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With Peter Beagle's 86th birthday upon us, we thought we'd re-share a discussion we had with him last year about writing and story. We wish Peter a happy birthday and hope you enjoy the discussion! Sunday Apr 14, 2024 This week we are joined by the legendary author of The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle, who discusses his new novel I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons (published next month by Saga Press & Gollancz), as well as his storied career, his pals from childhood, influential writers such as Robert Nathan and Avram Davidson, and last year's important retrospective collection The Essential Peter S. Beagle. As always, our thanks to Peter for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the podcast.
As we try to return to some sort of regular schedule, we're delighted to welcome back Joe Monti, vice president and editorial director of Saga Press, to discuss the current state of the publishing business, the effects (if any) of the current economic stresses, and what to look forward to in the coming months (Joe is particularly optimistic about SF and space opera). Along the way we touch on the trend toward glitzy “special editions” of new novels, and various corners of the publishing world, from horror to romantasy and cozy fantasy to audiobooks, ebooks, and what makes a book a breakout bestseller.
For this almost-delve into Moorcock's dark and inspired quest fantasy The Warhound and the World's Pain, I'm joined by author, playwright and Games Master David Griffiths. Inevitably, we ended up going down various routes in a wide-ranging conversation including Target Books (again), Moorcock and other inspirations, roleplaying games and, eventually, The Warhound and the World's Pain, which is getting a fresh coat of paint thanks to Joe Monti and Saga Press and their brand-new hardcover Von Bek collection (releasing in December). We will follow up on this in the next few weeks with a deeper delve. We also discuss Dave's latest play, inspired by the events that led an under-sexed weirdo to produce the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer and Helena. This is the latest of Dave's plays to be staged by Arts Groupie, a Liverpool-based Community Interest Company. Check out their website for more details, including Dave's take on the Dickens classic ghost story, The Signalman.
Long time friend of the podcast Joe Monti, who was recently promoted to Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Editorial Director at Saga Press, and is now officially a "Big Cheese', stops by for a wide-ranging chat about the impact of the pandemic and other events on the affordability of books; trends in recent science fiction, fantasy and horror and why science fiction may be set for something of a comeback; the influence (or lack thereof) of awards on book sales; and touches on authors ranging from Cixin Liu and N.K. Jemisin to William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin. As always, Joe's broad experience as publisher, agent, and bookseller provides some unique insights as to what's going on and we think makes for fascinating listening as we move towards the end of the year.
This week, prominent writers and game designers discuss crafting game narrative and representation within gaming communities. Featured panelists are Keith Ammann, Derek Tyler Attico, Keisha Howard, and Samantha Ortiz. Moderated by Carly A. Kocurek. Learn more about them below.This episode is presented in conjunction with our special exhibit Level Up: Writers & Gamers, on display now through May 2025 at the American Writers Museum. Level Up explores the role of narrative and storytelling in gaming, from the 1970s to today. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, Level Up enriches visitors' understanding of writing through fun and interactive formats, inspires young people to try a new form of writing, and encourages exploration of the worlds created through games. Join the adventure today!This conversation originally took place May 19, 2024 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival.AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOMEAbout the panelists:KEITH AMMANN is an ENNIE Award–winning writer based in Chicago. He's the author of several books of advice for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players, including The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters, MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing, and most recently How to Defend Your Lair, all published by Saga Press, and has written the blog The Monsters Know What They're Doing since 2016. He's been a role-playing gamer and game master for more than thirty years. He likes to play outwardly abrasive helpers, out-of-their-element helpers, and genuinely nice, helpful helpers. Mostly, though, he plays non-player characters. And monsters.DEREK TYLER ATTICO is a science fiction author, essayist, and photographer. He won the Excellence in Playwriting Award from the Dramatist Guild of America. Derek is also a two-time winner of the Star Trek Strange New Worlds short story contest, published by Simon and Schuster. He is the author of the bestselling, critically acclaimed Star Trek Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko from Titan Books. With a degree in English and History, Derek is an advocate of the arts, human rights, and inclusion. He can be found at DerekAttico.com and on social media platforms under the handle @Dattico.KEISHA HOWARD is best known as the creator of Sugar Gamers, the world's longest-running gaming & tech community geared toward inclusivity. What began as a multicultural gamer group is now an award-winning organization that supports it's inclusive membership in finding their place in the rapidly growing industry, facilitating Sugar Gamers' evolution from video game enthusiasts to game developers, writers, testers, voice and mo-cap actors, artists and designers. A consummate futurist, Keisha recognizes the potential for video games to transcend their role as entertainment and become a mechanism for inspiration and social change. As a true “geek of all trades” and first-wave gaming and esports influencer, Keisha's experience spans from introducing game design/media literacy to underprivileged youth, such as her partnership with Adidas and the NBA on tech advocacy activations, to consulting Microsoft's XBOX division as well as Logitech, Google, and Meta on Inclusive Game Strategy. A two-time TEDx Speaker, she is infectiously passionate and authentically plugged-in to the worlds of video games, AI, VR and geek culture. Keisha Howard identifies compelling ways for games & tech to intersect with any industry and inspires others around the infinite possibilities.CARLY A. KOCUREK is a cultural historian specializing in the study of new media technologies and video gaming. She is the author of two books, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, which covers the early rise of video game arcades in the U.S., and Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls, a consideration of Laurel's career as researcher and game designer. With Jennifer deWinter, she co-founded and co-edits the Influential Game Designers book series for Bloomsbury. She is also a game designer specializing in experimental and serious games. Paste Magazine called her game Choice: Texas “one of the best games of 2014.” She served as lead writer and producer for The Spider's Web, an alternate reality game embedded in a peer-reviewed journal article. In 2020, her print-and-play card game, Happy Ecosystems, was awarded the positive impact award for the Indiecade Climate Jam. At Illinois Tech, she teaches courses on digital culture, interactive storytelling, game design, and media history at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She also works with both undergraduate and graduate students on collaborative research and design projects.SAMANTHA ORTIZ is a writer and Narrative Designer at Bad Robot Games. Over her five year career in the independent games space, she has worked on award-winning titles including Neon White, Tamales: Con Familia, and the 2021 Latinx in Gaming Unidos Jam winner, Comunicacion. She has also appeared on NPR and exhibited at ICIDS Hops Ahead. In her spare time, she volunteers as a program coordinator and mentor for the IGDA Foundation.
"Traditional" fantasy novels often hold themselves to a pre-gunpowder/pre-steampower level of tech. So, what's fun about setting a fantasy world in an era that has anything from the printing press to cell phones? Guest Hana Lee joins us to explore incorporating the technological into the magical world! How can the harnessing of magic be similar to or dissimilar from channeling other kinds of power, like electricity? What story-driving tensions and conflicts can arise from eras of rapid change? And what sort of unholy terror might you create if you introduce magitech-bros into a world? As a sidebar: It's Hugo voting season! And the voting packet is absolutely stuffed with amazing reading, listening, and viewing material. All ballots must be received by Saturday, 20th July 2024, 20:17 GMT -- and you can vote as long as you become a Glasgow 2024 member by then! We are again on the ballot for Best Fancast, and we would love your consideration! [Transcript TK] Our Guest: Hana Lee is a biracial Korean American fantasy author. By day, she makes her living as a software engineer. She's always loved the dark, the gothic, and the occult, so there's usually a picturesque ruin of some kind lurking in the background of her novels. Her childhood was spent trekking across the United States, from Southern California to the Midwest and back to the West Coast again. She generally considers her hometown to be Portland, OR, mostly because it's home to her favorite bookstore (Powell's Books). She graduated from Stanford University with her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science in 2018. Her family includes a partner and two ridiculously fluffy cats. They live in sunny Mountain View, CA, a stone's throw from Google HQ. Hana's debut novel, ROAD TO RUIN, will be published by Saga Press in spring 2024.
This week we are joined by the legendary author of The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle, who discusses his new novel I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons (published next month by Saga Press & Gollancz), as well as his storied career, his pals from childhood, influential writers such as Robert Nathan and Avram Davidson, and last year's important retrospective collection The Essential Peter S. Beagle. As always, our thanks to Peter for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the podcast.
Alas, we come to the end! Stephen Graham Jones's The Angel of Indian Lake brings the most important horror trilogy of the century to its conclusion. For one last time we return to Proofrock, Idaho – to watch Jade Daniels do battle with monsters in the wood and the demons in her head. SGJ also comes back to Talking Scared to finish our adjacent trilogy of conversations about these books. We talk about slashers and final girls for sure, but as ever with Stephen, these are windows onto something more profound – and he gives us his insight into how horror, justice, violence and luck operate in fiction. This all sounds very profound. It is. But in the coolest way possible. The man is a rock star…. … but I STILL manage to freak him out with a ghost story. Enjoy – it's been a ride! The Angel of Indian Lake was published on March 26thth by Saga Press and Titan Books Other books mentioned: Where the Red Fern Grows (1961), by Wilson RawlsMarvel Superheroes Secret Wars #10 (1984), by Jim ShooterIn Cold Blood (1965), by Truman CapoteMorphology of the Folktale (1928), by Vladimir ProppThe Red Badge of Courage (1895), by Stephen CraneThe Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991), by Jean BaudrillardThe Name of the Rose (1980), by Umberto EcoThe Hollow Kind (2022), by Andy DavidsonPiranesi (2021), by Susannah ClarkeA Tale of Two Cities (1859), by Charles DickensThe Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch's ‘Lost Highway' (2000), by Slavoj ŽižekThe Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine ArdenThe Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine ArdenThe Others of Edenwell (2023), by Verity Holloway“A Fish Story” (2002), by Gene Wolfe Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show
Scotty talks to author Gwendolyn Kiste about her recent short stories "The Hungry Wives of Bleak Street" and "Hear, Hearth, Heartbeat," as well as her upcoming novel "The Haunting of Velkwood" (coming March 5 from Saga Press). They talk about the role of hope in the modern horror story, how the Gothic manifests in the American Rust Belt, and more. They also discuss Peter Weir's classic Australian New Wave film, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" – how it works as a horror movie, and how it has influenced Gwendolyn's own work. WARNING: There are some spoilers for "The Haunting of Velkwood." They occur between minute 40:05 and minute 47:50. You can find Gwendolyn online at https://www.gwendolynkiste.com Listen to Scotty's original interview with Gwendolyn on "The Weirdest Thing" podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weirdest-thing/id1534847356?i=1000576573882 Pre-order "The Haunting of Velkwood" at https://shop.riverstonebookstore.com/book/9781982172374 To read "The Hungry Wives of Bleak Street," buy the "American Cannibal" anthology, edited by friend-of-the-pod Rebecca Rowland, here: https://rowlandbooks.com/american-cannibal To read "Hear, Hearth, Heartbeat," buy "The Cellar Door Issue #2: Forbidden Magic," edited by Aric Sundquist (and, y'know, also featuring a story by Scotty, just in case y'all are interested): https://www.darkpeninsulapress.com/forbidden-magic.html Check out the next episode of friend-of-the-pod Daniel Braum's YouTube show "Night Time Logic." The series focuses on the strange, weird, and wonderful side of dark fiction through readings and dicussions with a diverse authors from around the world. You can tune in on Daniel's YouTube channel. The next episode will be on February 27, and features author Dan Franklin. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
In this Birthday Special double-bill of salutations, Joe Monti (editorial Director at SAGA Press) drops by D&Ts to engage in day-drinking, Moorcock talk and chew the fat about editing amazing fantasy and various other bits n' bobs. Also, Joe gets Crabs. Then Phil and Loz join me for a serious* roundtable. Whilst we drink mucky booze and engage in a hastily and lazily bashed together but closely contested Moorcock-related quiz, Phil disses my gourd, Loz dumps on steampunk and a particularly challenging beer punches us in the temple (thanks Ash). *not that serious Quiz Beer slate: · Gravity Well – Photonic Molecules Pale Ale 4.6% · Overtone Brewing Co King of Feasts Pale Ale 4% · Twilight Pilgrim Pumpkin Spice Latte Stout 5.0% · Emperor's Brewery Kessel Run Peanut Butter Jelly Imperial Stout/Porter 13.1% · Brasserie de Noir Bere Speciale cuvee exceptionale Rhum finish 5.5% · Snake Bite in a can from Aldi the name of which I think I may have suppressed because it was just that ‘orrible Michael Moorcock chorus/refrain is from The Dewey Decibel System by BlöödHag
Tonight we're chatting with Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan, authors of The Handyman Method, new from Saga Press. In the book, a stay-at-home father– whether he wants to be or not– becomes obsessed with repairing what he perceives are problems with his new house, but there are supernatural forces out to destroy his sanity and his family. This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4268760/advertisement
Matt Wallace talks about his epic fantasy trilogy, THE SAVAGE REBELLION — which includes SAVAGE NATION, SAVAGE BOUNTY, and SAVAGE CROWNS, all available now from Saga Press. We discuss the series's examination of empire, historical influences, impact of sensitivity readers, and challenging editorial process. Savage Legion Amazon » Savage Bounty Amazon » Bookshop » Savage Crowns Amazon » Bookshop » » Some of these are affiliate links. Using them supports the channel, at no additional cost to you! Whenever possible, though, I encourage you to purchase from your local bookstores. About Matt Wallace Matt Wallace is a retired professional wrestler and the author of the Sin du Jour novella series (Tor.com Publishing), the Savage Rebellion Trilogy (Saga Press/Gallery Books), and the middle grade novels BUMP, THE SUPERVILLAIN'S GUIDE TO BEING A FAT KID, and NOWHERE SPECIAL (Katherine Tegen Books). In 2018, alongside co-host Mur Lafferty, he took home the Hugo Award for their podcast, Ditch Diggers. In addition to writing for several television series, Matt has also done extensive narrative work on video game titles for publishers such as inXile Entertainment. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Nikki. Follow Matt Wallace Website Twitter Instagram Goodreads Amazon Profile » About SAVAGE NATION They call them Savages. Brutal. Efficient. Expendable. The empire relies on them. The Savages are the greatest weapon they ever developed. Culled from the streets of their cities, they take the ones no one will miss and throw them, by the thousands, at the empire's enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, there are always more to take their place. Evie is not a Savage. She's a warrior with a mission: to find the man she once loved, the man who holds the key to exposing the secret of the Savage Legion and ending the mass conscription of the empire's poor and wretched. But to find him, she must become one of them, to be marked in her blood, to fight in their wars, and to find her purpose. Evie will die a Savage if she has to, but not before showing the world who she really is and what the Savage Legion can really do. About SAVAGE BOUNTY A war has begun. Savages, the empire's most valuable resource, have been thrown at their captors' enemies long enough. If their rebellion succeeds, it will undo a nation. At the helm of this Savage uprising is Evie, the Sparrow General. It isn't a title she asked for or particularly wants, but she is the last hope for several peoples at the edge of extinction. Back in the empire's city seat, Dyeawan, a brilliant young strategist plucked from the streets, must risk her life to maintain her newfound authority. And Lexi has finally taken control of the guild built by her family, but she finds herself at the heart of a sinister power play that could tear apart society as she knows it. Meanwhile, Lexi's loyal retainer, Taru, has been conscripted into the legion of Savages still under the empire's control. These four individuals hold the fate of the world in their hands. But even if they survive their missions, they may find themselves at odds with one another. About SAVAGE CROWNS The final war for the nation of Crache has begun. At the helm of the people's rebellion is Evie, the Sparrow General. She has been captured by the Skrian, Crache's vicious army, and is being brought back to the Capitol for punishment. But reinforcements are coming for her. Dyeawan, who has climbed from street urchin to Crache's highest seat of power through clever schemes and ruthless bloodshed, finds trouble on every front once she arrives. The rebellion approaches, and there are whispers of a martyr within the city who holds enough sway to stage a coup. If she doesn't act quickly, her rule will be short-lived. As the women who hold the nation's future meet each other from different sides of the battlefield, will they be able to find a shared vision of Crache, or will they destroy each other first?
Bizarre aliens, complicated families, and AI therapy, oh my! Shaun Duke is joined by longtime collaborator and repeat interviewee, Stina Leicht. Why? Because Stina has a new book called Loki's Ring from Saga Press featuring artificial general intelligences, weird alien stuff, delightful familial relationships, and spaceships! Together, Shaun and Stina discuss the book's hopeful perspective, […]
Episode Details & LinksToday we discuss dragons! Their life cycle, how to incubate dragon eggs, and what their hoard means to them.Tricks of the Trade Information & LinksIn Tricks today I give you three ideas for how to incorporate dragons into your party.Knowledge Check References and LinksAmmann, K. (2020). The monsters know what they're doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon masters. Saga Press. The Monsters KnowMy Linktreehttps://linktr.ee/dungeonsdragonspsychologyKeywords: dnd, D&D, dnd podcast, dungeons and dragons, podcast, ttrpg, rpg, roleplaying, roleplaying game, DM, dungeon master, game master, dnd ideas, Podcast Art by Kyle BaerlocherIntro music by 33nano from
On this new edition of the Rough Cut, we're doing something a little different: a book review! In this episode, we analyze The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar (Gallery Books, Saga Press) written by Horror Noire's Dr. Robin Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris. The Black Guy Dies First traces Black horror history from its modern breakthrough with 1968's Spider Baby and Night of the Living Dead, through Blaxploitation to Jordan Peele's cultural upheaval and everything in between. Thank you to Simon and Schuster, Gallery Books, Saga Press for sending us this book to review! As a bonus we do a light reading of zombie rom-com Boy Eats Girl (2005), directed by Stephen Bradley and starring Samantha Mumba and David Leon. This movie does have a suicide scene, please skip if needed (our discussion of Boy Eats Girl starts at 50:00). Our recommendations this week: Warm Bodies (2013) and My Boyfriend's Back (1993) Thank you again to Apple Podcasts for including Black Girl Film Club in it's Black History Collection: apple.co/-InEverything Support your girls with a ko-fi! ko-fi.com/blackgirlfilmclub Check out the rest of our socials (including our BRAND NEW WEBSITE!!!) at linktr.ee/blackgirlfilmclub
In this episode, I chat with author Michael Moorcock about growing up in London during WW II, his life as a journalist, writing Gloriana, Or The Unfulfill'd Queen, and his latest music. Michael Moorcock is one of the most important and influential figures in speculative fiction and fantasy literature. Listed recently by The Times (London) as among the fifty greatest British writers since 1945, he is the author of 100 books and more than 150 shorter stories in practically every genre. He has been the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards, including the Prix Utopiales, the SFWA Grand Master, the Stoker, and the World Fantasy, and has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He has been awarded the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the John W. Campbell Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Guardian Fiction Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. He has been compared to Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Ian Fleming, Joyce, and Robert E. Howard, to name a few.Michael Moorcock's MiscellanyThe Faery Queene, Edmund Spenser Gloriana: Or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, Michael Moorcock Gormenghast, Mervyn PeakeSexual Politics, Kate MillettHonoré de BalzacLive At The Terminal Café, Michael Moorcock & The Deep FixByzantium Endures: The First Volume of the Colonel Pyat Quartet, Michael MoorcockLaughter of Carthage: The Second Volume of the Colonel Pyat Quartet, Michael MoorcockJerusalem Commands: The Third Volume of the Colonel Pyat Quartet, Michael MoorcockVengeance of Rome: The Fourth Volume of the Colonel Pyat Quartet, Michael MoorcockThe Citadel of Forgotten Myths, Michael Moorcock Support the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links
Episode Details & LinksToday we are joined by the illustrious and brilliant author, Keith Ammann to discus monster psychology. What are the monsters in our game thinking, and how should they behave in order to be believable? Tricks of the Trade Information & LinksKeith shares with us a few simple steps to make your monsters or villains more believable.Guest Bio & LinksKeith Ammann has been a Dungeons & Dragons player and DM for more than thirty years. He has been writing his fifth edition D&D–focused blog The Monsters Know What They're Doing since 2016. He lives in Chicago.Spy & OwlSocial MediaKnowledge Check References and LinksAmmann, K. (2019). Monsters know what they're doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon masters. Saga Press. Buy Keith's Books on AmazonMy Linktreehttps://linktr.ee/dungeonsdragonspsychology Keywords: dnd, D&D, dnd podcast, dungeons and dragons, podcast, ttrpg, rpg, roleplaying, roleplaying game, DM, dungeon master, game master, dnd ideas, Podcast Art by Kyle BaerlocherIntro music by 33nano from
This week, Lauren chats with Stephen Graham Jones, author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery Books, Saga Press). My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a meta-narrative homage to classic slasher films like Scream and Friday the 13th. Indeed, there are nearly 200 film references in this novel, hiding in plain sight, and they are a joy to encounter for horror film aficionados and novices alike.
This week, Lauren chats with Stephen Graham Jones, author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery Books, Saga Press). My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a meta-narrative homage to classic slasher films like Scream and Friday the 13th. Indeed, there are nearly 200 film references in this novel, hiding in plain sight, and they are a joy to encounter for horror film aficionados and novices alike.
The Deep is about mermaids, basically, that are descendants of pregnant African slave women that were tossed overboard during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The pregnant women were thrown overboard because they were in labor, and I guess that wasn't worth the effort for the slave traders. Somehow, maybe it was magic or maybe it was the ocean, the babies that were born could breathe underwater. Once they found more of one another, they coalesced into a group of people called the wajinru. At one point, the first “strange fish” decides that there is too much trauma in their history for everyone to remember and takes on the entirety of the wajinru's memories, becoming their first historian. From their death, one individual is chosen to be the historian at a time. This story picks up with the current historian, Yetu, who is particularly affected by the rememberings. Unable to accept it, she unleashes the memories on her people and swims away from home, toward the surface. This book is a journey of self-acceptance that gives a lot of The Giver vibes, while maintaining a unique, creative, and moving narrative.What do you think about the role of Historian in the wajinru society? Why is it critical that everyone but the Historian forget the history? Did the original Historian's decision help or hinder the growth of their community? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 16 of our spoiler-filled podcast.Questions: The questions discussed in this episode are a part of the Reader's Guide in the back of the book, which was written by the publisher (Saga Press). You can also find them on the Brooklyn Public Library website. → https://www.bklynlibrary.org/sites/default/files/documents/BOOK CLUB KITS/THE DEEP_BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT_FINAL.pdfGreat music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.Coming up next: All the Missing Girls by Megan MirandaInterested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341
Tonight we're chatting with three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste, author of RELUCTANT IMMORTALS (On sale August 23; Saga Press; Trade Paperback Original), which the publisher calls a centuries-overdue literary rescue mission of two of gothic literature's most unjustly scourged female characters; Bertha Mason and Lucy Westenra of respectively Jane Eyre and Dracula.But what if Bertha and Lucy's stories didn't end with these gruesome exploitations? What if they had a chance to take back the pages to confront their abusers and claim a new ending for themselves?In RELUCTANT IMMORTALS It's 1967 and Bertha (Bee) Mason and Lucy Westenra are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. A tale of love, betrayal, and coercion brings them face-to-face with the toxic men bent on destroying their (undead) lives, not to mention Bee's former lover Jane Eyre herself, to put an end to Rochester and Dracula's abuse once and for all.
Author : Leah Cypess Narrator : Elie Hirschman Host : Samuel Poots Audio Producer : Jeremy Carter Across the River was originally published in the Saga Press anthology “The Mythic Dream” (September 2019) Across the River by Leah Cypess When the sorcerer walked through the town gates, I was standing with my friends Reuven and Yitzchak […] The post Cast of Wonders 501: Across the River appeared first on Cast of Wonders.
Storycomic Presents: Interviews with Amazing Storytellers and Artists
We are excited to have with us the internationally respected historian and writer, Andrew Liptak He is here to chat about his latest book ‘COSPLAY: A HISTORY - The Builders, Fans, and Makers Who Bring Your Favorite Stories to Life' (On sale June 28, 2022; Saga Press) with a foreword by former MythBusters co-host Adam Savage. You can learn more about his book at: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cosplay-A-History/Andrew-Liptak/9781534455825 You can see all of Andrew's work at: https://www.andrewliptak.com You can see all of Andrew's newsletters at: https://transfer-orbit.ghost.io/ Follow us: Curious to see the video version of this interview? it's on our website too! www.storycomic.com www.patreon.com/storycomic www.facebook.com/storycomic1 https://www.instagram.com/storycomic/ https://twitter.com/storycomic1 For information on being a guest or curious to learn more about Storycomic? Contact us at info@storycomic.com Thank you to our Founders Club Patrons, Marek Bennett and Matt & Therese Check out their amazing work at: https://marekbennett.com/ https://www.hexapus-ink.com/
Grab your bookmarks, it's time to take cover as we unleash the Canon Fodder over the Star Wars galaxy of literature. This episode we welcome journalist, historian and 501st Legion member Andrew Liptak to the show. In his forthcoming book 'COSPLAY: A HISTORY - The Builders, Fans, and Makers Who Bring Your Favorite Stories to Life'- on sale 28th June 2022 from Saga Press - he explores the history of cosplay in a photo-filled historical and cultural exploration of costumes and fandoms. It's packed with original photography and looks at this ever-growing fandom and conventions, its roots in 15th-century costuming, the relationship between franchises and the cosplayers they inspire, and the technology and skill that brings even the most intricate details in these costumes to life. Mark Newbold and Mark Mulcaster caught up with Andrew to discuss the book, costuming and much more. Remember to tune in to Good Morning Tatooine, LIVE Sunday evenings at 9.00pm UK, 4.00pm Eastern and 1.00pm Pacific on Facebook and YouTube and check out Fantha Tracks Radio on Fridays at 7.00pm UK for new episodes of The Fantha From Down Under, Planet Leia, Desert Planet Discs, Start Your Engines and Canon Fodder. You can contact any of our shows and send in your listeners questions by emailing radio@fanthatracks.com or comment on our social media feeds: www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ7LZotr3rQhVJwpO3b2ELw www.instagram.com/fanthatracks www.facebook.com/FanthaTracks www.twitter.com/FanthaTracks www.pinterest.co.uk/fanthatracks/ www.fanthatracks.tumblr.com/ www.tiktok.com/@fanthatracks
A new immersive remix of a season one classic. An immigrant mother tries to bond with her American-born son by creating a magical paper menagerie. This story appears in Ken Liu's collection THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES, available now from Saga Press.Content advisory: Hospitals, death of a parent
Today I talked to G. R. Macallister about her book Scorpica (Gallery / Saga Press, 2022). A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that's perfect for fans of Robin Hobb and Circe. Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other--and new threats to each nation rise from within. Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter's explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends--and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Today I talked to G. R. Macallister about her book Scorpica (Gallery / Saga Press, 2022). A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that's perfect for fans of Robin Hobb and Circe. Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other--and new threats to each nation rise from within. Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter's explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends--and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
A spy narrates his thoughts as he jumps from an airplane and freefalls toward his government target.If you enjoyed this story, check out Stephen Graham Jones' novel, MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, published by Saga Press.Content advisory: death
One of the best books I read this year is a new science fiction novel by debut novelist S.B. Diviya. This novel Machinehood is a smart and effective novel. The grandest of science fiction are the tales you can hold up like a mirror to the issues of today. Even more grand are novels that decades like still feel like they are that mirror. I suspect it will be in conversation during award season. Diviya has spent 20 years as an electrical engineer in various fields including pattern recognition, machine intelligence, high-speed communications, digital music, and medical devices. Machinehood, is published by Saga Press, and her short story collection, Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse and Other Possible Situations, is published by Hachette India. Her Novella Runtime was nominated for the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella. She is still a working engineer and the Co-Editor for Escape Pod, along with Mur Lafferty. In this conversation, we talk about her science fiction roots, her science training, and the writing of Machinehood. It is mostly spoiler-free but I do give a warning when I dive into the story stuff deeper. https://sbdivya.com/ •You can find my books here: Amazon-https://www.amazon.com/David-Agranoff/e/B004FGT4ZW •And me here: Goodreads-http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2988332.David_Agranoff Twitter-https://twitter.com/DAgranoffAuthor Blog-http://davidagranoff.blogspot.com/
This week, Lauren chats with Stephen Graham Jones, author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery Books, Saga Press). My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a meta-narrative homage to classic slasher films like Scream and Friday the 13th. Indeed, there are nearly 200 film references in this novel, hiding in plain sight, and they are a joy to encounter for horror film aficionados and novices alike.
This week, Lauren chats with Stephen Graham Jones, author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery Books, Saga Press). My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a meta-narrative homage to classic slasher films like Scream and Friday the 13th. Indeed, there are nearly 200 film references in this novel, hiding in plain sight, and they are a joy to encounter for horror film aficionados and novices alike.
This episode is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! We are only FIVE patrons to go to hit our goal of 30 patrons—at which time we'll begin paying authors $25 for short story reprints! We've got tons of exclusive content for patrons at every tier. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright and join our community today! A Note on the Term “BIPOC” In this episode, Joe uses the term “BIPOC” and at the top of the show, I read a quote from Rachel Ricketts' powerful book Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy, in which she beautifully clarifies the term, why it's used, and the nuance of experience it contains (in her book, Rachel modifies the term to BI&PoC, to help us remember what the phrase is intended to represent: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.) I hope this clarification supports our listeners who maybe weren't previously aware, and I highly recommend Rachel Ricketts' book (and her work!) to anyone interested in dismantling the internalized, harmful system of white supremacy from within themselves first. Show Notes Well, this episode was a TREAT to record, and Joe Monti is a delight to talk to. He is the award-nominated editorial director of Saga Press, working with bestselling and esteemed authors Charlaine Harris, Stephen Graham Jones, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Ken Liu, to name a few. He fell in love with the literature of fantasy and science fiction at an early age and never let go. This is the first time we've ever had a book (novel) editor on the show, and not only was it awesome to hear about Joe's journey to Saga, it was also really cool to hear how he approached editing one of the horror world most beloved horror books of 2020: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Joe also talks about what he looks for when selecting books for his list—aka how he just KNOWS when a book is for him. Joe also declares he has a knack for predicting book trends, so it was really fun to hear his predictions for the future of horror! We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. Find Joe: Website | Twitter
An immigrant mother tries to bond with her American-born son by creating a magical paper menagerie. This story appears in Ken Liu's collection THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES, available now from Saga Press. Ken Liu's forthcoming novel, THE VEILED THRONE, is the third installment of THE DANDELION DYNASTY and will be available November 2nd from Saga Press. Content advisory: Hospitals, death of a parent See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Cześć po wakacyjnej przerwie! W tym odcinku omawiamy książki wybrane przez Payę. To powrót do jej ulubionych książek, do takich, które zrobiły ogromne wrażenie w przeszłości i dobrze byłoby przeczytać je raz jeszcze, do takich, które pozwoliły ukształtować poglądy i które niedawno trafiły do serca. Będą eseje, powieść i opowiadania, coś po polsku, coś po angielsku. Książki, o których rozmawiamy w podkaście, to: Toni Morrison, „Mouth Full of Blood”, Vintage; Ken Liu, „Paper Menagerie”, Saga Press; Dariusz Gzyra, „Dziękuję za świńskie oczy”, wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej; Dodie Smith, „Zdobywam zamek”, tłum. Magdalena Mierowska, Świat Książki. Zachęcamy do odwiedzin na naszym profilu na Instagramie: https://www.instagram.com/juz_tlumacze i na Facebooku https://www.facebook.com/juz.tlumacze Intro: http://bit.ly/jennush
Nathan Ballingrud is the author of the collections North American Lake Monsters, Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, and the novella The Visible Filth. His novella was made into a film called Wounds, directed Babak Anavari in 2019, and North American Lake Monsters was filmed as the basis of the Hulu series Monsterland in 2020. He has won two Shirley Jackson Awards, and his work has been nominated for several other awards including the Bram Stoker, Locus, British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and SLF Fountain. His first novel, The Strange will be coming soon from Saga Press. Links Website: https://nathanballingrud.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathan.ballingrud Twitter: https://twitter.com/NBallingrud
In this episode, we chat with Adrianne Montoya. Adrianne writes literary horror with a folkloric and historical flavor. She has studied and worked in fields as varied as anthropology, archaeology, literature, languages, linguistics, and education. She specializes in developing long-form literary fiction, thrillers, horror, and historical fiction, but also enjoys taking on non-fiction projects. She is the curator of the paused Southwest Gothic podcast. We cover tropes and ghost stories of the Southwest, the function of oral tradition in the West, and how to make these timeless stories accessible to readers. We ask Adrianne about her opinion of women horror writers taking back tropes and using horror as a platform for catharsis. She was also kind enough to read from one of her works in progress inspired by the tale of La Llorona.Books Noted: * Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in Bedouin Society. By Lila Abu-Lughod. 1986/2016,University of California Press. * Mexican Gothic-Silvia Moreno-Garcia.June 30,2020, Penguin Random House *The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones. July 14, 2020 through Saga Press and Titan Books. https://www.adrianne-montoya.com/ https://southwestgothic.com/ Brenda Tolian https://brendatolian.com/ Joy Yehle https://www.joyyehle.com/ Works mentioned/discussed**: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones https://amzn.to/3ulkhTB Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mjia https://amzn.to/3nRkE5V Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia https://amzn.to/3aYe743 Tin Foil Butterfly by Rachel Eve https://amzn.to/3vyquMi Frankenstein by Mary Shelley https://amzn.to/3ekDBLo Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi https://amzn.to/2Si4HKi **When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission that will be used to continue to bring our audience great horror content. *Disclaimer: Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Podcasters. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the Podcasters.**When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.*Disclaimer: Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Podcasters. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the podcasters.
Enjoy our presentation of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, published by Saga Press. Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them.This is How You Lose the Time War won the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction, the Nebula Award for Best Novella of 2019 and the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella.Please be advised, This is How You Lose the Time War contains depictions or discussions of war, violence, self harm and suicide.This title is available as an ebook on Libby by Overdrive: http://bit.ly/ThisIsHowYouLoseTheTimeWar Please visit www.calvertlibrary.info for more information.Music: Beach Bum Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The title of S. B. Divya’s debut novel, Machinehood (Gallery/Saga Press, 2021), refers to an underground band of rebels (or terrorists, depending on your view) who threaten to unplug the world from the tech essential to modern life unless all intelligences—human and man-made—are given equal rights. The book opens with Welga, the story’s hero, ordering black coffee from a bot in Chennai, India; the bot puts milk in the coffee while insisting that the drink is still “black.” A human vendor across the street fills Welga’s order properly, without milk, and then summarizes her experiences with the two vendors in a tidy lesson: “Bots work faster, but human mind is smarter.” The vendor’s words foreshadow the fault line that runs through the book. On the one hand, humans rely on bots to run their homes and economy, on the other, humans compete with bots, constantly afraid of falling physically and mentally behind. “Once upon a time, we harnessed animals to help us,” Divya says. “Now we've turned to machines and, as those machines get increasingly intelligent, the competition in certain sectors is going to also ramp up. There's an existential fear right now for a lot of people that AIs are going to replace them and then they're not going to have work. So in part, this novel is exploring that particular concern, but not so much as a dystopia, more as a realistic vision … of what the future could look like when we have to coexist with these very, very capable machines.” Set 75 years in the future, the AIs in Welga’s world have not yet achieved sentience (hence they’re referred to as “weak” AIs.) Still, they are stronger and process information faster than humans. To keep up, humans use mechanized exoskeletons to make themselves stronger and pills to speed their thinking and reflexes, greying the distinction between humans and bots. “How much of a difference is there really between human beings, cyborgs and AI-based robots? And should we be making as much distinction between those categories as we do today, especially going forward as all of these things get more sophisticated? I was really interested in looking at the blurring of those lines and interrogating at what point we decide to give machines rights, especially when they provide us with so much free labor.” S.B. Divya was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for her novella Runtime. She is co-editor of Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
The title of S. B. Divya’s debut novel, Machinehood (Gallery/Saga Press, 2021), refers to an underground band of rebels (or terrorists, depending on your view) who threaten to unplug the world from the tech essential to modern life unless all intelligences—human and man-made—are given equal rights. The book opens with Welga, the story’s hero, ordering black coffee from a bot in Chennai, India; the bot puts milk in the coffee while insisting that the drink is still “black.” A human vendor across the street fills Welga’s order properly, without milk, and then summarizes her experiences with the two vendors in a tidy lesson: “Bots work faster, but human mind is smarter.” The vendor’s words foreshadow the fault line that runs through the book. On the one hand, humans rely on bots to run their homes and economy, on the other, humans compete with bots, constantly afraid of falling physically and mentally behind. “Once upon a time, we harnessed animals to help us,” Divya says. “Now we've turned to machines and, as those machines get increasingly intelligent, the competition in certain sectors is going to also ramp up. There's an existential fear right now for a lot of people that AIs are going to replace them and then they're not going to have work. So in part, this novel is exploring that particular concern, but not so much as a dystopia, more as a realistic vision … of what the future could look like when we have to coexist with these very, very capable machines.” Set 75 years in the future, the AIs in Welga’s world have not yet achieved sentience (hence they’re referred to as “weak” AIs.) Still, they are stronger and process information faster than humans. To keep up, humans use mechanized exoskeletons to make themselves stronger and pills to speed their thinking and reflexes, greying the distinction between humans and bots. “How much of a difference is there really between human beings, cyborgs and AI-based robots? And should we be making as much distinction between those categories as we do today, especially going forward as all of these things get more sophisticated? I was really interested in looking at the blurring of those lines and interrogating at what point we decide to give machines rights, especially when they provide us with so much free labor.” S.B. Divya was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for her novella Runtime. She is co-editor of Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
The title of S. B. Divya’s debut novel, Machinehood (Gallery/Saga Press, 2021), refers to an underground band of rebels (or terrorists, depending on your view) who threaten to unplug the world from the tech essential to modern life unless all intelligences—human and man-made—are given equal rights. The book opens with Welga, the story’s hero, ordering black coffee from a bot in Chennai, India; the bot puts milk in the coffee while insisting that the drink is still “black.” A human vendor across the street fills Welga’s order properly, without milk, and then summarizes her experiences with the two vendors in a tidy lesson: “Bots work faster, but human mind is smarter.” The vendor’s words foreshadow the fault line that runs through the book. On the one hand, humans rely on bots to run their homes and economy, on the other, humans compete with bots, constantly afraid of falling physically and mentally behind. “Once upon a time, we harnessed animals to help us,” Divya says. “Now we've turned to machines and, as those machines get increasingly intelligent, the competition in certain sectors is going to also ramp up. There's an existential fear right now for a lot of people that AIs are going to replace them and then they're not going to have work. So in part, this novel is exploring that particular concern, but not so much as a dystopia, more as a realistic vision … of what the future could look like when we have to coexist with these very, very capable machines.” Set 75 years in the future, the AIs in Welga’s world have not yet achieved sentience (hence they’re referred to as “weak” AIs.) Still, they are stronger and process information faster than humans. To keep up, humans use mechanized exoskeletons to make themselves stronger and pills to speed their thinking and reflexes, greying the distinction between humans and bots. “How much of a difference is there really between human beings, cyborgs and AI-based robots? And should we be making as much distinction between those categories as we do today, especially going forward as all of these things get more sophisticated? I was really interested in looking at the blurring of those lines and interrogating at what point we decide to give machines rights, especially when they provide us with so much free labor.” S.B. Divya was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for her novella Runtime. She is co-editor of Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction
This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by S.B. Divya, author of Machinehood, which is published by our friends at Saga Press. Topics of discussion include equality between humans and sentient machines, life as performance, performance enhancing drugs, the current state of the dystopian novel, and much more. Copies of Machinehood can be ordered here with FREE SHIPPING.
Machinehood by S.B. Divya Interview From the Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya, Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy. Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process. All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want? A thrilling and thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?About S.B. Divya S.B. Divya is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma. She enjoys subverting expectations and breaking stereotypes whenever she can. Divya is the Hugo and Nebula nominated author of RUNTIME and co-editor of Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. Her short stories have been published at various magazines including Analog, Uncanny, and tor.com. Her collection, Contingency Plans For the Apocalypse and Other Situations, is out now from Hachette India, and her debut novel MACHINEHOOD is forthcoming from Saga Press in March, 2021. She holds degrees in Computational Neuroscience and Signal Processing, and she worked for twenty years as an electrical engineer before becoming an author. Find out more about her at www.sbdivya.com or on Twitter as @divyastweets.
The first chapter of Rebecca Roanhorse’s new novel, Black Sun (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020), features a mother and child sharing a tender moment that takes an unexpected turn, ending in violence. It’s a powerful beginning to a story whose characters struggle with the legacies of family expectations, historical trauma, and myth. These three strands are most powerfully manifest in Serapio, the child in the opening scene, who is raised to fulfill a legacy on the day of the convergence, a solar eclipse on the winter solstice. His sole purpose is to avenge a massacre of his mother’s clan, drawing upon magic to carry out the mission. And yet he has never lived among his mother’s clan, nor was he alive when the massacre occurred, raising complex questions about duty, history, and how individuals find meaning in their lives. “Serapio has always been on the outside,” Roanhorse says. “He feels like he has a purpose, a destiny tied up with something pretty dark, that he's doing on behalf of people that don't even know he exists.” Roanhorse explores “what that feels like and what your obligations are even to the point of putting aside your own needs to try to fulfill something that in the long run may not be the best thing for you, but you’ve been set on that path by others. How do you break free of that, if you can, and if you should? I think those are the sort of questions I'm trying to raise that I hope readers struggle with and think about.” Set in a fictional Mesoamerica and inspired by American indigenous and Polynesian cultures, Black Sun is the first book in a planned trilogy. Roanhorse appeared on New Books in Science Fiction in 2018 to talk about Trail of Lightning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The first chapter of Rebecca Roanhorse’s new novel, Black Sun (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020), features a mother and child sharing a tender moment that takes an unexpected turn, ending in violence. It’s a powerful beginning to a story whose characters struggle with the legacies of family expectations, historical trauma, and myth. These three strands are most powerfully manifest in Serapio, the child in the opening scene, who is raised to fulfill a legacy on the day of the convergence, a solar eclipse on the winter solstice. His sole purpose is to avenge a massacre of his mother’s clan, drawing upon magic to carry out the mission. And yet he has never lived among his mother’s clan, nor was he alive when the massacre occurred, raising complex questions about duty, history, and how individuals find meaning in their lives. “Serapio has always been on the outside,” Roanhorse says. “He feels like he has a purpose, a destiny tied up with something pretty dark, that he's doing on behalf of people that don't even know he exists.” Roanhorse explores “what that feels like and what your obligations are even to the point of putting aside your own needs to try to fulfill something that in the long run may not be the best thing for you, but you’ve been set on that path by others. How do you break free of that, if you can, and if you should? I think those are the sort of questions I'm trying to raise that I hope readers struggle with and think about.” Set in a fictional Mesoamerica and inspired by American indigenous and Polynesian cultures, Black Sun is the first book in a planned trilogy. Roanhorse appeared on New Books in Science Fiction in 2018 to talk about Trail of Lightning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The first chapter of Rebecca Roanhorse’s new novel, Black Sun (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020), features a mother and child sharing a tender moment that takes an unexpected turn, ending in violence. It’s a powerful beginning to a story whose characters struggle with the legacies of family expectations, historical trauma, and myth. These three strands are most powerfully manifest in Serapio, the child in the opening scene, who is raised to fulfill a legacy on the day of the convergence, a solar eclipse on the winter solstice. His sole purpose is to avenge a massacre of his mother’s clan, drawing upon magic to carry out the mission. And yet he has never lived among his mother’s clan, nor was he alive when the massacre occurred, raising complex questions about duty, history, and how individuals find meaning in their lives. “Serapio has always been on the outside,” Roanhorse says. “He feels like he has a purpose, a destiny tied up with something pretty dark, that he's doing on behalf of people that don't even know he exists.” Roanhorse explores “what that feels like and what your obligations are even to the point of putting aside your own needs to try to fulfill something that in the long run may not be the best thing for you, but you’ve been set on that path by others. How do you break free of that, if you can, and if you should? I think those are the sort of questions I'm trying to raise that I hope readers struggle with and think about.” Set in a fictional Mesoamerica and inspired by American indigenous and Polynesian cultures, Black Sun is the first book in a planned trilogy. Roanhorse appeared on New Books in Science Fiction in 2018 to talk about Trail of Lightning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Episode 4.09, host Dave Pezza is joined by his good friends Guido Fargiorgio and Eric Prive. Eric, Guido, and Dave discussed The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Published on July 14, 2020 by Saga Press, The Only Good Indians is the story of four childhood Native American friends of the Blackfoot Tribe and their fate years after a hunting trip gone wrong. As adults, they are not only challenged by the struggles that many Native Americans face living on a reservation, including racism, alcoholism, and poverty, but they must also come to terms their own guilt. In The Only Good Indians, Jones offers a truly bizarre story of revenge, guilt, fatalism, and the remarkable resilience of Native American tradition and culture. Through his intriguing and challenging writing style, Jones crafts a wonderfully macabre tale that shocks, disgusts, laments, and entirely absorbs the reader in a world where actions have bitter, unrelenting consequences. Please enjoy our discussion of The Only Good Indians. Today's episode is sponsored by Libro.fm.
Amanda and Jenn discuss character-driven sci-fi, non-Western fantasy, escapist reads, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by The Storybound Podcast, Saga Press, publishers of speculative fiction like Stephen Graham Jones’ THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, Rebecca Roanhorse’s BLACK SUN, and more, and Care/of. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Feedback Stepping Stone by Karin Kallmaker Strawberry Summer by Melissa Brayden Too Close to Touch by Georgia Beers Just Jorie by Robin Alexander (rec’d by Wynnde) Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Baron (rec’d by Lauren) Questions 1. So I’m a major fan of character-driven, realistic fiction and have lived in this bubble for years, but recently I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and absolutely loved! It made me want to step more into the world of sci-fi/dystopian/adventure novels. But I do say that hesitantly. I think I loved Never Let Me Go because it was still very character-driven, the character development and relationships between characters definitely weren’t lost amid the plot. Character evolvement is my favorite part of reading, and I sometimes feel more plot heavy novels lack this quality. So I’m looking for a novel that is either in the futuristic, sci-fi, dystopian or adventure realm but still has rich characters. I enjoy coming-of-age stories (late teens to mid-twenties) but am trying to step away from YA and more into literary coming-of-age. I also usually love when books have a little dabble of romance. Good luck! -Emily 2. Hello! I’ve been really enjoying fantasy/magicy books set in non western Europe settings like the Daevabad trilogy, Spinning Silver, The Bone Witch series and the Six of Crows duology. I have a good tbr list for Black fantasy but I would love some recommendations for that type of thing from Indigenous American and/or Latinx writers and worlds. I’ve already read Nocturna by Maya Motayne. I like YA as long as the characters are complex and mature (please no unnecessary internal drama). I really don’t like books where the dialogue or humor feel really cliche. I particularly like when the character’s friendships are fleshed out and there are lots of cute fluffy moments in between the action. Other fantasy I like include, The Night Circus, Graceling, A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Priory of the Orange Tree. If it is on Libro.FM that is a plus! -Margot 3. Hello! My local Children’s book store, Woozles, runs a YA for Adults book club. We have decided that at least half of the books we read each year will be by BIPOC authors. We have always made a point of reading diversely but after we realized we had read a string of books by white authors we decided we needed to do better. One of the recent books we read and really enjoyed was Slay by Brittney Morris. There are many lists available that feature black authors but I would love a few suggestions for books that are by indigenous authors. We are a Canadian group so bonus points if the books are Canadian. (The group already read The Marrow Thieves back in 2018 so that one is out) Thanks for your help! -Sarah 4. Hello Jenn and Amanda! I am in a reading rut and need your help. The stress of 2020 has made me so anxious that I can’t focus on anything new and have just been re-reading old favorites. I would like to find a new book to read that will be NON-STRESSFUL and will be a fun escapist read. I am a huge fan of romance, YA, and fantasy. I would really really like to try some sci-fi but I worry that I will not be able to keep up with too much techy stuff or complex world-building will be too hard for me to keep up since I only really read when I’m awake at night nursing my baby. I did read Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet and enjoyed it and that was easy enough to read and keep up with. So, what non-stressful romance/ YA/ fantasy/sci-fi books can you suggest? -Thanks! Marelis 5. I have discovered this year a love of romance novels, mostly historical. However, I’d like to dip my toes in a little further into the genre and read more, especially contemporary romance. I’ve read a lot of Julia Quinn and Tessa Dare. I’m okay with some sexy times but not too much. -Lauren 6. Last year you recommended to me “Into the Drowning Deep” by Mira Grant and I was OBSESSED with it. I realized that I don’t read much fantasy anymore, but given the current times, I am desperately in need of a different world to dive into. I’m looking for adult fantasy where the setting is a strong character in the book. In addition to Mira Grant’s book, I’ve also enjoyed Circe by Madeline Miller and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Besides other books by those authors, do you have any recommendations? -Morgan 7. Hello lovely ladies! Is it too much to ask for a double recommendation?? My younger sister just finished reading the Anna and the French Kiss series and won’t stop complaining about how there is no more to read! She has a little hole in her heart after this series but can’t seem to find another swoon worthy YA romance to fill that hole. She has read all the John Green romances as well as her favorite author, Nicola Yoon. She wants a cute romance that will make you squeal, extra points for a book with heartwarming side characters and an interesting setting. Ok here we go with the second question, if you can only do one then please recommend a book for my sister, maybe she’ll stop nagging me about it. I’ve recently found myself watching… No binge watching Jane the Virgin on Netflix. My love for this show is beyond words, because I connect so much with the main character and love the dramatic, romantic plots. Since its summer and im not in school, Im looking for a book of this manner to fill my heart. Like Jane, I’m a Catholic Latina girl who loves to write and adores romance. I would like to read a book that touches on abstinence and Catholicism, along with it’s struggles, while also encapsulating me in a swoonworthy romance. Hope that’s not too much to ask! Much love, -Gaby Books Discussed The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh (tw: rape, murder, child abuse) Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess (tw: assault, bigotry, separation from a child) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (tw: violence against children, sexual assault, eugenics) Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp, as rec’d by Waubgeshig Rice (Recommended) (tw: child abuse) Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow The Chilling Effect and Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai (tw: abusive parent, panic attacks) Shades of Magic series by VE Schwab The Books of Ambha (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) by Tasha Suri When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik (tw: racism, fatphobia) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sharifah and Jenn discuss adaptation news for The Stand and Underground Railroad, cyborgs, a gorgeous Afrofantasy MMO/RPG, and some favorite books from this Fall. This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s mystery thriller podcast, Read or Dead, the audiobook edition of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, and Saga Press, publishers of speculative fiction like Stephen Graham Jones’ THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, Rebecca Roanhorse’s BLACK SUN, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS here, Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here. The show can also be found on Stitcher here. To get even more SF/F news and recs, sign up for our Swords and Spaceships newsletter! News First look at Underground Railroad adaptation [Slashfilm] “The Stand” Air Date Set [Tor.com] Specialized polymers bring us one step closer to cyborgs [Inverse] Afrofantasy MMO / RPG: The Wagadu Chronicles [Kickstarter] Books Discussed Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (content warnings: body horror, medical trauma, PTSD, panic attacks) – “If Doctor Doom Were Your Boyfriend” [Tor.com] Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes Each of Us A Desert by Mark Oshiro (content warnings: abusive parent, graphic violence) The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (tw: physical abuse) A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between! We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves. We Make Books is a podcast for writers and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and tell us your favorite novel covers! We hope you enjoy We Make Books! Twitter: @WMBCast | @KindofKaelyn | @BittyBittyZap Instagram: @WMBCast Patreon.com/WMBCast Episode 45: Formatting Cover Art for Publication transcribed by Sara Rose (@saraeleanorrose) [0:00] R: Welcome back to another episode of We Make Books, a podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between, and this episode definitely leans more toward the publishing end of things and cement boots and everything. Right down, drowning you in information. I’m Rekka, I write science fiction and fantasy as R.J. Theodore and Kaelyn’s making a face at me. K: I’m Kaelyn and, uh… My job is to make sure that Rekka maintains her sanity a little bit while trying to explain very, very complicated things here. R: I’m totally sane. The question is, am I making myself understood? K: Yes, this is sort of rounding out our discussions on cover and book art. We’re getting into the technical nitty-gritty of how you now take a lovely picture, that someone has done for you, and actually get it on the cover of a book so that it looks right. R: We are going into the weeds! A wild book-cover template has appeared! [K laughs] R: How do you make it become your friend? K: So Rekka is particularly disposed to talk in great detail about this because Rekka is a designer. This is one of the things that Rekka does. Beyond just knowing how to set up and lay these things out. Rekka knows a lot about color and composition and accounting for how things look on a screen versus how they look in print, and how all of these terrifying details actually work. R: There’s so much information that I wanted to communicate. I hope I do a good job. I hope it’s clear, I hope it’s not overwhelming. I feel like this is important, because there’s a lot of stuff that, just generally, people don’t understand about the process and when they have a cover illustration that they’ve commissioned, the now what? This is the episode for the, “Now what?” K: I think the key takeaway from this cover art and artwork series we’ve been doing, is this is way more complicated than you ever thought it was. I’ll leave it at that. [K laughs] R: Yeah, and I struggle to allow the word complicated. It’s just, it is a specialty. K: Yeah. R: I mean, every step of this process is a specialty. You, the author, are exercising your specialty in writing, and then an editor exercises their specialty in editing, and then a copyeditor does theirs, and then a cover artist creates a cover with their specialty, and then a designer uses their specialty to lay out the book and the cover. And these are all specialized parts of a process that, in the past, have been teams of people. In this day and age, where we expect to be able to self-publish and Do It All Ourselves has become less of a specialty-based thing and more of a I Can Do This Myself, I Am Empowered, therefore I should do this myself. Which, you know, should you? It’s… ehh. Listen to this episode, I dunno, you decide. K: As we say many times here, it’s not easy and there’s a lot more that goes into this than you would think. So, Rekka, takes us through all of that. I think this is a really good resource episode. So take a listen, hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you on the other side of the music. [into music plays] K: Speaking of looking at things— [R and K burst into laughter] R: That’s tenuous at best. K: Not all of my transitions are good ones, Rekka. R: Maybe the worst ones are the prize ones, though. K: Hey, look, radar displays images in certain ways, we’re talking about displaying images in certain ways today. No… alright. R: It’s so weak. It’s so weak. K: Come back to me. R: No, don’t. Can we just move on? [K laughs] R: So we spent September talking to you—well, August and September, a little bit, with one small deviation, talking to you about cover art. So one thing that I’m always good for is a long, droning episode about how you would formal something. So we thought about, maybe, for people who have received cover art that they’ve commissioned, how do you now turn that into a file that you can upload and provide to a printer, to create a book cover? K: This is kinda the last step, if you will. You’ve got this file and you’re ready to have a book printed. Now, there’s a few things here. R: The first point is, you’re not ready to have a book printed. Not yet. K: All of the real fun, especially difficult technical stuff, really comes from, then, trying to figure out how to get this on a cover where it’s not accidentally zoomed in on a square of a hundred pixels and all you can see is the corner of one of the letters from the title. R: This is why we don’t let Kaelyn format the covers. K: Look, stuff happens sometimes, Rekka. [Both laugh] So, Rekka, as we’ve—hopefully, if you listen to this show regularly, you know by now Rekka is a designer by trade… is it by trade? R: I am technically a designer by trade. Yeah. I chose this on purpose. K: And knows how to do all of this stuff. And you will notice that I said Rekka is a designer. Rekka has a degree in this. I am saying this because this is not easy to do. R: At the very least, it is easy to mess up. K: Yes! Yes. So, Rekka, I am a cover artist. I have sent you files. Probably multiple files, actually. R: Um, well, that depends on our contract. K: Yup. R: You’re going to get a file, either with or without your cover lettering already in place. As we’ve talked about in past episodes, in the past few weeks, the cover artist may also do text treatment for you, or you may need to find a designer to do that for you. The file format that you receive is going to be dependent on what was agreed upon, and part of why I started with whether or not it has text in it is because if you need to manipulate that text in the future, you really hope that you have a layered file from your cover artist. And by layered file, I’m talking, probably, about a .psd file or a .tiff with layers. More likely, you’ll get a .psd. I think, unfortunately, Adobe’s got the stranglehold on the market and their filetype with layers, by default, is .psd. If you’ve got a .tiff I would find a way to open it and check really, really soon because you do wanna make sure that that text treatment is on its own layer. Because every time I’ve received a file from a cover artist with text in it, it’s not in a good position for the final layout file. K: And just to be clear, and part of the reason I was asking this is, if you’re planning to do stuff to this and mess around with this, and you don’t have Adobe, and it’s a .psd, you’re not really gonna be able to do a whole lot with this. R: Right, you’re still gonna need to be able to open the file and that means Adobe. And if you only open Adobe files when you’re preparing your cover for the final, live version that’s going to go on the cover, you can subscribe to Adobe and get Creative Cloud for a month and then cancel after you’ve gotten what you needed to and then come back the next time you have a cover. K: Mhm. R: If you are an author who’s releasing ten books a year because you self-publish, you probably are going to need to have a running subscription with Adobe. I would definitely suggest that you, well, okay, so here’s the thing. If you know that you don’t know what you’re doing with this, pass it on to a graphic designer. K: Yeah, so let’s be clear right from the start here. This is coming from me, who, I have very limited experience and ability, with Photoshop, with .psd files. Dealing with this, even just sometimes I had opened files for books just because I needed to check something, and I have never been more afraid to click on things before in my life. R: You should be afraid. Definitely be afraid. If you don’t know what clicking on something will do, be afraid. K: I just wanna emphasize, you know, for Rekka, she looks at this and she knows everything that she’s looking at. The widgets, the buttons, the gloopity-globs, and what they do. I look at this and just see lines on top of lines on top of objects, that if I move something now and the entire thing is ruined. This is not easy. I think we think like, “Oh, it’s Photoshop, whatever. I do that and make memes all the time.” This is not the same thing. R: Um. Depends on how lovely your memes are. I mean, if you really get complicated you might be already half-way to doing your own title treatment. So when you get a file from an artist, anybody else who’s created it, they’re probably going to have done so in their own mannerisms. The way you would create a .psd file is not necessarily the way someone else will create a .psd file. So you have to take a minute to acclimate yourself to their thought process. So you have to find where they hide the layers that have text on them. You have to hope that they labeled layers with filters so that you understand what that filter was trying to do for the image itself. K: And, by the way, if you’re going, “What the heck are layers?” Do not try to do this by yourself. R, giggling: Yeah. So you’re probably not going to get a lot of layers, like all of the artist’s layers, because again, they might be illustrating digitally and so they do a little bit of touch-up on one layer and when they got what they wanted and it looks the way they wanted it to, then they flatten it to the layer below so it’s not just like a tiny little glob of whatever color they were working in that could accidentally be removed from the other thing if you start moving elements around. [10:00] R, continuing: So, the file you receive from your artist is likely going to be a flat illustration, unless you arranged otherwise, like I said in the episode with… Colin, I think. When I commissioned Julie Dillon to do the Flotsam cover, I did specifically ask for certain things to be on their own layers so that I could use them as elements in a video and move them around a little bit, just for some subtle motion.K: I’ll jump in here with the non-designer take on this. For those of you listening at home, and you know I joked earlier if you’re going, “What the heck are layers?” If you are wondering what this is, in an Adobe Photoshop file, certain—whether they be colors, images, objects, text they’re on what’s called layers. And they’re literally images or, well images primarily, stacked on top of each other. And— R: Think of them like transparency sheets. So if there are colored pixels on that transparency sheet, that layer, then you will see something, and if there are no colored pixels on that layer you won’t see anything, unless it is the background, in which case it is the background color that’s set for that document. K: Yeah, so each of these—so these layers, when they get stacked on top of each other and, as Rekka said, when they’re flattened, what that means is you’ve taken all the layers and pressed them down into one new layer altogether, at that point. Now those objects are bonded together for the rest of their lives. R: For life, yeah. K: And there’s no separating them. R: So the artist probably has a version of that file with layers, and what they sent you was flattened because you asked for an illustration, you didn’t ask for the entire process. It’s not show-your-work, it’s please-provide-me-with-an-illustration. So if you did get lettering on it, if you’ve got your title treatment from the artist, it’s probably on its own layer, one hopes, and you hope because the artist isn’t working with your cover template and they don’t know your final spine width and they don’t know all the text that you might need to put on there. So, hopefully, they’ve put it on a layer so you can move it around a little bit after the fact. Because, like I’ve said, I have gotten many covers from clients where the text was already in place and it was too close to the edge when I sized things up for the final print version. Because you need some space to be able to trim off the edge. Because if you don’t have image past the edge of the paper, then you get a white like around the edge rather than a nice, crisp end that comes in the middle of the image. So you want your trim to be smaller than your image size, and you also have margins around the outside and you want the title, usually, to be centered on the front cover. But if it’s too close to the outside margins, then the only thing you have left to do is make sure that you have enough resolution that you can enlarge it so it centers, but then it might be too big— [K laughs] R: So if you’re stuck with an image where the lettering is on the same layer as your illustration, you’re probably going to run into trouble. So, when you open up your file that you get from your artist, that’s one of the things to check. Make sure that the titling can be edited separately from that background illustration. And, if it can’t, write them back real quick. Hopefully it was in your contract. I bought a fifty-dollar premade cover, just as a placeholder for something, that I wanted to deal with later. And the text was provided and it was eBook shaped only. It was vertical, it wasn’t a full wrap-around cover. And the text was not editable in my file and I was like, “Oh. Now I know why it was so cheap,” because I wasn’t getting a file I could really work with. Colin also mentioned, in that episode, make sure you are allowed to edit that file as you need to. K: That’s exactly what I was gonna say is, Rekka, some people are probably wondering, “Okay, well, why wouldn’t they just send me the layers and, if I know how to do this, let me flatten everything myself?” And you know, the thing is, as we talked about in the real cover art episode, this is this artist’s work. They don’t want to give you something that you’re going to mess around with to the point that they’re not okay with their name being on it anymore. R: Right, right. You know, if you have an illustration that’s on one layer and then you’re just messing around with the text that you probably— K: Wrote anyway. R: Yeah, well you were slightly involved in picking the font or whatever. Then, chances are they’re going to give you that title treatment, at least. Now the text might not be editable, so you might not be able to say, “Whoops, I gave you a typo and now it needs to get fixed.” You might have to go back to them for that, and then pay them more because that’s your fault. So, you hope that you get to at least move the text around so that you can make small adjustments later. The next thing that I would check is your print size versus your resolution because it is possible to get a 300 dpi image, 300 is standard printing high resolution, but it’s also possible for that image to only be four inches across, which is smaller than you need for your wrap-around cover. It’s still 300 dpi, so if you only specify 300 dpi, who knows what you’re getting? You need it to have a certain print size. So it’s probably going to be 8 ½ - 9 inches, 10 inches, depending on your cover size. If you have a 6x9 cover, you need to make room for the spine, you need to make room for the back cover, you need to make room for the trim size and the bleed. So your 6x9 cover is probably going to be something more like 13 ½ x 9 ¼ overall. K: Rekka… you just threw out a lot of terms there. All of which— R: Nah, it’s fine. Everyone understands what I mean. K: No, well, all of which seemed to relate to the anatomy of a book! R: Yeah. K: So, backtracking to that, this is something—you’re not getting an image that then you just slap on into a template and then it prints the book. As, Rekka said, there’s the back cover, the spine, the front cover, there’s bleed. I’ll let Rekka talk more about what bleed is. But then, you have to think about, you have to line up everything that—Okay, I want this on the front cover, I want this on the spine, I want this on the back cover. Then, of course, there’s also: Is this a paperback or hardback book? And then that starts to get tricky. R: Hopefully, you’ve made all of these decisions before you hired your artist so that you could give them this information. K: Yes, yes. R: Because, as we’ve mentioned in the past, if you have a dust jacket with a wraparound inside flap on both ends, now suddenly you need an extra six inches on your landscape image that your artist is giving you. And that’s a much bigger image and they might charge you extra for it, and that would totally be reasonable because you’re asking them to create more. And it’s almost another back cover, so it’s like a wraparound around. K: But there was another word, Rekka, that we talked about—one of my favorites—the bleed. What’s that? R: Um. Sadly it’s not about blood...letting. K: Yeah, sort of disappointing—I mean, it is actually, in an abstract way, kind of some blood-letting. R: Well, there are blades involved. Basically, you don’t want your image to only be exactly the size of the cover, you want the cover image to extend past the area you’re actually going to use, and then they trim off the extra. And what they trim off is considered the bleed, and that’s usually a standard amount of extra image that they require and, typically, it’s about an eighth of an inch all the way around. K: So let’s say this is a paperback book— R: Mhm. K: —and they’re getting, they’re printing whatever is sent to them. R: Yeah. K: This is, assuming that a human looks at this before somebody takes it out of a box to read it— R: And these days, with POD, there’s probably not a human looking at it. K: Yeah, exactly. Printing presses, yes, they’ve changed a lot, but really they haven’t changed all that much because it’s stacking up pieces of paper, putting them in this cover. The edges are not going to be uniform on a lot of these. They’re gonna be close, but maybe not exact, so you’ve got this giant cutting device coming down and slicing the edges off. R: Three edges, not all four. K: It’s gonna be like, “Listen, I know you wanted a book, but here’s a pile of loose paper that’s kind of in the same order, I guess?” Pick up a paperback, or even really a hardback book, if you look you’ll see marks on the side of it where you can tell where the paper was cut. But what this bleed is providing, extra background essentially. Nothing that is central focus to the cover, be they pictures, people, or words, should be in the bleed area. R: There’s a safety area away from the edge where things are going to get trimmed off because there is no guarantee that the trim is going to be perfect every time, so you want to make sure that if it wiggles, and I think they allow for, like… they promise you a hundredth of an inch but it’s really more like a tenth of an inch and the wiggle is different every time. K: Yes. R: Especially for POD. You want to make sure that your text is well-enough away, not just so that it doesn’t get trimmed off, but that it still looks like it's in the position you wanted it in when the whole book is assembled and trimmed and standing free. K: And this is exactly why I’m terrified of this. There have been times that I’ve had to order short runs of advance copies of books and I’m messaging Rekka like, “Is this right??? Is this right??? It doesn’t look right!! Why is there so much black around the side??” “No, that’s supposed to be there, Kaelyn.” “Are you sure????” [R laughs] It was very stressful. R: Yeah, if you saw the flat file for an ARC copy where we have the ribbon across the top in a special color to make it stand out as an ARC and it has the date and everything like that. When you’re looking at the flat file, it looks like that text is not centered because of the bleed above it and around the edges. K: Yeah, it’s very disorienting and I was a little worked up. So, Rekka, let’s say you either know how to do this, you’ve done it yourself, or you’ve hired a designer to do it for you. You’re gonna send these files to a printer. Let’s say you’re gonna do print-on-demand. What are some things you need to know about the files? Before you’re sending them and then when you’re getting something back? R: Right, so if you’ve already checked that you can move your stuff around and maybe you’ve already positioned it so you can, I definitely recommend, if you know how you’re doing your print-on-demand, that you use that same service to get a proof print right away. K: Mhm. Yeah. R: And it’s trickier with Amazon because I don’t think you can do it until you submit your final files because they don’t want to spend a whole bunch of time correcting things in the printing process for you. So if you’re sending through KDP, before you publish your book, it’s covered with Do Not Sell or Print-Proof or Author Copy Only, or some kind of text. And it’s very sad looking. It’s hard to get excited about looking at your print proofs from Amazon. You can go through IngramSpark— K: Or Lulu. R: You can go through Lulu. So IngramSpark is actually a book distributor, so if you go through IngramSpark, you can get those books into Barnes and Noble, libraries, whoever orders it from a catalog, they’ll go through the Lightning Source catalog and they will get the IngramSpark version of your book. If you upload to Amazon, nobody else is gonna buy that book because they know Amazon’s profiting from it. K: Yep. R: What I do, is I distribute for Amazon through KDP and I distribute everywhere else through IngramSpark. So, if you go through IngramSpark, you know that’s how it’s going to get printed when it goes out to other bookstores. If you go through Lulu, unless you decide that you’re gonna set up a Lulu storefront and actually sell your books through Lulu, you are getting an idea of how it’s going to look. But Lulu’s printers are not Lightning Source’s printers are not KDP’s printers. So the colors might not be exact. So if you have a really exacting eye for color, you’re gonna want to get as close to the final printer as you can. And that’s what it is. But there is something that you do want to be looking for, and this is why I suggest you send it off, even if you send it off to Lulu at first, and that’s how the colors are going to shift from what you see on your screen to what comes out on paper, because your screen is backlit. So all the colors on your screen are built using red, green, and blue (RGB) light. K: Yes, and this is exactly what I was going to say, is Rekka, why is it so important to see what this looks like once it’s actually printed? R: Because everything you’ve seen on your screen, on your devices, everything backlit is subtractive light and everything you see on paper is additive light. So paper is made with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink (CMYK). Sometimes you have two different shades of yellow and two different shades of magenta, to get extra rich depth of color. It depends on your printer. When you look at light coming out of your screen, the light is the image coming into your eye. K: Yes. R: When you look at paper, the image is the light reflecting off that paper into your eye. And they are not perceived the same way. K: Think about if you have a smart TV or even a digital picture frame and you put, you know, pictures up there. You’ll notice that they look different than if you printed them. R: Mhm. K: Let’s say, not even just you got the pictures printed at CVS. R: But even a print from a photo shop is going to look different than the version you see on your screen. The colors. The darker colors might be more dark, but the neon colors might not be as neon. So it’s not like colors get more by being printed. Some colors look better as backlit and other colors look better as printed. K: In my experience with this, what I found is that if you want colors to be very vibrant printed, you need to over-vibratize them before they go to print. R: So certain colors just will not print in a four-color process. So when you get your file and if you’ve either hired a designer who has Photoshop, or you have Photoshop, you want to take this file that they sent you and look for the gamut warning. And the gamut warning will emphasize the image areas where the colors are out of gamut. And what this means is like, “ink ain’t gonna do that. Now, a gamut’s not gonna tell you how they’re gonna shift. It’s just gonna tell you which colors just aren’t gonna happen. K: There’s a reason that we have so many animated movies that are meant to look like traditional, flat animation but are actually done by computers. Because you can get a richer color and texture in there. You can emphasize—you can brighten and emphasize certain things, as opposed to, there is a certain limit to what you can do with a piece of paper and a paintbrush. Or a printer, in this case. R: You think about Batman: The Animated Series. The reason that that animated series looks so different from so many of the cartoons that were happening at the same time, is because that was done on black paper— K: Yes. R: —versus everyone else who started on white paper. So these are just things to know that, you know, understand how light and color and reflections versus projections, and all this kind of stuff, how they work. It doesn’t really help you if you have a color out of gamut, though. K: Yeah. [25:53] R: The only thing you can do is take that back to the artist and say, “This color. I love what you did,” make sure you’re complimentary, “I love what you did, but this color isn’t going to work. How do we push this so that we get the same effect without changing the color entirely?” I mean, sometimes the only thing to do is change the color, but sometimes you can shift things. So if it’s supposed to be a neon green, but you’re not gonna get that neon green out of a print press, what you can do is darken the areas around it and try to make it look more neon than it actually is by contrast. This is stuff the artist is gonna know. You don’t have to tell them the solution. Just say, “Hey, this area’s out of gamut, if I print this, it’s not going to look as good as you made this look on screen.” Because chances are, if you get a file from your artist, they were working in RGB because you want them to work in RGB. Even though this print book will be printed in CMYK, the colors on screen for CMYK mode are not accurate, so when you work on screen, adjusting colors, you adjust them in RGB. So this artist probably sent you an RGB file. So you can go back to them and say, “I need this to work in print, please.” K: A good cover artist will know what this is and what they need to account for, when creating this stuff— R: Or an experienced cover artist, you know? Someone might be an amazing illustrator but not really understand how a printing press works, if they haven’t worked with printing things themselves. Now, if they’ve ever worked printing posters of their work, they’ve probably run into this before. It’s incredibly frustrating. But it can be adjusted. So you work with them and, frankly, you get your final cover art and sometimes it’s the first time you’ve seen these colors in this image. So it’s not out of the question to come back and say, “These colors are a problem because, as we’ve described in the contract, this is for print as well as eBook. I need this to look good in print,” and they’re not gonna want it to look crappy in print, either. K: Yeah, of course not. Their name is on it. R: Yeah, they might have asked you for a copy, you know? And they want to put it on their shelf and they wanna be proud of it. But one thing you can do, to improve the way color looks, is choose the finish on your paper when you are setting up your cover. That’s something that you can sort of do to brighten colors or adjust colors based on an effect that you want. I think you’ll see spot lamination sometimes on offset printing presses and such because it can do this and it looks really nice. So we’ve looked at resolution and print size, and we’ve checked for gamut warnings. Hopefully now your image is all set, you know it’s the right size. It’s going to print out without pixelating and it’s going to print out without color-shifting too much. And now you want to actually set it up for layout because during this process you’ve also been working on the book. You’ve probably gotten your copy edits back. You’ve been making adjustments. You had to add a chapter. You realized your glossary wasn’t in the file. You’re finally getting to the point where you’re like, “Alright, this thing’s ready to go.” K: Ha. I am… coming close to being maybe done with this. R: I sure hope. [K laughs] R: So you have your final page count and now you can get your final spine width. And once you have your final spine width, then you can really make this cover done. Because up until the point where you know your final spine width, everything is just guessing or adjustments or whatever. You might have sent it off to print through Lulu and you had a slightly less done version of the manuscript that you wanted to see in print, and sort of see what this might look like, even if it wasn’t the final. Now you have the final manuscript and you know this is gonna be 495 pages. K: Yep. R: This is what it’s going to be, because I am so done with this. And now you go to your printer and you say— K: “Hello, here is this thing that I am sick of looking at. Can you give it physical form so I can look at it all the time?” R: Well, yes, but you do need to know that spine width. So the way that you calculate spine width is by taking the pages per inch of the paper stock that you’ve selected. Now, this is… I’m starting with the nitty gritty and I’m starting with the off-set printing method where you actually have a relationship with the printer and you have chosen a paper stock. K: Yes. R: And they tell you it is this many pages per inch. You take your total page count and you divide it by your pages per inch. K, exhausted: Rekka, you didn’t tell me there was gonna be math involved in this. R, sympathetic: I know, I know. I was a graphic designer. I wasn’t supposed to have to do math. But I have to do math with alarming frequency. I’m gonna pull up some actual specs. How’s that sound? K: Uh, while Rekka’s looking up some… some specs here. So when we went to the Nebulas last year, we wanted to get some advance copies of Salvage to hand out there, except that the printer that we normally go through was not going to be able to have them finished and shipped directly to the hotel in time. So instead, what we did was we found a local printer in Los Angeles, had them print it and then they actually just delivered it right to the hotel. They didn’t even need to ship it. Except that they used a really, really nice paper. R: It was so nice. K: Beautiful. It was gorgeous. The book ended up about an inch thicker than the actual finished book because the thickness of the paper was so much bigger. R: I’m pretty sure we have photos of this on Instagram somewhere already. K: Probably. We have joked about this a lot, yeah. R: So, a sixty-pound paper, and I’m not even gonna go into how they determine what’s a pound of paper, that is listed on these specs, is 435 pages per inch. So your 495 page book is divided by 435 fo the pages per inch, and the resulting spine width—I go for the thousandth—so 1.137 and that will give you your spine width. So in the center of your page layout is your 1.137 inch-wide rectangle which represents your spine. (This is in your template.) And to either side of that, you’re going to add the width of your total trim size. So my books are 5 ½ inches by 8 ½ inches, so the width is 5 ½ and you add that to that number twice, and now you have your total width of your cover, if it were flat and had no pages inside it. K: So what you’re getting, then, is if I pulled the cover off a book— R: Don’t you dare. K: I would never. But if I did. If I was a soulless monster and I did that and I laid it out flat, that is the total measurements of what this is. R: From right to left. K: Okay. R: Okay. So that is the spine width, plus the cover of the trim size. In your image itself, or your layout file, you’re going to have to crop out parts of the image that don’t fit because most artists don’t give you exactly the right size. Because you don’t know your spine width. They’re just going to give you a roughly book-shaped thing from their experience. I’ve gotten final cover art from people, as I said, from clients, and they give me the final cover art from the artist, and they give you too much space. And you want too much space, but you are going to have to decide where that space is coming off from in your final layout. So what I use is a program called InDesign, and I set my InDesign layout to the trim size, 11.758 and I’m just giving you these hard numbers—if you’re trying to follow along and you actually try to create the file, you’ll see what I mean. So that’s the width, and the height is the height of the book trim size, for my books like I said. They’re 5 ½ wide by 8 ½ tall, trimmed. So my trim size is 8 ½ tall. K: It’s funny because we’re throwing out all these measurements and there are people probably sitting at home going, “Oh, okay, so that’s a book size.” If you own a lot of books, like I do, I want you to go to your bookshelf and try to figure out how many of those books are exactly the same size. R: Right. K: There really isn’t a standard size for books. And some of them—I’ve seen books that, sometimes the book is a little taller than what I would normally expect of a book and I imagine that’s because it was a really big book and they wanted to maybe have to minimize some of the pages because those start to get expensive to print after a while. R: I mean, that’s where the 6x9 trade paperback size came from, is an attempt to reduce the paper needed to fill a book. K: Mhm. R: If you have large print books, you’re going to find that they’re generally also larger-sized because that reduces the need for paper once you increase the font size and it takes more pages to tell the story. [35:06] K: That said, though, that’s the reason why they’re more expensive. R: Yeah, and you don’t want it to feel cramped just because you got a larger font size. So, yeah, you pick your book size by going through your bookshelves and finding a book that feels like you want your book to feel. In your hand, what size, and all that kind of stuff. I picked 5 ½ by 8 ½ and the process that I’ve described is how a layout for that size book, with this thickness of paper that we’re discussing, is how that would work. And it’s going to be different the more of these elements that you change and go with, you know, different options. Just to finish setting up this file, the trim size is the size of the file layout. I also specify in my file set-up that I want an eighth of an inch, .125, bleed all around the edge. K: Mhm. R: Then, when you output the file, you can specify that you want to include the bleed and add crop marks and all the things that the printer needs. And that will be in their specifications, so you want to pay attention to the specifications for the printer you are using because they’re all different. Some are very similar, but they’re also all different. K: They’re not all—it’s snowflakes. R: Yeah. So if you’re using a printer and you know who they are, I would definitely suggest you just go and see if they have a template. If you’re using an off-set printer, then that printer will help you set up a file. If you are going with IngramSpark or KDP or Lulu, they will all provide you with a cover template. There’s usually a form and you put in what paper you choose, what binding size you’re going with, and how many pages you have and they’ll give you a file that you can use to set this up. K: Yeah, they’ll do the calculations for you, essentially. R: Yeah, and they you can take that and you can either use those calculations in a custom file that you set up, or give it to your designer and they will either use that or set up their own file the way they like it set up. Now you have this layout and, let me tell you, the spine should be centered in it. If your spine is slightly off-center, then your spine is going to be slightly off-center, and I don’t mean the part of the book that folds, I mean where your title in the spine shows up will be off-center. So, the easiest thing to do is just start from the spine and work your way out. K: Books and people, we want the spines to be nice and centered. R: And then, again, go to your books on your shelf and take a ruler and measure how far things are from the edge of the book. How far they are from the edge of the folds. How wide the title is across. How far away the byline is. Stuff like that. Use that to guide you if this is your first time doing it—but if it’s your first time doing it— K: If all of this sounds really complicated to you, it is. And maybe consider paying someone to do it for you. R: There is nothing wrong with recognizing that the amount of time it would take to learn to do something properly is worth a certain amount of money to you. K: Absolutely. R: It’s absolutely true. K: And by the way, if you decide, “Hey, you know what? I’m gonna do this a lot, I really just wanna learn this,” there’s online classes. There’s ways, there’s tutorials, there’s resources out there to do this. That said, you can watch all of the tutorials and YouTube videos you want, if you can’t draw a straight line using a ruler, maybe this isn’t the right thing for you to be doing. R: I’ve always said that somebody shouldn’t make the first website they build a website for a client. And I don’t think you should make the first cover you print, the launch of your debut novel. You know? K: Yeah, well. R: There are other things to consider for your cover, such as—we’ve already mentioned what if it’s a hardcover with a jacket? K: Mhm. R: Then there’s something to consider, which is the stamped cloth underneath that jacket. What is that going to look like? Are you going to go for foil printing? Are you going to go for UV printing? Are you going to go for embossing? What other treatments are going to happen to your cover? And then you need to pick a printer who’s capable of doing them. And you’re also going to need to be able to provide them with any of those stamps they need, you need to give them a guide of what that’s going to look like. Now, if they are a very full-service, off-set, traditional art house printer, they may include all of these kinds of decisions and such in their pricing of their package to you. But you need to know what’s on you to come up with and what’s on them, if it’s print-on-demand, they expect you to provide everything. K: Yeah, and just to be clear, when Rekka’s talking about an off-set printer, this is somebody who you’re going to, in theory, do a run of books with. You’re not doing one here, you’re doing like five hundred. R: At least. K: At least. Minimum. Yeah. And in that case, you’re gonna have somebody at the printer who gets these files and looks at them and checks and goes, “What about this? What about this?” You’re gonna have sort of a consultant there, if you will. R: Yeah, they’re gonna give you paper samples and you’re gonna feel them and you’re gonna go, “Oh my gosh! That paper manages to feel like leather, how did you do that?” Those aren’t options you’re going to get from even IngramSpark who will do a hardcover with a jacket wrap for you, print-on-demand, but print-on-demand is not going to give you these bespoke, very luxurious options that you can get from an off-set printer. Like, Saga Press has some amazing covers and they also do amazing things with the print treatment of them. So if any of the books on your shelf are Saga Press, just go hold them, you know? K: Yeah, just to be clear. I apologize, I think we didn’t quite define this at the start of this episode. If you’re unaware, POD is print-on-demand, it is the most expensive way to generate a book because what’s happening is someone is going online and saying, “I want to buy this book. I want it in paperback.” And if it’s set up for print-on-demand, it’s just going into a computer, essentially, where it’s saying, “Yes, one of Book ABC,” printing it, going into a box, and being mailed to someone. It is very possible the first person to physically handle that book will be the person that bought it. R: Right. K: There’s no quality check there, there’s no control, there’s no consultation with a printer. R: I mean, there’s supposed to be, but let’s be real. K: There’s not. So, just be aware. Look, print-on-demand is a fantastic thing that’s really made it great for a lot of self-published and small prints. R: Indie, yeah. K: Indie. To get paperback, and even hardcover in some instances, books out into the hands of their readers. But it is not the same as going for making a large print run where you actually sit down and talk with someone and design this and figure out what the book is gonna look like. R: You could always take this to an off-set printer. A printer in your area will happily print your book project for you, and any time in the future, past, present. But POD meant you could list it on Amazon and not have to pay upfront for warehousing and printing for this book. Because if you keep the book at a distributor, you’ve gotta pay that distributor to hold onto your book because that’s precious space they could be filling with New York Times Bestsellers, you know? Print-on-demand meant you didn’t need to pay for warehousing for copies that may or may not ever sell. And you’ve heard the stories of people who had their own books printed and then they sat in the garage for years until they’d discovered they’d gone moldy and they threw ‘em all out, or they just moved and threw ‘em all out because they weren’t selling. There was a time when printing your own book meant you were hand-selling out of the back of your car, or taking them to events and trying to sell as many copies as you could, just to get rid of them basically, to get your life back, get your house back kinda thing. So POD has made all of that a luxury. People who can afford it might still do that, but you don’t have to anymore. So, yes. A copy of your book might suddenly jump from $1.36 to print, to more like $5.46 to print and that all comes out of your cut, but it still gives you a share of the profit, as opposed to, “Well, my garage still has 736 more copies. I haven’t profited on this book yet.” You know? K: Yeah. R: Obviously, there’s a lot more to this than I’ve described. I apologize, it’s hard for me to describe it because I do a lot of it automatically these days. And a lot of it also depends on the book itself. So the page count, the trim size, the treatments you’ve decided on and how late in the game you’re doing all of this. K: Yeah. R: But what I do recommend is that at any point that you are stopping and waiting for the next stage, as I said, it might only cost you six bucks to print the thing, send off for another proof if you’ve changed anything. Don’t be surprised. Because you don’t wanna find out when you order your first ten author copies that your title is off-center. Because you forgot about trim size and safety zones and all that kinda stuff. I definitely recommend, as many times as you make what you think are the final change, that you send off for a print proof. And then track the changes because you’re probably gonna keep fiddling with the thing. Track the changes you make so that when that print proof arrives, you know what you might have already changed, so that you’re not adjusting your more recent file based on what you see on that cover, forgetting that you already fixed that your title was off-center or whatever. K: So, you know, this is another theme of this show. Read the contract. Track your changes. R: And get proofs often. K: Yeah. But there’s one thing we didn’t really talk about that is still relevant to formatting and displaying covers, which is what if you are just doing this digital only or what if you need digital images? R: So, the eBook cover is essentially a crop of your print book on the front side of it. But there are things to consider beyond just, “Okay, I cut off the spine and the back cover.” You also want to make sure that it’s legible. K: Yeah. R: So, in this digital age there are a lot of different thumbnail sizes that are out there and you can look up the various—You can basically just go by Amazon because they have like five different thumbnail sizes, depending on where it’s going to appear. K: Exactly, just scroll through. There’s a big difference, now. We’ve just spent all of this time about, talking about making your print book look beautiful and everything so somebody will see it in a store and pick it up and go, “My goodness. I find myself attracted to this book. I think I am interested in it.” Now it’s one of however many thumbnails are splashed across a computer screen. R: Yep. K: You’re trying to make the cover look appealing in a different way now. R: Not only appealing, but legible. K: Yes. Legible is important, yes. R: The smaller you go, the more of your tiny details are handed over to pixels to try to render them. And if you’ve ever seen pixel art, you know how roughly things get translated as you shrink down in size. You want to, potentially, come up with a slightly different version for your digital product than you might even include in your eBook itself. And I’ll use the anecdote from Parvus is that Annihilation Aria, which came out from Parvus this summer, has a different print cover than it has for its digital product image in the online stores. K: Speaking of neon and trying to make sure it shows through well. R: Speaking of gamut warnings. K: Yeah. R: We had to deal with that. But also the cover for the print book, the text is outlined. K: It’s meant to look like neon sign, yeah. R: But on the thumbnail size, it almost completely vanished. K: It was very difficult when we were putting covers up for advanced purchases. It was funny because I knew what it said and was supposed to look like, and your eyes start playing tricks on you because you’re seeing exactly what you expect to see. But then—yeah. R: And that’s a lesson for you, as the person who’s been staring at this for a really long time, is: show it to someone else. Chances are you already know what you think you want it to look like, and you might not notice the things that are either mistakes or not translating to that size as well as you want them to. So you can get a list of the different sizes that Amazon will reduce your image to and that’s all from the product image, which is the eBook cover you upload to KDP, for example. K: Okay. R: Or to Draft to Digital, or if you directly to Barnes and Nobles, to their publishing service for eBooks. But it’s not the cover that’s going to be in your eBook when somebody loads it up on their eReader. So you can set the eBook cover to look as close to the print cover as you want, and keep that in your eBook file, associated with that package of files that you’ve created for your eBook. We have a whole episode about that, go check that out. But your product image that you upload separately is going to be the one that gets reduced to those thumbnail sizes. So you can control how that image displays. Now, granted, when somebody goes to your product page and they’re now looking at the big version of your image, yeah, now you’re getting an image that might not look like the version that’s on your print cover or inside your eBook, but it’s worth it if it brings people to the page because they are attracted to that thumbnail size in their search results. K: Just go on Amazon and look through, go on the top bestsellers and just scroll through. And I want you to think about how many of those, even though those ones are probably a decent size, you’re having to stop and squint at. R: Right. So in the case of Annihilation Aria, what we did was we filled in the outlines with the color and we just made it a solid block neon text. K: Much easier to read. R: It worked out much, much better. It looks great as a thumbnail, it still is beautiful on the print cover, when you’re holding it you’re like, “That’s a nice cover!” But the thumbnail is doing its job and the cover is doing its job and you don’t wanna confuse or conflate what those jobs are. K: Yeah. It’s, um… tricky is a word for it. No, it’s, what I was saying is I was looking at this, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, this looks fine.” I knew what this cover was supposed to look like, my brain was filling in the gaps. So, as Rekka said, get somebody else to look at this and make sure that these are things that, to somebody who doesn’t know what they’re looking at, are legible, are getting across the message or the image that you want it to. R: Right. Exactly. Also, there’s the audiobook version. And your titling from your artist being on a separate layer is definitely going to come in handy now because the audiobook preview, as set up by the tradition of printing these on CDs, not even the cassettes. K: Yeah. [50:33] R: I mean, you could go back to cassettes, but it was the CD that sort of set the standard. K: And they were square. R: And they were square. K: I remember that audiobooks sometimes had different covers, if you will, than the actual book itself. If you went to the library, I remember it was like the paper cases with all the CDs in it? R: Mhm. K: So then they’d just take that image, that was set up for the CD case, and put that as the thumbnail online. R: A lot of the time, our first audiobooks that we played digitally, were getting played in an .mp3 player or in iTunes. So they were already set up for square images. Because, again, CD covers. K: Yes. R: So, part of the reason that a lot of audiobooks have different cover artwork, just completely different, is because of rights management. So, if a different company made the audiobook than printed the book, they might not be very friendly and share the rights to the cover art, as Parvus did. Dreamscape is the audiobook publisher for Annihilation Aria and Parvus was happy to share the artwork because it looks more professional if everybody’s using the same artwork. K: But that’s not always the case. Or, sometimes, maybe the publishing house says, “Well, we’ll license this to you, but it’s gonna be a ridiculous amount of money.” R: Right. K: And then, you know, the audiobook production side of things go, “Oh, well. That’s cool. We don’t feel like paying that.” R: “We’ll make something that’s kind of similar,” you know, and then they go off and they do it themselves. To better or worse effect. K: Yep. R: And other times you’ll see an audiobook where, clearly, they didn’t have a wrap-around cover art or they didn’t have the layers, so you get this weird blurry effect to either side. Or I know The Aeronaut’s Windless, if you look really closely at that audiobook cover, somebody went in with the Photoshop stamp tool and made the cover art as square as they could. It survives a brief glance, but it’s not ideal. So, if you have your cover and the spine copy isn’t already in the way, or whatever, you can just move the text to somewhere a little more central. SOmetimes the central figure on your cover, if you want it to be in there, now has to be off to the side, a little bit, of your title. Or some things gotta move and that’s fine. You can do that, make those adjustments, do a hundred iterations until you find what works, but only if you have layers and your text treatment isn’t flat on your background illustration. K: Yeah. So, well… I can’t say that’s everything, because that is not everything. That is not even close. R: It’s really not. I mean, we didn’t even get into back-cover copy placement and all this other stuff, but… K: Yeah, but, this is sort of to give you an idea of how this happens. Print books don’t just magically manifest after you finish writing it. There are a lot of people that go into putting together a book and making sure that it looks good after it’s done. R: I mean, there’s sometimes a very small, very hard-working tiny team of people. It’s not always a ton of people and, if you’re a self-publisher, don’t think that you can’t do this by yourself— K: Yeah, absolutely. R: —but you do want to get some experience before you commit to saying that you are good at this and you should continue to do it. K: “I am making a good decision.” [Both laugh] R: Yes. K: But, no, and it’s true and the thing is that someone like Rekka can do all of this, you know, on her own. But, again, Rekka went to school for this. This is something that took her years of time, experience, and learning to master. R: I mean, and I didn’t go to school for book cover production— K: Well, no, but yeah. R: I mean, I made book covers as part of my college education, but it was more about understanding what makes things legible and what makes thing attractive to the eye. What makes a person’s eye move across the page the way you control. And all those things are now instinctive and go into what I do when I set up these files, which is why I can’t even describe, sometimes, what my process is. Which is kind of like, you know, you walk up to an artist and you say, “How do you draw like that?” Well, they can’t answer that question. K: Yeah, yeah. R: So there’s a lot that goes into it and, yes, if you are willing to put the time in to learn, you can do this. Just like I could have illustrated my own book cover, but I knew the time that it would take me to develop a style that I wanted for my book cover, was not worth taking that time away from my writing. K: Mhm. R: This has always disappointed my mother, that I didn’t draw my own book cover illustration. K: Eh, there’s still time. R: And—But! The point was, the style I wanted was not my inherent style. K: Mhm. R: And so I would have to spend months and years developing the style that I did want, or I can make an investment to have a professional whose style already was what I wanted do the cover for me and allow me to go back and do what I was good at. It’s okay to not be amazing at everything. K: Who said that? R: I dunno, I just did. [Both laugh] K: So that’s kind of rounding out book cover production. If you take away anything, I hope it is that this is not the easy part of this. R, laughing: No. K: I think everybody goes, “I’m just gonna have the cover and it’s gonna be so awesome and it’s gonna be on the book.” … Yes. But there’s a lot of steps to get to the part where it’s on the book and you can actually hold it in your hand. R: And there’s a lot of steps to get to the part where it’s awesome. K: And that, yes. R: Yeah. K: Well, I think that’s our episode. R: I think it’s gotta be our episode, because we’re now running a little bit long. So, yeah! There’s a lot here and if you were trying to take notes, I apologize. But I wanted to get in this habit of, every now and then, let’s just get real technical about this. K: I think we think about a lot of making books in very non-quantitative terms. Where we’re like, “Yeah, and then you have to figure this out and you’ve gotta decide about this character and this plot point,” and there are some parts that are technical about this. Where it’s like, “Listen, you have to do this,” and this is how you measure it. R: You know, unfortunately, some things just, if you want the book to not look like a pile of messy paper glued into a vaguely book-shaped thing, then you want to follow this process because that’s the way that it’s all set up. That’s how you get that result. There aren’t too many ways to be extra creative about this aspect of things. K: Yes. You know, this was more of a technical episode, but hopefully it was, as always, educational and informative. And entertaining. R: And slightly overwhelming. K: And overwhelming, yes. R: It’s important that I sound like what I do could only be done by me. I mean, that’s how I keep food on the table. K: And hopefully this hasn’t scared you off from trying to do this. R: I mean, play around with it! Like I said, Lulu’s there, you can order one book at a time. See what happens. K: And if you do, let us know how it goes. R: Yes! Show us your books, if you’re a publisher. What covers have you put together and formatted and, you know, sent to fulfillment yourself? We’d love to see them! K: Yep, and you can find us… R: Oh, you can! Can’t you? We are @WMBcast on Twitter and Instagram, and you can find us at wmbcast.com for all our old episodes, and you can also find us and support us at Patreon.com/wmbcast, where you can thank us for all our technical, helpful, overwhelming knowledge. K, laughs: Or you can just scream at us. R: Yes. And you can share these episodes or any episode that you think would help a friend out and leave a rating and review, please, on Apple Podcasts, because that is just how this apple pie is made. K: Feeeeed the algorithm. R: Yep. Absolutely. Oh, speaking of which, we are now on Amazon podcasts. K: Oh. R: Did you even know that was a thing? K: I didn’t, no. R: Well, we are there. We got listed. K: Okay! R: So wherever you go for your podcasts, please feel free to listen there. But, when you leave ratings and review, at least for now, Apple podcasts is still where we want them. Once Amazon gets in the game, you know how it goes, but… K: I’m looking forward to an Apple-Amazon Deathmatch. R: It’ll be like the Fast Food Wars only it’s just like the Algorithm Wars. K: Yeah, I think that is where we’re going. Yeah… Well, everyone, thanks very much for listening and we’ll see you in a couple weeks. R: Take care, everyone. [outro music plays]
This week, Jenn and Patricia discuss Burning Roses, The Mason House, The Half-God of Rainfall, and more great books. This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community, Saga Press, publishers of speculative fiction like Stephen Graham Jones’ THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, Rebecca Roanhorse’s BLACK SUN, and more, and Skyhunter by Marie Lu. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. Books Discussed On The Show Burning Roses by S.L. Huang The Mason House by T. Marie Bertineau (trigger warnings: domestic violence, alcoholism) Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating a New Space of Belonging by Joy Arlene Renee Cox Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith Ties That Tether by Jane Igharo The Half-God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams (trigger warnings: rape, PTSD) Fauna by Christiane Vadnais, translated by Pablo Strauss The Girl and the Goddess by Nikita Gill (trigger warnings: child abuse, homophobia, racism) What We’re Reading Next Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. World Fantasy Award nominee Molly Gloss joins Gary to chat about listening to fiction on her commute to the horses, taking some solace in novels with pastoral settings (including SF), the eerie feeling of reading Sarah Pinsker's A Song for a New Day at the very beginning of the lockdown, recent reprints of her classic novels by Saga Press, her long friendship with Ursula K. Le Guin, and her award-nominated retrospective collection Unforeseen. Books mentioned include: Unforeseen: Stories by Molly Gloss The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss Wild Life by Molly Gloss Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker The Horseman by Tim Pears This is Happiness by Niall Williams
This week, Liberty and Tirzah discuss Hamnet, 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, He Started It, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community; Saga Press, the publisher of award-winning speculative fiction from authors like Stephen Graham Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, and Rebecca Roanhorse; and Ritual. Pick up an All the Books! 200th episode commemorative item here. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, iTunes, or Spotify and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. BOOKS DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW: Hamnet: A novel by Maggie O’Farrell The Pull of the Stars: A Novel by Emma Donoghue He Started It by Samantha Downing The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine The Mysterious Messenger by Gilbert Ford The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey 10 Things I Hate about Pinky by Sandhya Menon WHAT WE’RE READING: The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan MORE BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK: Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy Quantum Shadows by L. E. Modesitt Jr. On Nostalgia by David Berry MEG: Generations by Steve Alten Alpha Omega by Nicholas Bowling Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth by Stuart Ritchie It’s Your Funeral by Emily Riesbeck, Ellen Kramer He Came in With It: A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness by Miriam Feldman Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina by Chris Frantz Pew: A Novel by Catherine Lacey The Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man’s World by Jennifer Palmieri Trouble the Saints: A Novel by Alaya Dawn Johnson The Vanishing Sky by L. Annette Binder The Nemesis Manifesto (Evan Ryder) by Eric Van Lustbader More Than Maybe: A Novel by Erin Hahn I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad by Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg I Come with Knives: Malus Domestica by S. A. Hunt How Lulu Lost Her Mind by Rachel Gibson Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs by Robert J. Mrazek The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke I You We Them: Walking into the World of the Desk Killer by Dan Gretton How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do – and What It Says About You by Katherine D. Kinzler Decoding Your Cat: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Cat Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann The Emotional Load: And Other Invisible Stuff by Emma and Una Dimitrijevic Grove: A Field Novel by Esther Kinsky, Caroline Schmidt (translator) Skin Deep (Siobhan O’Brien Book 1) by Sung J. Woo Act (A Click Graphic Novel) by Kayla Miller The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code by Michael E. McCullough The Divine Boys by Laura Restrepo, Carolina De Robertis (translator) A Woman’s Place: Inside the Fight for a Feminist Future by Kylie Cheung The Road from Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging by Jordan Ritter Conn Shadow Garden by Alexandra Burt The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration by Christine Montross Clean: The New Science of Skin by James Hamblin Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act by Nicholson Baker Sisters in Hate: Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism by Seyward Darby Riding with the Ghost: A Memoir by Justin Taylor River of Dreams by Jan Nash More Better Deals by Joe Lansdale Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS by Maria Sherman The Loyalties: A Novel by Delphine de Vigan Heaven and Earth by Paolo Giordano South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber Musical Chairs: A Novel by Amy Poeppel The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase Savage Legion (Savage Rebellion) by Matt Wallace Elvin Link, Please Report to the Principal’s Office! by Drew Dernavich Ashes of the Sun (Burning Blade Silver Eye #1) by Django Wexler War Stories by Gordon Korman Nobody: A Hymn to the Sea by Alice Oswald Axiom’s End: A Novel by Lindsay Ellis Malorie: A Novel by Josh Malerman I Saw Him Die: A Novel by Andrew Wilson The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan Some Go Home: A Novel by Odie Lindsey The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal by Bryn Turnbull The Vacation: A Novel by T. M. Logan Felted Animal Knits: 20 keep-forever friends to knit, felt and love by Catherine Arnfield Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan The Beauty of Living: E. E. Cummings in the Great War by Alison Rosenblitt Shielded by KayLynn Flanders Puppies by Maurizio de Giovanni, Antony Shugaar (translator) Love and Theft: A Novel by Stan Parish The Sqirl Jam Book (Jelly, Fruit Butter, and Others) by Jessica Koslow Happiness Will Follow by Mike Hawthorne The Lives of Edie Pritchard by Larry Watson The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Women’s Empowerment by Linda Scott
This week, Patricia and special guest Mary Kay discuss some Anti-Racist and Pride reading recommendations in a special themed episode! This episode is sponsored by Hey YA, Book Riot’s own podcast about all things young adult lit, Ritual, and Saga Press, publisher of award-winning speculative fiction. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Pick up an All the Books! 200th episode commemorative item here. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, iTunes, or Spotify and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. Books Discussed On The Show: Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado (or, truly, anything by her) A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni & Tristan Jimerson Roots or The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley The Body is Not An Apology: the Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identitiesby Mady G & J.R. Zuckerberg Gender: A Graphic Guideby Meg-John Barker Interlibrary Loanby Gene Wolfe
This week, Liberty and Tirzah discuss Saving Ruby King, I’ll Be the One, The Lightness, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by Hey YA, Book Riot’s own podcast about all things young adult lit; Saga Press, publisher of award-winning speculative fiction; and TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations, Book Riot’s personalized reading recommendation service, which now has gifting! Pick up an All the Books! 200th episode commemorative item here. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, iTunes, or Spotify and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. BOOKS DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht The Lightness: A Novel by Emily Temple I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman Sad Janet by Lucie Britsch I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Margaret Jull Costa (Translator), Robin Patterson (Translator) The Margot Affair: A Novel by Sanaë Lemoine WHAT WE’RE READING: Catherine House: A Novel by Elisabeth Thomas The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway MORE BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK: Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion by Meredith Fineman Strange Rites New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton Hella by David Gerrold Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks Sleepovers: Stories by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor by Amy Alznauer, Ping Zhu Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas by B. Jeffrey Madoff Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think by David Litt All Things Left Wild: A Novel by James Wade Thank You for Voting Young Readers’ Edition: The Past, Present, and Future of Voting by Erin Geiger Smith Cactus Jack: A Novel by Brad Smith What You Need to Know About Voting–and Why by Kim Wehle The Art of Deception: A Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mystery (The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries Book 4) by Leonard Goldberg A Short Move by Katherine Hill This Little Family: A Novel by Inès Bayard, Adriana Hunter (translator) The Bell in the Lake: A Novel by Lars Mytting, Deborah Dawkin (translator) Sisters and Secrets: A Novel by Jennifer Ryan Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur Not a Gentleman’s Work: The Untold Story of a Gruesome Murder at Sea and the Long Road to Truth by Gerard Koeppel Fake Plastic World by Zara Lisbon Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai by James Carter Growing Sustainable Together: Practical Resources for Raising Kind, Engaged, Resilient Children by Shannon Brescher Shea Who Did You Tell?: A Novel by Lesley Kara Don’t Turn Around: A Novel by Jessica Barry The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood by Colin Woodard Animal Spirit: Stories by Francesca Marciano Dogchild by Kevin Brooks Sarah Bernhardt: The Divine and Dazzling Life of the World’s First Superstar by Catherine Reef Effortless Vegan : Delicious Plant-Based Recipes with Easy Instructions, Few Ingredients and Minimal Clean-Up by Sarah Nevins The Half Sister by Sandie Jones Seven Lies: A Novel by Elizabeth Kay The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton We Came Here to Shine: A Novel by Susie Orman Schnall 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand Smooth by Matt Burns Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui An Ocean Without a Shore by Scott Spencer The Taste of Sugar: A Novel by Marisel Vera A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera and Lisa Dillman (translator) You Say It First by Katie Cotugno Corporate Gunslinger: A Novel by Doug Engstrom The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior American Immigration: Our History, Our Stories by Kathleen Krull Exercise of Power: America and the Post-Cold War World by Robert M. Gates Bluebeard’s First Wife by Seong-nan Ha, Janet Hong (translator) AntiRacist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) Love and Other Criminal Behavior by Nikki Dolson Fairytale Blankets to Crochet: 10 fantasy-themed children’s blankets for storytime cuddles by Lynne Rowe
This week, authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone join host Jason Jefferies to discuss their sensational new novel, This Is How You Lose the Time War, which is published by our friends at Saga Press. Topic discussed include co-writing, colors, Bill & Ted, Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light, and much more. Copies of This Is How You Lose the Time War can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING.
Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. Today Jonathan chats with Saga Press editorial director Joe Monti who has worked with some of the best writers and artists in science fiction and fantasy and has worked as a literary agent and as a book buyer for a major book chain. In a serious mood, they talk about the impact of the Great and Terrible Pause on book publishing, what Joe has been reading, and what he's publishing. Books mentioned include: The Vlad Taltos Series by Steven Brust Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin The Down Days by Ilze Hugo The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Machine by Elizabeth Bear The Residence by Andrew Piper Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Ken Liu’s second collection of speculative stories explores migration, memory, and a post-human future through the eyes of parents and their children. Whether his characters are adjusting to life on a new planet or grappling with moral quandaries—like whether a consciousness uploaded to a server is still human—they struggle with the age-old task of forging identities that set them apart from the definitions and limits imposed by society, biology—or their parents. “We all have the experience of not wanting to be labeled, of being put into categories that we naturally feel a sense of resistance to,” Liu says. On the episode, he discusses several of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020) and talks about the art of translation and the role Liu has played in introducing English-speaking readers to some of today’s great Chinese science fiction writers. Liu was on New Books in Science Fiction in 2015 to discuss the first book in his epic fantasy trilogy The Dandelion Dynasty. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ken Liu’s second collection of speculative stories explores migration, memory, and a post-human future through the eyes of parents and their children. Whether his characters are adjusting to life on a new planet or grappling with moral quandaries—like whether a consciousness uploaded to a server is still human—they struggle with the age-old task of forging identities that set them apart from the definitions and limits imposed by society, biology—or their parents. “We all have the experience of not wanting to be labeled, of being put into categories that we naturally feel a sense of resistance to,” Liu says. On the episode, he discusses several of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020) and talks about the art of translation and the role Liu has played in introducing English-speaking readers to some of today’s great Chinese science fiction writers. Liu was on New Books in Science Fiction in 2015 to discuss the first book in his epic fantasy trilogy The Dandelion Dynasty. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ken Liu’s second collection of speculative stories explores migration, memory, and a post-human future through the eyes of parents and their children. Whether his characters are adjusting to life on a new planet or grappling with moral quandaries—like whether a consciousness uploaded to a server is still human—they struggle with the age-old task of forging identities that set them apart from the definitions and limits imposed by society, biology—or their parents. “We all have the experience of not wanting to be labeled, of being put into categories that we naturally feel a sense of resistance to,” Liu says. On the episode, he discusses several of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020) and talks about the art of translation and the role Liu has played in introducing English-speaking readers to some of today’s great Chinese science fiction writers. Liu was on New Books in Science Fiction in 2015 to discuss the first book in his epic fantasy trilogy The Dandelion Dynasty. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some war stories emphasize heroism and a higher purpose; others emphasize brutality and disillusionment. The first kind of story got Dietz, the narrator of Kameron Hurley’s military science fiction novel The Light Brigade (Saga Press, 2019), to enlist in a war against aliens from Mars. The second is the story that emerges from their experience as they learn that truth—and reality itself—are two of the war’s biggest casualties. Hurley is the author of nine books. She has received numerous awards, including two Hugo Awards, a British Science Fiction Award, and a Locus Award. On this episode of New Books in Science Fiction, she discusses using a mathematician’s help to map her time-jumping plot, working with a hands-on literary agent, and making ends meet as a writer, among other things. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some war stories emphasize heroism and a higher purpose; others emphasize brutality and disillusionment. The first kind of story got Dietz, the narrator of Kameron Hurley’s military science fiction novel The Light Brigade (Saga Press, 2019), to enlist in a war against aliens from Mars. The second is the story that emerges from their experience as they learn that truth—and reality itself—are two of the war’s biggest casualties. Hurley is the author of nine books. She has received numerous awards, including two Hugo Awards, a British Science Fiction Award, and a Locus Award. On this episode of New Books in Science Fiction, she discusses using a mathematician’s help to map her time-jumping plot, working with a hands-on literary agent, and making ends meet as a writer, among other things. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some war stories emphasize heroism and a higher purpose; others emphasize brutality and disillusionment. The first kind of story got Dietz, the narrator of Kameron Hurley’s military science fiction novel The Light Brigade (Saga Press, 2019), to enlist in a war against aliens from Mars. The second is the story that emerges from their experience as they learn that truth—and reality itself—are two of the war’s biggest casualties. Hurley is the author of nine books. She has received numerous awards, including two Hugo Awards, a British Science Fiction Award, and a Locus Award. On this episode of New Books in Science Fiction, she discusses using a mathematician’s help to map her time-jumping plot, working with a hands-on literary agent, and making ends meet as a writer, among other things. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As we approach the October Country, Jonathan and Gary start this week's podcast discussing Gary's new two-volume set from the Library of America, American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (which you can order right now) and end with discussing the challenges of editing Jonathan's new best science fiction of the year anthology series from Saga Press. It's not all shameless self-promotion, though, since in between we talk about how SF changed from the 1950s to the 1960s, whether there is more high-quality SF published now than ever before, and how new writers face different challenges from those of earlier generations in establishing a career and a distinctive profile in today's complicated markets. All in all, a pretty full hour. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode and we'll back soon (next week!) with another episode!
Kat Howard is the award-winning author of the novels Roses and Rot, and An Unkindness of Magicians. Her latest book is a collection of short fiction called A Cathedral of Myth and Bone. These stories explore mythology, fantasy, and horror as they twist through the lives of women and saints, where the seeds of ancient revels and dread spring up anew in the modern age. A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is available now from Saga Press.
Mage Against The Machine, the debut novel from author Shaun Barger, is an explosive and emotional collision between fantasy and science fiction. It intertwines the stories of a young Magi soldier from an isolated world of government controlled magic, and a cybernetically enhanced resistance fighter struggling against a planet-conquering artificial intelligence. Mage Against The Machine is available now from Saga Press.
In LOTF 30, we chat with Kat Howard about her writing process, breaking writing rules, her experience with writing residencies like the Clarion Workshop, what it’s like to write a comic, and SO much more! Kat is the author of the novels Roses and Rot and the Alex Award winning An Unkindness of Magicians. Her short fiction collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, is now out from Saga Press and she's writing The Books of Magic for Vertigo Comics. Her novella, The End of the Sentence, co-written with Maria Dahvana Headley, was an NPR Best Book of the Year in 2014. She currently lives in New Hampshire, where she is working on her next projects. Show Notes: Find Kat: Website | Twitter | Instagram
The Eurovision Song Contest has launched careers (think ABBA and Celine Dion), inspired outrageous costumes, and generated spinoffs. The campy competition also led a fan to dare author Catherynne M. Valente on Twitter to create a science fictional Eurovision, resulting in the publication of Space Opera (Saga Press, 2018) two years later. Shunning science fiction’s typical seriousness, Space Opera strives to be as ridiculous—and funny—as possible. “You can’t play ‘Eurovision in space’ straight,” Valente says, and proves her point by turning Eurovision’s 50 nations and 100 million viewers into a competition that extends across the universe, attracting billions of viewers and outrageous alien performers—everything from sentient viruses and talented wormholes, to creatures that look like red pandas—but can travel through time—or like Microsoft’s much-maligned animated office assistant Clippy. Space Opera’s intergalactic song contest was founded following the devastating Sentient Wars to promote amity among species (much as Eurovision was designed to promote understanding among nations—as well as promote the newfangled technology of TV—after two world wars). Speaking of Eurovision, Valente says: “I think it’s one of the more extraordinary things that humanity has ever pulled off to look back at those two world wars and say, ‘Hey, let’s sing it out.’” However, the stakes are a bit higher in Space Opera than in Eurovision since the contest at the heart of Valente’s story is designed to test whether humans (recently discovered by the rest of the universe) deserve to be welcomed into the community of sentient beings or, for the sake of the greater good, be obliterated from existence. In the end, the job of saving homo sapiens falls to a washed up one-hit former British glam rock band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Under the story’s playful surface are messages about diversity and the absurdity of one clan claiming innate superiority over others when random luck is the most important factor underlying a species’ survival and success. Space Opera became “a frothy glittery book about rock and roll and comedy that has at its core a dark political vein going through it,” Valente says. Valente is a fast writer (see her blog post “How to Write a Novel in 30 Days”) and was able to turn the Twitter dare into a manuscript in two and a half months. “If I take much longer, I start to hate myself and the book and don’t finish. I’m really always trying to outrace my own self-doubt. That’s why I write fast. It’s not because it’s fun.” Her agent worked even faster than she did. He “still calls it the fastest deal in publishing because within 24 hours [of the first tweet] we had a contract.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Eurovision Song Contest has launched careers (think ABBA and Celine Dion), inspired outrageous costumes, and generated spinoffs. The campy competition also led a fan to dare author Catherynne M. Valente on Twitter to create a science fictional Eurovision, resulting in the publication of Space Opera (Saga Press, 2018) two years later. Shunning science fiction’s typical seriousness, Space Opera strives to be as ridiculous—and funny—as possible. “You can’t play ‘Eurovision in space’ straight,” Valente says, and proves her point by turning Eurovision’s 50 nations and 100 million viewers into a competition that extends across the universe, attracting billions of viewers and outrageous alien performers—everything from sentient viruses and talented wormholes, to creatures that look like red pandas—but can travel through time—or like Microsoft’s much-maligned animated office assistant Clippy. Space Opera’s intergalactic song contest was founded following the devastating Sentient Wars to promote amity among species (much as Eurovision was designed to promote understanding among nations—as well as promote the newfangled technology of TV—after two world wars). Speaking of Eurovision, Valente says: “I think it’s one of the more extraordinary things that humanity has ever pulled off to look back at those two world wars and say, ‘Hey, let’s sing it out.’” However, the stakes are a bit higher in Space Opera than in Eurovision since the contest at the heart of Valente’s story is designed to test whether humans (recently discovered by the rest of the universe) deserve to be welcomed into the community of sentient beings or, for the sake of the greater good, be obliterated from existence. In the end, the job of saving homo sapiens falls to a washed up one-hit former British glam rock band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Under the story’s playful surface are messages about diversity and the absurdity of one clan claiming innate superiority over others when random luck is the most important factor underlying a species’ survival and success. Space Opera became “a frothy glittery book about rock and roll and comedy that has at its core a dark political vein going through it,” Valente says. Valente is a fast writer (see her blog post “How to Write a Novel in 30 Days”) and was able to turn the Twitter dare into a manuscript in two and a half months. “If I take much longer, I start to hate myself and the book and don’t finish. I’m really always trying to outrace my own self-doubt. That’s why I write fast. It’s not because it’s fun.” Her agent worked even faster than she did. He “still calls it the fastest deal in publishing because within 24 hours [of the first tweet] we had a contract.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Eurovision Song Contest has launched careers (think ABBA and Celine Dion), inspired outrageous costumes, and generated spinoffs. The campy competition also led a fan to dare author Catherynne M. Valente on Twitter to create a science fictional Eurovision, resulting in the publication of Space Opera (Saga Press, 2018) two years later. Shunning science fiction’s typical seriousness, Space Opera strives to be as ridiculous—and funny—as possible. “You can’t play ‘Eurovision in space’ straight,” Valente says, and proves her point by turning Eurovision’s 50 nations and 100 million viewers into a competition that extends across the universe, attracting billions of viewers and outrageous alien performers—everything from sentient viruses and talented wormholes, to creatures that look like red pandas—but can travel through time—or like Microsoft’s much-maligned animated office assistant Clippy. Space Opera’s intergalactic song contest was founded following the devastating Sentient Wars to promote amity among species (much as Eurovision was designed to promote understanding among nations—as well as promote the newfangled technology of TV—after two world wars). Speaking of Eurovision, Valente says: “I think it’s one of the more extraordinary things that humanity has ever pulled off to look back at those two world wars and say, ‘Hey, let’s sing it out.’” However, the stakes are a bit higher in Space Opera than in Eurovision since the contest at the heart of Valente’s story is designed to test whether humans (recently discovered by the rest of the universe) deserve to be welcomed into the community of sentient beings or, for the sake of the greater good, be obliterated from existence. In the end, the job of saving homo sapiens falls to a washed up one-hit former British glam rock band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Under the story’s playful surface are messages about diversity and the absurdity of one clan claiming innate superiority over others when random luck is the most important factor underlying a species’ survival and success. Space Opera became “a frothy glittery book about rock and roll and comedy that has at its core a dark political vein going through it,” Valente says. Valente is a fast writer (see her blog post “How to Write a Novel in 30 Days”) and was able to turn the Twitter dare into a manuscript in two and a half months. “If I take much longer, I start to hate myself and the book and don’t finish. I’m really always trying to outrace my own self-doubt. That’s why I write fast. It’s not because it’s fun.” Her agent worked even faster than she did. He “still calls it the fastest deal in publishing because within 24 hours [of the first tweet] we had a contract.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017), John Crowley provides an account of human history through the eyes of a crow. The story takes flight in the Iron Age, when the eponymous main character, Dar Oakley, is the first of his kind to encounter humans. He finds these upright beings (who hail from a realm that Dar Oakley calls “Ymr” in crow-speak) both fascinating and baffling. Witnessing a battle for the first time, Dar Oakley can’t make sense of it. In his experience, animals kill for food, but absurdly people don’t eat their opponents. Rather, they defile and plunder their enemies’ bodies while tenderly attending to the corpses of their compatriots. (Any unburied remains are, of course, a windfall to hungry crows, who happily peck the bones clean). Crowley calls the novel “a long meditation on death,” which makes the story sound more morose than it is. Dar Oakley is actually a charming companion, his wonder over human ideas about the soul and afterlife leavened by his kindness and humor. He makes several trips to the underworld (which changes over time to reflect evolving human beliefs) and even assists a clairvoyant after the American Civil War. Dar Oakley’s long-life makes him a consummate storyteller, and towards the end of the book, his exploits—like his introducing the concept of names to crow culture in the pre-Christian era—are re-told as myth among modern crows. Thus Ka is also a novel about the power of words. “If you’ve written 13 or 14 novels like I have, you cannot forget almost in every sentence that you are in a story,” Crowley says. And a good writer plays with that idea, leaving the reader poised between a belief that, on the one hand, what they’re reading “is just a story” and, on the other, that it’s reality. Crowley, 75, has earned both the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. “If you want to write a realistic novel it ought to contain a little bit of the fantastical and the spiritual and the impossible because life does,” Crowley says. “I don’t particularly care for books that don’t have something of that in it.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017), John Crowley provides an account of human history through the eyes of a crow. The story takes flight in the Iron Age, when the eponymous main character, Dar Oakley, is the first of his kind to encounter humans. He finds these upright beings (who hail from a realm that Dar Oakley calls “Ymr” in crow-speak) both fascinating and baffling. Witnessing a battle for the first time, Dar Oakley can’t make sense of it. In his experience, animals kill for food, but absurdly people don’t eat their opponents. Rather, they defile and plunder their enemies’ bodies while tenderly attending to the corpses of their compatriots. (Any unburied remains are, of course, a windfall to hungry crows, who happily peck the bones clean). Crowley calls the novel “a long meditation on death,” which makes the story sound more morose than it is. Dar Oakley is actually a charming companion, his wonder over human ideas about the soul and afterlife leavened by his kindness and humor. He makes several trips to the underworld (which changes over time to reflect evolving human beliefs) and even assists a clairvoyant after the American Civil War. Dar Oakley’s long-life makes him a consummate storyteller, and towards the end of the book, his exploits—like his introducing the concept of names to crow culture in the pre-Christian era—are re-told as myth among modern crows. Thus Ka is also a novel about the power of words. “If you’ve written 13 or 14 novels like I have, you cannot forget almost in every sentence that you are in a story,” Crowley says. And a good writer plays with that idea, leaving the reader poised between a belief that, on the one hand, what they’re reading “is just a story” and, on the other, that it’s reality. Crowley, 75, has earned both the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. “If you want to write a realistic novel it ought to contain a little bit of the fantastical and the spiritual and the impossible because life does,” Crowley says. “I don’t particularly care for books that don’t have something of that in it.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017), John Crowley provides an account of human history through the eyes of a crow. The story takes flight in the Iron Age, when the eponymous main character, Dar Oakley, is the first of his kind to encounter humans. He finds these upright beings (who hail from a realm that Dar Oakley calls “Ymr” in crow-speak) both fascinating and baffling. Witnessing a battle for the first time, Dar Oakley can’t make sense of it. In his experience, animals kill for food, but absurdly people don’t eat their opponents. Rather, they defile and plunder their enemies’ bodies while tenderly attending to the corpses of their compatriots. (Any unburied remains are, of course, a windfall to hungry crows, who happily peck the bones clean). Crowley calls the novel “a long meditation on death,” which makes the story sound more morose than it is. Dar Oakley is actually a charming companion, his wonder over human ideas about the soul and afterlife leavened by his kindness and humor. He makes several trips to the underworld (which changes over time to reflect evolving human beliefs) and even assists a clairvoyant after the American Civil War. Dar Oakley’s long-life makes him a consummate storyteller, and towards the end of the book, his exploits—like his introducing the concept of names to crow culture in the pre-Christian era—are re-told as myth among modern crows. Thus Ka is also a novel about the power of words. “If you’ve written 13 or 14 novels like I have, you cannot forget almost in every sentence that you are in a story,” Crowley says. And a good writer plays with that idea, leaving the reader poised between a belief that, on the one hand, what they’re reading “is just a story” and, on the other, that it’s reality. Crowley, 75, has earned both the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. “If you want to write a realistic novel it ought to contain a little bit of the fantastical and the spiritual and the impossible because life does,” Crowley says. “I don’t particularly care for books that don’t have something of that in it.” Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. Follow him on Twitter: @robwolfbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Trail of Lightning (Saga Press, 2018), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse draws on Navajo culture and history to tell a gripping future-fable about gods and monsters. The book launches The Sixth World, a planned four-part series set in the near future. The series title refers to the Navajo origin story, which says that our current world—the fifth—emerged after floods destroyed the previous ones. In Trail of Lightning, the six world is wrought from similar devastation, a combination of earthquakes and rising seas. The Navajo Nation survives thanks to a protective wall and a shot of magic, which transforms the barrier into four culturally resonant materials: turquoise, abalone, jet and white shell. The wall seals the nation off from not only the apocalypse but from white Euro-centric colonialism. Roanhorse considers her work a form of indigenous futurism that tells “a sovereign story, a story that exists on its own, on native land in native thought with native characters’ stories and processes that don’t have to acknowledge the larger, white western world. This is not a story that even has any white folks in it. This is a Navajo-centric story, and that’s on purpose.” In creating a magic system, Roanhorse decided not to draw on Navajo spirituality. “There’s already a mess in New Age thinking about Native American spirituality as magic and yet somehow other spiritualities are not,” she says. Still, she wanted to make the magic “distinctly Navajo” so she turned to the concept of clans, which imbue her characters with unique powers. For instance, the clan powers of the book’s protagonist, Maggie Hoskie, make her ideally suited to be a monster hunter. She is Honágháahnii, which means Walks-Around, giving her lightning speed. And she is K’aahanáanii, which means Living Arrow, making her, as Maggie herself puts it, “really good at killing people.” Maggie’s powers emerge spontaneously in response to a devastating incident from her childhood. “The clan powers answer your need,” Roanhorse says. “In Maggie’s case, her jumping off traumatic event was the murder of her grandmother, so what she needed then were those two powers … But often the coping skills that we learn in dealing with trauma—especially childhood trauma—may serve us in the moment but don’t necessarily serve us as we grow. And overcoming those and the baggage that comes with it is part of Maggie’s journey.” The novel is a gripping action-adventure that all readers can appreciate but that holds particular resonance for Native Americans. Some readers have told Roanhorse that “they’ve never seen some of the things I talk about on the rez in a book… I had one reader say she cried the whole way through because she’s never gotten to see that.” A Yale graduate and lawyer specializing in federal Indian law, Roanhorse didn’t get serious about writing until 2013. But she’s quickly made a name for herself. A couple days before we recorded her interview in August, she was honored at the 76th WorldCon with the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™.” (The story also earned the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in May and is read by Lavar Burton on his podcast.) Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Trail of Lightning (Saga Press, 2018), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse draws on Navajo culture and history to tell a gripping future-fable about gods and monsters. The book launches The Sixth World, a planned four-part series set in the near future. The series title refers to the Navajo origin story, which says that our current world—the fifth—emerged after floods destroyed the previous ones. In Trail of Lightning, the six world is wrought from similar devastation, a combination of earthquakes and rising seas. The Navajo Nation survives thanks to a protective wall and a shot of magic, which transforms the barrier into four culturally resonant materials: turquoise, abalone, jet and white shell. The wall seals the nation off from not only the apocalypse but from white Euro-centric colonialism. Roanhorse considers her work a form of indigenous futurism that tells “a sovereign story, a story that exists on its own, on native land in native thought with native characters’ stories and processes that don’t have to acknowledge the larger, white western world. This is not a story that even has any white folks in it. This is a Navajo-centric story, and that’s on purpose.” In creating a magic system, Roanhorse decided not to draw on Navajo spirituality. “There’s already a mess in New Age thinking about Native American spirituality as magic and yet somehow other spiritualities are not,” she says. Still, she wanted to make the magic “distinctly Navajo” so she turned to the concept of clans, which imbue her characters with unique powers. For instance, the clan powers of the book’s protagonist, Maggie Hoskie, make her ideally suited to be a monster hunter. She is Honágháahnii, which means Walks-Around, giving her lightning speed. And she is K’aahanáanii, which means Living Arrow, making her, as Maggie herself puts it, “really good at killing people.” Maggie’s powers emerge spontaneously in response to a devastating incident from her childhood. “The clan powers answer your need,” Roanhorse says. “In Maggie’s case, her jumping off traumatic event was the murder of her grandmother, so what she needed then were those two powers … But often the coping skills that we learn in dealing with trauma—especially childhood trauma—may serve us in the moment but don’t necessarily serve us as we grow. And overcoming those and the baggage that comes with it is part of Maggie’s journey.” The novel is a gripping action-adventure that all readers can appreciate but that holds particular resonance for Native Americans. Some readers have told Roanhorse that “they’ve never seen some of the things I talk about on the rez in a book… I had one reader say she cried the whole way through because she’s never gotten to see that.” A Yale graduate and lawyer specializing in federal Indian law, Roanhorse didn’t get serious about writing until 2013. But she’s quickly made a name for herself. A couple days before we recorded her interview in August, she was honored at the 76th WorldCon with the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™.” (The story also earned the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in May and is read by Lavar Burton on his podcast.) Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Trail of Lightning (Saga Press, 2018), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse draws on Navajo culture and history to tell a gripping future-fable about gods and monsters. The book launches The Sixth World, a planned four-part series set in the near future. The series title refers to the Navajo origin story, which says that our current world—the fifth—emerged after floods destroyed the previous ones. In Trail of Lightning, the six world is wrought from similar devastation, a combination of earthquakes and rising seas. The Navajo Nation survives thanks to a protective wall and a shot of magic, which transforms the barrier into four culturally resonant materials: turquoise, abalone, jet and white shell. The wall seals the nation off from not only the apocalypse but from white Euro-centric colonialism. Roanhorse considers her work a form of indigenous futurism that tells “a sovereign story, a story that exists on its own, on native land in native thought with native characters’ stories and processes that don’t have to acknowledge the larger, white western world. This is not a story that even has any white folks in it. This is a Navajo-centric story, and that’s on purpose.” In creating a magic system, Roanhorse decided not to draw on Navajo spirituality. “There’s already a mess in New Age thinking about Native American spirituality as magic and yet somehow other spiritualities are not,” she says. Still, she wanted to make the magic “distinctly Navajo” so she turned to the concept of clans, which imbue her characters with unique powers. For instance, the clan powers of the book’s protagonist, Maggie Hoskie, make her ideally suited to be a monster hunter. She is Honágháahnii, which means Walks-Around, giving her lightning speed. And she is K’aahanáanii, which means Living Arrow, making her, as Maggie herself puts it, “really good at killing people.” Maggie’s powers emerge spontaneously in response to a devastating incident from her childhood. “The clan powers answer your need,” Roanhorse says. “In Maggie’s case, her jumping off traumatic event was the murder of her grandmother, so what she needed then were those two powers … But often the coping skills that we learn in dealing with trauma—especially childhood trauma—may serve us in the moment but don’t necessarily serve us as we grow. And overcoming those and the baggage that comes with it is part of Maggie’s journey.” The novel is a gripping action-adventure that all readers can appreciate but that holds particular resonance for Native Americans. Some readers have told Roanhorse that “they’ve never seen some of the things I talk about on the rez in a book… I had one reader say she cried the whole way through because she’s never gotten to see that.” A Yale graduate and lawyer specializing in federal Indian law, Roanhorse didn’t get serious about writing until 2013. But she’s quickly made a name for herself. A couple days before we recorded her interview in August, she was honored at the 76th WorldCon with the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™.” (The story also earned the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in May and is read by Lavar Burton on his podcast.) Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode Jan is joined by Karoline Fritz, author of The Story of Arbux from Saga Press. Karoline shares her story as a writer and how Arbux stumbled into her life to tell his story. The Story of Arbux is a delightful tale of adventure, friendship, and commitment that is suitable for the entire family. #ArbuxStory Order the eBook or hard copy from Amazon. See artist Caroline Jensen's artwork at the Majestic Gallery. Gifts of the Wyrd contact: Twitter: @WyrdGifts Facebook: @GiftsoftheWyrd Email: GiftsoftheWyrd@gmail.com Jan's Facebook page @JanTjeerd9 Please leave feedback on iTunes. This helps the podcast to be found easier. Interested in a rune consultation or bindrune? Email me for availabilty and pricing. GiftsoftheWyrd@gmail.com Intro (from To Hear the Trumpets Call) and outgoing (from Nothing but Regrets) music by Hauk Heimdallsman. Hauk is currently on Bandcamp but you can find him on Facebook @HaukMusic. Hauk was interviewed on episode 5. Jan has some copies his albums. email at giftsofthewyrd@gmail.com All music selections on this podcast are written, produced, and copywritten by their respective creators/owners. They are used with permission. Logo Created by Xander Folmer of Huginn's Heathenhof. Contact Xander for logo designs for all your needs. Logo based on the Vanic boar created by Vanatru Priestess Ember of the Vanic Conspiracy (Ember was interviewed on episode 7). Studio recordings by Zencastr and Audacity.
The Beards talk the growing interest in horror media and publishing, answer questions, and delve into the brain of Joe Monti, Editorial Director of Saga Press! Join us!
Brea and Mallory talk about how books get made and interview editor Navah Wolfe! Use the hashtag #ReadingGlasses to participate in online discussion! Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com! Reading Glasses Merch Links - Reading Glasses Transcriptions on Gretta Reading Glasses Facebook Group Reading Glasses Goodreads Group Apex Magazine Page Advice Article Amazon Wish List Navah Wolfe Saga Press https://twitter.com/sagasff Books Mentioned - Warcross by Marie Lu Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran The Power by Naomi Alderman Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik The Starlit Wood edited by Navah Wolfe and Dominik Parisien Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland Impostor Syndrome by Mishell Baker
Jan welcomes Larisa Hunter, publisher of The Three Little Sisters to discuss the company, the types of books and authors she is working with, and the republication of Teutonic Religion by Kveldulf Gundarsson. NOTE: March 2019. As of 25 March, 2019, Saga Press is known as The Three Little Sisters. text has been updated, however, reference in the interview will say "Saga Press". Refer any questions or inquiry to The Three Little Sisters. Episode breakdown: 00:29 - Meet The Three Little Sisters and Larisa 17:45 - Larisa's book: At Frigga's Feet 22:39 - Short discussion about The Story of Arbux. Use hashtag #ArbuxStory on social media 28:35 - Hear the story of how Teutonic Religion came to being republished 35:53 - Upcoming projects and kids books. Visit the Gifts of the Wyrd webpage for the #Heathenry50 challenge blog posts and reviews of At Frigga's Feet and The Story of Arbux by Jan. Music: Intro to episode 16: Stanza 31: Valkyries Assemble from Voluspa by Tonya Threet. available on CDBaby. Facebook page: Tonya Threet Outgoing: Voluspa 4 & 5 by Tonya Threet from the album: Voluspa. All music selections on this podcast are written, produced, and copywritten by their respective creators/owners. They are used with permission. At Frigga's Feet and The Story of Arbux available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers. Facebook: @therealsagapress. www.thethreelittlesisters.com Facebook link. Check out The Cartomancer magazine. The Cartomancer is a quarterly journal featuring original content in the form of articles, reviews, artwork and more. Gifts of the Wyrd contact: Twitter: @WyrdGifts Facebook: @GiftsoftheWyrd Email: GiftsoftheWyrd@gmail.com Please leave feedback on iTunes. This helps the podcast to be found easier. Interested in a rune consultation or bindrune? Email me for availabilty and pricing. GiftsoftheWyrd@gmail.com Logo Created by Xander Folmer of Huginn's Heathenhof. Contact Xander for logo designs for all your needs. Logo based on the Vanic boar created by Vanatru Priestess Ember of the Vanic Conspiracy (Ember was interviewed on episode 7). Studio recordings by Zencastr and Audacity.
Stina Leicht is the author of four novels: Blackthorne, Cold Iron, Of Blood and Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain. Her Feminist essays were featured in the Hugo Award winning Women Destroy Science Fiction! Issue of Lightspeed Magazine. She is currently working on the novel, Persephone Station, a Feminist SF Space Opera to be published by Saga Press in 2018. We speak with Stina about all things fantasy, and she tells us about how she worked through the pressure she felt while writing Of Blood and Honey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rocket Punch Radio: Movies, books, videogames, nerd and pop culture galore!
In this episode, we are joined by author Alexandra Rowland! Alexandra Rowland grew up on a sailboat in the Bahamas and then in a house in Florida. Sick to death of the tropics, she attended Truman State University in northern Missouri, where she studied world literature, mythology, and folklore. She now lives in Massachusetts where she works as a game monitor at an escape room company, occasional bespoke seamstress, and writer under the stern supervision of her feline quality control manager. She can be found on Twitter as @_alexrowland. Look for her debut novel, A CONSPIRACY OF TRUTHS, from Saga Press in the fall of 2018. https://www.alexandrarowland.net James’ 2nd book, Bond of Blood is now available! Check it out on Amazon. Also, check out his website, www.jpatrickallen.net. Our logo was designed by our very own Jay. Please take a look at his portfolio at http://oddiovisuals.wix.com/portfolio for additional examples of his work. You can also check out his Etsy store at IntelliGentUnlimited. The Giant Robot of Rocket Punch Radio can only be fueled by the ratings and subscriptions of faithful listeners like yourself. Hit us up on iTunes and Tunein and keep the fight going! Join in on the conversation on the official Rocket Punch community on Facebook, Grown-Ass Geeks.
And now for something special! During the recent WorldCon, held in Helsinki, Finland, Gary and Jonathan took to the stage to talk to WorldCon guest of honor Walter Jon Williams and Campbell Award nominee Kelly Robson to discuss Walter's career and his new novel, Quillifer. During recording we were fortunate enough to be able to give away copies of Quillifer to lucky convention attendees thanks to the generosity of Saga Press. We were a little limited by time (panels lasted exactly 45 minutes in Helsinki) but the conversation flowed and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Our special thanks to Walter Jon, to Kelly, and to the tech team at WorldCon 75 for making this possible.
An immigrant mother tries to bond with her American-born son by creating a magical paper menagerie. This story appears in Ken Liu's collection THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES, available now from Saga Press. Thanks to our presenting sponsor Audible. Start your free trial and get a free audiobook at audible.com/levar.
An interview with Racheline Maltese, co-author of a new poly romance novel. 0:00 Introduction and host chat Under 18? Stop listening now and visit http://www.scarleteen.com 1:30 Announcements and host chat I’ll be giving a talk on polyamory at Ignite Seattle on May 18 For more information, read the Eight Things I Wish I’d Known About Polyamory ebook or paperback For a how to guide to setting up your new poly relationship, read Tristan Taormino’s Opening Up; for a guide to poly ethics, read More Than Two by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert 8:30 Interview: Racheline, co-author of The Art of Three poly romance novel Racheline Maltese, co-author of the new poly romance novel The Art of Three with Erin McRae, talks about the process of writing a romance novel for poly folks. Racheline Maltese can fly a plane, sail a boat, and ride a horse, but has no idea how to drive a car; she’s based in Brooklyn. Erin McRae has a graduate degree in international affairs for which she focused on the role of social media in the Arab Spring; she’s based in Washington DC. Together, they write romance – often queer, often poly -- about fame and public life. Their work is currently available with, or forthcoming from, publishers including Cleis, Dreamspinner, Riptide, and Simon & Schuster’s Saga Press. As hybrid authors, they also independently publish. Like everyone in the 21st century, they met on the Internet. Their website Buy The Art of Three here Follow Racheline on Twitter or on Instagram or Like their Facebook page Follow Erin on Twitter or on Instagram 28:30 Feedback Catherine gives feedback on episode 368 Metamour cock block—she was on the other side of a similar situation, and she is happy to hear the advice given! 33:45 Happy poly moment Meredith writes in with a sweet family happy poly moment 35:45 Thanks Thanks to Manfred and Natalie and welcome Stephanie to the Poly Weekly Playmates! 36:00 How to make this podcast better Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email polyweekly@gmail.com and attach an audio comment or call the listener comment line at 802-505-POLY. Friend us on Twitter or Facebook, leave a comment here. Check out Poly Weekly podcasts at polyweekly.libsyn.com. Share this with a friend or write an iTunes review! Our intro and outro music is courtesy of Pacemaker Jane, “Good Suspicions.”
This week Gary is in Orlanda, Florida for the International Conference on the Fantastic Arts. Despite being thousands of miles away, across aligator-infested waters, he took the time to sit down with long-time friends of the podcast John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly to discuss John's new novel The Moon and the Other (Saga Press, April) and Jim's new novel, Mother Go, which will be out from Audible later this year. As always happens on Coode Street, the conversation started on new books, new publishers, and publishing methods, and wandered far and wide. As always, our sincere thanks to John and Jim for making the time to join us. We hope you enjoy the episode and will be back with more next week!
Navah Wolfe, an editor at Saga Press, joined us to talk about the manuscripts she would really like to see. Ordinarily we don't encourage people to write to the market, but Navah asked specifically for the opportunity to tell our listeners what she's looking for. As it happens, tracking Navah's wish list as you write is unlikely to send you haring after the latest trend—you're far more likely to develop some new writing skills that will make your work more enjoyable, more fulfilling, and ultimately easier to sell. Spoiler Warning: In three weeks we'll be doing a Project in Depth on Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. If you want to get the most out of that episode, you have three weeks to acquire and read the book. Credits: This episode was recorded aboard Oasis of the Seas by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
The Face of Heaven So Fine Kat Howard There is an entire history in the stars. Light takes time to travel, to get from wherever the star is to wherever we can see it, here, on Earth. So when you think about it, when we see the stars, we are looking back in time. Everything those stars actually shone on has already happened. But just because a story already happened, that doesn’t mean it’s finished. Full transcript after the cut. ----more---- Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 26 for April 19th, 2016. I'm your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing these stories with you. It's been a while since GlitterShip last ran flash fiction, so I'm treating you to an episode with three flash stories in it. This episode also marks the return of Bogi Takács, whose fiction previously appeared in GlitterShip episode 3, "This Shall Serve As a Demarcation." Our first story today is "The Face of Heaven So Fine" by Kat Howard Kat Howard lives in New Hampshire. Her short fiction has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, anthologized in year's best and best of collections, and performed on NPR. Her debut novel, Roses and Rot, will be out in May from Saga Press. You can find her on twitter at @KatWithSword. The Face of Heaven So Fine Kat Howard There is an entire history in the stars. Light takes time to travel, to get from wherever the star is to wherever we can see it, here, on Earth. So when you think about it, when we see the stars, we are looking back in time. Everything those stars actually shone on has already happened. But just because a story already happened, that doesn’t mean it’s finished. Juliet was the bleeding heart of a story, made flesh and made gorgeous. She was all eyeliner and fishnets, the kind of girl who looked like she’d carve designs on her own skin, not because she was trying to hurt herself, but just for the beauty of it, you know? It wasn’t ever herself that Juliet cut, though. It was her lovers. All of them. That was the deal. A fuck, and then a perfect star, cut out of their skin. The scars were like a badge of honor. Proof you’d been with her. People would ask her to put them some place visible, those little stars she cut out of people, but Juliet chose. Juliet always chose. I fell in love with Juliet the first time I met her, which doesn’t make me any different from anyone else. I know that. That’s just how it was with Juliet. If you fell in love with her, it was an instant, headlong crash. I don’t think she fell in love back. It didn’t matter. She was like a star – so bright that everything else seemed dim when she walked into the room. It was enough to be in her orbit. I met her for the first time at a party. I knew who she was. Everyone knew who Juliet was. She was a love story with a knife, and a tattoo of an apothecary’s vial. But when we met, I was dancing, and some guy bumped into me, and I tripped. When I put my hands out to catch myself, it was her shoulders that they landed on. She leaned close, her lips almost brushing my ear, “You’re Rose, right?” I nodded. “Let’s dance.” We did. We danced until I could taste her sweat mixed with mine, until I wasn’t sure whether the ache in my thighs was from exhaustion or desire. We danced until I saw stars, her hand under my shirt, tracing a constellation on my skin. Because of the distances between the stars and the Earth, some of the stars we see in the sky have already died, burnt themselves out. Some people think that’s sad, that we look up and see things that aren’t there anymore. I think it’s beautiful. It’s like, because we can still see them, in a way they’re still alive. After, when her fingers were still inside me, her head resting on my chest, I asked: “What do you do with the stars?” Juliet was silent long enough that I thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she said, “There was a boy, and I loved him. It was the kind of love people write poetry and songs about. “He burned brighter than the stars, and then he died. And I didn’t. I thought I would, but I didn’t.” She climbed from the bed, and looked out the window. “I promised I would cut him out, and hang him in the heavens. That way, everyone can see him, and when they do, they’ll know he was worth everything.” Juliet cut the star from the skin on my chest, right over my heart. She used a dagger. “It was his,” she said when I asked. It hurt. Of course it hurt. The star of skin was the least of what she was cutting out of me. I had never wondered before how it was that people fell out of love with Juliet. The scar healed cleanly. Not just cleanly, but perfectly, a star shining on my skin. I look for him in the sky. That boy that Juliet loved so much that she would change the face of heaven for him. I don’t know how long it takes the light from those stars, the ones that she hangs, to reach us here, but I know that it will. I wonder if light reaches back in time, too. Maybe it’s impossible, but a lot of things are, and they happen anyway. I see the stars, and I wonder if that boy ever looked up at the sky and knew how much Juliet loved him. The kind of love people write songs and poetry about. The kind of love that is written in the stars. END Our next story is "A Thing with Teeth" by Nino Cipri Nino Cipri is a queer and genderqueer writer living in Chicago. Their writing has been published in Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, Podcastle , Daily Science Fiction, and other fine publications. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, essays, and radio features, and has performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer. They currently work as a bicycle mechanic, freelance writer, and occasional rabblerouser. A Thing with Teeth by Nino Cipri She started with Elena’s books. Sylvia tore out the blank back pages first, then the title pages, the dedications. Finally, the words themselves, the brittle pages of the story. She tore them into strips, sucked on them until they were soft, chewed them into balls and swallowed them. Sylvia thought she could detect hidden tastes on the pages. The worn copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon that Elena had kept since childhood was faintly sweet, like store-bought bread. The sex guide tasted coppery, and Elena’s journals had a hint of fake cherry, like cough drops. The books of poetry were minty, but with a bitter aftertaste. Elena’s letters were next. Torn into pieces, swallowed, hidden in the cavern below her throat. Sylvia could taste the dust on them, the fine desert sand that Elena said got into everything. She could taste gun oil, the military-issue soap, the hand-lotion that Sylvia had mailed across continents and oceans. She'd imagined Elena running into her dry, chapped knuckles when she'd packed it up. This stuff is worth its weight in gold around here, Elena had written. You’re a goddess. I miss you. I miss you. I miss you. The words echoed in the empty part of Sylvia’s chest. Her stomach felt like an empty house, filled with dust and ghosts. She swallowed the death notification from the Army, and then the letter from Elena’s commanding officer. It included all the details that the official notification had left out, typed out in unadorned English: the ambush, the ground-to-air missiles, the crash, the fire. We couldn’t recover her remains from the wreck, he wrote. I’m sorry. It’s likely that she died from her wounds, and not the fire. She probably went quick. Sylvia thought again of Elena’s hands. Had she worn that lotion that day? Had she smelled its perfume before she died? Sylvia tore the letter into strips and let it dissolve on her tongue. If hope was a thing with feathers, what was grief? When the books and letters were gone, she ate their photos, the black-and-white strips from photo booths, the matte prints from their civil union, the out-of-focus pictures from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Still hungry, she started on Elena’s clothes next, the T-shirts with the ironic slogans, the cotton briefs, the lacy bras she rarely wore. Sylvia ate the sheets off their bed, both their bathrobes, a washcloth, a slipper. She ate Elena’s pocketbook. It took her four days and a heavy kitchen knife to finish off a pair of old hiking boots, chewing and chewing and chewing. All that and she still felt hollow, carved open like a canyon. Sylvia stood at the mirror with her aching jaw held open, peering into the inside of her own mouth. She half-expected to see words imprinted on the red skin of her throat, black letters crawling towards the tip of her tongue. Her breath fogged the mirror. When Sylvia spat, there were threads of blood in the saliva, mixed with something darker. Ink, maybe. Sylvia walked out of her house in her pajamas, into the cold, damp air. She ran her fingers over the bark of the oak tree that dominated the backyard, then knelt down on the grass and stared up at the sky through the branches, at the chalky moon, the glassy stars. She stared at her hands, the bitten nails and torn cuticles, knuckles dry and chapped. She pressed her fingertips to the cool, damp ground at the foot of the oak tree. It parted easily, and she came up with two small handfuls of dirt. Hesitantly, she put one in her mouth, pouring it past her lips. She worked it around her tongue, and then swallowed it. Sylvia worked quickly after that, digging her fingers into the damp sod. She clawed up chunks of the ground, shoving handful after handful into her mouth. By dawn, she’d swallowed enough dirt to fill a grave. She lay back, her hands caked with soil to her elbow, belly distended, lips and chin black with soil. Finally, she thought. I’m full. END And, our final story is "Increasing Police Visibility" by Bogi Takács. Bogi Takács is an agender Hungarian Jewish author currently living in the US. E writes both speculative fiction and poetry, and eir works have been published in a variety of venues like Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Capricious and Nature Futures, among others. E has an upcoming novelette in GigaNotoSaurus and a story in Defying Doomsday, an anthology of apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled characters, edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench. E also recently guest-edited an issue of inkscrawl, the magazine for minimalist speculative poetry. You can find Bogi on the web at http://www.prezzey.net and on twitter as @bogiperson. Increasing Police Visibility by Bogi Takács Manned detector gates will be installed at border crossings, including Ferihegy Airport, and at major pedestrian thoroughfares in Budapest. No illegally present extraterrestrial will evade detection, government spokesperson Júlia Berenyi claimed at today's press conference... Kari scribbles wildly in a pocket notebook. How to explain? It's impossible to explain anything to government bureaucrats, let alone science. Kari writes: To describe a measurement— Sensitivity: True positives / Positives = True positives / (True positives + False negatives) Specificity: True negatives / Negatives = True negatives / (False positives + True negatives) Kari decides even this is too complicated, tears out the page, starts over. To describe a measurement— Janó grits his teeth, fingers the pistol in its holster. The man in front of him is on the verge of tears, but who knows when suffering will turn into assault, without another outlet. “I have to charge you with the use of forged documents,” Janó says. “How many times do I have to say? I'm – not – an – alien,” the man yells and raises his hands, more in desperation than in preparation to attack. “Assault on police officers in the line of duty carries an additional penalty,” Janó says. The man breaks down crying. Kari paces the small office, practices the presentation. They will not understand because they don't want to understand, e thinks. Out loud, e says: “To describe any kind of measurement, statisticians have devised two metrics we're going to use. Sensitivity shows us how good the measurement is at finding true positives. In this situation, a person identified as an ET who is genuinely an ET.” The term ET still makes em think of the Spielberg movie from eir childhood. E sighs and goes on. “Whereas specificity shows us how good the measurement is at finding true negatives.” How much repetition is too much? “Here, a person identified as an Earth human who's really an Earth human.” The whole thing is just about keeping the police busy and visible. Elections are coming next year, Kari thinks. Right-wing voters eat up this authoritarian nonsense. “So if we know the values of sensitivity and specificity, and know how frequent are ETs in our population, we can calculate a lot. We can determine how likely it is for a person who was detected at a gate to be a real extraterrestrial.” Alien is a slur, e reminds emself. Eir officemate comes in, banging the door open. He glances at eir slide and yells. “Are they still nagging you with that alien crap?” The young, curly-haired woman is wearing an ankle-length skirt and glaring down at Janó — she must be at least twenty centimeters taller than him, he estimates. She is the seventh person that day who objects to a full-body scan. “This goes against my religious observance,” she says, nodding and grimacing. “I request a pat-down by a female officer.” She sounds practiced at this. Janó sighs. “A pat-down cannot detect whether you are truly an extraterrestrial.” “I will sue you!” “Sue the state, you're welcome,” he groans and pushes her through, disgusted with himself all the while. Kari is giving the presentation to a roomful of government bureaucrats. E's trying to put on a magician's airs. Pull the rabbit out of the hat with a flourish. “So let's see! No measurement is perfect. How good do you think your gates are at detecting ETs? Ninety percent? Ninety-five percent? You know what, let's make it ninety-nine percent just for the sake of our argument.” They would probably be happy with eighty, e thinks. E scribbles on the whiteboard – they couldn't get the office smartboard working, nor the projector. Eir marker squeaks. SENSITIVITY = 99% SPECIFICITY = 99% “And now, how many people are actually ETs in disguise? Let's say half percent.” That's probably a huge overestimate still, e thinks. “So for a person who tests as an ET, the probability that they truly are an ET can be calculated with Bayes' theorem...” E fills the whiteboard with eir energetic scrawl. E pauses once finished. The calculations are relatively easy to follow, but e hopes even those who did not pay attention can interpret the result. Someone in the back hisses, bites back a curse. Some people whisper. “Yes, it's around 33 percent,” Kari says. “In this scenario, two thirds of people who test as ETs will be Earth humans. And this gets even worse the rarer the ETs are.” And the worse your sensitivity and specificity, e thinks but doesn't add. E isn't here to slam the detection gate technology. “This, by the way, is why general-population terrorist screenings after 9/11 were such abysmal failures.” Americans are a safe target here; the current crop of apparatchiks is pro-Russian. This is math. There is nothing to argue with here. Some of the men still try. Kari spends over an hour on discussion, eir perkiness already worn off by the half-hour mark. “We can't just stop the program,” a middle-aged man finally says. “It increases police visibility in the community.” Kari wishes e could just walk out on them, but what would that accomplish? “I had a horrible day,” Kari/Janó say simultaneously, staring at each other: their rumpled, red-eyed, rattled selves. “I hate myself,” Janó says. “I'm useless,” Kari says. Then they hug. Then they kiss. Below their second-story window, on Klauzál Square, an extraterrestrial materializes out of thin air, dodging the gates. _____________ Endnotes: For those interested in the actual calculations, the Bayes' Theorem page on Wikipedia demonstrates them with the numbers used in the story, in the context of drug testing. I first heard the terrorism comparison from Prof. Floyd Webster Rudmin at the University of Tromsø, Norway. END "The Face of Heaven So Fine" was originally published in the February 2013 issue of Apex Magazine. "A Thing with Teeth" was originally published in Eunoia Review in 2013. "Increasing Police Visibility" was originally published in the June 2015 issue of Lightspeed: Queers Destroy Science Fiction. This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license, which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library. Thanks for listening, and I'll be back on May 3rd with a GlitterShip original. [Music Plays Out]
This week, in our continuing series of discussions about the experiences of women writers in the science fiction field, we are fortunate to be joined by Eleanor Arnason and Linda Nagata. Linda, whose Going Dark appears next week from Saga Press is the third volume in her trilogy that began with the Nebula-nominated The Red, began publishing novels twenty years ago with the nanotech series that started with The Bohr Maker, still available from Mythic Island Press. Eleanor, winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. award for her classic novel A Woman of the Iron People, is currently completing a collection of her popular Hwarhath stories and has most recently published a collection of her Icelandic fantasies, Hidden Folk. We touch upon the problems and opportunities presented by self-publishing, working with small presses, and whether women SF writers might more readily disappear from the collective memory of SF readers. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.
As harvest-time descends and pumpkin-spice stormclouds gather on the horizon, John E. O. Stevens, Fred Kiesche and Jeff Patterson wrap up their Summer sojourn through the labyrinthine innards of the publishing industry with Joe Monti of Saga Press. Joe educates the Hoarsemen on the pitfalls of book buying-and-selling, forecasts the future of space opera, and ponders if Grimdark is really a thing. After a chat on trends and tribulations, the discussion turns to culture consumed. Host Fred Kiesche, John E.O. Stevens and Jeff Patterson with Joe Monti.
Seventh Day of the Seventh MoonBy Ken Liu“Tell me a story,” said Se. She had changed into her pajamas all by herself and snuggled under the blankets.Se’s big sister, Yuan, was just about to flip the switch next to the bedroom door. “How about you read a story by yourself? I have to … go see a friend.”“No, it’s not the same.” Se shook her head vigorously. “You have to tell me a story or I can’t sleep.”Yuan glanced at her phone. Every minute tonight was precious. Dad was out of town on business, and Mom was working late and wouldn’t be home till midnight. Yuan needed to be home before then, but if she could get her little sister to sleep quickly, she’d still have a couple of hours to see Jing on this, her last night in China.Full transcript appears after the cut.----more----[Intro music plays.]Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 15 for September 15th, 2015. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you.Our story today is "Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon" by Ken Liu.Ken Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, he has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places. He also translated the Hugo-winning novel, The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, which is the first translated novel to win that award.Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, was published by Saga Press in April 2015. Saga will also publish a collection of his short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, in March 2016. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.We also have a special guest reader this week, which is awesome.Our reader this week is S. Qiouyi Lu. You can visit their site at http://s.qiouyi.lu/ and follow them on Twitter at @sqiouyilu.Seventh Day of the Seventh MoonBy Ken Liu“Tell me a story,” said Se. She had changed into her pajamas all by herself and snuggled under the blankets.Se’s big sister, Yuan, was just about to flip the switch next to the bedroom door. “How about you read a story by yourself? I have to … go see a friend.”“No, it’s not the same.” Se shook her head vigorously. “You have to tell me a story or I can’t sleep.”Yuan glanced at her phone. Every minute tonight was precious. Dad was out of town on business, and Mom was working late and wouldn’t be home till midnight. Yuan needed to be home before then, but if she could get her little sister to sleep quickly, she’d still have a couple of hours to see Jing on this, her last night in China.“Come on, Yuan,” Se begged. “Please!”Yuan came back to the side of the bed and stroked Se’s forehead gently. She sighed. “All right.”She texted Jing: Late by half hour. Wait?The crystal cat charm, a gift from Jing, dangled from her phone. It twirled and glittered in the warm bedroom light as she waited impatiently for the response.Finally, the phone beeped. Of course. Won’t leave until we meet.“Tell the story about the Qixi Festival,” said Se, yawning. “That’s tonight, isn’t it?”“Yes, yes it is.”Long ago, a beautiful young woman, the granddaughter of the Emperor of Heaven, lived in the sky by the eastern shore of the Silver River—that’s the broad band of light you can sometimes see in the sky at night, when the air is clear.She was skilled at the loom, and so that’s why people called her—“You skipped the part where you describe her weaving!”“But you’ve heard this story a hundred times already. Can’t I just get it over with?”“You have to tell it right.”—as I had apparently neglected to mention: her works were displayed proudly by the Heavenly Court in the western sky at every sunset: glorious clouds of crimson, amethyst, periwinkle, and every shade in between. So people called her Zhinü, the Weaver Girl. And though she was the youngest of seven immortal sisters, we mortals addressed her by the honorific Big Sister Seven.But over time, Zhinü grew wan and thin. Her brows were always tightly knit into a frown, and she did not wash her face or comb out her hair. The sunset clouds she wove were not as lovely as before, and mortals began to complain.The Emperor of Heaven came to visit. “What ails you, my granddaughter?”“Haha, you do that voice so well. You sound just like Grandfather.”“I’m glad you approve. Now stop interrupting.”“Oh, Gonggong, I’m so lonely. Living all by myself in this hut, my only company are my loom—jiya, jiya, it squeaks all day long—and a few magpies.”The Emperor took pity on her and found her a good match. The young man tended to cows on the western shore of the Silver River, so people called him Niulang, the Cowherd. He was handsome and kind and full of funny stories, and Zhinü loved him, and he her, the moment they set eyes on each other.“See, I’m not such a bad matchmaker.” The Emperor of Heaven smiled as he stroked his beard. “Now I know you’re young, and you should have fun. But now that you have a companion, please don’t neglect your work.”Zhinü moved to the western shore of the Silver River to be with Niulang, and the two of them married. They had two boys, and there never was a happier family.“Oh, no, here comes the boring part. You can skip it if you want to.”“No way! This is the best part. You’ll understand when you’re older. Now pay attention.”Every morning, as Niulang got up before sunrise to take the cows to their favorite pasture, Zhinü could not bear the thought of being separated from him. So she would come along. She’d put the two babies in two baskets draped on each side of an old, gentle ox, and she would ride on the back of a pure white bull led by Niulang. They’d sing together, tell each other stories from before they met, and laugh at the jokes that only they understood.Zhinü’s loom sat unused back at the hut, gathering dust.Sunsets became ugly affairs. The few clouds that remained became tattered, wispy, colorless. The people laboring in the fields lost the beauty that had once lifted up their hearts at the end of a hard day, and their laments rose to the Heavenly Court.“My maritorious child,” said the Emperor of Heaven—“What does that word mean?”“It means loving your husband too much.”“How can you love someone too much?”“Good question. I don’t know either. Maybe the Emperor of Heaven didn’t have enough love in his heart to understand. Maybe he was too old.”—“I warned you about neglecting your duty. For your disobedience and neglect, you must now move back to the eastern shore of the Silver River and never see Niulang and your children again.”Zhinü begged for reprieve, but the Emperor’s word was as irreversible as the flow of the Silver River.At the Emperor’s decree, the Silver River was widened and deepened, and Zhinü forever parted from her husband. Today, you can see the star that is Zhinü on one side of the Silver River and the star that is Niulang on the other, their two sons two faint stars on each side of Niulang. They stare at each other across that unbridgeable gap, the longing and regret as endless as the flowing river.“Why did you stop?”“It’s nothing. My throat just felt itchy for a bit.”“Are you sad for Niulang and Zhinü?”“Maybe … a little bit. But it’s just a story.”But the magpies that once kept Zhinü company took pity on the lovers. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh moon by the lunar calendar, on Qixi, the day when Zhinü is at her highest position in the sky, all the magpies in the world fly up to the Silver River and make a bridge with their bodies so that the lovers can spend one night together.This is the day when all the young women in old China would pray to Big Sister Seven for love.Oh, I know you want to hear more about the bridge of magpies. You love this part. Well, I imagine it’s a lot of work for the birds. They probably have to go to magpie bridge-building school, and those who’re a bit slow have to go to cram school for extra study sessions …Yuan turned out the light and tiptoed out of her sister’s bedroom.On my way, she texted.She made sure the air conditioning was set comfortably low, locked the door of the apartment, and ran down the stairs. And then she was in the hot, humid evening air of Hefei in August.She biked through the streets, dodging an endless stream of cars beeping their horns. She liked the physicality of the ride, the way it made her body come alive, feel awake. She passed the sidewalks filled with people browsing past stores and kiosks filled with everything imaginable: discount electronics, toys, clothes, fancy European soups and cakes, mouth-watering sweet potatoes baked in tinfoil and fried, smelly tofu. The heat and the exertion stuck her shirt to her skin, and she had to wipe her forehead from time to time to keep the sweat out of her eyes.And then she was at the coffee shop, and Jing—slender, graceful in a plain white dress and a light jacket (for the air conditioning), a faint whiff of the floral perfume that always made Yuan dizzy—greeted Yuan with that bright smile that she always wore.As if this wasn’t the night the world ended.“Are you done packing?” Yuan asked.“Oh, there’s always more to pack.” Jing’s tone was light, breezy, careless. “But I don’t have to get to the airport ‘til nine in the morning. There’s plenty of time.”“You should dress in layers, with something long-sleeved on top,” said Yuan—mainly because she feared saying nothing. “It can get cold on the plane.”“Want to take a walk with me? The next time I walk around at night I’ll be in America. Maybe I’ll miss all this noise.”Yuan left her bike locked to the light post outside the coffee shop, and they strolled along the sidewalk like the rest of the crowd. They did not hold hands. In Shanghai, perhaps no one would have cared, but in Hefei, there would have been looks, and whispers, and maybe worse.Yuan imagined Jing walking about the campus of the American high school at night. Jing had shown her pictures of the red brick buildings and immaculate lawns. And the smiling boys and girls: foreigners. Yuan felt out of breath; her heart seemed unable to decide on a steady rhythm.“Look at that,” said Jing, pointing to the display window of a pastry shop. “They’re selling Qixi Lovers’ Cakes now. So overpriced. And you know some stupid girl is going to throw a fit if her boyfriend doesn’t buy it for her. I want to throw up.”“Not quite as bad as Valentine’s Day,” Yuan said. “I think the vendors are pretty restrained. Relatively speaking.”“That’s because people aren’t into Qixi any more. We Chinese always get more enthusiastic for Western imports, even holidays. It’s a national character weakness.”“I like Qixi,” Yuan said. She said it more emphatically than she meant to.“What, you want to set out an altar under a melon trellis, offer up a plate of fruits, pray to Big Sister Seven, and hope for a spider to weave a web over the offering by morning so you’ll get a nice husband in the future?”Yuan’s face grew hot. She stopped. “You don’t have to mock everything Chinese.”Jing cocked her head, a teasing smile in her eyes. “You suddenly getting all patriotic on me now?”“Your father has the money to pay for you to go to an American boarding school. That doesn’t make you better than everyone else.”“Oh, lay off that wounded tone. You’re hardly some migrant worker’s daughter.”They stared at each other, the neon lights from the nearby stores flickering over their faces. Yuan wanted to kiss Jing and scream at her at the same time. She had always liked Jing’s irreverence, the way she wanted to turn everything into a joke. She knew her anger had nothing to do with this conversation about Qixi at all.Jing turned and continued down the sidewalk. After a moment, Yuan followed.When Jing spoke again, her tone was calm, as if nothing had happened. “Remember the first time we went hiking together?”That had been one of the best days of Yuan’s life. They had skipped their cram school sessions and taken the bus to Emerald Lake, an artificial pond bordering several college campuses. Jing had showed Yuan how to set up her phone so that her mom couldn’t see the messages Jing sent her, and Yuan had showed Jing her baby pictures. They had bought a lamb chuanr from a street vendor and shared it as they walked along the lakeshore. Her heart had beaten faster with each bite of roasted meat off the skewer, thinking that her lips were touching where hers had touched. And then, as they strolled through one of the campuses, Jing had boldly taken her hand: it was a college, after all.And then that first kiss behind the willow tree, tasting the hot spices from the lamb kebab on Jing’s tongue, the calls of wild geese behind her somewhere…“I remember,” she said. Her voice still sounded wounded, and she didn’t care.“I wish we could go there again,” Jing said.The anger in Yuan disappeared, just like that. Jing always had such a way with her. Yuan felt like putty in her hands.“We can chat on QQ or Skype,” Yuan said. She hurried to catch up so that she was walking next to Jing. “And you’ll come back for visits. This isn’t like the old days. It will be okay. We can still be together.”They had wandered off the main thoroughfare onto a less busy side street. The streetlights on one side were out, and looking up they could see a few stars in the sky. Hefei wasn’t as polluted as some of the cities on the coast.“I’m going to be really busy,” Jing said. Her tone was calm, too calm.“We can text every day, every hour.”“It’s different over there. I’ll be living on my own in a dorm. I have to actually study if I want to go to a good college. My family is paying a lot to give me this.”“Americans don’t study that much.”“It’s not like watching American TV shows. There aren’t subtitles. I’ll meet lots of new people. I have to make a new life over there, new friends. I’ll need to be thinking, talking, breathing English all the time if I want to make it.”“I can text you in English,” Yuan said. “I’ll do whatever you want.”“You’re not listening,” Jing said. She stopped again and looked at Yuan.“What are you trying to say?” As soon as she asked the question, Yuan regretted it. It made her sound so weak, so clingy, like a girl from one of those Korean dramas.“I’m going away, Yuan. I told you this was going to happen last year, when we … started.”Yuan looked away so that Jing would not see her eyes. She pushed the image of Jing with someone else out of her mind. She cursed her eyes and told them to behave and stop embarrassing her.“It will be okay.” Jing’s tone was now comforting, gentle, and that made it worse. “We’ll both be okay.”Yuan said nothing because she knew she couldn’t control her voice. She licked her lips, tasting the salt from the sweat of her ride. She wanted to wipe her eyes so she could see clearly again, but she didn’t want to do it in front of Jing.“I want to make this night a happy memory,” Jing said, but her voice finally cracked. She struggled, but failed, to keep her calm mask on. “I’m trying to make this easier. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for those you love?”Yuan looked up, blinking her eyes hard. She looked for the Silver River, and she remembered that in English it was called the Milky Way—what a graceless and silly name. She looked for Zhinü and Niulang, and she vaguely remembered that in English they were called Vega and Altair, names as cold and meaningless to her as the stars.Just then, magpies seemed to come out of nowhere and gathered over their heads in a cloud of fluttering wings. While they looked up, stunned, the flock swept out of the night sky, descended over them like a giant spider web, and lifted them into the heavens.Riding on the wings of magpies, Yuan found, was not like riding a magical carpet.Not that she knew what riding a magical carpet felt like—but she was sure that it didn’t involve being constantly poked from below by a hundred—no, a thousand—little winged fists.The magpies would fall a bit below where they were and flap their wings rapidly in an upward burst until they collided with the girls’ bodies. The combined force of all the magpies would push them up until the birds lost their momentum and began to fall away, and then a new wave of upward-thrusting magpies would take their place. The girls resembled two ping-pong balls riding on the water spout from a hose pointing up.In the maelstrom of wings they found each other and clung together.“Are you all right?” They each asked at the same time.“What in the world is happening?” Jing asked, her words jumbled together from fear and excitement.“This is a dream,” Yuan said. “This must be a dream.”And then Jing began to laugh.“It can’t be a dream,” she said. “These magpies carrying us: they tickle!”And Yuan laughed too. It was so absurd, so impossible; yet it was happening.Some of the magpies began to sing, a complicated, trilling, lovely chorus. There were magpies of every description: some with white bellies, some with white beaks, some with iridescent, shimmering, blue wings. Yuan felt as if she and Jing were enclosed inside the beating heart of some giant, flying, alien musical instrument.Arms around each other, gingerly sitting side by side, they peeked out at the world below from between the darting wings of the magpies.They were floating in a dark sea. The lights of the city of Hefei spread out below them like a pulsing, receding jellyfish.“It’s getting cold,” said Yuan. She shivered as the wind whipped her hair around her face.“We’re really high up,” said Jing. She took off her summer jacket and draped it around Yuan’s shoulders. Yuan tucked her nose into the collar of the jacket and breathed in the lingering perfume. It warmed her heart even if the thin fabric did little against the chill.Then Yuan berated herself. Jing had broken up with her, and she didn’t need to look so needy, so pathetic. It was fine to cling to Jing in a moment of weakness, but now they were safe. Gently, she took her arm from around Jing and shrugged out of her arm as well. She lifted her face into the clear, frosty air, and tried to shift away from Jing, keeping some distance between them.“Reminds you of Su Shi’s poem, doesn’t it?” Jing whispered. Yuan nodded reluctantly. Jing was the literary one, and she always knew the pretty words, suitable for every occasion.A half moon, like a half-veiled smile, loomed pale white in the dark sky. It grew brighter and larger as they rose on the backs of the magpies.Jing began to sing the words of the Song Dynasty poem, set to a popular tune, and after a moment, Yuan joined her:When did the Moon first appear?I ask the heavens and lift my wine cup.I know not whether time passes the same wayIn the palace among the clouds. I’d like to ride up with the wind,But I’m afraid of the chill from being so highAmong the jade porticos and nephrite beams. We dance with our shadows.Are we even on earth any more?The silver light dapples the window,Illuminating my sleepless night.Do you hate us, Moon?Why are you always waxing just when we’re parting?Like a dancer and her shadow, the two girls swayed, each separately, to a harmony as young as themselves and as old as the land beneath.“So, it’s all true,” said Jing.The magpies had lifted them above the clouds and leveled off. As they glided over the cottony mists, they could see a celestial city of bread loaf-like buildings, punctuated by spiky towers here and there, gleaming in the late summer moonlight in the distance: blue as ice, green as jade, white like ivory. The styles of the buildings were neither Western nor Chinese, but something that transcended them all: heavenly, the Palace of Immortals.“I wonder if there really are immortals living there,” said Yuan. What she didn’t say out loud was her secret hope: she and Jing had been picked by the magpies for this trip to the heavens because the immortals thought they were as special a pair as Niulang and Zhinü—the thought was tinged with both excitement and sorrow.And then they were at the Silver River. It was broader than the Yangtze, almost like Taihu Lake, with the other shore barely visible on the horizon. The rushing torrent roared past like stampeding horses, and giant waves as tall as the apartment buildings in Hefei pounded against the shore.“Hey, don’t carry us over the water!” Jing shouted. But the magpies ignored her and continued to fly towards the river.“They’re building a bridge,” said Yuan. “It’s Qixi, remember?”Indeed, more flocks of magpies appeared. Along with the flock carrying the girls, they congregated like rivulets coalescing into a mighty river of wings. The magpies hovered over the water, with newcomers extending the flock’s reach towards the other shore. They were forming an arching bridge over the Silver River.“I have to take a picture of this,” said Yuan, and she took out her cell phone.The crystal cat charm dangling from the phone caught the light of the moon and dazzled. The magpies immediately surrounding Yuan trilled and dashed at it, knocking the phone out of her hand. And then it was a free for all as more of the magpies forgot about building the bridge and rushed after the shiny bauble. Even when charged with a magical mission, birds were still just birds.Or maybe even the birds have realized we’re not such a special pair after all, Yuan thought, and the charm is more interesting.She gazed after her phone anxiously. If Se woke up from a nightmare, she might try to call her. And if her mom got home before her, she might wonder where she was. She needed that phone back. She hoped the birds would bounce the phone closer to her so she could snatch it.Then those worries were pushed out of her mind as the magpies that had supported Yuan dropped off to join the chase after the charm, and no new magpies replaced them. Her weight overwhelmed the few magpies that remained on task, and she began to fall. She didn’t even have time to cry out.But then a strong hand caught her right wrist and arrested her descent. Yuan looked up into Jing’s face. She was lying down on the bridge of magpies, and she strained as she reached out and held onto Yuan with one hand while fumbling in her purse with the other.“Let go!” shouted Yuan. “You’ll fall, too!” Her world seemed to shrink down to her hands as they clasped around Jing’s hand, around her warm, pale skin. She willed herself to let go, but she could not.“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Jing, panting.The magpies continued to fight each other for the shiny charm, causing Yuan’s phone to bob up and down over the flock like a stone skipping over water. They had stopped extending the living bridge over the water.Jing finally managed to free her own phone from her purse. She paid no attention as her purse almost tumbled over the side of the bridge, where it would have disappeared into the roiling waves below. By feel, she pressed the first button on the dial pad.Yuan’s phone came to life and began to vibrate and buzz. The shocked magpies backed off in a panic, and the phone stayed still in the air for a second before falling, faster and faster, and finally disappeared into the Silver River without a trace.Yuan felt her heart sink. That cat charm, the first gift Jing had ever given her, now gone forever.“Good thing I have you on speed dial,” Jing said.“How do we still have reception here?”“After all that, that’s what you are worried about?” Jing laughed, and after a moment, Yuan joined her.The magpies seemed to have awakened from a bad dream, and they rushed over and lifted Yuan up onto the bridge. Once the girls were safe, the magpies continued to extend their bridge to the other side of the Silver River, leaving the pair at the middle of the bridge, suspended over the endless water and mist.“We almost caused the magpies to fail to build the bridge,” Yuan said. “It would be so sad if Niulang and Zhinü don’t get to meet this year.”Jing nodded. “It’s almost midnight.” She saw the look on Yuan’s face. “Don’t worry about not being home. Nothing bad can happen on the night of Qixi.”“I thought you weren’t into Qixi.”“Well, maybe just a little bit.”They sat down on the bridge together, watching the moon rise over the Silver River. This time, Yuan did not let go of Jing’s hand.“She’s coming,” said Yuan. She jumped up and pointed down the bridge towards the eastern shore. Now that she had spent some time on the bridge of magpies, she was getting pretty good at keeping her footing over the fluttering wings.In the distance, through the mist that wafted over the bridge from time to time, they could see a small, solitary figure making its way towards them.“So is he,” said Jing. She pointed the other way. Through the mist they could see another tiny figure slowly creep towards them.The girls stood up and waited, side by side, looking first one way and then the other. Being in the presence of the annual reunion of this pair of legendary lovers was exciting, maybe even better than meeting TV stars.The two figures from the opposite ends of the bridge came close enough for Yuan and Jing to see them clearly.Out of the east, an old woman approached. Yuan thought she looked as old as, maybe even older than, her grandmother. Her back bent, she walked with a cane. But her wrinkled face glowed healthily with the exertion of having traveled all the way here. Wearing a Tang Dynasty dress, she looked splendid to Yuan. Her breath puffed out visibly in the cold air.Out of the west, an old man emerged from the mist: straight back, long legs, wiry arms swinging freely. His full head of silvery white hair matched the old woman’s, but his face was even more wrinkled than hers. As soon as he saw the old woman, his eyes lit up in a bright smile.“They’re not—” Jing started to say in a whisper.“—quite what we expected?” finished Yuan.“I guess I always pictured immortals as being … well, I guess there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t grow old.”A wispy tendril of sorrow brushed across Yuan’s heart. She tried to imagine Jing as an old woman, and the tenderness made her almost tear up again. She squeezed Jing’s hand, and Jing squeezed back, turning to smile at her.The old man and the old woman met in the middle of the bridge, a few paces away from where the girls stood. They nodded at Jing and Yuan politely and then turned their full attention to each other.“Glad to see you looking so well,” said Zhinü. “Da Lang told me that you were having some trouble with your back the last time he visited with his family. I wasn’t sure you were going to make it here this year.”“Da Lang always exaggerates,” said Niulang. “When he visits I don’t dare to sneeze or cough, lest he insist that I go to the moon to visit Chang’E for some Osmanthus herbs. This old bag of bones can’t really take any more medicine. I think he’s more upset than you or I that his brother didn’t want to be a doctor.”They laughed and chatted on, talking about children and friends.“Why don’t they kiss?” Jing whispered to Yuan.“That’s a Western thing,” Yuan whispered back. “Niulang and Zhinü are old school.”“I’m not sure that’s true. I’ve seen Internet posts arguing people in ancient China used to kiss—but anyway, they’re standing so far apart!”“It’s like they’re friends, not lovers.”“It seems that we have some curious guests,” said Zhinü as she turned around to look at the girls. She didn’t sound angry—more like amused.“We’re sorry,” said Yuan, feeling her face grow hot. “We didn’t mean to be rude.” She hesitated. It didn’t seem right at all to call this old woman “Big Sister Seven.” So she added, “Grandma Zhinü and Grandpa Niulang.”“We just thought,” Jing said, “that … um … you’d be more … passionate.”“You mean less laughing, and more tears and recitation of love poems,” said Niulang, a gentle smile in his eyes.“Yes,” said Jing. “No,” said Yuan, simultaneously.Zhinü and Niulang laughed out loud. Niulang said, “It’s okay. The magpies have been building this bridge for thousands of years, and they sometimes bring guests. We’re used to questions.”Zhinü looked from Yuan to Jing and back again. “You two are together?”“Yes,” said Jing. “No,” said Yuan, simultaneously. They looked at each other, embarrassed.“Now that sounds like a story,” said Zhinü.“We were together,” said Yuan.“But I’m leaving,” said Jing. “We’ll be parted by the Pacific Ocean.” And they told their story to Niulang and Zhinü. It seemed perfectly right to pour their hearts out to the legendary lovers.“I understand,” said Zhinü, nodding sympathetically. “Oh, do I understand.”At first I was inconsolable. I stood on the shore of the Silver River day after day, pining for a glance of my husband and children. I thought the pain in my heart would never go away. I refused to touch my loom. If my grandfather was angry, then let him find someone else to weave the sunsets. I was done.The first time we met over the bridge of magpies, Niulang and I could not stop crying the whole time. My children were growing up so fast, and I felt so guilty. So, when we had to part again, Niulang came up with a stratagem: he asked the magpies to retrieve two large rocks that were about the weight of my babies and carried them home in two baskets on the ends of a pole over his shoulder, the same way he had carried the boys onto the bridge. And everyone thought they had gone home with him. But unbeknownst to anyone else, I carried the boys home with me on my back.And after that, every year, as we met on the bridge, we passed the boys back and forth. They’d spend one year with me, one year with Niulang. They would not have their parents together, but they would have both of them.Each time we met, I told him again and again of the solitude of my hut, the desultory squeak of my loom. And he told me of how he took his herd to the same pastures that we had gone to as a family, to relive the happiness we shared. The grass had grown thin and bare from overgrazing, and his animals were just skin and bones.And then, one year, when the boys were a little older and could walk on their own, Niulang held me and told me that he didn’t want to see me sad any more.“We live a whole year for this one day,” he said. “We’re letting our lives pass us by. It’s not right that you should sit by your loom pining from morning ‘til evening. It’s not right that our sons should think our lives are lives of sorrow. It’s not right that we should come to believe that yearning for what we can’t have is what love is all about.”“What are you saying?” I asked. I was angry, and I didn’t know why. Was he saying that he no longer loved me? I had been faithful to him, but had he been to me?“We know we cannot be together,” he said. “We know that sometimes things happen to people that keeps them apart. But we have refused to look for new happiness. Are we sad because we’re in love? Or are we sad because we feel trapped by the idea of love?”I thought about what he said, and realized that he was right. I had become so used to the story about us, the idea of us living our whole lives for this once-a-year meeting, that I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted. I had become my own legend. Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves obscure our truths.“You’re beautiful when you laugh,” he said.“We’re beautiful when we seek to make ourselves happy,” I said.And so I went back to my loom and poured my love for Niulang into my weaving. I thought those were some of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever woven.And then I found that love was not a limited thing, but an endless fount. I found that I loved the laughter of my children, and the chatter of friends new and old. I found that I loved the fresh breeze that brought smells from far away. I found that other young men made my heart beat faster.And Niulang went and took his herd to new pastures, and he came up with new songs. Young women came and listened to him, and he found that conversation with them gladdened his heart.We told each other these things the next time we met over the bridge. I was glad for him and he for me. We had been clinging to each other as though we were afraid to drown, but in fact, we had been holding each other back from moving on.“And so we each went on and had other loves, joys as well as sorrows,” said Zhinü.“We still meet once a year,” said Niulang, “to catch up on each other’s lives. Old friends are hard to come by.” He and Zhinü looked at each other with affection. “They keep you honest.”“Are you disappointed?” asked Zhinü.Jing and Yuan looked at each other. “Yes,” they said together. Then they said “no,” also together.“Then, are you not in love anymore?” asked Yuan.“You ask that question because you think if we’re no longer in love, then that means the love we had was somehow not real.” Zhinü turned serious. “But the past does not get rewritten. Niulang was the first man I loved, and that would be true no matter how many times I fell in love after him.”“It’s time to go,” Niulang said. The magpies under them were getting restless. The eastern sky was brightening.“You were together, and you’re together now,” said Niulang to the girls. “Whatever comes, that remains a fact.”“You look lovely together, dears,” said Zhinü.Niulang and Zhinü embraced lightly and wished each other well. Then they turned and began to walk in opposite directions.“Look!” said Jing, and gripped Yuan’s hand.Where the old Niulang and Zhinü had been, there was now a pair of ghostly figures: a young man and a young woman. They embraced tightly, as if Yuan and Jing were not there at all.“They were such a handsome couple,” said Yuan.“They still are,” said Jing.And as the bridge of magpies broke up, carrying the girls down to earth, they looked back at the pair of ghost lovers dissolving gradually in the moonlight.Miraculously, Yuan found her bike where she’d left it.The sidewalks were still relatively empty. The first breakfast shops were just getting ready for the day, and the smell of warm soy milk and freshly fried youtiao filled the air.“Better rush home,” said Yuan. “Don’t miss your flight.”“And you need to go, too. Your mom will be worried sick!”Jing pulled her in, wrapping her arms around her. Yuan tried to pull back. “People will see.”“I don’t care,” Jing said. “I lied that day at Emerald Lake. I told you I had kissed other girls before. But you were the first. I want you to know that.”They held each other and cried, and some of the passers-by gave them curious looks, but no one stopped.“I’ll call you every day,” Jing said. “I’ll text you whenever I get a chance.”Yuan pulled back. “No. I don’t want you to think of it as a chore. Do it if you want to. And if you don’t, I’ll understand. Let whatever will happen, happen.”A quick kiss, and Yuan pushed Jing away. “Go, go!”She watched as Jing ran down the street to catch the bus. She watched as the bus pulled into the stream of traffic, a mighty river of steel like the Silver River, and disappeared around the corner.“I love you,” Yuan whispered. And no matter how the stream of time flowed on, that moment would be true forever.END“Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon” was originally published in Kaleidoscope, published by Twelfth Planet Press, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios in 2014.This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library.Thanks for listening, and I’ll have another story for you on September 22nd.[Music plays out]
Short story writing, novel writing, and translating require a variety of skills and strengths that are hardly ever found in a single person. Ken Liu is one of those rare individuals who has them all. He is perhaps best known for short stories like The Paper Menagerie, which (according to his Wikipedia entry) was the first work of fiction to earn Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. But this year he’s making waves with two longer projects, which are the focus of his New Books interview: his translation of Cixin Liu‘s The Three-Body Problem and his debut novel The Grace of Kings. The Three-Body Problem has been a break-out success in China for Cixin Liu, who has won China’s Galaxy Award for science fiction nine times. The Three-Body Problem is also the first hard science-fiction novel by an author from the People’s Republic of China to be translated into English. Ken Liu (who is not related to Cixin Liu) says sales numbers for science fiction in China would be the envy of American publishers, but Chinese publishers have traditionally considered it a niche market. That is, until The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels came along. Officially, Chinese readers have bought about 400,000 copies of the three-volume series but Liu says the actual number of readers is far larger as books get passed among friends and family. Liu anticipated it would be difficult to translate the language of science, but the cultural references proved more challenging. Ultimately, he decided to add concise footnotes to fill in some gaps without overwhelming readers with too much information. The success of his translation is reflected in the The Three-Body Problem‘s Nebula and Hugo nominations for best novel. The Grace of Kings, the first book in Liu’s projected Dandelion Dynasty, is a very different project–an epic fantasy/science-fiction mashup that Liu calls “silkpunk.” Liu grew up in a Chinese speaking household. “Every culture has its own set of foundational narratives that are echoed and dialogued with and re-imagined over and over again… They’re stories about how a people embody their own values and see themselves as having meaning in the universe.” In the case of The Grace of Kings, Liu drew from an ancient historical struggle known as the Chu-Han Contention but reimagines it in a secondary world, using both classic Western and Chinese storytelling techniques. “The result is this melding of everything into this fantastical universe that I call silkpunk,” Liu says. “So there are battle kites and mechanical contraptions of various sorts, underwater boats and airships that propel themselves with giant feathered oars that represent the kinds of things you see in Chinese block prints and historical romances [but] sort of blown up and extended into a new technology vocabulary that I had a lot fun playing with.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. He worked for many years as a journalist, writing on a wide range of topics from science to justice reform, and now serves as director of communications for a think tank in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Short story writing, novel writing, and translating require a variety of skills and strengths that are hardly ever found in a single person. Ken Liu is one of those rare individuals who has them all. He is perhaps best known for short stories like The Paper Menagerie, which (according to his Wikipedia entry) was the first work of fiction to earn Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. But this year he’s making waves with two longer projects, which are the focus of his New Books interview: his translation of Cixin Liu‘s The Three-Body Problem and his debut novel The Grace of Kings. The Three-Body Problem has been a break-out success in China for Cixin Liu, who has won China’s Galaxy Award for science fiction nine times. The Three-Body Problem is also the first hard science-fiction novel by an author from the People’s Republic of China to be translated into English. Ken Liu (who is not related to Cixin Liu) says sales numbers for science fiction in China would be the envy of American publishers, but Chinese publishers have traditionally considered it a niche market. That is, until The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels came along. Officially, Chinese readers have bought about 400,000 copies of the three-volume series but Liu says the actual number of readers is far larger as books get passed among friends and family. Liu anticipated it would be difficult to translate the language of science, but the cultural references proved more challenging. Ultimately, he decided to add concise footnotes to fill in some gaps without overwhelming readers with too much information. The success of his translation is reflected in the The Three-Body Problem‘s Nebula and Hugo nominations for best novel. The Grace of Kings, the first book in Liu’s projected Dandelion Dynasty, is a very different project–an epic fantasy/science-fiction mashup that Liu calls “silkpunk.” Liu grew up in a Chinese speaking household. “Every culture has its own set of foundational narratives that are echoed and dialogued with and re-imagined over and over again… They’re stories about how a people embody their own values and see themselves as having meaning in the universe.” In the case of The Grace of Kings, Liu drew from an ancient historical struggle known as the Chu-Han Contention but reimagines it in a secondary world, using both classic Western and Chinese storytelling techniques. “The result is this melding of everything into this fantastical universe that I call silkpunk,” Liu says. “So there are battle kites and mechanical contraptions of various sorts, underwater boats and airships that propel themselves with giant feathered oars that represent the kinds of things you see in Chinese block prints and historical romances [but] sort of blown up and extended into a new technology vocabulary that I had a lot fun playing with.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. He worked for many years as a journalist, writing on a wide range of topics from science to justice reform, and now serves as director of communications for a think tank in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Short story writing, novel writing, and translating require a variety of skills and strengths that are hardly ever found in a single person. Ken Liu is one of those rare individuals who has them all. He is perhaps best known for short stories like The Paper Menagerie, which (according to his Wikipedia entry) was the first work of fiction to earn Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. But this year he’s making waves with two longer projects, which are the focus of his New Books interview: his translation of Cixin Liu‘s The Three-Body Problem and his debut novel The Grace of Kings. The Three-Body Problem has been a break-out success in China for Cixin Liu, who has won China’s Galaxy Award for science fiction nine times. The Three-Body Problem is also the first hard science-fiction novel by an author from the People’s Republic of China to be translated into English. Ken Liu (who is not related to Cixin Liu) says sales numbers for science fiction in China would be the envy of American publishers, but Chinese publishers have traditionally considered it a niche market. That is, until The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels came along. Officially, Chinese readers have bought about 400,000 copies of the three-volume series but Liu says the actual number of readers is far larger as books get passed among friends and family. Liu anticipated it would be difficult to translate the language of science, but the cultural references proved more challenging. Ultimately, he decided to add concise footnotes to fill in some gaps without overwhelming readers with too much information. The success of his translation is reflected in the The Three-Body Problem‘s Nebula and Hugo nominations for best novel. The Grace of Kings, the first book in Liu’s projected Dandelion Dynasty, is a very different project–an epic fantasy/science-fiction mashup that Liu calls “silkpunk.” Liu grew up in a Chinese speaking household. “Every culture has its own set of foundational narratives that are echoed and dialogued with and re-imagined over and over again… They’re stories about how a people embody their own values and see themselves as having meaning in the universe.” In the case of The Grace of Kings, Liu drew from an ancient historical struggle known as the Chu-Han Contention but reimagines it in a secondary world, using both classic Western and Chinese storytelling techniques. “The result is this melding of everything into this fantastical universe that I call silkpunk,” Liu says. “So there are battle kites and mechanical contraptions of various sorts, underwater boats and airships that propel themselves with giant feathered oars that represent the kinds of things you see in Chinese block prints and historical romances [but] sort of blown up and extended into a new technology vocabulary that I had a lot fun playing with.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape. He worked for many years as a journalist, writing on a wide range of topics from science to justice reform, and now serves as director of communications for a think tank in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Every year there are thousands of books published and any one of them could appeal to you. To help you find great new books, Locus publishes a list of forthcoming titles every three months. And to help you navigate through that, each quarter we invite Locus Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi to join us and discuss the books that we think might be most interesting that are due out between now and the end of 2015. This month, unfortunately, Liza was not able to join us. However, we have persevered and have some recommendations for you. Of course, we strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the June issue of Locus and see the full list, which goes through to March 2016. As promised, here's our list: ABERCROMBIE, JOE Half a War, Ballantine Del Rey, Jul 2015 (eb, hc) BEAR, GREG Killing Titan, Orbit US, Oct 2015 (hc) BENFORD, GREGORY The Best of Gregory Benford, Sub- terranean Press, Jul 2015 (c, eb, hc) BIANCOTTI, DEBORAH Waking in Winter, PS Publishing, Jul 2015 (na, hc) BLAYLOCK, JAMES P. Beneath London, Titan US, May 2015 (eb, tp) BRAY, LIBBA Lair of Dreams, Little, Brown, Aug 2015 (1st US, ya, eb, hc) CHO, ZEN Sorcerer to the Crown, Macmillan, Sep 2015 (eb, hc) CIXIN, LIU The Dark Forest, Tor, Jul 2015 (eb, hc) DE BODARD, ALIETTE House of Shattered Wings, Penguin/Roc, Sep 2015 (1st US, hc) DICKINSON, SETH The Traitor Boru Cormorant, Macmillan/Tor UK, Aug 2015 (eb, hc) GORODISCHER, ANGELICA Prodigies, Small Beer Press, Aug 2015 (eb, tp) HAND, ELIZABETH Wylding Hall, Open Road, Jul 2015 HOLLAND, CECELIA Dragon Heart, Tor, Sep 2015 (eb, hc) HOPKINSON, NALO Falling in Love with Hominids, Tachyon Publications, Aug 2015 (c, tp) HURLEY, KAMERON Empire Ascendant, Angry Robot US, Oct 2015 (eb, tp) HUTCHISON, DAVE, Europe in Autumn, Solaris, UK/US Nov 2015 (tp) KIERNAN, CAITLÍN R. Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea, Subterranean Press, Nov 2015 (c, eb, hc) KRESS, NANCY The Best of Nancy Kress, Subterranean Press, Sep 2015 (c, eb, hc) LECKIE, ANN Ancillary Mercy, Orbit US, Oct 2015 (tp) LIU, KEN The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, Nov 2015 (c, eb, hc) McDONALD, IAN Luna: New Moon, Tor, Sep 2015 (eb, hc) McDONALD, IAN The Best of Ian MacDonald, PS Publishing, Jun 2015 (c, hc) McDONALD, IAN The Locomotives' Graveyard, PS Publishing, Aug 2015 (na, hc) McDONALD, IAN Mars Stories, PS Publishing, Aug 2015 (c, hc) MIÉVILLE, CHINA Three Moments of an Explosion, Ballantine Del Rey, Aug 2015 (1st US, c, eb, hc) MITCHELL, DAVID Slade House, Random House, Oct 2015 (eb, hc) MORROW, JAMES Reality by Other Means: The Best Short Fiction of James Morrow, Wesleyan University Press, Nov 2015 (c, hc) NAGATA, LINDA, The Red:Going Dark, Saga Press, Nov 2015 (hc) NIX, GARTH To Hold the Bridge, Harper, Jun 2015 (c, ya, hc) PRATCHETT, TERRY The Shepherd's Crown, HarperCollins, Sep 2015 (ya, hc) REYNOLDS, ALASTAIR The Best of Alastair Reynolds, Subterranean Press, Nov 2015 (c, eb, hc) RICKERT, MARY The Corpse Painter's Masterpiece: New and Selected Stories, Small Beer Press, Aug 2015 (c, eb, tp) ROBERTS, ADAM The Thing Itself, Orion/Gollancz, Dec 2015 (tp) SCALZI, JOHN The End of All Things, Tor, Aug 2015 (eb, hc) SWANWICK, MICHAEL Chasing the Phoenix, Tor, Aug 2015 (eb, hc) WESTERFELD, SCOTT Zeroes (with Margo Lanagan & Debo rah Biancotti), Simon Pulse, Sep 2015 (ya, hc) WOLFE, GENE A Borrowed Man, Tor, Oct 2015 (eb, hc) As always, we hope you enjoy the episode! Correction: During the podcast Jonathan incorrectly said Linda Nagata's Going Dark was the reissue of the first book in her "The Red" sequence. It's actually the third, with The Red: First Light coming in June, The Red: The Trials in August, and series closer The Red: Going Dark in November. All are worth your attention.
This week Gary* is joined by award-winning author Ken Liu and Joe Monti, Executive Editor at Saga Press, to discuss Ken's exciting debut novel The Grace of Kings, his forthcoming collection The Paper Menagerie, and much more. As always we'd like to thank Ken and Joe for making the time to talk to us. And we hope you enjoy the podcast! The Grace of Kings is in stores next week.* Jonathan missed this episode due to illness.
This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by Joe Monti, executive editor of the newly formed Saga Press. We discuss bookselling, the current marketplace, Saga's upcoming books and more. As always, our sincere thanks to Joe for being part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy the discussion, and we'll see you next week!
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