SF Canada - Members' News

Members' News

Thursday, March 31, 2005
Derryl Murphy's book is out!

Derryl Murphy's book Wasps At the Speed of Sound is now officially out! Read all about it here.

Alyx Dellamonica story up at SciFiction

Alyx Dellamonica's story "The Spear Carrier" is now online on SciFiction.

New Douglas Smith fantasy story in upcoming DAW anthology

Douglas Smith will have a new fantasy story, "The Last Ride," in an upcoming anthology from DAW entitled Hags, Harpies, Sirens & Sorceresses, edited by Denise Little of Tekno Books.

Two of Doug's stories will be reprinted in Italian by Delos Books. "Scream Angel" (Low Port anthology, 2003), winner of the 2004 Aurora Award, will appear in their quarterly print magazine, Robot, which has recently featured fiction by Ian Watson, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Sheckley, and Neil Gaiman. The related story, "Enlightenment" (InterZone #194), will appear in Delos, their well-known online magazine and multiple winner of the Italia and Europa awards. "Scream Angel" will also be translated and reprinted in Science Fiction Magazine in Denmark.

Doug's YA SF story "Jigsaw," which first appeared in Odyssey (#4 in the anthology series Tales from the Wonder Zone, edited by Julie Czerneda), will be reprinted in the Fall 2005 "SF Mysteries" issue of Oceans of the Mind. Doug's novelette "Spirit Dance" (Tesseracts 6 and The Third Alternative #22) will be reprinted for the 17th time in Dragão Quântico in Portugal.

Doug has also recently posted the March update to his foreign market list on his web site.

Two Steven Mills stories find good homes

Steven Mills's non-SF story, "Shit Magnet," appeared in Event's Spring 2005 issue, while "Jubilee" (originially published in On Spec) has found a new home in Steve Stanton's anthology, Sky Songs II.

Sarah Totton story accepted for Polyphony 5 anthology

Sarah Totton's short story "Dog on a Loose Chain" has just been accepted by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake for publication in the Polyphony 5 anthology from Wheatland Press due for release in September, 2005.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005
First book of new Elisabeth Vonarburg novel out next week

Reine de Memoire
1. La Maison d'Oubli
by Elisabeth Vonarburg

La Maison d'oubli, the first book of Elisabeth Vonarburg's new novel Reine de Mémoire, will be released next week by Alire.

Derwin Mak article in Ricepaper

Derwin Mak's article "Manga Madness," about how North Americans have adopted Japanese and East Asian anime and pop culture, accompanied by photos also by Derwin, appeared in the Fall, 2004, issue of the magazine Ricepaper.

Alyx Dellamonica alternate history story now online

Alyx Dellamonica's contribution to the alternate history anthology Alternate Generals III, edited by Harry Turtledove, has been posted online in its entirety by Baen as an inducement to get readers to buy the book. "A Key to the Illuminated Heretic" is about a middle-aged Joan of Arc.

Jabberwocky premiere issue has Holly Phillips story

The premiere issue of Jabberwocky, to be launched at Readercon in July, will include Holly Phillips's story "The Lass of Loch Royal." Holly has also sold a non-SF story, "Mr. Allweather's Piano," to The New Quarterly in Waterloo, and, as noted below, short story"Virgin of the Sands" to the anthology Lust for Life.

The trade paperback edition of her short-story collection In the Palace of Repose will be launched by Prime Books in July. ("And it has been getting kick-ass reviews, by the way," Holly notes. "A happy year so far for me.")

Claude Lalumière buys, sells stories

Claude Lalumière reports he and Elise Moser have accepted Holly Phillips's "Virgin of the Sands" for their forthcoming anthology, Lust for Life. (He also says there are plenty of slots left to fill; see the writers' guidelines.)

Claude has teamed up with Matthew Cheney to co-edit a special issue of Lost Pages; they are seeking fiction submissions in three categories: SF, fantasy, crossgenre. Guidelines are here.

Claude's own story, "A Visit to the Optometrist," will be included in the forthcoming anthology The Best of SDO, edited by Mark Anthony Brennan. As well, the French translation (by Yves Meynard) of his story "The Lost and Found of Years" appears in the current Solaris (#154) under the titles "L'Écume des années."

Saturday, March 26, 2005
Three SF Canada members were on Tiptree Award Long list

Three stories by SF Canada members have made the 2004 Tiptree Award Long List: "Burning Day" by Glenn Grant, Hopeful Monsters by Hiromi Goto, and Even the Stones by Marie Jakober.

"Burning Day" was originally published in Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic (Vehicule Press), edited by Claude Lalumière, and will appear in Year's Best SF #10, edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

The Tiptree committee doesn't announce a list of nominees, but once the winner is announced they do release a Long List of recommended novels and stories, with comments from the judges, who were Margaret McBride, Judith Clute, Alan DeNiro, Ursula K. LeGuin and Cecilia Tan.

Here were the posted comments for the SF Canada members on the list:

For Glenn Grant's "Burning Day":

I love a story that goes right through exploring what it means to be male or female and ends up getting at what it means to be human. This is a stylish, action-laden science fiction story, not a navel-gazer.--Cecilia Tan

A well-plotted story in Hardboiled Mode -- people smoking cigarettes even though they're androids, and cracking wise, and driving cars in cities, all very TV-cop show. More about species than gender, but has an original twist in the emphasis on the desire/compulsion to reproduce one's kind.--Ursula K. LeGuin

An interesting examination of sexuality and gender-how do expectations still influence "post-humans"-with film noir detective-story tropes.--Margaret McBride

For Hiromi Goto's Hopeful Monsters:

Goto writes with vigor and energy, in a voice very much her own. "Night" and "Tales from the Breast," are both real Tiptroid fantasies, though you mightn't think so till right towards the end of both.--Ursula K. LeGuin

For Marie Jakober's Even the Stones:

No gender bending, but a serious, realistic, and grown-up novel of male-female power relationships, which is so unusual in "high fantasy" as to be practically invisible to many readers.--Ursula K. LeGuin

The 2004 Tiptree winners were Joe Haldeman and Johanna Sinisalo for Camouflage and Not Before Sundown, respectively.

Friday, March 18, 2005
Sherry D. Ramsey unpublished novel second in Atlantic Writing Competition

Sherry D. Ramsey's unpublished SF novel One's Aspect to the Sun has been awarded second place in the 28th Annual Atlantic Writing Competition's novel category, the H.R. (Bill) Percy Prize. The competition is open to writers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador in five categories for unpublished works; novel, short story, writing for children, poetry, and article/essay.

First prize in the novel category went to Dave Cameron of Halifax for The Bottle Collector; Honourable Mention went to Charlotte Mendel of Enfield, NS, for Unlike the Great Majority.

Sherry's poem "Ghosts and Dark Objects" is in the current issue of Astropoetica.

Thursday, March 17, 2005
**Six SF Canada members in Sky Songs II anthology**

The cover of Sky Songs II

All six Canadian contributors in the new anthology Sky Songs II (due out June 1) are members of SF Canada: Douglas Smith, Donna Farley, Nina Munteanu, Steven Mills, Steve Stanton and Peter Andrew Smith. Other notable contributors include British novelist Cherith Baldry, American novelist Andrew M. Seddon, and award-winning author Fred McGavran.

Sky Songs II, edited by Steve Stanton and published by Skysong Press, presents spiritual speculative fiction from England, Canada, USA and Brazil.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Eileen Kernaghan novel shortlisted for BC Book Prize

Eileen Kernaghan's novel The Alchemist's Daughter (Thistledown Press) has been shortlisted for the Sheila Egoff Children's Literature Prize, one of the annual BC Book Prizes. The other finalists are Sandy Frances Duncan for Gold Rush Orphan (Ronsdale Press), Shelley Hrdlitschka for Kat’s Fall (Orca Book Publishers), Susan Juby for Miss Smithers (HarperCollins Canada), and Sylvia Olsen for White Girl (Sono Nis Press).

Friday, March 11, 2005
Several stories forthcoming from Sarah Totton

New SF Canada member Sarah Totton has several upcoming short stories. Her fantasy story "The Pear Thief" will appear in April in the anthology Fantastical Visions III (Fantasist Enterprises). "The Teasewater Five" will appear in May in the anthology Muses (Wheatland Press), and "Jimmy Away to Me" is due out in Tesseracts 9 (Edge) that same month. (Sarah characterizes both stories as magical realism.) Finally, in June, her mainstream short story "Match Point," originally published in Love Stories: A Literary Companion to Tennis (Kensington Press, 2003) will reappear in a paperback anthology edition entitled Tennis Shorts in June.

Sunday, March 06, 2005
Tesseracts Nine anthology features many SF Canada members

Tesseracts Nine, the latest edition of the long-running anthology of Canadian speculative fiction, about to be released by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, will feature work by several SF Canada members.

Introduced by editors Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman, Tesseracts Nine features Anthony MacDonald and Jason Mehmel, Jerome Stueart, Yves Meynard, Candas Jane Dorsey, E. L. Chen, Sandra Kasturi, Steve Stanton, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Timothy J. Anderson, Daniel Sernine, Dan Rubin, Nancy Kilpatrick, Alette J. Willis, Rhea Rose, Casey June Wolf, Sarah Totton, Marg Gilks, Claude Lalumière, Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy, Sylvie Bérard, Rene Beaulieu, Pat Forde, Allan Weiss, Sheryl Curtis, Howard Scott, Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman.

Since the publication of Tesseracts One, edited by the late Judith Merrill, the entire Tesseracts series has presented works from over 150 Canadian speculative fiction writers, many of whom have built brilliant careers: Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Robert Sawyer, Élisabeth Vonarburg and others.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Edward Willett's new novel is out

Edward Willett's new novel Lost in Translation
(cover art by Jill Bauman)

Edward Willett's new novel Lost in Translation is now out from Five Star in hardcover (ISBN 1594143056). Order directly from the publisher or your favorite online bookstore. You can read the Prologue and Chapter One online here.