Friday Quick Updates: Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph, David Drake, and Susan Cooper
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Friday Quick Updates: Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph, David Drake, and Susan Cooper
Posted on 2013-08-30 at 15:11 by montsamu
Friday, August 30, 2013: Wow, what a week. Readings from Wilton Barnhardt, Marisha Pessl, Jason Mott, and (last night) Richard Kadrey, and now it seems the area is emptying of its creative critical mass as people head variously to DragonCon (Clay and Susan Griffith, Gail Z. Martin, Natania Barron, Laura Haywood-Cory, AJ Hartley, Gray Rinehart, Glennis LeBlanc, Davey Beauchamp, John Hartness, Jay Requard, and Bull Spec’s own The Exploding Spaceship, Gerald and Angela Blackwell, among many others), WorldCon (Mur Lafferty, up for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Kessel, Mark Van Name, and Warren Buff, among others), and PAX (Richard Dansky among others). If you’re out at one of these conventions, check your programs!
Meanwhile there’s been a huge amount of local and regional publishing news to share:
- I missed seeing this last month, and now need to scramble to pick up an August issue of Asimov's which includes a new novelette, Stone to Stone, Blood to Blood by Durham author Gwendolyn Clare -- Asimov's will also be publishing another local author, Raleigh's Peter Wood, in an upcoming issue
- Southeastern NC author Mott's The Returned was published on Tuesday, and it continues to collect great reviews and editor's picks, most recently being named a 4-star "People's Pick" from People Magazine
- Lauren Harris published Exorcising Aaron Nguyen (The Millroad Academy Exorcists) in ebook, available on Smashwords and in Kindle, among other places
- Angelic Knight Press published an anthology Manifesto UF with stories from a list of fantastic writers including NC author Teresa Frohock, along with fellow contributors Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Salyards, William Meikle, Zachary Jernigan, Betsy Dornbusch, and more
- Tor Books released an all-original anthology Shadows of the New Sun which honors the work of Gene Wolfe; in the star-studded list of contributors (Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Michael Swanwick, Todd McCaffery, and Wolfe himself, among others) is Pittsboro author David Drake, with a new story "Bedding" -- see an excerpt from the foreward and the table of contents posted at Tor.com
- Zack Smith, who does so much for the Triangle area's creative community through his coverage at the Independent Weekly and other online venues -- see his fantastic recent interview of Richard Kadrey -- is the lead story writer in the new issue of the Regular Show comic book, #3, now out in stores from "Kaboom!" comics -- check it out and then let Kaboom! know what you think via their contact form
- Gray Rinehart's stories have been appearing with increasing regularity in places like Analog and Asimov's, and his new filk album Truths and Lies and Make-Believe is out, both in digital and excellent-looking physical CD formats (cover design by Christopher Rinehart, using photo by Paul Cory, see below)
- The cover for Durham author Monica Byrne's debut novel The Girl in the Road (Crown, May 2014) has been released (see below)
- And! the latest issue of The Blotter ("The South's Unique, Free, International Literature and Arts Magazine") is out, with stories and poetry and art and more, including a little Bull Spec independent bookstore events calendar spot
- UPDATE: And a new novella from Lewis Shiner, "Doctor Helios", out in Subterranean Magazine
Whew! In terms of new upcoming events, I did add a few to the September newsletter, notably the September 9-15 Escapist Film Festival at The Carolina Theatre of Durham. Immediately upcoming, this Saturday (tomorrow) sees two of the Triangle’s best comics stores continue their month-long anniversary celebrations, with Ultimate Comics hosting an 11 am “memorial” service for “The Death of Ultimate Al” and Chapel Hill Comics hosting a joint signing event with Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph from 6 to 9 pm.
Next week kicks off with Pittsboro author David Drake, who (1) will be interviewed at 10 am on Monday on Carolina Book Beat, (2) will be interviewed in the noon hour on Tuesday on WUNC’s The State of Things, and (3) launches his new Books of the Elements novel Monsters of the Earth on Tuesday night at the Cary Barnes & Noble. Then on Wednesday September 4th, Quail Ridge Books hosts Susan Cooper, the Newbury Medal Award winning author of The Dark is Rising series.
See you next week!
UPCOMING EVENTS, AUGUST 2013
31 (Saturday) 11 am -- Ultimate Comics hosts a "memorial" for Ultimate Al as part of its 10th anniversary event series this month. More info at Bleeding Cool's coverage: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/08/28/north-carolina-store-announces-memorial-on-10th-anniversary-date/31 (Saturday) 6 pm to 9 pm — Chapel Hill Comics hosts Signing with LISA HANAWALT & BRIAN RALPH! “Chapel Hill Comics is proud to announce that as part of our 10th/35th Anniversary Festivities, we will host Lisa Hanawalt and Brian Ralph on Saturday, August 31, from 6pm until 9pm! Lisa will sign her newest book, My Dirty Dumb Eyes (out now), and Brian will sign his newest book, Reggie-12 (Drawn & Quarterly is getting us copies early for the signing)!“
SEPTEMBER 2013
3 (Tuesday) 7 pm -- Barnes & Noble of Cary hosts Pittsboro author David Drake for a discussion/signing of his new book Monsters of the Earth (Books of the Elements, #3) on Tuesday, September 3 at 7:00 pm.4 (Wednesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Susan Cooper, the Newbury Medal winning author of The Dark is Rising, for her new historical fiction novel for young readers, Ghost Hawk. More info: http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/newbery-medalist-susan-cooper-ghost-hawk
7 (Saturday) — The annual Bookmarks Literary Festival in Winston-Salem, with a long list of participating authors including Jason Mott, Robin Hobb, Deborah Harkness, Megan Shepherd, Leigh Bardugo, and more. More info: http://bookmarksnc.org/