Award-Nominated Anthologies

This week I get to bask in the reflected glory of no fewer than two different award nominations. The final ballot for the Aurora awards, the annual awards by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, was announced this week. While none of my humble tales were nominated directly, two different anthologies containing my stories are competing for Best Related Work - English.

Blood and Water from Bundoran Press is a collection of science fiction stories dealing with Canada's role in the conflicts that are sure to come in the near future as the world deals with the ramifications of global warming. It contains my story "The Great Divide," an adventure tale about an engineer who encounters some desperate people high in the Rocky Mountains, and a potential solution to a thorny problem. Check it out at http://www.bundoranpress.com/.

The other anthology to get the nod is Shanghai Steam, from Edge Press. Steampunk meets Kung Fu in a fun genre mashup that's just too cool to resist. "Meng Jie and the Coffee Maker of Doom" is a short, humorous tale of a bodyguard who can handle assassins and gangsters, but may have met his match when he has to brew coffee on the world's most advanced beverage maker. 

Both anthologies are maddeningly difficult to buy. There is talk of an ebook version of Shanghai Steam, but it hasn't yet appeared. The paperback is available from Amazon. Blood and Water can be had from the Bundoran website, in dead tree format or as an ebook.

Another Aurora nomination went to Goblins, quite possibly the coolest web comic on the Internet. I'm a huge fan, and I recommend you check it out. It's hilarious, exciting, touching, and full of over-the-top gleeful mayhem.

The Dead Sea - Now Available!

On the open seas, nothing is more deadly than the cold and uncaring ocean...

...until the dead start to rise from beneath the waves and take their vengeance on the living.

Cruentus Libri Press brings you sixteen tales of horror and the macabre set upon the high seas, where vampires and zombies, werewolves and ghouls and every manner of undead fiend is ready to slake their thirst and where there is no escape, save for the cold, eternal embrace of the inky black water.

I'm excited to announce the release of The Dead Sea from Cruentus Libri, featuring my terrifying tale The Curse of the Cristobal, plus fifteen others. It's available as a paperback and as an ebook.

The Dead Sea - Paperback
The Dead Sea - Kindle ebook

Creating a Plausible, Consistent Supernatural World - A Guest Post from Shah Wharton

Today's guest blogger is Shah Wharton, who is here to talk about how you go about creating a plausible, consistent supernatural world. She knows a thing or two about the topic, being the author of Finding Esta, an urban fantasy novel about a fledgling journalist who discovers more than she ever bargained for. Take it away, Shah: 

Firstly, thank you Brent for having me on your lovely blog, today. 

* * * 

In essence, the surreal and the inconceivable are what fantasy stories are all about, so this is a difficult question to answer. Every fantasy story must possess a lush, dynamic story, which plays out within a magical world, constructed of characters who must travel beyond their normal, everyday world, for some kind of adventure. Even if they live in the same world we live in, other, possibly unseen, mystical elements must also be presented at some point.

With urban fantasy for example, the world in which the characters reside is usually our world. The only difference is that it’s another version of our world, but with layers. In my book, the Supes layer is where vampires, weres, witches, fey, and even the Mimicanes (an alien race who’ve cloned human appearance and supernatural powers for thousands of years) live.  And the paranormal layer consists of lost spirits who languish in the Shadow Lands for all eternity, unless they have power enough to walk beside you, unseen. All of whom seek refuge, or a one way ticket to move on.

Brent’s question is a difficult one to answer, not least of all because it’s subjective, but in keeping with a how-to post for story craft, I’d recommend you do the following:

1)      Choose the magical/supernatural characters with care. They must maintain not only your own interest, but your readers, too. Indeed, if this is a series, that could mean many months, even years of writing time spent with them. You don’t want to choose vampires if you are already bored of them (I doubt I’ll ever get bored of them). Research other stories about them before, then try to give the element/characteristics your own twist.

2)      Keep a log of all magical/supernatural elements, and keep detailed notes on the supernatural characters who possess them. Scrivener is a perfect storage place for all your notes.

3)      Devise a map of your world, even if it’s the world in which we live, because the supernatural elements should be added as a separate layer on top. It needs to feel as real as our own world, but different enough to be awesome!

4)      You must, above all else, believe in the world, and the characters you’re writing about. Otherwise, your readers certainly will not. I think the same can be said of any story or genre. If the author of a great romance doesn’t believe in her characters' love, the readers will sense that and put the book down.

Do you write fantasy stories? What can you add to this list? Do you read fantasy? If so which is your favourite fantasy genre?

Shah Wharton Author of Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, New Adult, Fiction

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Author of  'The Supes Series #1: Finding Esta.'

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Quarter Share Podiobook

My treadmill entertainment for the past few weeks has been Nathan Lowell's Quarter Share, "a tale from the golden age of the solar clipper." I've blogged about the ebook before, but this is the first time I've listened to the podiobook.

The story is simple but compelling. 18-year-old Ishmael Wang loses his mother in a flitter crash and finds himself in a predicament. A corporation owns the planet he lives on. He has to get a job or get off of the planet, and he can't afford the fare. With few choices available, he signs on as crew on a passing trading ship.

From there we follow Ishmael as he tries to find his place in a strange new environment. Nothing really exciting happens. There are no battles, no mortal danger. The classic tropes of space opera are missing. And yet the stakes are extremely high. Ishmael has been thrust into a new life, and he has to find a way to make it work.

Overall I was quite impressed. The story pulled me in on the first page and never let me go, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. It's a coming-of-age story set in a fascinating and detailed environment. I felt as if I was peeking into the future and seeing what life on a real interstellar spaceship might be like.

A few parts were a bit slow, as I got more detail than I needed about the minutia of Ishmael's day. And there's a description of the economics of trading that becomes downright repetitive. But these are minor blips. Overall the quality of the storytelling is absolutely excellent.

You can read it as an ebook, but It's available in audio form as well. It's free from podiobooks.com here: http://podiobooks.com/title/trader-tales-1-quarter-share/.

The quality of the audiobook is quite high. Not every author should record their own reading of a book, but Lowell does an excellent job. Nothing about it sounds amateurish or home-made. It's excellent work.

I usually like a bit more excitement in my books, but Quarter Share is excellent and I'm glad I picked it up.


Series website: http://solarclipper.com/
Podiobook: http://podiobooks.com/title/trader-tales-1-quarter-share/

Today I have a guest post from the talented Corinna Underwood, author of A Walk on the Darkside, an intriguing urban fantasy novel.  Her protagonist, Pearl Blackthorn, is an investigative reporter for Darkside Magazine. Pearl doesn't take the supernatural too seriously, until she sees a few things she can't quite explain.

For this guest post I asked Corinna a simple question, and got a pretty interesting answer. Check it out below:

What are some of the challenges and rewards of creating a character who is a skeptic, in a story where the supernatural is real? 

Pearl Blackthorn would call herself a diehard skeptic when it comes to the paranormal. While this is an accurate description of her character, she can’t deny that she has a fascination for it, even if it’s only because she wants to explain it rationally and neatly.

One of the most difficult challenges of creating the character of Pearl Blackthorn was to make her skepticism convincing while at the same time allowing room for a sliver of doubt. Gradually, this crack in her skepticism is pried a little wider as she begins to have experiences that she has difficulty explaining rationally.

The task of developing her character was made somewhat easier by her friend and fellow investigator Harry Raymond, who at the time of his wife’s death had a paranormal experience of his own. Harry is a firm believer in ghosts, poltergeists and demons and wants nothing more than to prove to Pearl that they exist. His enthusiasm for the supernatural makes an interesting and often humorous contrast to Pearl’s disbelief.

The rewarding part for me is the fact that I got to explore my own views on the paranormal, some of which are conflicting. I had a lot of fun creating scenarios which seemed at the outset to be supernatural events and then turning them into something quite rational, while leaving a sprinkling of doubt.

In the sequel Darkside and Back Pearl not only finds her skepticism for the paranormal challenged, but also her understanding of who she is and where she came from.

Corinna Underwood

Got Steampunk?

I've been browsing my copy of the January edition of eSteampunk, and it gets going with a bang.  Justice Like Clockwork by Andrew Knighton had me guessing right up to the end.  It's a neat adventure story about a young woman escaping from a fantastically complex prison, with the aid of a mysterious old man who happens to be one of the most brilliant engineers in the Empire.  It's too bad he's a bit mad...

There's an episode of my serial in there too, of course.  It's four bucks from eFiction Magazine, or you can subscribe for two bucks a month.

http://www.efictionmag.com/esteampunk/

Review: The New Death and Others

My rating: 5 / 5

This collection really impressed me.  I'll admit, it took me a while to come around.  It's not my usual thing, but when I started to get what was going on, I was completely hooked.  The New Death and Others is a collection of poems and very short stories.  It's difficult stuff to summarize.  The stories tend to be allegorical, in an ironic and sarcastic way.  The characters are often Death, Destiny, Fate, or Fame.  They make comments on the foibles of modern society, or offer an explanation of what makes cats so smug.

All of it is clever and thought-provoking.  These aren't stories to race through, or stories to divert you on the beach.  It's intelligent, quirky, offbeat, and endlessly unexpected.  It's got some goofy humour, too.  A few stories have footnotes, which direct you to some terrible puns.

I'm not particularly a fan of poetry, but the poetry here worked for me.  I found it accessible but still impactful.  

Above all, this collection is meticulously crafted.  I didn't see a typo in the entire thing, or a single clumsy line.  You quickly realize you're in the hands of a writer who knows exactly what he's doing.  

It's not the same old thing.  Hutchings has an unconventional approach to storytelling, and it won't be for everyone.  But if you are willing to go along, you'll find it's a thoroughly worthwhile ride.

How to buy it:

Amazon
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble