excellent debut Germline, here following first a rogue genetically engineered soldier behind and around enemy lines, and then a US operative whose mission is to hunt down and "retire" such rogue soldiers -- mass market paperback and audiobook
• Into the Hinterlands by David Drake and John Lambshead (Baen) -- out last year in hardcover, here a mass market paperback release of book one of the Drake-plotted, Lambshead-written space adventure which recasts the story of George Washington in an interstellar conflict [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• The Reporter by Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty (ebook) -- Durham author Lafferty teams with best-selling Sigler on a novella in Sigler's sf football series The All-Pro
• Stargate SG-1: Moebius Squared (SG-1 22)  and STARGATE ATLANTIS: The Furies (Stargate Atlantis, #19)  and STARGATE ATLANTIS: Secrets (Stargate Atlantis #20)   by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott (Fandemonium)
• The Fifth World by Jacob Foxx (Electronic Sound and Print) -- "In the early twenty-second century, the earth is dying, reeling from the effects of a brutal nuclear war. To save humanity, an international alliance called the Consortium seeks to build a new homeland on a distant planet called Gaia. To send the first wave of settlers, the Consortium constructs an enormous starship called the Ark, which will allow them to reach Gaia and begin rebuilding humanity."

COLLECTIONS: (Several short stories by the same author.)

• Disintegration Visions by J.M. McDermott (Apex, March 2012) -- McDermott's fictions are creative, imaginative, and often lush and darkly written mythic fantasy [IndieBound] -- also new this year for McDermott was a digital audio download for Last Dragon, his absolutely amazing debut fantasy novel, read by Cori Samuel for Iambik Audio
• At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories by Kij Johnson (Small Beer Press, August 2012) -- Hugo and Nebula (among other) Award winning author Kij Johnson moved to Kansas to begin teaching after finishing up her MFA at NC State, and this collection, somehow her first, gives readers a delightful smorgasbord of the fantastic to sample [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Night & Demons by David Drake (Baen, October 2012) -- a wide-ranging collection of Drake's short fiction, including a few not previously collected, with significant new introductions and retrospectives by the author [IndieBound | Goodreads] -- paperback
• Update: The Collected Kessel by John Kessel (Baen, November 15) -- Collecting 42 of Kessel's stories, including Nebula winners "Another Orphan" and "Pride and Prometheus", organized by category with category introductions, and new story notes for every story [Baen] -- ebook

ANTHOLOGIES: (Collections of stories from multiple authors, commonly along a theme or other selection criteria.)

• Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (Tachyon, August 2012) -- long-standing professor of literature and writing at NCSU Kessel has teamed with co-conspirator Kelly on number of anthologies, and here collects stories presenting posthuman futures [IndieBound | Goodreads]
• Durham author Richard Dansky appeared in several new anthologies in 2012, including Don't Read This Book  (actually scary stories, also including fellow Durham author Mur Lafferty), The New Hero  (Dansky's long-awaited "pirate rabbi" story!), Maelstrom: Tales of Madness and Horror, and Dark Faith: Invocations
• Gimme Shelter (ebook) is an anthology of zombie apocalypse survival, and includes a story by Lafferty
• Shotguns v. Cthulhu (Pelgrane/Stone Skin Press, Nov 1) features, well, shotguns and Cthulhu, with cover art by local game designer Jason Morningstar and a story from Chapel Hill author Natania Barron
• Spells and Swashbucklers includes a story by Greenville author Danny Birt and NC author Stuart Jaffe, among other tales of "Magic, monsters, mayhem...AND PIRATES"
• Update: Stupefying Stories 2.1 is edited by Hillsborough's M. David Blake, with several local and regional contributors. Ebook-only: http://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2012/11/stupefying-stories-21-110-released.html

GRAPHIC NOVELS, MANGA, and COMICS:

• Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies (Dragonbreath, #6) and Dragonbreath #7: When Fairies Go Bad by Ursula Vernon (Dial Press) -- Hugo Award winning graphic novelist Vernon's continued adventures of Danny Dragonbreath (ages 8 and up)
• A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson (FS&G, Oct 2) -- Asheville's own (though indeed she now makes her home in California) Larson adapts L'Engle's beloved book for the graphic novel format (ages 10 and up)
• Princeless Book One: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin (Action Lab) -- collections issues one through four of this fun, all-ages comic which features a princess who does not simply sit around waiting to be rescued, written by local writer Whitley
• The Order of Dagonet by Jeremy Whitley and Jason Strutz (Firetower, now Action Lab) -- Whitley teams up with local artist Strutz on this quite funny story: "A Different Kind of British Invasion: When the mythological faerie creatures of England return to wreak havoc on modern day England, the call goes out to our only hope: the Knights of England. Unfortunately, it's the Order of Dagonet that answers the call. A special order of knights created just for the entertainers of England, these actors, authors and rockstars must face the faerie invasion to save the world. Heaven help us all." -- just being re-released by Action Lab, for a perfect and inexpensive stocking stuffer
• Update: Shakespeare Shaken edited by Enrica Jang (Red Stylo Media, August) -- includes work by locals Gabriel Dunston, Jeremy Whitley, and Jason Strutz
• Update: The Stars Below by local writer Zack Smith, art by Rich Ellis -- a moving comic without words about a lonely pigeon in NYC [Comixology]

• Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families (Potter Craft, Oct 30) -- Wired's GeekMom blog gets a book, with local author Natania Barron a contributor; a book event is set in December at Chapel Hill Comics [IndieBound]
• A Steampunk's Guide to Sex (Combustion Books, Nov 17) -- includes contributions from at least one local writer, with a local launch party Nov 17 at Pittsboro's Davenport & Winkleperry
• Formatting Comics for the Kindle and Nook (should be updated soon for the newest wave of tablets, hopefully in time for XMas): http://michaeljasper.net/2011/03/28/new-ebook-formatting-comics-for-the-kindle-and-nook/
• Formatting and Selling Ebooks: http://michaeljasper.net/2012/09/07/formatting-and-selling-ebooks-2012-version/

OTHER/UNCLASSIFIABLE:

• Pizzula by David Foland, illustrated by Jason Strutz -- how indeed would you classify the illustrated story of a the last bite of pizza turned vampire?

by Bully Pulpit Games -- "On a remote planet far from civilization, the worst criminal scum from a dozen star systems have been dumped, charged with building new lives under the watchful eye of Authority. Within a brutal hierarchy of savagery and servility, convicts and guards alike must make hard choices. Every colonist has their own code of conduct and their own aspirations—aspirations that invariably come at the expense of others. This dangerous new world is too small for everyone to succeed. In fact, it may well be too small for anyone to succeed. Only the shrewdest, the toughest and the luckiest will get a chance to find out. Will you be among them?

is the latest game from designer Jason Morningstar, author of the award-winning game

. It is a fast-paced, low-prep, highly collaborative game designed for 3-5 players and one or more sessions of play and includes a detailed, engaging science fiction setting.

began as an entry to the

design competition and was produced with the support of backers in a very successful

."

Other/To Be Categorized/etc.:

• John G. Hartness [Goodreads]
• Nancy A. Collins [Goodreads]
• A long list of authors and books I haven't added yet!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Holiday shopping guide