Coming to Town: D.B. Jackson (David B. Coe) at Quail Ridge Books for A Plunder of Souls, interviewed by Margaret S. McGraw

Posted on 2014-07-18 at 16:34 by montsamu

D.B. Jackson (also known to fantasy readers as David B. Coe) is an Award-winning author of fifteen published novels. He’s currently on a book signing tour to promote the newly released A Plunder of Souls, third in the Thieftaker Chronicles, and will be at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books and Music on Monday, July 21^st, at 7:30pm. Jackson is a frequent visitor in the Carolinas, including the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop, ConCarolinas in Charlotte, and most recently, ConGregate in Winston-Salem. Here, Jackson is interviewed by Durham writer Margaret McGraw about the Thieftaker Chronicles with Tor Books, and his next big project, the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a contemporary urban fantasy series with Baen Books.

[Interview by Margaret S. McGraw]

MM: Let’s talk about the Thieftaker Chronicles, beginning with Thieftaker and Thieves’ Quarry. The third book, A Plunder of Souls, was just released this month. You've blazed a trail in the subgenre of historical urban fantasy. How did that come about?

DJ: I call the Thieftaker Chronicles historical urban fantasy because the novels combine elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The books are set in pre-Revolutionary Boston, and each plot line coincides with some significant historical event leading toward the American Revolution. My lead character is a conjurer who can cast a wide array of spells. And he is also a thieftaker, the eighteenth century equivalent of a private detective, so each novel also revolves around the investigation of a murder or other grisly crime. So there is a historical element, a magical element, and a mystery element: historical urban fantasy.

MM: And how about the buzzphrase “Tricorn Punk”?

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged david b coe, db jackson, margaret s mcgraw, quail ridge books

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition: Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson

Posted on 2014-07-08 at 22:56 by angelablackwell

Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson (Tor hardcover, July 8, 2014)

This is the third novel in the Thieftaker Chronicles. We are back in Boston of 1769 where a minor smallpox epidemic has hit; enough people are sick that there are houses in every neighborhood with illness, but not so many as to overflow the hospital.

Ethan is called upon by the local minister to investigate a case of grave desecration, but it soon becomes clear that more is going on because shades of the dead are hanging around their last places of residence and not passing on. In most cases the shades have the same type of damage as their desecrated bodies.

Ethan’s relationships with Kannice, Janna and Sephira continue to change and mature. Janna meets both the other women in Ethan’s life in this book and those encounters are both very enlightening. As Ethan ages and continues to get beaten up for doing his job, getting another type of employment looks better and better.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged david b coe, db jackson, thieftaker

Coming to Town: Jeff VanderMeer at Quail Ridge Books for Authority, interviewed by Mur Lafferty

Posted on 2014-07-08 at 19:12 by montsamu

Tallahassee author Jeff VanderMeer has been no stranger to the Carolinas, both through his work teaching at the SharedWorlds teen writing summer camp at Wofford College and quite a few events over the years. We're thrilled to be welcoming him back again this year as part of his Southern Reach Summer Tour which includes 4 stops in the Carolinas in just over a week, starting and ending with Wednesday events (July 9th and 16th) at Hub City in Spartanburg, SC around readings on Thursday (July 10th) at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books at 7:30 pm and Saturday (July 12th) at Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore at 7 pm. Here, VanderMeer is interviewed by Durham author Mur Lafferty about The Southern Reach series and Shared Worlds; we find out about some giveaways as well as get his thoughts about possible expansions to the trilogy, which will be completed with Acceptance in September.

Interview by Mur Lafferty:

ML: The Southern Reach trilogy is unlike other books in so many ways, one of the more mundane yet rare things about it is its release schedule. We’re used to publishing’s glacial pace- why three books within a year?

JV: The publisher, FSG, suggested this schedule—they’re very proactive and inventive in how they think about marketing books. Their thought was that three books in one year, in inexpensive trade paperback editions, could create a lot of interest for this kind of series. And then the fact it was FSG meant I felt free to do what I usually like to do with a series: write three very different novels that fit together but don’t follow the usual “rules” for trilogies or for connected books. From my point of view, it was the perfect situation: a perfect plan for the commercial side of things and complete freedom to explore what I wanted to explore, hopefully in a way entertaining for readers.

ML: ... And how have you handled the pressure of that speed of production?

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged jeff vandermeer, mur lafferty, quail ridge books

July Newsletter: Wilton Barnhardt, Jay Posey, Jeff VanderMeer, ConGregate, David B. Coe, Serenity, and more

Posted on 2014-07-07 at 12:01 by montsamu

Vol 4. No 7. July 7, 2014: We are in for an absolutely fantastic July, with readings from Wilton Barnhardt, Jay Posey, Jeff VanderMeer, Lydia Netzer, Deborah Harkness, David B. Coe, and Mur Lafferty, new convention ConGregate in Winston-Salem with guests of honor Larry Correia and Toni Weisskopf and the presentation of the Manly Wade Wellman Award, and! even more, including comics events and the annual charity screening of Serenity at the Raleighwood Cinema Grill.

Let's start with NC State professor Wilton Barnhardt, who has two readings early this week in support of the new paperback release of his NY Times bestselling Southern novel Lookaway, Lookaway, optioned earlier this year by HBO for a comedy series. He's my guest on Carolina Book Beat this morning (Monday) at 10 on WCOM-FM, then reads at Flyleaf Books at 7 pm on Monday night, and at McIntyre's Books on Tuesday at 6:30 pm.

Speaking of Tuesday, Durham author and game writer Jay Posey will be at the Cary B&N at 7 pm for a reading of Morningside Fall, book two after his debut novel Three in his “The Legends of the Duskwalker” post-apocalyptic series.

Then starting mid-week it's the Jeff VanderMeer show, with 4 readings in the Carolinas in just over a week, starting and ending with Wednesday events (9th and 16th) at Hub City in Spartanburg, SC around readings on Thursday (July 10th) at Raleigh's Quail Ridge Books at 7:30 pm and Saturday (July 12th) at Asheville's Malaprop's. And! He will be my guest via phone this week on Carolina Book Beat at 11 AM. (Do check out his conversation with Frank Stasio on WUNC's The State of Things which aired last week.)

New convention ConGregate will be held July 11-13 in downtown Winston-Salem, with guests of honor Larry Correia, Mark Poole, and Toni Weisskopf, and the presentation of the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy to one of the six excellent nominees:

Posted in Uncategorized

Paul Kincaid’s From the Other Side, June 2014: One Three One, Barricade, the Gemmell Awards, and more

Posted on 2014-07-03 at 17:49 by montsamu

From the Other Side, June 2014

By Paul Kincaid

Okay, we have to accept that, however much we might value its qualities, science fiction can sometimes serve as a repository for the mad, the bizarre, the plain bonkers. Which may be why we get One Three One: A Time-Shifting Gnostic Hooligan Road Novel by Julian Cope (Faber). Cope is, of course, the former lead singer of The Teardrop Explodes who has also written  couple of well-received books on ancient megaliths, and some eclectic works on obscure rock music, so for his first attempt at fiction we could expect pretty much anything; and that's pretty much what we get. It features a Cope-like rock star travelling around Highway 131 in Sardinia, but along the way we get fascist kidnappers, football fans gearing up for Italia 90, counter-arguments to C.S. Lewis, praise for D.H. Lawrence, and a cast of comic eccentrics with the sorts of names that scream 'comic eccentric'. It is, in short, a sort of catch-all mess with bits of thriller and sf and football novel and the whole bizarre list of Julian Cope's obsessions all thrown into the mix, and yet it seems to work. Well, it does if you like time-shifting gnostic hooligan road novels.

One Three One is clearly the oddball novel of the month. Controversy of the month brings us to a debut novel by Jon Wallace, Barricade (Gollancz). I'd been thinking of mentioning the book in this column, since initial reviews suggested it was a moderately-interesting page-turner, but then came Christopher Priest's damning review at Arc, and suddenly the internet was alight. Wallace didn't help his cause with a couple of ill-judged if defensive posts, but the controversy did drive a lot of people to read the book who might not have done otherwise, though I noticed that the general reaction afterwards was that Priest had been too generous. But the best thing to emerge from this mess, and the thing I really wanted to draw your attention to, was this superb post by Tricia Sullivan, which amounts to a heartfelt manifesto for those who want to revisit some of the most well-worn of contemporary sf tropes.

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged andy remic, barricade, charles stross, jon wallace, julian cope, mark lawrence, one three one, paul kincaid, terry pratchett

The Exploding Spaceship New Release Edition: Reviews of Deadly Curiosities and The Blasted Lands

Posted on 2014-06-30 at 02:42 by angelablackwell

Review of Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z Martin (Solaris Books, June 24, 2014, mass market)

This is a new urban fantasy series set in Charleston, South Carolina. The center of the adventures is an antique shop called Trifles and Folly, which is currently owned by Cassidy Kincaide and her vampire silent partner Sorren. She has a former history graduate student/martial artist named Teag Logan who helps run the place. His boyfriend Anthony is a lawyer from an old Charleston family, who is occasionally enlisted to help find information.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged blasted lands, deadly curiosities, gail z. martin, james a moore

ConTemporal 2014: Day One

Posted on 2014-06-27 at 23:07 by montsamu

ConTemporal 2014 is underway, and there's even more mood-setting decorations throughout the hotel, music playing, costumes everywhere. Here's a few photos, including of the massively expanded high tea room:

[caption id="attachment_3566" align="alignnone" width="224"] It wouldn't be a NC sf convention without Allen Wold, here looking quite dapper. Be warned: he's carrying a badge.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3567" align="alignnone" width="224"] I admit it. I jumped just a little bit when this little trike's animatronic motors kicked into life.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3568" align="alignnone" width="224"] Luckily for all concerned, this guy doesn't move.[/caption]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged contemporal

Coming to Town: Dave Lee for ConTemporal, interviewed by Paul Cory

Posted on 2014-06-25 at 16:01 by montsamu

ConTemporal is this weekend (June 27-29) at the Hilton North Raleigh/Midtown, and artist guest of honor Dave Lee is one of dozens of guests coming to town for the event. Lee's travel isn't too far, as his Hatton Cross Steampunk is located in Gloucester VA. An accomplished and award-winning Steampunk artist, he is also an author: his Steampunk western novel entitled Country in Ruin:1865 is published through HCS Publishing and its sequel World in Ruin:1870 is due out in 2014. Here, Lee took the time for some questions from Durham photographer Paul Cory.

[caption id="attachment_3560" align="alignnone" width="200"] Dave Lee, photo by Paul Cory[/caption]

Interview by Paul Cory:

Q:  Why Hatton Cross? Is there a particular significance to the name?

A: It started out as a joke. A British friend of mine said the best way to pick your steampunk name was to pick two or more names from London underground stations. There are more than a hundred with very unique names. Hatton Cross is a station and I just liked the sound of it. I've always had it in my head that we'd have a group instead of an individual.

Q: How did you get introduced to steampunk, and what about it keep your creativity flowing?

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged contemporal, dave lee, paul cory

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Enoch the Traveler, Cauldron of Ghosts, Morningside Fall, Treasure Planet, Sea Without a Shore, A Case of Spontaneous Combustion and Peacemaker

Posted on 2014-06-23 at 06:05 by angelablackwell

Review of Enoch the Traveler: Tempestas Viator by Lady Soliloque (World Castle Publishing, January 9, 2014)

This novel is the story of Enoch, a character who is mentioned in the Bible, but we are told nothing about him. Lady’s Soliloque uses the ideas of parallel universes, locations outside of time and space, and great beings to explain the Christian idea of God and angels. Like some other fantasy and science fiction which uses ancient religious ideas with a new twist like Marvel’s versions of Odin or Thor, this science fiction world explains the universe as Christians from our world see it.

Enoch has traveled around a great deal and caused some problems (see previous books with main character Heather, sister to Violette the main character in this volume), so at the beginning of this volume he meets Violette when she gets him out of trouble, and they go on adventures together, running from some beings who want to end Enoch, and exploring places to explain the multiverse to Violette. Some of Heather’s friends appear on the scene because they are concerned about Violette and soon after Alastair and Annie are brought into the adventures. They bring their boss, Deacon, into the group and this allows them to access all of Deacon’s knowledge and cool technology.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship's Geeky Travel Special Edition!

Posted on 2014-06-21 at 22:44 by angelablackwell

In this column Your Humble Reviewers take a look at a couple of recent conventions, and a look forward to some coming up, focusing our attention on writing tracks and family activities near the convention site, which can be used to turn a weekend getaway into a longer vacation. Featured are some of the smaller conventions in the Southeast from Virginia to Louisiana which are family-friendly and offer tracks for aspiring writers.

Timegate: Centered mainly on the Doctor Who and Stargate television shows, this Memorial Day Weekend convention in Atlanta, Georgia boasts a strong writers' track. The dealer room is well organized and not crowded and has a wide variety of merchandise, with a particularly heavy lean toward Doctor Who items, much to the detriment of our wallet. Other British shows are also strongly represented here.

The Doctor Who guests this year were Terrance Dicks, who wrote for the classic TV series from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, and Gareth David-Lloyd, of Torchwood fame. Writer guests of note were Lee Martindale, Lady Soliloque and Gillian Summers.

This year featured a special announcement by North Carolina author Lady Soliloque that her book Enoch the Traveler will be made into a TV series by a cable network. Filming will be in North Carolina in the Fall for broadcast in 2015. See review of the novel here.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship