[NEWS] Wizard's Tower Press opens for business

Good news keep sprouting and I am happy to inform that pretty soon, you cn too open the doors to the past and acquire books long reduced to entries in library catalogues. You will have the chance to experience the rare, woolly Mammoth [yeah, not the smartest comparison, but still]. And the evil scientist to give you the opportunity is Wizard's Tower Press.  READ ON!

Wizard’s Tower is a not a traditional publishing company. We do not generally buy new works, but rather concentrate on making out-of-print works available once more as e-books, and helping other small presses exploit the e-book market. Our interests are solely in the areas of science fiction, fantasy and related markets.

We are interested in hearing from you if:

* You are an author with out-of-print works you would like to make available as e-books.
* You own a small press and are interested in getting into the e-book market but feel you need help.
*You manage an author’s estate and are interested in making that author’s work available as e-books.

We will also publish a small number of limited-print-run anthologies with a view to encouraging diversity in the science fiction and fantasy field. Preference will be given to the following:

* Local author anthologies (particularly from South-West England or Wales)
* Anthologies of work by women writers
* Anthologies of work by LGBT writers
* Anthologies of work by people from specific cultural or ethnic backgrounds
* Anthologies of work translated into English from other languages

The Weird Revival

People. I am quite sure that you love diversity, oddity and even lunacy. I am sure that you want the whole down-the-rabbit-hole experience and you cheer Lovecraft [he wrote weird too]. I am also certain that you want more weirdness in your life an Paul Jessup wants to bring the weirdness to YOU with The Weird Revival.  

We aim to use this money to promote, publicize, and get the word out about weird books. We're strange people, and we like our stories slippery, bizarre, confounding and surreal. It's hard finding such books that are great to read and to ponder of, and we aim to build a community of weird book lovers.

We plan on getting the word out with bumper stickers, t-shirts, a website with reviews and a weird book club, we plan on talking and promoting publishers who publish the weird and writers who write it. Maybe even throw in a podcast or two, or three, or four or something. Who knows? We want to turn readers into evangelistic surreal preachers of the strange. The weirder the books, the better.

Let the revival commence!

What this money goes towards- 

Buying a web domain and host and prepay it for five years 

Hiring a graphic designer to do logos and other promotional utilities 

Buying advertisements in magazines for the website to promote it and the weird 

Getting the word out, getting the word out

We will also be looking for volunteers once the site gets up and going, to help spread the word and do reviews. In about a year, I'm hoping to not only pay people to help us out, but also start moving towards publishing weird works ourselves.

Will you please help? 

[News] Gav to run a Magazine

There was a dash of lightning. Nobody knew what happened, but an idea rose. Gav from NextRead decided that he needs to run a magazine and now this idea is reality. From the man, himself:

NextRead Magazine is a themed bi-monthly short story magazine contributed to by its readers. Each magazine with contain six to eight short stories on a given theme. It’s an electronic magazine published and supplied in both PDF & ebook (epub) formats.

Each issue will cost £1.50 (correct at the time of writing)

Launch issue is due on the 1st May 2010.

This issues theme is: Science Fiction Combined with Myth inspired in part by The Age of Ra and The Age of Zeus both by James Lovegrove. The deadline for submissions is the 14th April 2010.

It is a most noble project and I wish him luck. I do plan to submit, when the genre suits me more or less. But I hope you all support the man.

[Competition] Angry Robot Does It Again

From Angry Robot:

Write a short story about any subject you like. The only rules are:

* 1) It has to be 13 sentences long
* 2) The first word of the first sentence must begin with T, the first word of the second sentence must begin with H, the first word of the third sentence must begin with E, and so on, so that the first letters of the sentences, printed one under the other, spell out “THE WORLD HOUSE”.

The best entries will be sent to Guy Adams for judging, and the winner gets an Angry Robot USB drive plus a choice of any book Angry Robot published in 2009. No geographical restrictions.

Send your entries (in Word or RTF format) to: theworldhouse [AT] angryrobotbooks.com

Competition ends Sunday 14th February.

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Angry Robot does it again. I just love Lee Harris. He is just full of fun ideas to engage the readers and costumers with authors... I am so entering.

[News] 2009 Bram Stoker Awards: Preliminary Ballot

I love horror. I support horror, but I need to read more horror. Seriously. And everything from this list seems a tasty morsel... Anyway, congratulations to everybody, who made it. Apparently, you rock. Oh and be sure to win Kaaron Warren.

Superior Achievement in a Novel:

- "Quarantined" by Joe McKinney (Lachesis Publishing)
- "As Fate Would Have It" by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
- "Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin)
- "Cursed" by Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
- "Sacrifice" by John Everson (Leisure)
- "Audrey's Door" by Sarah Langan (Harper)
- "Eternal Vigilance II: Death of Illusions" by Gabrielle Faust (Immanion Press)
- "Twisted Ladder" by Rhodi Hawk (Tor/Forge)
- "Voracious" by Alice Henderson (Jove)
- "The Bone Factory" by Nate Kenyon (Leisure)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel:

- "Damnable" by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
- "The Black Act" by Louise Bohmer (Library of Horror)
- "Slaughter" by Marcus Griffin (Alexandrian Archives Publishing)
- "Breathers" by S. G. Browne (Broadway Books)
- "The Little Sleep" by Paul Tremblay (Henry Holt)
- "Solomon's Grave" by Daniel G. Keohane (Dragon Moon Press)
- "Dismember" by Daniel Pyle (Wild Child)
- "Slights" by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot)
- "The Dead Path" by Stephen M. Irwin (Hachette Australia)
- "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte Press/Random House)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction:

- "Mama Fish" by Rio Youers (Shroud Publishing)
- "Hunger of Empty Vessels" by Scott Edelman (Bad Moon Books)
- "Diana and the Goong-Si" by Lisa Morton (Midnight Walk)
- "Doc Good's Traveling Show" by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)
- "The Gray Zone" by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
- "The Lucid Dreaming" by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
- "Dreaming Robot Monster" by Mort Castle (Mighty Unclean)
- "Little Graveyard on the Prairie" by Steven E. Wedel (Bad Moon Books)
- "Rot" by Michelle Lee (Skullvines Press)
- "Black Butterflies" by Kurt Newton (Sideshow Press)

Superior Achievement in a Short Fiction:

- "In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss (PS Publishing)
- "Blanket of White" by Amy Grech (Blanket of White)
- "Keeping Watch" by Nate Kenyon (Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror)
- "One More Day" by Brian Freeman (Shivers V)
- "The Crossing of Aldo Ray" by Weston Ochse (The Dead that Walk)
- "Where Sunlight Sleeps" by Brian Freeman (Horror Drive-in)
- "The Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-in)
- "Plague Dogs" by Joe McKinney (Potters Field 3)
- "The Outlaws of Hill County" by John Palisano (Harvest Hill)
- "Nub Hut" by Kurt Dinan (Chizine)

Superior Achievement in a Anthology:

- "Midnight Walk" edited by Lisa Morton (Dark House)
- "Poe" edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris)
- "Harlan County Horrors" edited by Mari Adkins (Apex Publications)
- "He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson" edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
- "Lovecraft Unbound" edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books)
- "Dark Delicacies 3: Haunted" edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Running Press)
- "Butcher Shop Quartet 2" edited by Frank J. Hutton (Cutting Block Press)
- "Grants Pass" edited by Amanda Pillar and Jennifer Brozek (Morrigan Books)
- "Mighty Unclean" edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
- "British Invasion" by Chris Golden, Tim Lebbon and James Moore (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Collection:

- "A Taste of Tenderloin" by Gene O'Neill (Apex Book Company)
- "Shades of Blood and Shadow" by Angeline Hawkes (Dark Regions Press)
- "Martyrs and Monsters" by Robert Dunbar (DarkHart Press)
- "In the Closet, Under the Bed" by Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe Press)
- "A Little Help from My Friends" by Michael McCarty (Sam's Dot)
- "Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories" by Dennis Etchison (Cemetery Dance)
- "Dark Entities" by David Dunwoody (Dark Regions)
- "Shards" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings (Brimstone Press)
- "Unhappy Endings" by Brian Keene (Delirium Books)
- "You Might Sleep..." by Nick Mamatas (Prime)

Superior Achievement in a Nonfiction:

- "Writers Workshop of Horror" by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
- "Stephen King: The Non-Fiction" by Rocky Wood and Justin Brook (Cemetery Dance)
- "Cinema Knife Fight" by L. L. Soares and Michael Arruda (Fearzone)
- "Esoteria-Land" by Michael McCarty (BearManor Media)
- "Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues" edited by Loren Rhoads (Simon & Schuster)
- "The Stephen King Illustrated Companion" by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection:

- "Chimeric Machines" by Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy Publishing)
- "Mortician's Tea" by G. O. Clark (Sam's Dot)
- "Double Visions" by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions)
- "Voices from the Dark" by Gary William Crawford (Dark Regions)
- "Barfodder" by Rain Graves (Cemetery Dance)
- "Starkweather Dreams" by Christopher Conlon (Creative Guy Publishing)
- "Toward Absolute Zero" by Karen L. Newman (Sam's Dot)
- "North Left of Earth" by Bruce Boston (Sam's Dot)
- "Grave Bits" by Todd Hanks (Skullvines Press)

News I Angry Robot brings out the good stuff

At Angry Robot [HERE] we have always attempted to push boundaries with our fiction, and now we’re doing the same with both the content and delivery methods!

When Kaaron Warren told us she wanted to re-write her next book Walking the Tree as a 20,000 word novella from the point of view of one of the book’s minor characters, we thought she was mad! But we’ve always encouraged creative madness.

Kaaron says:

My eleven year old son loves reading as much as I do. Often we’ll sit together, immersed in our books. I’ll ask him about his, he’ll ask me about mine, and we’ll share the good bits.

As I was writing Walking the Tree, with its strong adult and child characters, it struck me that it would be a wonderful thing if my son and I could be reading the same book but in appropriate versions. We could discuss the events and the people, but he wouldn’t have to plough through all the ‘boy-girl’ stuff, as my daughter calls the relationship bits in movies.

As I wrote the adult version I kept notes of the important plot points and the moments I thought a child would find interesting. Then I wrote Morace, the child’s point of view version of Walking the Tree.

My son did the first edit on it. What a proud, wonderful moment that was. He’s a critical reader. He says that the Harry Potter books are far too long, with too much description. He finds irritating errors in other books and he talks about how a book should have ended.

He did a very honest edit of Morace. The bits he didn’t understand I made clearer, and he picked up sections where I used too many words or, used one word he didn’t understand.

My idea is that every parent can share the reading of Walking the Tree with their child. Sit there, together, reading the same book.

Our only concern was how to fit an additional 20,000 words into an already-hefty book. The answer was so obvious we wondered why everyone else wasn’t already doing it!

The first two chapters of Morace’s Story are included at the back of Walking the Tree along with a secret DVD-style download link and password that allows you to read the entire novella online or on your eBook reader. And if you buy the eBook edition you get the whole thing as an added extra.

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Comment: Angry Robot cannot become any cooler than this. I seriously doubt that a publisher can outmanoeuvre this succulent super combo, both publisher and author deliver. Simply K.O. I am thrilled, but are you?

"A Dance With Dragons" by George R.R Martin: Progress

Finished a Jon Snow chapter, and have just passed the 1100 page (manuscript pages, the page count in the final printed book will be different) mark on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s counting only finished chapters in something close to final form. I have considerably more in partials, fragments, and roughs.

Even with just the finished portions, DANCE is now longer than A FEAST FOR CROWS and A GAME OF THRONES, and I’m closing in on A CLASH OF KINGS. I do hope I can wrap things up before I approach the 1521 page length of A STORM OF SWORDS.

Making a new run at the Meereenese knot, but maybe not tomorrow. I think I’ll hang around at the Wall a bit longer, and maybe visit Winterfell.

___

I feel quite guilty that I haven't read Martin's novels other than a short story that has to do with zombies. I think the title was "Meathouse Man" and was impressed. Reading all this hype about such a massive book definitely stirs some anticipation in me, but in a way to finally start his series.

Stephen King's NEW novel : Under the Dome [COVER ART]

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

Seriously? Can you spell awesome? I also discovered the full cover version from Adrian. Thank you Adrian for supplying us with so much awesomeness. Personally I just can't wait for this one to be published.