Now available, the new story collection The Reality Machine by Cliff Burns is being published by Black Dog Press as a limited edition volume. To order ($18.95 plus $3.00 for shipping), one may write to Black Dog Press, 1142 150th Street, North Battleford, SK, S9A 1S6; each copy is signed by the author.

A short story by Joël Champetier, "Anciennes cicatrices" ("Old Scars"), first published in imagine... 59, was reprinted in Panorama de la littérature québécoise contemporaine as an "example" of a Québec SF short story. This work released by Guérin in 1997 weighs in at 822 pages. In other news, the Canada Council awarded Joël a B grant for the writing of a fantasy novel.

New Toronto member Laurie Channer is the author of the stories "Abe Ever After" published in the Fall 1995 issue of  On Spec, "Family Melodies," published in the Winter 1997 issue of On Spec, and "Best Before," to be published in the anthology Dark Corners, due out from Key Porter Books in May 1998

Our first Guelph member, David Chato,  has published or sold the following stories recently: "The PlayTime Case" in the winter 97 issue of On Spec (nominated for the 1998 Aurora), "Music Monkey" in the spring 98 issue of On Spec, "Blind Date" in the upcoming fall issue of On Spec, as well as others to Parsec, Horizons SF, SpaceWays Weekly and Distant Suns.

Eric Choi's short story "Divisions," which first appeared in Tesseracts6, edited by Carolyn Clink and Robert J. Sawyer, will be reprinted in the upcoming Northern Suns anthology (Tor) edited by David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant. Northern Suns will be a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Northern Stars anthology of Canadian SF, which was also edited by Hartwell and Grant. In April, Eric was named the Québec finalist in the Telesat National Satellite Contest to name Canada's first direct-broadcast satellite. His suggestion of "Inukshuk" (Inuit for "beacon") made him one of six regional finalists chosen from over 36,000 entries. The contest was judged by a panel of famous Canadians including Bryan Adams, Marnie McBean, Dan Aykroyd, and Peter Kent. The winning name of "Nimiq" ("uniting force") was submitted by Sheila Rogers of Nepean, Ontario.

"The Darkbringer," a fantasy story by Mary Choo, appears in the Winter 1997 issue of The Black Lily. Mary's Gothic horror story "Roses from Granny" in Northern Frights 4 received special mention in a recent Locus review, which noted that, "It offers a most peculiar blending of possession and gardening."

Michael Coney's two British Columbian comic novels, No Place for a Sealion and A Tomcat called Sabrina, have been sold for publication in Russia. His story "The Most Ancient Battle" from Phantoms of the Night received Honourable Mention in the tenth annual collection of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Datlow and Windling. His Greataway story "What Are Little Girls Made Of" appeared in TransVersions 8/9.

The web page for the Lonely Cry (Clélie Rich, Michael Coney, Rhea Rose, Mary Choo, Teresa Plowright, Eileen Kernaghan, and Matt Hughes) has a new address: http://www.portal.ca/~lonewolf. (UPDATE January 2004:  This Web site is now http://www.home.ca/~lonewolf.)

New Toronto member Peter Darbyshire is the author of the short stories "The Roadkill Man" and "The Fourth Horseman," published respectively in the Spring 1995 and Summer 1998 issues of On Spec.

Cory Doctorow has sold the following stories: "Craphound" to SF Age; "Fall From Grace" to Asimov's; and "Jaime Spanglish in the Nile" to On Spec. His non-fiction piece "Dumpster Diving" appeared in the September issue of Wired and "Mackerel" will appear in an issue later this year. He has also sold several reviews for Wired's Fetish department which will appear over the next 12 months. Cory's "The Street Finds Its Own Ass With Both Hands" will appear in The New York Review of SF, while his column in SF Age keeps going strong. Likewise, he has become a de facto staff writer for the Sovereign Media (SF Age's publisher) entertainment titles—Sci-Fi Entertainment, Sci-Fi Universe. Mostly he covers movies: Hercules, Mortal Kombat Annihiliation, Flubber, Alien Resurrection, American Werewolf in Paris, and other classics of our time.

Candas Jane Dorsey was a co-winner of the 1998 James Tiptree Jr. Award, which honors works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore gender roles. This year's awards, which include a $1,000 cash prize as well as quite a bit of chocolate, will be presented at Readercon 10, to be held July 10-12 in Westborough, Mass. She was honored for her book Black Wine, which was published in 1997 by Tor Books and which also received the 1997 William J. Crawford Memorial Award for best first fantasy novel.

Dave Duncan ("We are Sarah B. Franklin, Ken Hood, and Dave Duncan, not always simultaneously.") reports a couple of books just out: Daughter of Troy, an historical novel by "Sarah. B. Franklin." Daughter of Troy is an Avon trade paperback, May 1998. ISBN 0-380-79353-9. It is a retelling of the Trojan War, reconciling Homer's Iliad with Bronze Age archeology. Demon Knight, a fantasy by "Ken Hood," published by HarperPrism as a paperback original in June 1998. ISBN 0-06-105759-6. Demon Knight is the third volume in The Years of Longdirk series.

Catherine Donahue Girczyc's story "Raven Rattle" appeared in the Winter 1997/1998 issue of Parsec, graced with a good illustration by artist John Platt. When we last heard from her, she was writing a script for an animated series called Cybersix, featuring a female superhero, to be co-produced by Japan, Canada, and the U.S.

Calgary member Robyn Herrington has published or sold the following stories: "Zoe Forever" in issue 6 of Talebones, "Evolutionary Game" in the DAW anthology Return of the Dinosaur, "Under the Ocean there are no Stars" in the current issue of Parsec, and "Dark Song" to Tesseracts6. Her story "All That Matters" will appear in the Fall 1998 issue of On Spec.

A short story of Nalo Hopkinson's was supposed to be read on a special edition of CBC Radio's Between the Covers early this year. CBC has commissioned stories from a bunch of writers, and they will be read by professional actors. Nalo says "supposed to be" because she's still writing the story!

Winners of the Prairie Fire 1998 Science Fiction Writing Contest were just recently announced. Congratulations to Jan Lars Jensen ("The Strip Mall Selects for Evolution"), First Prize of $350; Douglas Smith ("Symphony"), Second Prize of $250; Darren Latta ("Marking Time on the Far Side of Forever"), Third Prize of $150; and Michael Brockington ("Suicide for Beginners"), Honorable Mention. The winning stories will appear in Prairie Fire . Contest judge was Robert Sawyer, author of Frameshift, Starplex, The Terminal Experiment (and more), and the new president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Our new member Krista V. Johansen is the author of the YA novel Torrie and the Dragon, released by Roussan Publishers in 1997, and the story "The Wastelands: a Beginning," published in the Fall 1997 issue of On Spec.

Sandra Kasturi's poem "Lunar Inconsistencies" appeared in the latest issue of Prairie Fire. She continues work on her abysmally bad novel while finally getting back to work on editing the anthology of speculative poetry, The Stars As Seen From This Particular Angle of Night.

Eileen Kernaghan's poems "Sin-Eater" (from TransVersions) and "Chiaroscuro" (from Tesseracts5) received Honourable Mention in the tenth annual collection of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Datlow and Windling. Eileen's updated fairy tale "The Watley Man and the Green-Eyed Girl" was the lead story in TransVersions 7. Her poems "Zero Visibility" and "Seven Things I Know About Green" will appear in Tesseracts7, while her fantasy story "The Road to Shambhala" is included in a forthcoming Tundra Books anthology, What If...? Amazing Stories selected by Monica Hughes. Reprint rights to her young adult SF story "Tourists" have sold to Troll Communications in New Jersey.

Roberval member Hugues Morin is the coordinating editor of Solaris. Last year, he edited the first book of critical essays in French on Stephen King, Stephen King: trente ans de terreur (Stephen King: Thirty Years of Terror), published by Alire. In the course of promoting the book, he was invited to the Radio-Canada radio show Indicatif Présent on October 28th, the Radio-Canada television show Québec Magazine on October 30th, and to the Radio-Canada television morning show Bonjour chez vous on October 31st. The book has been covered in the Journal de Montréal and La Presse.

Ursula Pflug has been very busy and very very popular with editors! She reports: My story "Basement Alembic" is in the current double 8\9 issue of TransVersions. "Yellow Flowers" has been sold to Chris Reed's BBR # 24, forthcoming who knows when; "Stones" has been sold to Susan MacGregor's Divine Realms, to appear this fall; "Blue Gloves," has been sold to an upcoming issue of The Antigonish Review. "Bugtown," which appeared in TransVersions 6, has been bought by the David G. Hartwell\Glenn Grant TOR anthology, tentatively titled Northern Suns. "Bring Me Fire, Ape," has been sold to Terra Incognita, and will be appearing in a forthcoming issue. She also says: "I spent the winter working on a historical (depression) Canadian play, co-authored with Ian MacLachlan. Entitled Hallelujah, I'm A Bum! after a period song of the same name, it's part of a rural historical festival. I tried to sneak in speculative elements where possible, although didn't get the flat out time travel play I originally wanted. It's currently in rehearsal for a late July\early August run."

Quintet: Themes & Variations, a collection of recent work by a group of five B.C. women poets--including Clélie Rich and Eileen Kernaghan --was to be released early in 1998 by Ekstasis Editions of Victoria, B.C.

Clélie Rich is the current President of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, and Matt Hughes is Regional Representative for the North Island. They were elected by acclamation at the Federation's AGM on Sept. 27. The poem "lunary" by Clélie Rich has been nominated for the SF Poetry Association's Rhysling Award.

Rhea Rose's poem "Whistling Woman" has been nominated for the SF Poetry Association's Rhysling Award.

Québec City's Alire publishing house has released two new novels by Esther Rochon. The first, Le Rêveur dans la citadelle (The Dreamer in the Citadel), is an expanded version of a shorter work which originally appeared in L'Épuisement du Soleil (The Exhaustion of the Sun). The second is Secrets, the latest volume in the Chroniques infernales series.

As of late April, Mark Shainblum's comic strip Angloman--co-created with illustrator Gabriel Morrissette--will be moving from the weekly Montreal Mirror to the Sunday edition of the daily Montreal Gazette. The move will substantially increase not only the physical size of the strip but also its readership, estimated to be in the neighborhood of 300,000.

Toronto-based writer Douglas Smith recently sold to Amazing Stories in the US and to Tenebres in France. His other short story credits include Interzone in the UK, the annual Canadian anthology Tesseracts6, and the Canadian literary journal Prairie Fire.

His Tesseracts6 story, "Spirit Dance" is a finalist for the 1998 Aurora Awards. His Prairie Fire story placed second in the magazine's 1998 SF short story competition, judged by Canadian SF author, Robert J. Sawyer. His Interzone story is on the short list for inclusion in the second annual "Best of the Rest" anthology, featuring top SF short stories published outside of the US.

Montreal member William Southey is the author of the short stories "Gone to Earth and Ashes," published in the Winter 1994 issue of On Spec, and "The Hills," published in the Winter 1997 issue of On Spec.

Two new young adult books by Jean-Louis Trudel are coming out this spring: Les Bannis de Bételgeuse (The Exiles of Betelgeuse) and 13,5 km sous Montréal (13.5 km Under Montréal). He has also sold a young adult story to the McClelland and Stewart anthology, What If... Amazing Stories selected by Monica Hughes, while his novella "Scorpion dans le cercle du temps" is part of the massive anthology Escales sur l'horizon, newly released by the Fleuve Noir in France. He also won the "Share a Byline with Phyllis Gotlieb" writing contest put on by TransVersions.

Edward Willett got married, to Margaret Anne Hodges, an engineer for SaskTel, on September 27, in Regina. He reports that he is enjoying being married very much! Ed's YA fantasy Soulworm, published by Royal Fireworks Press, was short-listed for a 1997 Saskatchewan Book Award in the category of First Book. His second YA fantasy, The Dark Unicorn, is due out this spring, also from Royal Fireworks. Ed also recently sold a humorous short story, "Strange Harvest," (which grew out of his years of taking pictures of odd-looking vegetables when he worked at the Weyburn  Review) to On Spec.

Allan Weiss reports these sales and publications: fiction: "The Last of the Maccabees" in Arrowdreams, "Exchange" in On Spec and "The Solomon Cheats" in Tesseracts7; nonfiction: "Separations and Unities: Approaches to Quebec Separatism in English- and French-Canadian Fantastic Literature" in Science-Fiction Studies (March 1998) and "Judith Merril: A Retrospective" in Odyssey 2 (1997).

Susan MacGregor is pleased to announce that Divine Realms, an anthology of SF combined with spiritual themes (previously called The Testament Anthology) has been accepted by Turnstone Press in Winnipeg. Expected release of the anthology will be this fall when Turnstone includes Divine Realms in introducing their new imprint, Ravenstone. Divine Realms originally came about two years ago when Susan's story "Drying Out in Purgatory" made her wonder if other writers were working along the same lines. The result of that line of inquiry is a collection of 17 short stories written by the following fellow-writers:

"In the Beginning There Was Memory," Ven Begamudré

"Flesh and Blood," Brent Buckner

"Thanksgiving Day at the Temple," Donna Farley

"The Power of Faith," Jason Kapalka

"The Thousand Words," Allan Lowson

"Body and Blood," Louise Marley

"Stones," Ursula Pflug

"Omer and the Zobop," Claude-Michel Prevost

"The Starling Colony," Sandra K. Riedel

"Voices," Keith Scott

"Little Bones," Jena Snyder

"God is Dead," Erik J. Spigel

"On the Edge of Eternity," Steve Stanton

"Best Damn Cheesecake in the Universe," Diane Walton

"The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald," Peter Watts

"Not in Front of the Virgin," Mary Woodbury, and

"Drying Out in Purgatory," Susan MacGregor

Susan's "The Vivaldi Connection" also appeared in On Spec's Spring theme Music issue, and her story "Oyster Love" will be appearing in the upcoming Northern Frights V anthology. With regards to spiritual SF as compared to horror, they appear to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum, but in "Oyster Love" they meet.