News: Quail Ridge Books to host author Carrie Vaughn on January 17, 2014

Posted on 2013-11-06 at 20:43 by montsamu

Well, well, well. It’s early November and already our fantastic local bookstores are working on 2014 events, the first of which on my calendar — other than illogiCon of course! — is now set for Friday, January 17, when Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books will host author Carrie Vaughn at 7:30 pm.

[caption id=“attachment_2625” align=“alignnone” width=“211”] Author photo by Timothy Siobhan[/caption]

Vaughn is the author of the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series (from Kitty and the Midnight Hour in 2005 through Kitty in the Underworld earlier this year — so far), and she is appearing locally in support of her forthcoming superhero novel, Dreams of the Golden Age, a follow-on to her 2011 novel After the Golden Age.

[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“199”] Dreams of the Golden Age
by Carrie Vaughn
Tor Books (January 7, 2014)[/caption]

Thanks to Quail Ridge Books, Tor, and Vaughn for giving us another early reason — on top of illogiCon, of course! — to anticipate the New Year.

Posted in events | Tagged carrie vaughn, quail ridge books

The Hardest Part: Mike Allen on The Black Fire Concerto

Posted on 2013-11-06 at 13:00 by montsamu

I know Roanoke, VA author Mike Allen primarily through his fantastic speculative poetry (his poem "Hungry Constellations" is currently featured at Goblin Fruit) and in his role as editor of both his poetry journal Mythic Delirium and his anthology series Clockwork Phoenix. But he's also quite an accomplished short fiction writer, with stories in Solaris Rising 2, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Weird Tales, and his Nebula Award nominated story "The Button Bin" in Helix. (Though, admittedly, I didn't catch it until it was podcast at Pseudopod.) And, with The Black Fire Concerto, he's a published novelist as well. Here, Mike writes about the potential pitfalls of outrunning your own story.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="266"] The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen
Haunted Stars Publishing, 2013[/caption]

By Mike Allen:

The hardest part of writing The Black Fire Concerto? Maintaining the pace without losing sight of the story.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged Haunted Stars Publishing, mike allen, the black fire concerto

Friday Quick Updates, Monday edition: James Dashner, Chris Hardwick, NC Comicon, and Gabriel Dunston's Kickstarter for Purgatory Pub

Posted on 2013-11-04 at 20:14 by montsamu

Monday, November 4, 2013: I’m late this month with the newsletter to be sure, and have at least one more thing to put the finishing touches on before I can click “send” — that being the annual holiday gift guide to the year in NC speculative fiction. But until then, some quick updates to get to:

• As today was the first Monday of the month, I was on Carolina Book Beat again for the monthly focus on NC speculative fiction, this time with guests Diana Bastine and Debra Killeen. If you missed it live, look for the podcast in a week or so, and in the mean time you can catch up with their previous appearance on the show, in 2011.
• Did you make it or miss it? Some recent events to round up: Lemony Snicket at Quail Ridge Books, The Festival of Legends' Unseelie Eve, and Duke's "Race in Space" conference to close October, then on to HonorCon and other conventions, including at least one local representative (Mark Van Name) at this year's World Fantasy Awards in Brighton, United Kingdom, where both the World Fantasy Awards and British Fantasy Awards were announced. For the latter award, the BFA for best anthology went to Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and the Arcane, which includes the short story "Buttons" by Charlotte author Gail Z. Martin, so congratulations to Gail!

• James Dashner, the author of the bestselling Maze Runner trilogy, visits Quail Ridge Books on Wednesday November 6th at 7 pm for his new book, The Eye of Minds.
• The Nerdist's Chris Hardwick, also the host of AMC's The Walking Dead talk show The Talking Dead, will have a standup comedy show at the Carolina Theatre of Durham on Friday November 8th.
• Speaking of the Carolina Theatre of Durham, they're hosting a ComiQuest Film Festival this weekend (Nov 8-10) in conjunction with NC Comicon (Nov 9-10 at the adjoining Durham Convention Center, with a free pre-party on Friday, and a special event with Neal Adams at Ultimate Comics on Wednesday evening). See this Ultimate Comics Facebook note for the full details.

• The Charleston Young Adult Book Festival, YALLFest, in Charleston, SC. With guests Lev Grossman, Leigh Bardugo, Libba Bray, Rae Carson, David Macinnis Gill, Lauren Oliver, Veronica Roth, Veronica Rossi, Victoria Schwab, and many others. More info: http://yallfest.org/
• The First Annual Peak City Book Festival will take place on November 9^th, 2013 from 11 am to 5 pm at The Halle Cultural Arts Center in Apex, North Carolina.

Bull Spec art director Gabriel Dunston has two weeks to go on his Purgatory Pub (Book 1) Kickstarter, where he’s already collected pledges of $1500 towards his goal of of $3500. The first of a five book graphic novel series on the afterlife, Purgatory Pub asks “What do the Angel and Devil on your shoulders do when they are done harassing you?” and answers “They go to a bar and talk about you.” There’s a 2-chapter PDF preview available as well, so go check it out!

-Sam

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

The Hardest Part: Gail Z. Martin on Deadly Curiosities

Posted on 2013-10-30 at 15:56 by montsamu

Charlotte author Gail Z. Martin is no stranger to Bull Spec’s ongoing guest column series The Hardest Part, as she wrote about launching a new epic fantasy universe with Ice Forged in January after six books in her Chronicles of the Necromancer oeuvre. Here, she writes about an interesting difficulty encountered when jumping between epic fantasy and urban fantasy for her forthcoming 2013 novel, Deadly Curiosities as part of her ongoing Days of the Dead blog tour. Read on past the end for more info on her tour and for info on a one-day Kindle Daily Deal tomorrow (Oct 31) on Ice Forged.

By Gail Z. Martin:

With my new novel Deadly Curiosities (Solaris Books, summer 2014), I make the jump to urban fantasy. I’ve been writing epic fantasy for seven years, and will be continuing my Ascendant Kingdoms Saga books for Orbit with Reign of Ash in April, so I’ll really have a foot in both camps. That’s like trying to ride two horses at once, which are each running at different paces.

I’ve read a lot from both epic and urban fantasy, but it was a bit of a switch shifting from third-person narrative for the epic books into first-person for the urban stories. But I would say that the hardest part has been convincing myself that it’s ok to use modern phrases in the urban book since I worked so hard to become aware of them and avoid them in the epic books.

There are so many words and phrases that we use every day that do a great job of conveying exactly what we mean. In normal conversation, we don’t worry about the origin. In writing, it matters a lot. There are a couple of etymology web sites that have become bookmarks on my computer because I am frequently checking to see when a word or phrase was first used, and how it was used. For example, people have been puking since the Middle Ages, but they didn’t barf until recently. And while they have been pissing for hundreds of years, it’s only in the last few decades that anyone has been pissed off.

It matters because the wrong word choice is an anachronism and it ruins the suspension of disbelief for the reader. The right words take the reader deeper into the atmosphere of the book. The wrong word yanks them out with a hook.

Since I’m a word junkie, I find this fun. I collect cool words like other people collect shiny rocks. So I’m overjoyed when I find a great period-authentic word that is exactly what I need. The trick is to sprinkle those less familiar, but authentic, words so that they are enjoyable little bonuses instead of annoying readers by sending them to their thesaurus on every page.

With Deadly Curiosities, it’s also fun because the book is set in modern-day Charleston, SC, so there are some wonderful concepts and phrases unique to that area that help to set the mood. And while visiting the Middle Ages to check out locations isn’t entirely possible (although it’s amazing how instructive it is to visit what’s left), scouting local spots in Charleston is easy and always a pleasure.

So there you have it—the hardest part is remembering to have characters speak in modern English. Strange, but true!

Come check out all the free excerpts, book giveaways and other goodies that are part of my Days of the Dead blog tour! Trick-or-Treat you way through more than 30 partner sites where you’ll find brand new interviews, freebies and more—details at www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

Ice Forged will be a Kindle Daily Deal with a special one-day price of just $1.99 only on October 31! Get it here: http://amzn.com/B008AS86QY

Reign of Ash, book two in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga launches in April, 2014 from Orbit Books. My new urban fantasy, Deadly Curiosities, comes out in July, 2014 from Solaris Books. I bring out two series of ebook short stories with a new story every month for just .99 on Kindle, Kobo and Nook—check out the Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures or the Deadly Curiosities Adventures.

About the author: Gail Z. Martin is the author of Ice Forged in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga and the upcoming Reign of Ash (Orbit Books, 2014), plus The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven & Dark Lady’s Chosen ) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn and The Dread) from Orbit Books. In 2014, Gail launches a new urban fantasy novel, Deadly Curiosities, from Solaris Books. She is also the author of two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures. Find her at www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged gail z. martin

The Hardest Part: Nathan Kotecki on Pull Down the Night

Posted on 2013-10-22 at 14:48 by montsamu

Durham author Nathan Kotecki’s debut novel, 2012’s The Suburban Strange, was an exercise in lengthy revision, as Kotecki wrote about in a The Hardest Part piece about its writing. When I got to talk to Kotecki about his new sequel, Pull Down the Night, on Carolina Book Beat, I started to get the impression that his second book had been an almost painless process. Not quite so, as the author writes here. Welcome back, Nathan Kotecki, to The Hardest Part:

[caption id="attachment_2587" align="alignnone" width="167"] Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct 2013[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2586" align="alignnone" width="198"] c. 2013 by Mr. Gates[/caption]

By Nathan Kotecki:

When it came time to write my second book –  the sequel to last year’s The Suburban Strange – I was not at a loss. I had plenty of inspiration, a solid conceptual idea, and no shortage of motivation. I suppose I felt a bit of anxiety that my first book might have been a “fluke,” and that perhaps lightning wouldn’t strike a second time, but that concern wasn’t strong enough to slow me down.

I had a clear idea of how the series was going to develop. Rather than follow my protagonist from The Suburban Strange (Celia), the series is really about a location through which characters will continue to pass – Suburban High School. And so as much as I loved Celia, and even though she is still a major character in books two and three, I was going to shift the point of view to a new character with each subsequent installment. I met Bruno and a few other new characters to join the story in book two, titled Pull Down the Night, and got down to work.

As with the first book, I felt it was important for my secondary characters to have some sort of arc, themselves. (In The Suburban Strange, seven of Celia’s friends have minor but significant arcs of their own.) If only the main character grows and changes in a novel, it feels artificial; while we change, the world is changing around us, too. So, in conjunction with the coming-of-age crossed with supernatural journey I envisioned for Bruno, I conceived secondary plot lines for his friends, attempting to weave them together into a coherent whole.

For a while, though, the coherent whole wasn’t appearing. I had plot points sprawling out in every direction: a love triangle as well as a shot at romantic redemption, sets of misaligned agendas – both real and supernatural, the meddling of a mischievous ghost, a chaotic neutral gatekeeper, a few betrayals and their consequences, and a flock of boys who want to sleep with everyone. Oh, and a minister who is trying to deal with a crisis of faith.

Yeah, it was a bit of a mess. But as sprawling as it was, I loved all of it, and I really didn’t want to let go of anything, because deep down I believed there was a place in this book for all my ideas. I just had to figure out how to whip it into shape.

(That wasn’t an easy call, by the way. I imagined my editor saying, “We really need to think about walking away from [insert any of the subplots here].” There is that dreaded note: “Plot confusion.” When I resolved to protect all the pieces I had, it was very important that I get it right, or I risked giving my editor the impression that there was too much going on, and then having to try to overcome her request to cut back.)

Typically my writing process begins with a research and idea-generation phase, which results in a collection of clear impressions of scenes, moments, and turning points toward which I will begin to write. For Pull Down the Night, instead of creating an outline at that stage – which felt like a flat and lifeless exercise, I jumped directly into a gloriously messy first draft, replete with gaping holes, inconsistencies, and unresolved chronology issues. This paid off, because I had many great experiences of being pleasantly surprised during those early writing sessions.

I always get excited when I realize mid-scene that a character really needs to take a different direction than I envisioned, or that a missed opportunity can be reclaimed with a certain change in setting or plot – these epiphanies convince me I’m being true to the project, allowing it to develop authentically, rather than forcing my agenda. (I will admit, this approach probably also contributed to my overabundance of ideas.) Once the first draft was done – and fully aware that at that point it resembled three distinct novels more than one, I went about extracting an outline from the draft, and in so doing, began to make structural decisions to refine the manuscript.

This is what saved me with Pull Down the Night. I made a mess, then wrote an outline to tighten it up. Then I wrote the next draft (still incredibly messy and sprawling) and afterward went back to re-outline, see what had changed, and figure out how it might change further. I kept looking around in my story for the places where loops could be tightened, scenes and motives combined, and characters returned to balance.

The design process – whether it is in visual art, choreography, architecture, or, yes, writing – has always fascinated me. I have found so many instances in other people’s work and in my own when the work is strongest because the design process was customized to best facilitate the project. What I mean by that is: While this cadence of draft/outline/draft/outline/draft/outline worked very well for Pull Down the Night, it’s simply the technique that was appropriate to solve the problems I encountered with this project, and not the default approach I’ll use to write other books.

As it happens, the next project I’m working on –  a young adult novel without any supernatural elements – is a bit of a roman a clef, and as such, it called for a much more structured outline before I began any writing at all. That’s not to say there haven’t been some major epiphanies following the first draft, but they have been of a very different type, and the outline has remained intact. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you the hardest part of finishing that novel before too long.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged nathan kotecki

Release Day: Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction

Posted on 2013-10-15 at 20:50 by montsamu

A very happy release day indeed to Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Zerfoss!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="280"] Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
by Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Zerfoss
Abrams Image (October 15, 2013)[/caption]

"This all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object. Employing an accessible, example-rich approach, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts information needed to improve as a writer. Aimed at aspiring and intermediate-level writers, Wonderbook includes helpful sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy today, such as George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Catherynne M. Valente, and Karen Joy Fowler, to name a few."

I've collected a nice slate of excerpts and highlights and early reviews and appreciations and other materials about the book, and today the book's official companion website, WonderbookNow.com, launched with a Welcome to Wonderbooknow.com post, along with an extensive selection of web extras, exercies, interviews, and (something I've been looking forward to in particular) an editors roundtable which presents the same story manuscript "marked up" by eight fantastic editors: Paula Guran, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, Liz Gorinsky, James Patrick Kelly, Nick Mamatas, Ann VanderMeer, and Sheila Williams. And! There's a Facebook page with links and images to flip through and enjoy as well. More? Of course. There's already a review up on the book's Goodreads page, and! Tor.com has a giveaway sweepstakes with 10 (TEN!) signed copies.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged jeff vandermeer, jeremy zerfoss, wonderbook

Friday Quick Updates: News and links; a one-day reschedule for Wilton Barnhardt at Flyleaf; local sf author panels; and William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead

Posted on 2013-10-11 at 16:12 by montsamu

Friday, October 11, 2013: The “Quick Updates” come fast and furious indeed this week, so here we go:

• The Wilton Barnhardt reading and signing at Flyleaf Books which was originally set for tonight (Friday) has just been rescheduled to tomorrow (Saturday) -- take note! The old date was on the email newsletter and a few stacks of flyers that are out and about. If you show up tonight, there will be no whiskey tastings, no matter how much you ask. Come back tomorrow!
• Teen writers (and their parents and teachers) take note! Jeff VanderMeer announced "that National Book Award winner Will Alexander will be a guest writer at Shared Worlds, the SF/F teen writing camp I help run, in 2014, along with the previously announced Carrie Vaughn, Mur Lafferty, Steven Barnes, Nathan Ballingrud, and Ann VanderMeer. And Karin Steen Tidbeck will be a guest in 2015, to join Patrick Rothfuss, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, David Anthony Durham, and more."
• Speaking of John W. Campbell Award winning Durham author Mur Lafferty (I still like saying this very much) is one of a fantastic lineup of writers in an "anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical & alternate-world crowdfunding projects" being, er, crowdfunded itself via a Kickstarter campaign, John Joseph Adams HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!
• Jason Strutz's graphic novel adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's classic story "The Cask of Amontillado" debuted yesterday at New York Comic Con. He has a 3-page preview up at his site, so check it out!
• Richard Dansky guest posts on the Ubisoft's blog, On Becoming a Game Writer: "One of the questions I get asked most frequently is How do I get into game writing? ... This is a perfectly reasonable question to ask, and in a just and fair and logical world, it would have a simple and concise answer. Unfortunately, we are not living in that world."
• Comic Book Resources breaks the news that Tommy Lee Edwards has sold the comic book version of his Vandroid project to Dark Horse, with a trailer and comic preview. "Dark Horse has announced the Feb. 29 debut of Vandroid, a miniseries written by Edwards and Noah Smith, with art by Dan McDaid and colors by Jordie Bellaire. Edwards will provide the covers."

And! This week also saw two fantastic local author sf panels in the Wake County Public Libraries month-long series, which still has several additional events to go including this Sunday afternoon at the Eva Perry Regional Library. And! There are four performances this weekend of “William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead” at Durham’s Common Ground Theatre. For more info on these and other upcoming events, see below.

-Sam

OCTOBER 2013

10-13 (Thursday to Sunday) — Durham’s Common Ground Theatre hosts a staging of “William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead”, a zombie/Shakespeare mashup. More info: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/283158

NEW: 11 (Friday) 8 pm — the North Carolina Symphony presents the Music of John Williams: “Friday @ 8pm. Meymandi Hall, Raleigh. Superman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Raiders & more!” Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/north-carolina-symphonythe-music-of-john-raleigh-north-carolina-10-11-2013/event/0E004AE5B3B58254?artistid=804126&majorcatid=10002&minorcatid=203

UPDATED: 12 (Saturday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Wilton Barnhardt reads and signs his novel Lookaway, Lookaway. “Join us for a bourbon tasting with Gary Crunkleton at 6:30 pm so we’ll be properly prepped to hear the larger-than-life Wilton Barnhardt discuss his fantastic new novel Lookaway, Lookaway.  We’ll have sweet tea for the teetotalers and pearl necklaces for all the ladies! Bourbon tasting is for 21 years and older and while supplies last… In Lookaway, Lookaway, Wilton Barnhardt has written a headlong, hilarious narrative of a family coming apart, a society changing beyond recognition, and an unforgettable woman striving to pull it all together.” THIS EVENT WAS MOVED FROM FRIDAY, 10/11!

13 (Sunday) 2 pm – Science Fiction panel (one of six in an October series) at Wake County’s Eva Perry Regional Library. With Jenna Black, Clay & Susan Griffith, S. Mark Rainey, and Lisa Shearin. More info: http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/scifiauthors.aspx

15 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Author John Claude Bemis, who is serving this year as the Piedmont Laureate for Children’s Literature, is leading a series of roundtable discussions with local children’s and YA authors about writing craft, creativity, and the magic of children’s literature.  The series includes events at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham on Tuesday, September 17 at 7 pm, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on October 5 at 2 pm, and Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday, October 15 at 7 pm.  For more information, visit John’s website at www.johnclaudebemis.com or the Piedmont Laureate website at www.piedmontlaureate.com. From John: “I’m still working on the line-up, but once I know I’ll let you know who will be speaking at each event.  Should be lots of fun!” At least one confirmed panelist for this event is Durham author Nathan Kotecki (The Suburban Strange, Pull Down the Night).

16 (Wednesday) 6 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Adam Gidwitz for The Grimm Conclusion, a third volume of Grimm-inspired fairytales for ages 9+ after A Tale Dark and Grimm, then In a Glass Grimmly. More info: http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/adam-gidwitz-chills-grimm-conclusion

18-24 (Friday to Thursday) — The Carolina Theatre of Durham hosts a special film series, “The Studio Ghibli Collection Part III”.

20 (Sunday) 2 pm – Science Fiction panel (one of six in an October series) at the Wake County East Regional Library. With Tony Daniel, Ariel Djanikian, and James Maxey. More info: http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/scifiauthors.aspx

[More? As always for the full events listing see the most recent newsletter.]

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

Release Day: Pull Down the Night by Nathan Kotecki

Posted on 2013-10-08 at 19:10 by montsamu

Tuesday October 8, 2013: Durham author Nathan Kotecki’s first novel, last year’s The Suburban Strange, introduced Suburban High and its supernatural conflicts through the eyes of newcomer Celia. Today, Kotecki’s standalone sequel, Pull Down the Night, is out and available in hardcover and ebook [Kobo|Nook|Kindle] from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. Pull Down the Night welcomes a new newcomer, Bruno, to Suburban High, for the school year following the events of The Suburban Strange — which, I should add, was recently released in paperback, from HMH imprint Graphia. Celia and the rest of the Rosary, at least those which haven’t already graduated, are a year older; also back are the alt-rock musical influences and the sensibility of self-discovery and self-acceptance that so thoroughly inhabited the first book.

EVENTS: Kotecki will launch the book at Flyleaf Books tonight at 7 pm, preceded by hors d’oeuvres at 6:30. There are giveaways and even a raffle for a “Pull Down the Night” gift basket. Then, next week, at Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday October 15th, Kotecki will participate in the latest “kid lit” roundtable hosted by Piedmont Laureate John Claude Bemis, also at 7 pm.

Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged nathan kotecki, the suburban strange

October Newsletter: Maile Meloy, Steven Brust, The Escapist Expo, Nathan Kotecki, Lemony Snicket, and the Wake County Libraries local sf author series

Posted on 2013-09-30 at 20:21 by montsamu

Vol 3. No 10. September 30, 2013:

Well, September brought readings from David Drake, Susan Cooper, Emily Croy Barker, Clay and Susan Griffith and Natania Barron, Jasper Fforde, and Robin Sloan, and October shows no signs of slowing with Maile Meloy, Steven Brust, Nathan Kotecki, Lemony Snicket, a month-long series of local sf author panels at the Wake County Libraries, The Escapist Expo, and, of course, more. The immediately upcoming events are:

• 1 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Science Fiction panel (one of six in an October series) at the Wake County West Regional Library. With David Drake, Mark L. Van Name, Terrence Holt, and Lisa Shearin. More info: http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/scifiauthors.aspx
• 1 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Maile Meloy for The Apprentices, sequel to her YA/YR debut The Apothecary. More info: http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/maile-meloy-apprentices
• 2 (Wed) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Steven Brust (author of the Vlad Taltos series) for The Incrementalists. More info: http://flyleafbooks.com/event/steven-brust-skyler-white-discuss-sign-their-urban-fantasy-novel-incrementalists
• 2 (Wed) 7 pm — Science Fiction panel (one of six in an October series) at the Wake County Southeast Regional Library. With Ariel Djanikian, Clay & Susan Griffith, and James Maxey. More info: http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/Pages/scifiauthors.aspx
• 4-6 (Friday to Sunday) — Second Escapist Expo at the Durham Convention Center. More info: http://www.escapistexpo.com/

• Asheville writer Nathan Ballingrud’s collection North American Lake Monsters gets a fantastic review in the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), by John Langan, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Monsters”. The collection is out from Small Beer Press, and Ballingrud was a panelist at August’s Bull Spec Summer Speculative Fiction Reading.
• Three authors with NC ties are on the coming weekend’s NY Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction: Wilmington author Jason Mott’s The Returned debuts at #16; Raleigh author Wilton Barnhardt’s contemporary/historical satire Lookaway, Lookaway debuts at #25; and Asheville native Marisha Pessl’s Night Film is on the list for the third week, at #14
• Durham’s Mur Lafferty was announced as a guest writer at Wofford College’s Shared Worlds in 2014. Earlier, as I reported on Facebook and Twitter on Sep 1, Lafferty won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author at the World Science Fiction Convention. As I wrote up in the following Friday Quick Update: "I’ll join in with the NY Times and BoingBoing in offering absolutely huge congratulations to Mur!"
• Mark Van Name has announced the title of his next Jon and Lobo book: All the Worlds Against Us
• A new Kickstarter was launched -- 5 days left -- for an all-original anthology, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, which not only has a list of nationally well-known authors (Larry Correia, James Lovegrove, and Peter Clines, with a foreward by Jonathan Maberry) but also a sizable list of authors whose names should be well-known to readers of Bull Spec: Hillsborough’s James Maxey, Chapel Hill’s Natania Barron, and the frequent co-host of the NC Speculative Night event series, Jaym Gates, along with Bull Spec “alumni” Erin Hoffman
• 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
• 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 near-future debut sf novel The Girl in the Road (Crown, May 2014) has been released
• Local authors Mur Lafferty and Richard Dansky both have stories listed in Ellen Datlow's long list for Best Horror short stories of 2012
• John Kessel was interviewed and featured at Weird Fiction Review: "I think the world is absurd, funny when it is not heartbreaking."
• And a new novella from Lewis Shiner is out, “Doctor Helios“, out in Subterranean Magazine

-Sam

OCTOBER 2013

Posted in newsletter

Coming to Town: Steven Brust for The Incrementalists, interviewed by Richard Dansky

Posted on 2013-09-30 at 01:40 by montsamu

By Richard Dansky:

26 novels (and 1 solo album) into his career, Steven Brust still isn’t afraid to take chances. Visiting Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on October 2nd in support of his new novel, The Incrementalists -- co-written with Skyler White -- Brust is best known for his centuries-spanning Dragaera series. But with a bibliography that includes everything from a high fantasy retelling of Paradise Lost (To Reign In Hell) to an Ohio vampire story (Agyar) to a multiple volume tribute to the works of Dumas (The Phoenix Guards), Brust remains a master of confounding expectation. Here he is, in his own words:

Posted in Coming to Town, interviews | Tagged richard dansky, steven brust